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>There are only three members of the society who can remove corruption
----They are father,mother and elementary school >teacher."
I think what AK is saying has some truth
in it.
First let us see what he is
saying.
He is not saying that the parents and
elementary school teachers of the present corrupt leaders were also corrupt, and
that is why the present leaders are now corrupt. What he is saying, on the
other hand, is that corruption is basically a moral issue, and that
the parents and the teacher did not instill enough upon their children and
students a high moral value in their time.
This is however only one part of the
equation, but a great part. This is a necessary but not a sufficient condition,
we may say. In Indian corrupt socities, and Assamese in particular, we
lack this morale education. In Assamese society now a days nobody really believe
that" Xotyor xodai joi"
I think the 20th century will go down in
history as the worst century so far as morale value is concerned for various
reasons.
Another big part of the equation
is that the society in which we live must not condone corruption if it
wants to stop corruption. But in present Assamese society specially, we
have been seeing that society not only condone corruption but actually
encourages corruption. I still remember when I first joined Oil India long time
ago, one of my uncles asked me, "Now that you joined this company, do you think
you will have any 'bahira poisa'? And without 'bahira poisa' how do you
think you will be able to manage in these hard days?"
The above goes a long way to show how
morally degraded the Assamese middle class have been. This may be new phenomenon
in Assamese society may be developed after the WW-II; but that is the state of
affair. The son is considered successful if he is able to buy good
property in Guwahati, build a good house, and be rich. No question is ever asked
in the family how he is making the money. It is a sign of unofficial recognition
of a 'macho' man. He become such a 'macho' man that he even become
eligible to criticise about corruption in government administration.
He can even donate to the local Namghor and will be honored as a very religous
man. Such is the stae of corruption in Assamese society.
In western societies, both these
parts are strong. They have a high morale elementary school
education, strong Christian family values at home, and a society who does not
condine corruption. That may be one reason why corruption is less
here.
There are various faces and aspects of
corruption. Corruptioin is there in practically every society to some extent.
But in my view it is worst in Assamese socity. Assamese society probably
first learned of these corrupton from their elder brothers the Bengalis
during the first phase of British rule in Assam. However, there is one alarming
aspects of public corruption in Assam compared to the other states. While
in other sates, in spite of corruption a project is get done may be at a higher
cost. This can be seen fromn the results. But if road conditions and
results of other projects in Assam are any measure, in Assam, all money seem to
be spent simply in corruption itself, and no money is left for the project
itself.
It is like trying to fell an mango with
a 'phormuthi'. Without sending a 'phormuthi' you cannot expect to get the
mango. If we consider the 'phormuthi' as the corruption, in other states you
loose the 'phormuthi' but at least you get the 'am' or mango. But in Assam, you
send the 'phormuthi' and you loose both. This is what we say in Assamese :
"Am-wo gol, phormuthi-wo gol'.
The state of affairs shows a high moral
degradation of in every lavel of the Assamese the society.
One clue to end the situation that
the anti-process must be started at the bottom and at the top at the same
time. But that is just a clue in my personal view.
Rajen Barua
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