The politics and theology of corruption

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has in his Independence Day address has admitted that corruption is a major issue facing the country. He wanted a strong Lokpal Bill to be passed in the Lok Sabha to tackle corruption at high levels.He also pointed out that fasting or satyagraha would not rid the nation of this evil. There could be no magic wand to wish it away.

Anna Hazare and his followers have courted arrest while planning to go on a fast in defiance of the government. They maintained that they will continue to fast inside the jail.

Claiming to represent the civil society, Anna and his followers continued to insist that a proper Lokpal Bill should cover the Prime

Minister, the judiciary and the members of legislatures. They are unwilling to accept the explanation that in a democracy it is the parliament and not civil society members who could dictate the terms of legislation

The truth that is known to everyone is that it is not lack of legislation that is holding up the fight against corruption. No government has shown courage in acting against the high and mighty who are guilty of misdeeds. The common man is victim to corruption in high places and it has seeped into every level of society.

Moral issue:
More than a political or economic issue, corruption has to do with the nature of man, his ethics and morals. When the hot political debate is on, very few realize that they are discussing a dominant theme of the Bible that human beings are corrupt and the stain of 'original sin' mars every human attempt to create a world of justice, Peace and equality.

In some form or other the imperfections of man finds mention in all religions which hold that the spiritual is stronger than the material.

The God of the Christian faith allows freedom for humans to choose between right and wrong, life and death, blessing and curse and lays down that they will reap the consequences of their choice.

There is no ambiguity about right and wrong because a general revelation about the same is written on the tablet of the human heart. God in short is the authority of ethics and morals found in the inner man!

In the twentieth century tremendous progress has been made in the fields of science, medicine, communication, travel etc. The standard of living has dramatically improved. Yet man find himself helpless against evils, violence and injustice that pervade societies. The corruption issue has no easy answer,

Human heart
Surveying such mind boggling progress, Dr Charles Colson, a great author and former advisor to President Nixon, who has considerable experience in the area of law and order, crime and punishment says: 'With all of that progress, there is one area in which we have made absolutely no change at all. If anything, perhaps it has changed a little for the worse. That is the condition of the human heart. I am not talking about open heart surgery where you can take a heart out on a table and put new valves in place. I am talking about what goes on inside the human heart. The condition of the heart - sin. That is its natural condition. We have done nothing to change that in the twentieth century.'

He finds that as a matter of fact, this (20th century) has been the bloodiest century in human history. More people have been killed in wars â€" more people killed by their own government in the twentieth century â€" than in all previous centuries.

G. K. Chesterton was right when he said, "The doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by thirty-five hundred years of human history." We have been able to improve everything in the twentieth century except the condition of the human heart and man's inhumanity to man.

Problem:
The Bible clearly lays down that the heart is at the centre of all problems. According to it, that which proceeds out of the heart of a man â€"selfishness, theft, murder, adultery, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness â€" all of these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.

Can man be good without God? This is the great question that moral philosophers have asked from the beginning of time. Who could do anything about the sin within us which causes hatred, anger, rivalries, bitterness, moral decay and crime?

Can governments do it? No. Scientists and laboratories? No. The media? No. Schools? No. It comes only when the power of God begins to work in our lives and brings forth righteousness. It is something which happens from the inside out and not from the outside in. It is the one thing man can't fix â€" the condition of the heart.

Nineteenth and twentieth century preachers in the west thundered from pulpits, published in books and newspapers issues of human corruption and its remedy and brought about such a revival of morals and ethics that they seeped into the very foundations of western societies. It must be admitted that materialism and permissiveness of today are corroding those foundations of morality, justice and peace.

There is plenty of proof that religion or spirituality could be a more potent weapon than even politics and economics to curb corruption. It is here men like Baba Ramdev , Sri Sri Ravi Sankar or Saint Asaram or civil activists like Anna Hazare become relevant.

Ramdev
Baba Ramdev has strong convictions about Yoga and about his religion. And he has an intense love for everything Indian. In patriotic zeal he has declared war against corruption. He has joined the civil society under the leadership of Anna Hazare. Swami Agnivesh, Kiren Bedi and Kejriwal are the other prominent men of the campaign and they had succeeded in giving an impression that the government is corrupt and that the proposed Lokpal Bill will be the solution.

They have awakened the conscience of the nation against the dangers of allowing the corruption octopus to grip the life of the people.

Dalit activist and writer Kancha Ilaiah is right in reminding them that they are all part of the corrupt society and will continue to be so until an alternative spiritual structure is created.

Wrong
Peoples' attitudes are decisive in promoting or checking corruption and these are in turn shaped by beliefs and traditions fostered by culture and religion. In this context it can be argued that the religious systems, rather than the government, determine the type of society we have. Politicians and governments can enact and implement laws to check corruption but can have no control over human hearts where corrupt ways take shape.

Around 1908, The Times newspaper, had asked a number of authors to write on the topic: "What's wrong with the world?" Chesterton's answer at that time was the shortest of those submitted – he simply wrote: "Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K Chesterton."

Instead of joining the chorus by the civil society, religious leaders like Ramdev should turn inwardly and examine what had gone wrong in a land where the five thousand year old unbroken Hindu tradition had held sway.

The Hindu religion's caste system here has been a source of inequality and injustice and is in contrast with the equality principle guaranteed by the Constitution drawn up after independence. Economic and political forces reinforced these injustices and inequalities, created classes and interests and corrupted all systems including the elections.

Equality:
In our Constitution we have the equivalent of the American declaration: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…'

The well documented Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on social reforms was not only on equality but also on creating a society free from exploitation and corruption. Ambedkar pointed to the evils of casteism rooted in the Hindu scriptures, while Gandhi couldn't agree with him all the way. He maintained that while untouchability was anathema, the 'chatur varnas' formed the very foundations of Hinduism.

However it should be stated to the credit of the Mahatma that he admitted that while the Congress has won political freedom, "it is yet to win economic freedom, social and moral freedom. These freedoms are harder than the political, if only because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular."

Not enough
Baba Ramdev's yoga may relieve people of their stresses and Pandit Sri Sri Ravi Shanker's sudarshan kriya might even lift up the spirits of the elite youth who feel distressed while engaged in the rat race. But their remedies are not good enough to cure India of its corruption. Instead of going on a fast to bring the government to its knees for its failure to curb corruption the like of them must go on bended knees before the public imploring them to mend their waysâ€"that they may neither take a bribe nor give one to get things done.

The current campaign against corruption, which legitimately belongs to the realm of religion also, has become suspect because godmen with sullied reputations have taken up roles in the agitation. There is anxiety in many quarters that the hands of those crying hoarse over corruption are not clean. The whole issue has been politicized despite the good intentions of Anna Hazare and Kejriwal who launched the movement in the name of the civil society. It is now looked upon as a struggle by communal forces to regain power by dethroning the government.

Religious leaders, East or West, emphasise that the spiritual is superior to the material. A change of heart is needed to turn men back to ethical behaviour.Above all it must be admitted by all concerned that the cancer of corruption can not be treated with aspirin and needs a long term strategy.