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In these foggy mornings which somewhat restricted daily physical activities of the morning due to cold, to confine near the fireplace and reading the happenings of the day in the papers minutely has become the order of the past few days. Thanks to the fog. I have got the opportunity to read from A to Z that are written on the paper ranging from news, sports news, crosswords, quiz, advertisement and even the matrimonials (as I have got a son of marriageable age).
For the past few days or say for the past few months many embarrassing news catch the headlines of this paper of which I have got the privilege of writing a column every Monday. When my eyes struck on the news items which read 'Misuse of fund meant for hill district', 'Scandals in the Health Department', 'Pilferage of building materials from inside the Kangla' etc, I did not fail to remember the lines of Wordsworth - 'And much it grieved my heart to think what man has made of man'.
Yes, Wordsworth was very true in his words because in our present society the bridle of man's destiny seemed to have slipped from the hands of God, the creator and now man, not God has become the shaper of man's destiny. God creates man but men kill among themselves and the report of killings in the front page of the papers have confirmed this belief.
In addition to these news items, stories of teachers shot on the legs for malpractice in the NIOS examination, detention of Government employees for neglect of duties, kidnapping of students on the eve of college elections and the missing incident of the VC of Manipur University (in the words of the outfits, it was not missing but summoning the VC on the charge of fraud appointment in the University) have spelt out the degradation of human values in our society in our generation itself.
The headlines carrying the punishment of the highest authority of learning of the State on the charge of corruption brings me a nostalgic remembrance of a jocular comment of one of my teacher and colleague who had now gone away to his heavenly abode.
During the off period of our classes, while basking together in the winter sun, he often said that if he were the Chief Minister of Manipur his first duty would be to make a time table to lash the corrupt Government employees ranging from commissioner to peon. He further told that he would parade the corrupt officials daily in the open meadow of Mapal Kangjeibung and would lash on their bare back in the full view of the whole public and according to him the measure would erase the corruption in Manipur completely.
If the teacher had lived today he would be very happy to see that somebody or some organizations have come out to cleanse the society especially in the education sector.
The extent to which corruption may flourish in a particular society depends largely on the attitude of the people in the society. And here in our Manipur society everyone takes corrupt practices that are going on in the Government offices by the Government employees as a part of his life or his duty and nobody seems to pay much attention to this and as a result there is corruption in public administration whether it is in the Health Department, Education Department or in the highest abode of learning in the State.
Corruption needs only two individuals, two sections or two groups of people, the giver and the taker. In another word corruption needs only two pre-requisites, first, there must be a pre-dispensation on the part of the individual to gratify somebody in authority who has some discretionary power to affect favor for his own benefit. This group constitutes the giver.
Second, the man or the authority whose conscience is blind on the right side of the moral or human values and subsidizing his inner voice always hunt for material comfort and means to get rich quicker. This group constitutes the taker. When both these two combine corruption must be there and in our society, both these groups of people are found in plenty and as such there are plenty of fertile grounds for breeding corruption.
Believe it or not, a survey put out by a German NGO way back in the beginning of this century or millennium put India in the rank of 66 out of 85 countries in the corruption index. Though there is rampant corruption in India the conviction rate in Indian courts on charge of corruption is only 6 percent and average time taken for disposal of cases ranges from 10 to 20 years. For example the court took 17 years to clear off the name of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case. How funny! And the funnier side of the story is that in Manipur there is no conviction on charge of corruption as far as my memories goes.
Every employee under the State Government makes a fetish of the job that carries extra-earning above his or her pay and allowances. Go to any department and one will find open bargaining for money for the duties for which he or she is appointed. But Manipur's tradition of tolerance is clearly seen in the issue of corruption. No one legally complains, no one raise the finger of accusation and we are content to keep ourselves murmuring and grumbling and seldom exert ourselves even to voice our grievances before those who are responsible for causing them. And as a result the level of corruption and degradation of moral values has reached its nadir.
Corruption and gross misuse of public funds is one of the reasons of the region's backwardness. The worst victims of corruption are the talented and educated youths.
For this something should be done to eradicate this dreaded disease from our society. Recently the Chief Secretary of Manipur has taken steps in this regard. Will it help to instill a sense of accountability in the working of the Government employee? This is the question that is asked by everyone. Wrong-doers may get punishment but recent drive against corruption will definitely be a shot in the arm for the society. Let us join in unison in the drive against corruption to save the future of Manipur.
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