New Delhi, Sep 13 (Inditop.com) He uses a stick to walk, looks frail and is 91 years old. But Delhi-based Gandhian Shambu Dutta’s resolve is firm – to fast unto death unless the government takes concrete steps to weed out corruption in India.
“The cause of ensuring probity in India’s political leadership now requires citizens’ sacrifice and I, an unknown entity, shall do my duty,” Dutta, who is planning to begin his fast Jan 30, told Inditop.
“I believe that my death will persuade the government in taking effective and concrete measures against corruption in India.”
Jan 30 is observed as Martyr’s Day in India to mark the day in the year 1948 when Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. “Corruption will be out one day, however much one may try to conceal it, and the public can, as its right and duty, in every case of justifiable suspicion, call its servants to strict account, dismiss them, sue them in a law court or appoint an arbitrator or inspector to scrutinize their conduct, as it likes,” Gandhi used to say.
“Of the various forms of corruption rampant in our country, political corruption is the greatest betrayal of the nation,” said Dutta, clad in a khadi kameez-salwar. “The nation is more vulnerable to corruption than terrorism,” he warned.
The man who who took part in the 1942 Quit India Movement and went to jail as a freedom fighter functions from a modest two-room office in south Delhi.
Dutta leads 18 Gandhians from across the country with a group called Gandhian Satyagraha Brigade, a non-party organisation that also raises its voice against socio-political vices.
To make him break his resolve to fast unto death, he wants an assurance from the government for time-bound, concrete measures to check corruption. Last month, he wrote a letter to the prime minister on the issue.
“We want that a Lok Pal (parliamentary ombudsman) be appointed to fight corruption. The Congress in its manifesto had promised to take up the issue,” he said.
“Corruption accentuates poverty, aggravates economic disparity, thwarts development, undermines democracy and, what is worst, destroys the moral fibre of the nation,” he said.
His worries are not misplaced.
Corruption has spawned a virtual parallel economy in India. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a rare “Mr Clean” among politicians, has pledged to root it out.
According to the Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International, India figures 85th among 180 countries in the corruption perception index – a shame for the world’s largest democracy.
A Transparency International survey backed by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) says people cough up a whopping Rs.8,830 million ($176 million) in bribes in rural India alone to avail of governmental services.
“We need political will to fight corruption, not men or arms,” said Dutta. “This is the war we have to win,” said a resolute Dutta.
