Dear Prime Minister,
Greetings !
Thanks for your “country first” slogan and efforts for making A NEW INDIA corruption free. While I appreciate your efforts, I feel pity on you because corruption has gone to such deep rooted in our society that hardly anybody is left out of this menace. In our childhood, we used read a Bengali poem, “অন্যায় যে করে আর অন্যায় যে সহে তব ঘৃণা যেন তারে তৃণ সম দহে”. It means “Those who do injustice and who also tolerate injustice they are equally culprit”. In this scale we are all culprits of doing corruption some time or other. There is a universal principal that one cannot do good with the help of bad. With a corrupt teacher, corrupt officer, corrupt politician, corrupt judge, a host of corrupt machineries that you have cannot remove corruption. You have to start a fresh. I do agree there are passively corrupt people who are not active but victim of surroundings and tolerating corruption, they can be imbibed to stand against the corruption and a battalion of anti-corruption wing can be erected. But in the process, I am afraid, you will be removed from the power corridor to do so because corrupt people will outnumber you and dump you. Recent example is the Mr Gadkeri’s traffic law. He brought a right approach to reduce the traffic discipline in the country but see what our states are doing? One after another either raising their voice against this or trying to please the public to do traffic crimes by reducing the fines to a negligible amount. Mr. Gadkeri is perplexed and do not know what to do. You have initiated many wonderful social programmes such as “Zero open defecation”, “Mera Gaon mera Gaurav”, “Sacchata aviyan”, etc. But have you ever seen or checked personally in ground level what is happening in these programmes? Statistics is most abused tools in our country. Please don’t depend on the statistics that your corrupt machinery provides. Let talk about my own experience. Anand has been declared as 100% open defecation free district in Gujarat and I have written two mails to DM, Anand copy marked to PMO stating that open defecation continues in Anand specially because of construction labourers and also security staffs. I cannot provide photographs because that will be obscenity. But certainly I can take you to morning walk with me to show you the plight of those poor labourers. I suggested that builders should be tightened to provide toilets in the construction site and also insist the labourers for its use. I also offered financial help to construct one or two toilets. But what happened? It has gone to deaf ear. And open defecation continues. Similar is the case in other programmes. Govt. machineries hypocritically do some function of the specified day then forgets till the next year same day to come for some phot sessions.
I don’t wish to list more because you may consider me as pessimist when I am not and in fact, I am more optimist because I truly believe that nothing is permanent in this world and this callous attitude of the public also will not last long. With this hope, I wish that you please review the situation personally and find out a solution. I assure you that I shall be with you for any right decision you take.
With regards and Jai Hind!
Satyabrata Maiti
