I am a Political Science Honors student. When I first thought of taking up this course, the usual repercussions I got from most of the people around me (except my family and some close friends) is that the only place this would lead me to is into main stage politics. But, to be honest I never even had thought about entering the domain of the corrupted backroom. I want to go in International Relations, but that is another story which I won't ponder into at this moment.

So for some months I have been looking into my reading material relating to my course and I came to a partial understanding that Politics is not actually what we see happening in the elections and campaigns every year but it is institutionalized in each and every society and person who are living in the context of this democratic entity. India is considered the largest democracy in the world where more than a billion participate in the political process. This is because every individual in this country has been brought up in such a manner that they are made to believe that their dreams and aspirations will be fulfilled by the one they choose to represent them in the higher authority. So in a way, the denizens of India are dependent on a major scale on the Indian government and the respective parties.

Now talking about getting institutionalized in this political system, the Indian model of government, although one of the most complex, but on the cimmerian side it is contaminated like no other as far as I think. This sudden upsurge against the corruption in the form of the Lokpal Bill, although attained a wide range of support, I personally don't think it will do any justice to the goal which the movement wants to achieve.

Now why I don't feel that the Lokpal or any other agitation or operation would become successful in the Indian lexicon is that the nepotism of the governmental system is not only restricted to the government officials but also this plague has affected each and every corner of the Indian territory and every citizen has inculcated this into their lives and every day activities. Now I am aware of the fact that the word 'inculcated' is primarily used to describe the education of oneself in positive values of life, but I intentionally used this word here because I see this adulterated hydra is being indirectly taught and adopted in regular families all over India. Nowadays, to be truthful, all of us have some kind of connection to some people who can get all the governmental work done for us in a short notice of time and thus they have their own illegal income from us which is actually illegal in nature. Redtapism is one of the most prominent practices which can be clearly witnessed day in and day out. This is like talking about politics on a very high scale. The politics is played on a very basic scale in everyday household when there is a decision to be made on the division of property, and also when one need to get a passport done in a couple of days (haha). So, just be creating some kind of uprising which affects the working of the higher operations won't cure this plague which is installed in the lives of each and every individual. These are just some minor examples which I stated above to show how corrupted the individuals are in the society nowadays and the ironical fact is that they themselves want the corruption to be removed. So, indirectly I came to a conclusion that everyone has a minor politician characteristic which operates inside all of them. This is such a quandary which I don't see getting fixed soon enough.

About Author / Additional Info:
Ayushman Basu
ayushman.basu@gmail.com