Who is the villain here and should we all be furious? Discussion welcome but action is better: sanjaybhargava@yahoo.

com
This article is written with the deepest respect to all the institutions of India, especially parliament. It is a call to action to those who man these institutions today not to denigrate them. The article is a response to the editorial Why Fast and Furious? (HT, Page 12, Saturday, July 30). http://www.hindustantimes.com/Whyfast-and-be-furious/Article1-727109.aspx When Nero was emperor of Rome it seems he burnt human prisoners to provide illumination and history blames Neros guests more than Nero. P. Sainath and Deepa Mehta tried to whip up public sentiment against farmer suicides by asking the question Are we all Neros guests. For more see http://ngopost.org/story/are-youany-different-neros-guests. Today almost everyone I talk to agrees that corruption is a rampant epidemic in India and many people (mostly children) die because of corruption. WHO estimated that 700000 people in India die each year due to bad sanitation? Corruption is clearly public enemy #1. Maybe HT can do a poll to check this out but I think it is self evident and does not require checking. The problem is that corruption is a silent cancer like most root causes. When you see the horror of Mumbai 26/11 or 13/7 it creates an instant visceral reaction but with corruption we read a report, feel bad and dismiss it. Maybe we feel impotent or if we are part of the comfortable elite maybe we feel corruption benefits us. A point we all need to think about is that if we all get furious and unite are we really that impotent. The HT article thanks Anna for making a toothless Lokpal bill less toothless and now wants him to be mature and not fast. I am puzzled by this. We all know that some MPs are corrupt. In addition there are well funded (with corruption money) vested interests who want to delay a strong Lokpal. We also know that if parliament wants to pass a strong bill with a balanced set of real outcomes it can do so in the monsoon session. For more on this see http://www.slideshare.net/Sidh arthaJatar/60931285-corruptionfreeindiapresentation. How many of us believe that a delay in passing the bill will result in a better bill? The RTI bill took long to pass and in the standing committee phase there were over 100 amendments. This is advocated as a reason to delay the bill. With all this delay the outcomes of RTI are mixed at best. The bill did not anticipate RTI activists dying and worse still after the first few deaths we are still debating a whistleblower protection bill. It seems life is cheap in India. The Delhi defacement act of 2007 was notified in 2009 (it has four clauses). After all this debate Delhi is still totally defaced. All I am saying is that we will not get a perfect bill at any point in time. We have to continuously improve so if the good Lokpal bill passed in the monsoon session has draconian aspects then these should be corrected. At the same time if it is letting the corrupt get away it should be corrected. I had written a draft speech for Anna to modify and give that all of us should read http://www.scribd.com/doc/61181502/Draft-Speech-for-Anna. In

this it calls for all opinion leaders to rise and support the single point agenda of CFI (Corruption Free India). Opinion leaders must not be like Neros Guests. Opinion leaders in all fields may hesitate going against the government or any segment of society. The nice thing is CFI is not against anyone it is for a corruption free India. It would be great if opinion leaders endorsed the single point agenda of CFI with modifications if they wanted to modify. Here is a sample endorsement template << Sample endorsement template starts >> xxxxx supported its employees request to wear black arm bands while at work to emphasize that Corruption is killing many children in India everyday and there is need for an urgent solution. Speaking on behalf of the employees and xxxxx , xxxxx said that we are not for or against anyone in this war against corruption. We are for a corruption free India. We were approached by <<< media partner >> who told us how the youth of India were trying to activate youth and opinion leaders globally to unite and show their support in the fight against vested interests who want corruption to continue. We immediately agreed to show our support for this important cause. Just as corruption in xxx can destroy xxx , corruption in India can destroy India . We endorse CFIs single point agenda Pass a strong but not necessarily perfect Lokpal Bill in the Monsoon Session, 2011 and sincerely hope that our endorsement makes a small contribution in making India corruption free. << Sample endorsement template ends >> This is a fake example of the BCCI and Indian cricket team using the template modifying it and issuing the endorsement. Some people are trying to reach out to BCCI and the team so lets see what happens BCCI supported the players request to wear black arm bands while they play the second test against England to emphasize that Corruption is killing many children in India everyday and there is need for an urgent solution. Speaking on behalf of the players and BCCI, captain M.S.Dhoni said that we are not for or against anyone in this war against corruption. We are for a corruption free India. We were approached by <<< media partner >> who told us how the youth of India were trying to activate youth and opinion leaders globally to unite and show their support in the fight against vested interests who want corruption to continue. We immediately agreed to show our support for this important cause. Just as corruption in cricket can destroy cricket, corruption in India can destroy India. We endorse CFIs single point agenda Pass a strong but not necessarily perfect Lokpal Bill in the Monsoon Session, 2011 and sincerely hope that our endorsement makes a small contribution in making India corruption free. We are disappointed at losing the first test and determined to put in our best in the second test. In conclusion I would say that if there are any people who are the villains in this story which is killing over thousand Indians a day it is the MPs and not Anna. As for acting in a mature fashion I feel that since some MPs will be committing financial suicide by passing this bill they will only do it if

they have no choice. A united India will not leave them any choice. If this issue will not unite India what will. Here are three questions for our MPs
1. Do you believe corruption is Indias public enemy #1 and is killing

over 1000 Indians a day? 2. If yes are you burning midnight oil to pass a strong but not necessarily perfect Lokpal bill in the monsoon session? If not then why not? 3. Many epidemics have been solved with prevention. Do you believe each public unit should have a prevention of corruption plan in the public domain (prevention wing of Lokpal and citizens can help refine) whose implementation is monitored? If history is any guide maybe even MPs like Nero are not the true villains and it is Neros guests ( Opinion Leaders) who are the true villains.