As the dawn broke into a brighter hue, India woke up to its 66^th Independence day today. Amidst all the confusion, hassle, terrorism and serious threats whose tremors are felt every now and then, a sight of the tricolor unfurling at the Red Fort and the national anthem resounding through your heart is enough to bring out the patriotism every Indian is born with! It still is the proudest moment for all of us, every year. It feels wonderful to see the cynical news channels to finally give way to some positive news and come forward to appreciate the beauty India has added to the world. All radio channels dedicated to patriotic songs that are very rarely given a chance over the chartbusters. All vehicles and buildings wearing at least a small token of the freedom we earned in 1947, sweet shops bustling with ‘jalebi’ buyers, schools and offices enjoying a day off after the hoisting, patriotic movies, colour of harmony. Apart from all this, this day brings a very important change in every citizen, a change that may be short lived, small or insignificant, but it sure does come. The national flag does create vibrations in our hearts as it sways in the nostalgic breeze. Each one of us spares a thought for the country today, about what has happened till today, what have done for it, what would have happened if we were not free today? Is the condition going to improve ever? There are many question of like nature which finally renders us a similar answer till the evening which makes it comfortable for us to forget it, sleep and wake up in a morning that can let us be be selfish again without the guilt. Perhaps today also we are planning to do the same. Or aren’t we?

Let’s not do the same today. Let’s be the change. If not much, the least we can do is to understand the situation our nation stands in today. Then only can we be a proper medium of solution to any problem posed before it. The hottest cake of the sorry plight of India nowadays is corruption and black money. And icing over the cake are the interesting and sometimes ugly turns this problem is taking. India has been in the clutches of corruption way back since we can remember. In fact, corruption has been a way of life since man started living in groups. It has persisted as an evil through centuries. Only thing that has attracted such hue and cry is that now it has become unbearable for the masses to live through this magnitude of the evil. While talking to a general store manager next door to our house, I realized it’s actually deep rooted. It starts from things as small as a matchbox to as big as projects like the golden quadrilateral. India is so deep in the quicksand that every citizen, each one of us has been a victim, not only suffering under it but also taking benefits from it. Admit it or not, we all contribute to it and that’s why it exists. It’s not a just handful of politicians; it replenishes its life by every drop of blood fed by us in form of bribe, black money, forgery, black marketing, scams etc. We don’t realize but when we pay those 10 bucks to a doctor’s peon to shift our name up in the appointment queue, WE ARE being corrupt. It starts at such a personal level and hence requires a personal treatment that we all have to give ourselves. However, since the roots have spread and when the hands of power have indulged so badly into it, an effort at just the personal level by a few can’t change the scene. Some potential measure is necessary.

The political parties are all busy in blame game. On a recent debate on television, two chief leaders were spotted in an ugly discussion. One of them claiming the other corrupt since a prominent leader of that party is in jail while the other claiming that their own souls were not clean too. The situation gets worse for a common man because he knows that he has murderers, rapists, kidnappers, liars and criminals to choose from for a government. Knowing this for a fact and still not being able to do anything called for a major protest from a team under Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly called Anna Hazare. He is a social activist as we know today. Few of us know that he was a soldier in the Indian army and has also fought in the Indo-Pak war.  He has been involved with revolutionary causes like prohibition of alcohol, milk production, watershed development programme, grain bank, education, removal of untouchability collective marriages, gram sabha and right to information act. He launched the first strong anti corruption movement proposing the establishment of a Jan Lokpal which was very well accepted in the beginning. The youth support was huge and the media coverage huger. May be that’s why, it was not a complete success despite the non violent measures and public demand. However such a huge uprising was a pleasant surprise to the Indian public and the full splendour of it could be seen when the Govt. had to consider some demands over the indefinite fast of Anna. However this also came after the honourable Supreme Court issued the public “interest” litigation citing his demands as inappropriate. I wonder if I know the correct meaning of appropriate.