Transparency and Corruption

India completed 61 years as a republic. The main news in the news papers today is on corruption. It varies from smaller ones to mammoth scales.

Some of the recent news are disturbing.

* Newly elected CVC faces an old corruption charge and Supreme Court is considering if he is eligible for such a post.
* Former Chief Justice of Supreme Court facing grave accusations of corruption and he is currently Chairman of National Human Rights Commission
* The Dust of 2G scam still ongoing and scale of it is mammoth.
* Chief Minister of one state in India may get prosecuted for corruption.
* One state's Chief Information Commissioner suspended being part of corruption (Link Here)

But on the same time we read the news.

*Finance Minister saying Government cannot reveal names of people hoarding black money.(Newslink Here)

And some of the other news are affecting those who fight corruption.

* Dr Amar Nath Pandey, a Right To Information (RTI) activist, was fired at and injured in Uttar Pradesh yesterday Jan 27th (Newslink Here)
* Yeshwant Sonawane, Additional District Collector of Malegaon was burned alive while trying to act against oil mafia.

Think of those who are on the side of poor and afflicted.

* Dr. Binayak Sen sentenced to Life Imprisonment on very flimsy grounds and ignored his impeccable service to the poor in Chattisgarh (News here)

This calls us to be vigilant and to fight more to expose corruption and to work towards bringing more transparency everywhere. I do believe technology coupled with RTI especially websites and Web 2.0 technologies can drive it more.

Let us not forget

* The sacrifice of Manjunath Shanmugam, an upright officer who lost his life in fight against oil mafia in 2005.

* The sacrifice of Satyendra Dubey who paid with his life two years ago when he blew the whistle on corruption in the Bihar stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral project.

Yes, it is time to resolve that, we will be on the side on transparency, truth, poor and against corruption whatever be the cost. Also let us resolve that we will continue expose darkness and light a candle to spread light wherever we are. Be willing to say that we will not pay a bribe whatever be the cost. If you like to involve, I would suggest report cases on bribery or to upload your city/states 'citizen charters' for various departments to 'I Paid a Bribe' website.