POLITICIANS IN INDIA-ARE THEY THE ONES WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CORRUPTION?

Most of the people blame the politicians in India for the corruption that blooms in India. But is that really true? Politicians do not drop down from heaven. They are not different from an ordinary person in any way and are but a reflection of the people themselves. They grow in a society and imbibe its values and certainly cannot have any better value system than the society from which they have evolved.

 The problem here lies with the society and not with the politicians alone. 99% of the politician’s supporters do so because they assume that they will get a personal benefit if he/she gets elected. They do not even remotely think about serving the constituency or the state or the country. Amazingly enough, a person casting a vote expects the politicians to serve everyone but that very person if he happens to become a supporter at a later date would expect the politician to serve his interests. Not even 1% of the supporters would bother about serving the people. Therefore selfishness and not viewing the society as a whole is the root cause of corruption.

Unfortunately this is how our society functions today. Money is worshiped and the means by which it has been acquired does not matter to anyone. With such a value system how can anyone expect the politicians to be clean and serve the country? Are they yogis to sacrifice themselves for the people despite having all the power while some of the people (their supporters) enjoy all the benefits of that power?

It is the ethics of the society that has gone down and blaming some section is no good. Yes, the politicians have power in their hands and have misused it. So did the Government servants. But if they are to be corrected, the society has to first correct itself. Our society has accepted corruption. Unless corruption is viewed as a stigma and a sin by the society and roundly condemned it would continue to flourish and no one can uproot it. For example, the whole population of India knows that money is obtained by the registrars at the time of registration of land documents but our society does not condemn them. It is taken for granted that they have money and are respected. Many people cringe before politicians seeking their help despite calling them corrupt.

Corruption is something horrible that is eating into our society. But, it is our society that is corrupt as a whole and not the politicians alone. It is our way of thinking that has to be corrected first before corruption can be curtailed.