The Malady of Corruption in High Places

Corruption has been eating into the vitals of this country for far too long. Morally bankrupt representatives of the people have held fiefdom over the resources and assets of this country for years. The decay has been running riot and ravaging the very fabric of life in this country.

It is easy to blame our politicians and bureaucrats for all the ills of governance. But we must realise that we have elected our leaders ourselves. We have given them the mandate to govern and rule this country. Yet there is a catch here. They have come from our own stock! They carry the same culture and attitudes that make up our social fabric. If they represent us, they also represent our ‘national character.’ An honest look at ourselves reveals our national character in all its dismal details. Just look at the mass media. Crime and sensation grab the headlines more frequently than stories of the goodness of the human heart. News channels vie with each other to bring scenes of human depravity and clashing egos into our drawing rooms. What we see and read every day are stories of human turpitude, perversion, and venality. So, just as we witness societal degradation, we see another aspect of it in our politicians and bureaucrats too. There are no surprises. But this is not to condone their wrongdoings. This is to remind ourselves of the roots of this malady whenever corruption occurs in high places. It’s just our national character playing out.

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