Having worked closely with government for the past 30 years I have realised that proper protection and conservation can only begin if and when we start paying our officials their rightful salary and not the pittance we throw their way at the end of each month.
A simple comparison with any developed country will prove to us whether our forest guard/ranger/DCF get paid justly or but a pittance compared to what their positions demand? Does corruption start because we don’t pay them well? And if that is the truth then is it right to call him corrupt if one of them takes but a few extra rupees home to make two ends meet to keep his head above water and maybe even hold a respectable position in society?
Don’t you think that the fight against poaching, conservation and corruption can commence only after the foundation of our governance have been solidly laid? I know for a fact that each range forest officer and the circle inspector of police do work for three people every day. My respect for the range forest officer has soared since I found out that not only is he grossly underpaid but that he has to protect and conserve our forests with hardly any funds. He has to convince the people under him to work without pay for months on end. I would like to see corporate officers do the same in their business. And if our forest officers are saving the tiger from extinction fighting against all odds then why don’t we pay them more? Surely that will control corruption to a large extent.
Trying to pass a bill without first defining corruption itself is an exercise in futility.
India amazes me. Very few males in our country would ever blame a husband for looking elsewhere if his wife did not satisfy him in bed yet if the husband could not satisfy the wife and she looked elsewhere, she becomes a slut. Similar is the case with corruption in India.
The poor officials, who should be paid at least 10 times their present salary if they were to get anywhere near the average international pay scales for developed countries, get but a pittance for devoting their lives to India.
With a society which worships and respects nothing but money those that try and earn this respect realise that they need more to meet the demands of a good life, one example of this good life being decent education for their children. The similarity between these officials and the “dissatisfied wife” is quite apparent. If what I am saying has any semblance of truth then who is right and who is wrong, where does it all start, who is corrupt and who is not all become debatable issues.
My request to Mr Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and others of similar ilk is, especially as they claim to represent society, and I part of that society, is that unless they fight for the basic principles of governance first being put in place, this entire battle for corruption will become a farce.
Try telling a tribal not to kill an elephant when it has killed his daughter. Similar is the case with an official. Why should an official/MLA/MP not take money when he is being grossly underpaid? He will continue to increment his salary with bribes till he is satisfied that he has received the amount that is justly his. What is justly his under such circumstances remains undefined and thus corruption goes beyond normal boundaries.
If as a Union minister a person holds power and position greater than any corporate head then surely he should be paid accordingly. Once salaries are incremented justly and to international levels, then surely the system will settle into a healthy trot with the odd official falling to the lure of greed and when and if that happens then India can take stringent measures to ensure that the crime is not repeated.
In the present context, fighting to get the Prime Minister under the guillotine is childish, for the bill will surely become a guillotine which will only enable the Opposition to file a million fabricated charges against the Prime Minster thereby ensuring that he spend the rest of his time putting out fires instead of taking the country forward. We should have enough faith in the Members of Parliament to elect a just man for the position of Prime Minister and allow him a free reign.
Maybe it’s time that we learnt a lesson from Kenya. They attained independence over two decades after us but have managed to quit from the draconian exclusionary English law and establish a law of their own taking into account their ethos and their culture. Why can’t we do the same? Lets have a law that respects and redefines an Indian.