You can’t quibble with Tata Tea for not trying. The Jaago Re campaign to get the consuming classes interested in elections caused but a ripple in the electoral cup, but that hasn’t stopped a new commercial against graft.
But is corruption a national issue, or is it our most secular religion, something which everybody in the land—rich and poor, young and old, men and women, urban and rural, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi—secretly but devoutly practices?
Also read: Why has corruption become such a small issue?
CHURUMURI POLL: How corrupt is the judiciary?
Will corruption end if we hang the corrupt?
1. Travel by bus, conductor doesn’t give ticket for a small distance while taking 2Rs less than actual, we don’t argue.
2. Autowalas ask 10-20 rupees extra, we look for different autos. After couple of trials we give extra and travel.
3. Any government official asks bribe, we give it, as it is their birthright to be corrupt.
4. In every deal, ministers, secretaries take bribe and we give!
5. We buy movie tickets in black market, rare medicine in black, sugar, kerosene in black and all that we need in black
Finally sit calmly at home talking on corruption. Its I and you have kept the corruption alive. I and you go against it, as a unit, if society as a whole opposes it, corruption will die.
I loved this ad.
I wonder if anybody can answer me:
How can we be deeply religious and deeply corrupt at the same time?
Isn’t it a bit paradoxical?
Isn’t corruption against religion?
yet we are corrupt to the core and religious to teh core.
“How can we be deeply religious and deeply corrupt at the same time?….”
How can you presume that religion is somehow benign? I would argue that religion is a disease ( An epidemic) of the human mind. A disease that promises it’s neurotic believers a time in the future where all sorrows will cease; a time when they will eternally embrace the limbs of beautiful nymphs ( male point of view ). Religion has less to do with morality than the desire for security and identity. Heaven/Zen/Nirvana/Brahman are the most potent marketing tools ever used to subjugate people.
Religion is the love Child of the devil ;-)
simple avare,you learn corruption being religious only. we didn’t spare our gods from bribing, illadiddare” tirupathi thimmappana “hathira ashtondu duddu elli barutha ithu heli? then how can we stop bribing a mere NARAMANUSHYA?
I think Navu devara hathira harake heli namma kelasa madisikollu varegu people will not think bad if u are religious aswell as corrupt
More questions:
On the other hand, without religion, what prevents groups of people taking everything into their own hands and doing as they wish? Wont powerful young men run amok and take control and subjugate everyone else?
By nature man is the most cruel and ingenious of all of nature’s creations – what other animals exploits everything around it for its own survival, including its own fellow creatures? Isnt religion one of our creations which by and large keeps large groups of people in check, while giving them an outlet to hate other large groups who do not live like them?
Arent all these complex rituals and social practices for our own survival as a group (as opposed to our survivals as individuals)?
Maybe it is not a good idea to mix a discussion of religion – which is an ancient idea, with a discussion of corruption – which is a modern idea born of the confusion of modern living.
^Anon Guy,
Would we all be killing each other if religions didn’t exist? We do not derive our moralities from religious texts. We have some morals because of them, and some more inspite of them. We would still have slavery, casteism, persecution had we not rejected sme of the “morals” dictated by religions. We only take those portions of religious morals that hold good by today’s standards. Rest, either we say it just simply does not exist in my holy book taking the advantage of vagueness in the literature. or you say, well, its not meant to be taken literally. Also, what about non religious people like me, will I be immoral just by the virtue of being non religious?
Group survival, now, when applied to humans, is not the justification for existence of religions. We are no more tribals to hunt each other. Survival one tribe does not mean end of another, its no more a zero sum game. We can all live together. Religion is an old idea and its time to get rid of.
Getting back to topic, as long as the society doesn’t get more open, rebellious and self critical, corruption will remain to be the single best characterization of India.
Abhi,
You and I are individuals who will probably last 70 to 100 years, i.e. one generation in the millions(?) of generations that has been human life. As an individual you and I are insignificant in the larger scheme of things.
You are happy to reject the idea of religion – good for you. But remember you live in a society which is by and large run by groups of humans who calls themselves religious and attempt to follow some of the rituals and percepts laid down by their religion. And I was talking about that – not about ones individual choice.
There must be a very good reason why religion must have evolved with human life – and there is a good chance it improves our continued success as a species. Maybe it is to avoid us to self-destruct from our own highly developed brains, maybe something else. If it is an old idea and no longer relevant, dont worry, nature will get rid of it with time.
I wasnt arguing of morals etc. from your point of view – just trying to think of the big picture. Nor was I trying to defend ‘morality’. I dont have to defend anything, religion is an omnipresent reality and it has been tied to all human races as long as we can see – it is bigger than anything you or I can argue about.
Also I believe most of our laws, law books, constitutions etc. all eventually draw from ideas which were codified in religious texts or traditions. They werent ideas which came directly out of some man’s brain who was thinking completely devoid of religion.
BTW I am myself agnostic for now, in that I accept the necessity and inevitability of the idea of religion as a focal point for the success of our species though I dont understand how ideas of gods and their manifestations as given in holy books can be true – so I dont have any answers – just questions and thoughts :)
I wonder if being open rebellion and self-critical will make us in any way less corrupt (the modern and narrow version of the term ‘corrupt’ – i.e. dont take bribes, follow these rules etc.).
Isnt being corrupt itself a mark of rebellion?
Anyway on corruption you might have read these thoughts from someone who probably has thought about it more than any of us – the chief justice of India:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/24752/seize-properties-corrupt-govt-officials.html