The Mess
Why is there so much anger in the media over CWG mess? Media is behaving as if they have suddenly woken up to the deficiencies of Governance and corruption in India. We who encounter it day in and day out know better.
We know that the Government services will not be able to deliver any goods
- because our roads are poor despite paying road taxes and they are increasingly becoming poorer
- because we have filthy cities as garbage remains dumped on roadside
- because we have virtually no sanitation and sewage disposal which during monsoon season either often comes up on the roads or contaminates the drinking water causing all sorts of diseases
- because we have no public urinal and people relieve themselves on the roads along with dogs
- because we do not provide toilets to poor and underprivileged and they defecate in public
- because our roads remain inundated with flood water during monsoon
- because our flyovers take an eternity to get completed causing colossal loss of public money
- because we often stay without power, without drinking water
- because our transport systems are in mess.
The list of Government failures is endless. And despite all these failures, our media expects our Government to deliver a mega event (that too a hangover of colonial slavery) successfully! It amuses me to no ends.
The same media is silent when it encounters numerous stories on corruption in public offices – RTO, property registration, municipal services, income tax, utilities, customs, excise, passport, irrigation, sanitation, school, and public works, again the list is endless. How many times has the so called alert media been able to write against a scam, let alone unearth it using investigative journalism?
Sadly there is corruption is every sphere of public life in India and media is also no saint. There are many instances of stories being implanted by politicians by paying bribe to media, many instances of media giving all its credibility away to the benefits and gifts received from the ruling classes foregoing all ethics and integrity.
And media is not alone. What about Indian educated class? They seem to have found a way of convenience in corruption. Many of them justify corruption as a “convenience tax” for a quick and hassle free delivery of service. They forget that they are supposed to get that same quick and hassle free service without that “convenience tax”, that the convenience tax is actually the price of a great inefficiency which goes on increasing under the aid and abatement received. To circumvent the filthy, dirty unhygienic roads, water and other public utilities middle class is now sheltered in gated communities, insulated from the filth outside. And now suddenly we are enraged?
People who do not care for the plight of the fellow citizens will care about national prestige? Joke of the century. Where is our nationalism when we see fellow citizens crushed under wheels of poverty and illiteracy? When we see the huge wheel of corruption not allowing public goods to reach the poor and needy?
Our political and ruling elite are actually honest enough. They have made it very clear that the problems in CWG is nothing to worry about, they are routine. Even if a bridge collapses, it is only meant for common men, not VIPs. Who cares if a few common men die, they will die anyway, and nobody is immortal. They have made it very clear that corruption is not a matter of concern because it happens, it is usual. No need to worry about unhygienic living conditions in the games villages because that’s the normal condition in India, and probably even worse. The bathrooms in games villages are at least better in shape than public urinals.
So, what’s all this fuss about? It is a taste of Indian governance to the whole world and the world knows better. We stand in the 88th position in transparency index, tad better than Russian oligarchy or a failed Pakistan and Somalia. And our media is engrossed with the spoon fed 9% growth story. Now they and the Indian educated class have suddenly discovered our many failures and are horrified by it. India is a corrupt nation because its citizens chose to be one and it will remain corrupt unless there is a massive resistance against corruption. Till then, political class will be wise enough not to host any mega event which attracts public scrutiny.
We know that the Government services will not be able to deliver any goods
- because our roads are poor despite paying road taxes and they are increasingly becoming poorer
- because we have filthy cities as garbage remains dumped on roadside
- because we have virtually no sanitation and sewage disposal which during monsoon season either often comes up on the roads or contaminates the drinking water causing all sorts of diseases
- because we have no public urinal and people relieve themselves on the roads along with dogs
- because we do not provide toilets to poor and underprivileged and they defecate in public
- because our roads remain inundated with flood water during monsoon
- because our flyovers take an eternity to get completed causing colossal loss of public money
- because we often stay without power, without drinking water
- because our transport systems are in mess.
The list of Government failures is endless. And despite all these failures, our media expects our Government to deliver a mega event (that too a hangover of colonial slavery) successfully! It amuses me to no ends.
The same media is silent when it encounters numerous stories on corruption in public offices – RTO, property registration, municipal services, income tax, utilities, customs, excise, passport, irrigation, sanitation, school, and public works, again the list is endless. How many times has the so called alert media been able to write against a scam, let alone unearth it using investigative journalism?
Sadly there is corruption is every sphere of public life in India and media is also no saint. There are many instances of stories being implanted by politicians by paying bribe to media, many instances of media giving all its credibility away to the benefits and gifts received from the ruling classes foregoing all ethics and integrity.
And media is not alone. What about Indian educated class? They seem to have found a way of convenience in corruption. Many of them justify corruption as a “convenience tax” for a quick and hassle free delivery of service. They forget that they are supposed to get that same quick and hassle free service without that “convenience tax”, that the convenience tax is actually the price of a great inefficiency which goes on increasing under the aid and abatement received. To circumvent the filthy, dirty unhygienic roads, water and other public utilities middle class is now sheltered in gated communities, insulated from the filth outside. And now suddenly we are enraged?
People who do not care for the plight of the fellow citizens will care about national prestige? Joke of the century. Where is our nationalism when we see fellow citizens crushed under wheels of poverty and illiteracy? When we see the huge wheel of corruption not allowing public goods to reach the poor and needy?
Our political and ruling elite are actually honest enough. They have made it very clear that the problems in CWG is nothing to worry about, they are routine. Even if a bridge collapses, it is only meant for common men, not VIPs. Who cares if a few common men die, they will die anyway, and nobody is immortal. They have made it very clear that corruption is not a matter of concern because it happens, it is usual. No need to worry about unhygienic living conditions in the games villages because that’s the normal condition in India, and probably even worse. The bathrooms in games villages are at least better in shape than public urinals.
So, what’s all this fuss about? It is a taste of Indian governance to the whole world and the world knows better. We stand in the 88th position in transparency index, tad better than Russian oligarchy or a failed Pakistan and Somalia. And our media is engrossed with the spoon fed 9% growth story. Now they and the Indian educated class have suddenly discovered our many failures and are horrified by it. India is a corrupt nation because its citizens chose to be one and it will remain corrupt unless there is a massive resistance against corruption. Till then, political class will be wise enough not to host any mega event which attracts public scrutiny.
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