The Cynic & The Optimist!

The debate is on between the cynic and the optimist! Normally, I find myself being a cynic but on this one, strangely but thankfully too, I find myself being on the other side!

The cynic says that what has started as a movement by Anna Hazare and his ilk is miniscule of an effort to dislodge the gauntlet presented by corruption and brazen lack of values in all spheres of existence of Indian nationhood.

The optimist obviously feels otherwise and says so because as a nation we are not just 63 years old but the roots of India go back eons and as people we are perhaps among the very few civilizations the world has witnessed that left a legacy so rich in art, culture, knowledge and all things that we consider one with human excellence and the fact that all this was there till a few hundred years ago until the British arrived on the scene...the British Raj of nearly 300 years followed by the dynastical polity we as a nation propagated along with the flawed economic model spawned by the License Raj has bred corruption as well as a few generations of Indians who have a misplaced set of values that I feel can be corrected with proper interventions -- what is also important to note here is that these few generation of Indians with misplaced set of values are a very small minority in this 1.2 billion people strong nation but ironically they hold most of the powerful positions in government and bureaucracy and thus rule on the majority of Indians. Also, even in the last 63 years of independence, we have witnessed glimpses of India of the bygone era -- one such instance of brilliance I can recall was the set of values that we displayed as a nation during the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri when we got together as a nation and donated family gold for the nation under attack and during another instance we observed fast once a week (every Monday) so that we conserve food for the hungry fellow country men during a famine...these instances prove that we as a nation and people, we are not shallow but one that lack direction and leadership which can be given by proper interventions and Anna Hazare's is one such intervention and leadership...and we need many more such interventions along with an effective Jan Lokpal Bill which will provide people like Anna Hazare and many others a potent anti-corruption tool, one they can use to effectively cleanse the system over time. Having said this, we should keep in mind that this being a top-down approach would require constant monitoring and course correction. What's equally and perhaps more important from a long-term perspective is to set in motion a program that will keep the system clean from within (without needing outside interventions) and this will be something that will originate from the grassroots, that is from the bottom-up and one that would lead to the resurgence of values that have over the last few generations become dormant -- for this, we need dynamic and selfless leadership that will lead by example and inspire people to emulate and live these values (just like we did under LBS' leadership)...ideally, we should have multiple leaders here to look up to as a nation as its would have a multiplier effect...I purposely said selfless leadership as we do not want to unleash another dynastical brigade! The top-down approach is the easier one of the two and one that has hopefully begun to play out now and will unfold itself in the next decade or so and do its bit to cleanse the system but we as a nation should strive for the bottom-up approach that will regenerate the values we have always had but one that has been covered by the grime of corruption and selfishness over time. 


The optimist rests his case!