GoaChronicle.com spoke to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar – a spiritual leader -considered to be one the silent supporters of the ‘Anti-Corruption’ Movement in the country, on the issue of corruption in India and whether Lokpal Bill is the answer to solving the menace of corruption in the country.
GC: Do you see the issues of corruption being solved in down to up approach – wherein in people are sensitized to not be corrupt; or do you see it as an up to down approach – wherein we eradicate the corrupt leaders so that people are not forced on account of government authorities to be corrupt?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We would need to follow both methods in weeding out corruption in the country. We need to sensitize people on issues of corruption and instill as sense of fearlessness in the them to stand up against corruption while simultaneously also ensuring that the government authorities on the top come under scrutiny for their corrupt practices and better leaders are elected as people representatives.
GC: But the common man today on account of a corrupt system is forced to pay a bribe and be a part of the corruption because in the end the politicians and government authorities are controlling most the major decision pertaining to their lives?
Shankar: It is important for people to understand that in order for corruption to stop both the giver and the taker need to be kept in check. The giver is equally to be blamed as the taker of the bribe. We need to instill that fearlessness in the common man to not be corrupt.
GC: In an election when a common man is given money to vote for a politician, he is forced to take that money in order to safe-guard his and his family’s interest. How can he overcome this fact of the political practices in our country?
Shankar: People should take the money that are been given by these corrupt politicians but cast their vote to a worthy and non-corrupt candidate who will work for the betterment of the state and country.
GC: Do you see the Lokpal Bill as the solution to the corruption menace in India?
Shankar: The Lokpal Bill is just one of the tools to ensure that corruption is kept in check, but it is not the final solution to the menace of corruption. People collectively need to make a conscious effort in making India a corruption-free country. And that would involve a changing on the entire mind-set that people in power and the common man have been used too. Corruption is a menace that needs to be looked at from all angles in order for it to be weeded out.
GC: You have been talking about the black-money stashed by politicians in foreign bank accounts, do you see the government working proactively towards bringing that back?
Shankar: It is important for the government to work proactively in bringing back the wealth of India, but they have not being doing so aggressively. In fact they have been giving the defaulters time to find alternate measures to keep that money safe because of their lack in expediting the efforts on it. Most of the corruption or blackmoney issues in the country take time and in that time the culprits find means to clear their name and stash the ill-gotten wealth in other forms. Therefore the opposition party at the Centre must aggressively pursue the matter of blackmoney.
GC: But isn’t the opposition party in the Centre showing very little interest in expediting the issue on blackmoney because some of their own politicians will have blackmoney stashed in foreign off-shore accounts?
Shankar: That could be the reason why no progress has happened so far on the blackmoney. But it is important in the government to have a serious check-balance mechanism wherein in the opposition can kept the ruling in check; and the ruling can also keep the opposition in check. In this way none in the government will act in a corrupt manner.
GC: Is there a point to ministers getting arrested yet the law takes time to prosecute them; in the end they made enough money which have been stashed away in different foreign and Indian accounts as well as assets that it will not matter if they lose their party chair or even spend few days in courtroom?
Shankar: I think it is important for the government to claim all the black money as national assets and use it for the good of the people; even corrupt ministers’ ill-gotten wealth and assets should be confiscated and used for the good of the people of this country.
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