There is no dearth of patriotic pride in any Indian. "Mera Bharat Mahan," My India is Great! Every Indian boasts about India, her cultural heritage, diversity and grandeur. Unfortunately, we are reluctant to address issues that bring shame to our country because we think that patriotic people are not supposed to rake up such issues. As a result, we sweep such things under the carpet.

The most recent index on corruption shows that India is at the 84th position. That is, there are 83 countries that are perceived to be less corrupt than India. It is meaningless to compare ourselves with Pakistan, which is at position 139, or with Sri Lanka, which is at 97. Neither is it useful to criticize the index. We who seek to be in the league of great countries, we who seek to be included in every forum of significance must make it a national priority to pull ourselves out of this infamy.

With such poor perceptions about our political, commercial, and administrative systems, how can retain the motto “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth alone triumphs) on our national emblem? Instead of telling the world about our national virtue of honesty or about the secret of our triumph, this motto indicts us. It tells the world and to our collective conscience the real reason for our debacle, our tragic failures, on many fronts. Truth indeed triumphs. Those who stand for truth will triumph with the truth even if it means that they should go through a ‘death’ and a ‘resurrection!’ On the other hand, nations that thrive on falsehood, deception and corruption will fail miserably. There are honest people in India. They are an exception, sadly. Corruption and falsehood (that includes our unwillingness to search out truth in spite of our beliefs) have permeated all strata of our country. This is proving to be our undoing.

For the past fortnight, we were force-fed with an overdose of news and rumours about the Indian Premier League that unfortunately became the Indian Proxy/Paisa League. As a country that is shame-oriented, our people are ashamed only when they are caught. They are not troubled by their wrong doings per se. Investigations might reveal the height and depth of corruption and money laundering in the IPL.

In the heat of the IPL drama, many of us missed another great story – the arrest of the top guy in the Medical Council of India. He was arrested on bribery charges. A friend who appeared for an MCI accreditation examination tells me that medical graduates from other countries are forced to pay huge bribes to pass their exams. Close on the heals of this scandal, we hear of the arrest of two top civil servants in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. And as of now, the latest story of corruption is about the Indian diplomat who spied for Pakistan!

The common man, the ‘aam aadmi’ in political parlance, knows that the Indian democracy is a fake democracy that works only for those who can cough up money whenever he/she reaches an administrative road-block. A little here, and a little there. Money lubricates India’s grand bureaucratic machinery. Life has to go on. And people have to get their things done. So they pay and forget about it. Few people have faith in the police, the so-called custodians and enforcers of law. Recently, policeman posted on a highway intersection got into my friend’s car for a short ride in order to accept a bribe without being caught on security cameras!

Probably, India should consider legalizing bribes the way some countries have legalized prostitution or gambling. I say this out of desperation and derision; not because I believe bribery should be institutionalized.

We have institutionalized bribery in our religions too. We bribe our gods with flowers, fruits, nuts, oil, ghee, money, and even blood. How foolish of us to think that the Almighty withholds blessings from us in order to get our gifts! We Indians are imitating our gods. There is nothing surprising in this. We will all one day become like our objects of worship, at least according to our perceptions of the divine. We too will withhold the rights of others as long as they will not pay us a tip.

India will remain poor and underdeveloped as long as corruption rules her. If all the grants allotted for development and for the welfare of the poor had reached their targets, we would have long been a developed country. We need to repent of our corruption, our greed, our falsehood, our daylight robberies, our deceptions! We need to team up with the Truth in order to triumph with the Truth.