“An ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure”, so goes the saying. The time to act is now. And we better do
act now than regret later. We have very many issues in our hands to deal with ranging
from the unholy nexus between bureaucrats and politicians to the alarming depletion
of the natural resources.
Perhaps, we could have achieved
much more and have already become a developed nation if it were not for the
corruption that exists in our country. Right from the grass root level to the
highest level corruption has swallowed up everyone except a few. $462 billion
(sufficient enough to remove the entire debt of the country at one stroke) is
the illicit money estimated to be deposited away in foreign accounts and so far
no credible action has been taken to bring it back to the country. According
to a report submitted by the CAG in the 2G spectrum allocation, the loss to the exchequer is estimated to be Rs176,379 crore. The food grain
meant for the poorest of the poor has been smuggled out of Uttar Pradesh into
the open market and even to a neighbouring country. Since 2002, under the reign
of different chief ministers, the scams in UP is estimated to be worth over Rs 2 lakh crore.
These are only but a few big scams that have come out in the open. God alone
knows how many more are yet to be unearthed!
Pity enough, even our nature and natural resources too are not spared by
the ‘nation-looters’. Our leaders claim
we don’t have enough infrastructure and capital to check the pollution, to implement
the environmental norms and safeguard the environment. I believe we have enough resources to make our
country a better place to live, if only our political leadership has the will
and determination to do so! If only every citizen stands for his/her right!
If one man could challenge the British empire and wrested
freedom from the mighty British empire; if we could run the successful Green
Revolution that changed India from a starving nation to one of the world's
leading agricultural nations; if the Tunisian revolution, also known as the Jasmine revolution, could
cause the downfall of president Zein El Abidine Ben Ali who ruled the country
for 24 years; and if the Egyptian revolution 2011, triggered off by a simple
message on the social network by a 26-year-old woman, Asmaa Mahfouz, could end
the 30-year-old autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak; certainly we as Indians can
do a lot better given the fact that 55% of our population is below 25 years.
Certainly we need to raise our voices against the
malpractices and bring the culprits to book.
Every teenager can do his/her bit in their locality and save our country
and her resources. Don't be afraid of opposition; remember a kite rises against, and not with, the wind.
