Editorials

Will Lokpal Bill Mean an End to Inspectors' Raj?

This is our anniversary issue and we feel proud to lend our total support to the crusade launched by Anna Hazare and his dynamic team against the system of governance which has gone corrupt over the years. Discontent and frustration in the common man has been simmering for a long time and Anna's spark only worked to ignite it into a wild fire.  
Over six decades past independent, the life of a free Indian has turned into misery. Corruption at every step has become order of the day. The corrupt and the dishonest rule the roost. Government has failed miserably to deliver. If at all, it has, it has been done at a colossal cost. The taxpayers' money has gone into the bulging pockets of our rulers. Today we have a battery of ministers who have no achievement to their credit, so to say, in any area except a creditable record of sycophancy.
 
The most hit are our small entrepreneurs who have no direction. Even today, an army of over two dozen inspectors visit millions of small and medium industry units to collect their monthly money thus dissuading them to come into the gamut of rules and the laws of the land. No wonder, almost 90% of our MSMEs stay away from the so called organized sector. Over 2.5 lac vendors who serve tea and snacks to over two million work force, mostly comprising the poor and the needy in the capital city alone work under the perennial fear of the police and the MCD. Millions of Rupees exchange hands everyday and only God knows who runs this well-controlled and neatly organized mafia. The commercial vehicle owners have a very sad tale to tell. You will hardly come across a single person who has got license or fitness certificate on his own. In the transport authority, it is the rule of the middle-men.
 
We cannot single out any one agency for this as all the stakeholders are well woven in a system which no one dare break. This is how we have Anna Hazare who has waged a war against this system. The best part is that Anna Hazare is not alone in this battle. Every thinking segment of the teeming millions of India has stood by Anna. We cannot name any section of the society which does not want end to corruption. The policemen, the government employees, the factory owners and the workers, the seniors and the juniors, the teachers and the taught have all joined the war – silently and vocally. Then who is against it? 
 
We need a strong political will to offset the system and the day is not far when a new India will emerge and new Sun will dawn giving us hope and happiness. Never in the history of independent India, have we witnessed such a show of the masses, such a power of the people, such madness for change as we see now. Government has done well to take stock of the situation and avoided a confrontation with 1200 million Indians.