Jan Lokpal is not the final frontier but it emanates from the inner conscience of the society

Corruption breeds very deep into the cultural ethos of a society. The institutions, particularly formal ones, have only so much role in securing a system of integrity and honesty. Formal institutions should always be built on the solid foundation of high moral and ethical base of a society.Institutions are formed by the society and not the other way round. When India adopted many western ideals such as democracy, constitutionalism, fundamental rights etc, they were first imbibed into the nationalist movement which paved the way for independence. The value of free and democratic society could only be realized in the oppressive colonial rule and it bred into the warp and woof of the freedom struggle. However, colonial rule also left the seeds of administrative and political high-handness. The society was inherently weak with maladies of caste-ism, orthodoxy, mass illiteracy and inequality casting a shadow on a newly independent state. The process of social transformation was incomplete or rather inadequate. In such situation the foundation on which formal institutions such as democracy stood was rickety. The politico-administrative corruption is the fallout of this weakness. Our education system could not provide the necessary socialization into the high morals of honesty and integrity. The political leadership progressively declined in vision and mission of social transformation and democracy was reduced to the process of electioneering which by very nature of the society failed to achieve its many objectives.

The point is then what should be the rationale of adopting a yet another west inspired institution of Ombudsman-self styled as Lokpal- into our system? The failure to transplant many of these exotic institutions has only created doubts among the supporters of democracy and caused alienation among lots of people from the system. The demand for corruption free system should come from the society at large and it should be firmly based on the ethical practice in all spheres of lives. Lokpal will not bring the end of all corruption in India. The corruption in the nooks and corner of the country from the villages to the Prime-minister's office,from professor to the politician, needs to be rectified. This will happen only if we as a society steadfastly hold the flag of high morality high. The public outpouring and support for Anna's call should not end there, rather it should flood-open the doors of ethical practice in everyday lives. We need the zeal of Swadeshi and non-cooperation movement, million mutinies have to be launched to root out the maladies that inflict our society. Corruption is only one symptom, the disease is well entrenched in our society.