History bears witness that 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 society’s 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. 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? Actually the entire system has fallen into the abyss of corruption though exceptions could be there but fact of the matter is that the authorities have failed to curb the corruption on governmental level and people have failed to curb it on societal level. Corruption doesn’t mean only in government offices, it means everywhere. 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? Corruption has become integral part of our society. Gone are the days when corrupt people were looked down upon. In today’s society they are the most respected people. 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 and that will help us to grow as a dignified and honest society. Our society needs to introspect and find and try to correct the flaws.
