You must be the Change you want to see in the world

Never before I have felt helpless ! I was always optimistic with Democracy, Constitution and a Free Liberal system and gave importance to the fact that if we want we can change the people who are unaccountable. 

But I  was wrong ! I am angry ! I feel anguished ! The government has let us down. The bureacracy las let us down. The entire system has let us down. 

After every such incident we point finger at our neighbor. Under the rhetoric, we try to cover the problem that our own system has. Pakistan is our enemy and the enemy is bound to attack. Why arent we capable of countering these attacks ?

I have every right to be anguished with Manmohan Singh, Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh, R.R.Patil and other politicians. The proud chief minister who celebrated 8th year in office should feel ashamed that he did nothing in 8 years to stop attacks on his state. It is a myth that I as a voter have power to change the government. But who do I elect ? If I have to change the Manmohan Singh leadership, I will have to vote for Advani who is even worse. The same person who just a day ago was targeting Karkare and the ATS for "targetting" terrorists. If I have to change Vilasrao, should I elect Gopinath Munde ? Or should I vote for Raj Thackeray? 

And will this problem get solved by changing the politicians ? What about the bureacracy ?  I remember the CNN-IBN coverage few months ago where they had exposed lack of security on the coastal India. Customs Officers were casual, Police were sleeping. Nobody acted on it. Even while reading the charges on the convicts of the 93 bomb blast case, I always felt if 1 person would have done his job correctly, that incident could have been avoided. Hence I feel that more than Congress, more than BJP, it is the system which is responsible and people who made this system the way it is. I hold you responsible for this and I hold myself responsible for this !

When I paid Rs. 100 to the police man for getting my passport verification done, I had sowed seed for this attack. 

When I paid Rs. 50 to the traffic police when I was caught driving without license, I had paid him for not doing his job.

When I paid Rs. 7000 to the government officer for transfer will, I had become part of this inefficient system.

As Mahatma Gandhi has said "You must be the Change you want to see in the world". If I want my police force to be righteous, I have to righteous. If I want my politicians to be accountable, I have to be accountable to the democracy. If I dont want the bureacrats to have a "chalta hai" attitude, I should get rid of it first. 

So next time when I see a security guard letting someone enter a mall even after his machine beeps, I am going to object. Next time when I see something suspicious, I am going to report. Next time when I see some area is prone to attack, I am going to report. Next time I am not going to bribe someone for not doing his job and object when I see someone not doing his job.

These actions might be small but If each one of us can collectively do this, we can change the system. Lets get rid of the empty rhetoric and start taking practical actions.