A former tax inspector who launched the Aam Aadmi Party in October 2012 to fight graft, became the chief minister of the Indian capital Delhi.
Kejriwal’s election symbol was a broom, to signify the cleansing of society. In his speech, he manifested his stringent disposition to contain corruption. Reportedly, he also stated that he would end the “VIP culture” that provides exclusive rights to “above-ordinary” citizens, like political VIPs bypassing gridlocked city traffic, and he took the train to attend his oath ceremony instead of riding in a luxury car.
Mr Kejriwal, according to AFP, said: “If somebody asks for a bribe, don’t say no. Just take your mobile out of your pocket and record it on your phone. Then come and give it to me. We will take the toughest action against the offenders.”
Now, coming to our corruption-ridden Bangladesh. We have been ranked 14th in 2014, from 16th in 2013, as per the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published on December 3, 2014 by Transparency International (TI).
Corruption is one of the major impediments in the development of a nation. The practice of corruption impedes and holds back all sorts of developmental activities from being implemented properly, resulting in dilly-dallying in implementation and misappropriation of public money.
Anomalies in many government sectors are rampant. Corruption has spread like a plague. General people are suffering and the poor class of our society especially are badly affected since they have no option but to rely on government services. The public health sector has been found to be corruption-ridden, so bribery will, naturally, be needed to access any type of service from public hospitals, while the even audit bodies in the country have also been found to be guilty of blatant anomalies like taking bribes ranging from Tk10,000 to Tk5lakh, as TIB reports revealed.
Corruption has a spill-over effect that ripples from its origin to a possible end point, affecting millions in between. People buying their fortunes by dint of bribery are getting involved in this kind of venality to get back the money they paid in bribes, and make illicit money.
To keep corruption in check, our government officials should be made to come clean first, because venal incumbents produce the virus called bribery, and keep on going from pocket-to-pocket of many such corrupt individuals casing blatant anomalies in service sectors and suffering of general citizens.
Public sectors highly prone to corruption should have their officials’ wealth statements disclosed publicly each year. And there is need for stringent laws to be enacted with the view of taking strict punitive actions against any official found involved in any anomalies.
The country witnessed a crackdown on the then bribery-prone government officials and politicians during the last tenure of the caretaker regime which had recovered public money and properties amassed in foreign countries.
And we appreciate our present government for taking punitive actions against the men behind the Padma Bridge and Railway recruitment scams in the country, but it’s not enough to go tough on big scams, only ignoring small ones as there are many such anomalies occurring in many sectors in need of direct interventions to make them corruption-free.
Coming back to Mr Kejriwal, he has vowed to make his Delhi corruption free. Leaders like him can be termed as the “antidote” for the virus called corruption. A developing nation needs such leader to keep the spread of corruption at bay.
Our nation needs a Bangladeshi Kejriwal to dispel all impediments in its way of prosperity. So where is our Kejriwal?
