No society in the world can progress unless its members inculcate a sense of responsibility towards each other and also towards the collective good of the whole of the society. Neither governments nor some other sort of law enforcing agencies can make a society vibrant and self reliant though these may supplement societies own efforts in this direction. In fact the major responsibility lies on every individual of the society to judge and understand what is good for his/her society and what not. The members of a civilized society never make it a habit to raise fingers towards others instead they develop a tendency of introspection keeping in view the reality that when a finger is raised towards others, three point toward the pointer him/herself. The introspection is the corner-stone of each society’s progress and development. Hiding ugliness is no answer to the ills but identifying it and then trying to beautify it only helps societies to remain in good health.
When we talk of corruption, we always point fingers towards others not understanding that Jammu and Kashmir is a very small place and we all here are the same. We may not be directly involved in corrupt practices but does that mean we are not a party to it. Which field of our life is not plagued by corruption? Whenever we talk about corruption, we just put all the blame on governmental sector, bureaucracy and politicians. Is that fair? Are others not corrupt? What about our shopkeepers who sell things on exorbitant rates? What about the traders who adulterate food stuffs? What about physicists who sell sub standard medicine? What about journalists who blackmail people and hide or exaggerate things whenever it suits them?
Fact of the matter is that we as a society have proved a failure. We have accepted corruption as a legal institution. We would slap, punish and ridicule our dear ones if we see them boozing or smoking but do we ever frown for a while if they come home with money which we know is beyond their known sources of income? We don’t spare even Allah. We have constructed Masjids on government lands. We use electricity in these Masjids but do we really pay for what we consume? This has been our practice in our homes but we have taken it to the Allah’s home too. Have our Ulema ever spoken on these issues? Have they ever, during Friday sermons, asked people to pay for the amount of the electricity used both at homes and Masjids? Where will our prayers reach when we offer the same in Masjids where we use boilers for hot water without paying for the same?
All is not well with media too. Haven’t we been hiding certain things which don’t suit our financial interests or individual political ideologies and exaggerating ones which earn us pat and money? Kashmir is a conflict zone and in such zones it is the media that can play a very positive and reconciliatory role. But as part of the fraternity let’s stop for a while and introspect – are we least bothered about the same? Or, is it that continuation of trouble helps us to sell more and earn more? Let us wake up – wake up as a society – and decide once for all that instead of raising fingers towards each other, we just look inwards and try to correct ourselves. Self correction will definitely lead to societal correction.
