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The “Enough of Corruption” SAAKU Rally
psaram42 - 11 December, 2010 | Bangalore | governance | Corruption | Transparency | Citizen Reports | loksatta | governance | egovernance | Saaku
Dr. Balasubramnyam of sustainable economy, Arvind kejriwal an activist from Delhi and JP Narayan founder of the loksatta party, were on the dais at the hockey grounds, after the end of the protest march from the Vittal Mallya and Kasturba road junction. The gathering was impressive with all the media people including NDTV and others. The T shirts with Tec nova Badges were available with the volunteers.
Dr. Balasubramnyam alluded to his first 420 Km walk from Mysore to Kanakpura and later in Bangalore. That time the Bangalore people were conspicuous by their absence. But he was happy to see the response today. The differences between the city culture and the ground realities in the village side are quite contrary. In Village side there is coercions by the authorities, where as in cities it is convenient to give the bribe and get things done. [ I am reminded of my own experience long back when my lawyer told me to give Rs 500/- before going to the registrar for the formalities of registration of a site. ] It is like greasing the engine for a smooth ride. The gram panchayats are 70% as compared to the 30% of cities. Hence empowering them to resist coercion is the key to fight corruption. District level Ombudsmen are required. Well developed, proved methods are available. It is less known fact that the food schemes scam is of the order of 30 million annually in food schemes alone. We need to be the change we want to.
Arvind Kejrival from Delhi a Magasye award winner was the next speaker. He felt that the corrupt need to be sent to jail assiduously. Corruption is investigated by department heads which does not work many times. The stumbling block is that the gilty is jailed perhaps but the money swindled cannot be touched. Lokapal bill needs to be passed. The FIRs are not forth coming as one would like them to.
JP Narayan is a living example of honest people being in politics. He was asked by a girl during the rally, “what is going to happen with one more rally” like the one to day. It shows the anxiety of people for not getting any result from these inputs to day. JP made a point that initially like when we heat water, nothing happens till the boiling point is reached. The corrupt are going to jail when the bursting point is reached. It is inevitable. JP put the following points as a silver lining:-
- Once upon a time we had to wait for a Land line for years but not any more
- Mobiles are a new dimension in the communication scenario
- Things are changing
- So are the scams like the [Mega] spectrum scams.
- After 2G the government telecom spectrum is on sale. More avenue for corruption?
- When enough is enough things have to explode when water starts boiling in a closed container.
- The changes we expect will be dramatic
- Society does change in leaps and bounds
- and will be dramatic
- The instrument for change is the challenge
In Collusive corruption both the parties are to be punished but not so in coercive. The 2G spectrum being collusive both the parties need to be punished. JP touched upon the benefits of computerization as was evident when the Railway reservation was computerized. Land records are on priority for computerization.
JPs Conclusions in summary:-
- India is rotting from the top.
- Elections are fought with ill gotten wealth
- Politics has become an enterprise [invest 0.5 million make 5 billion
- In USA people like Blogowich did get punished
- YMAX of BSNL is coming before we recover from the present 2G scam
The following was an interesting way of summing up by JP:-
- In 1700 India was the richest country
- In 1991 it became the poorest
- In 2039 it is expected to be the largest economy in the world
- Corruption is the worst enemy to countered at this juncture
COMMENTS
This was a great rally
sanjayv - 11 December, 2010 - 14:38
I really enjoyed this one. Great talks by the three speakers and I was once again reminded why it is fun to hear JP speaking. The crowd was decent, but should have been 10-100 times that to really send a message. Anyway, glad that it was large enough that I had to see the posts to realize PSA sir and Rithesh were there.
Step forward and People coming together
Sanjeev - 12 December, 2010 - 11:01
These are steps which will put pressure on the corruption system to crack.
Missed the event due to sat working in office. Its good that Ritesh, Satya, Anantharaman attended.
anti corruption parade
ssheragu - 13 December, 2010 - 16:36
ssheragu
I was also there; but some of the Praja stalwarts were not there.
one important point was made by Arvind Kejriwal; that he wanted a date to be fixed, so that all of us could go to the Police Station and register an FIR against the present Cheif Minister and the former Chief Ministers (similar to what they have done in Delhi for Commmonwealth scam); he said that he would also join us on that day
any initiative has been taken or any date has been fixed
many thanks
Srinath Heragu
Not only Bangalore...
Bheema.Upadhyaya - 14 December, 2010 - 02:27
... but also everywhere people are fed up with corruption. People have started movement against it. When I visited my native place I have seen this movement taking shape. Not one day but continuously for 24 days they rallied against corruption. Each village from entire taluk participated. For more info check this local news at right bottom news item. (username: demo password:demo, it works) !
Together we can change !
a report by Dr Meenakshi Bharath
murali772 - 16 December, 2010 - 06:18
Over 600 citizens took part in this rally against corruption.The majority of them were young-college students-this makes it apparent that event he youth are disillusioned by the degree of corruption and are willing to take a stand against corruption.
All of us gathered by 930 am at the Coffee day square-at the junction of Vittal mallya road with kasturba road-the old tiffany's, holding banners and donning the saaku T shirts and saying SAAKU to all who were going past.
We all walked the 2 km distance to the hockey stadium and there heard -first Dr R Balasubramanium speak about his fight against corruption especially with the public food distribution system-he spoke about how there is so much of pilferage and how the poor are the direct beneficiaries if corruption stops. learn more about him -in swamy vivekananda youth movement.
Mr Arvind Kejriwal- of Parivartan gave a fiery speech "all of us must work to rid India of corruption and this can only happen if we will rally to empower to the lokayukta and also make sure that not only are the corrupt punished but also the money that they have taken be returned to benefit the public.
Dr Jaya Prakash Narayan then told the youth that the cumulative effect of every effort will result in the boiling water suddenly turning into steam- that India is at the threshold of dynamic change and that every one must work to transform India. He asked each person to do their bit- by participating in local issues and by voting for a good leader-telling them that id only they come out in large numbers will they lead the change in the country.
All braved the sun -which came out of the clouds- (to signify that event he sun is shining on this campaign) to hear these leaders speak. then MD Pallavi a popular Kannada singer sang 4 songs singing a new composition" saaku" and also Thermal and a Quarter - who sang the song " shut up and Vote" and " Kickbackistan" to the joy of all the attendees.
the programme ended with the hilarious skit by the AWAS group-very well written and coreographed.
A wonderful rally which lasted for 5 hrs and left all the participants feeling empowered that they can make a diffference.-
A MUST SEE "YOU TUBE" LINK
watch Dr Jayaprakash Narayan speak to the youth on what they can do and how they can get rid of corruption -a part of his speach (click here)
Check out some pictures here
PS: I was out of station. After participating in the Baton Relay at Jyoti Nivas college on the morning of Friday, the 10th, I had to head for the airport.
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