I have made a resolution for the New Year; Resolution 2015: To fight to build a corruption free India. I have lived outside of India since December 31, 1964, first in England and since May, 1968 in Canada. I have led an active political life in Canada. I am now retired and no longer a partisan in politics. I have never been a political partisan in relation to India. Now that I am liberated from the constraints of my previous life I am free to do what I always wanted to do when I 'grew up'. I wanted to be part of the fight to build a corruption free India. India is the land of my ancestors, birth and nurture until the age of 17 when I flew away from the billion battles raging within it. I owe India and my Indian heritage much for who and what I grew up to be; hence Resolution 2015.
It is a sheer coincidence that only now I have come to Resolution 2015. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to fight corruption in India. But life took me on a long detour. It has been a good life; no regrets. Now that I am free from the clutches of my political life I want to dedicate the remaining years of my life to the cause of eradicating corruption from India.
The New Year 2015 is important because it was exactly one hundred years ago my idol Mahatma Gandhi returned to India to free India from the colonialists with his undying commitment to truth and non- violence. In my mind India and Gandhi are inseparable. He is not relevant just to the past in which he lived and struggled. He is very relevant to the battles of today; particularly the battle against corruption. He always wanted to create not a new India but a new Indian; a fairer, more just, compassionate and inclusive Indian.
In my private, public and media engagements during my many visits to Indiain the last 40 years I have always spoken about how corruption was eating away at the vitals of India. Often I got into trouble with my absolute bluntness on the matter. About a year and a half ago I started occasionally writing about corruption in India on my blog at: ujjaldosanjh.org. That writing gathered urgency as I witnessed the well meaning campaigns of Anna Hazarre and Arvind Kejriwal being misdirected and prematurely aborted. If any of you are interested you may browse through the various posts. More recent ones dealing with corruption either wholly or in part are What next for me? of November 27, 2014, Stop the excuses: Build a corruption free India, of December 8, 2014 and In the New Year: Peace on earth of December 29, 2014.
The issue of corruption is too important to be allowed to be smothered in the partisan political battles of India. The battle against corruption can't be run on a partisan basis. It is about a wholesale change in our ethical, moral and cultural values. To confront and vanquish corruption India needs a values revolution. To succeed in that revolution we must draw in people from left, right and the center of the political spectrum. We need to appeal to the urban and the rural, the secular and the spiritual, the rich and the poor. We need to build a coalition of the brave, the just and the caring for this would be an immensely difficult albeit not an impossible battle to win. It would be extremely difficult because unlike the war of 1857 and freedom of 1947 we would not have an alien colonial enemy. We must recognise the enemy in this war, our Third Freedom Movement: the enemy is us. We have to battle ourselves. We have to fight and change our decadent culture of corruption. We must confront and change our own ethics, mores and values. We must change ourselves; just be honest.
I must dedicate Resolution 2015 to Mahatma Gandhi. Corruption will only end if we write, speak and act as fearlessly as he did. It will end only if we let truth and non-violence be our only weapon. It will end only if the campaign to end it is absolutely nonpartisan and is conducted without fear or favour. The campaign against corruption mustn't be about state power. It can't be about new India without being about new and changed Indians; honest, fair and just Indians. Each one of us must be that new Indian: honest, fairer, more just, compassionate and inclusive; once that happens corruption will disappear from India.
Let us all become Mahatma's Indians. To build a corruption free India let us change ourselves. Let us write, speak and act against corruption. That is the essence of Resolution 2015. Make Resolution 2015 your own.