Thinking About Aspirations

Lately I started thinking of people's aspiration afresh. The trigger came from the huge turnout at Ramlila grounds of the famous Baba Ramdev's rally. Why do so many persons young or old, man or woman come for these rallies. Do they not know the attendant risks? Similarly I have been surprised at the number of subscribers to social networking sites like FaceBook. Why do so many people register and then seek out more and more friends, while after some time they find that they have very little time to pay attention to most posts, or to write anything substantial. It is all because of their aspirations, aspiration to be counted and not remain totally anonymous. I indeed made a small music video based on very many pics of my FB friends and a old Hindi movie song: Har koi Chahata hai ikk muthee asmaan, everyone aspires for a a smaal space in the sky, yes that is the most popular aspiration today!! Many months ago while thinking about aspirations while I was employed by the University of Delhi as the coordinator of Vimarsh e-forum, I wrote: We all invariably aspire to be something, to be able to improve on our present lot; though we know that the system is invariably an obstacle. So whenever, we see an opportunity to make a fast buck, many of us succumb to it rather greedily; now that opportunity may be in the form of an allurement through an advertisement that promises to get one admission in a dream institution, or un-dreamable returns on our meagre savings. Many people promise to get us such goodies and we fall prey to such inducements simply because somewhere in our mind we hope that we may succeed in fulfilling our dreams. We hope against all hope that perhaps that's a rare opportunity. We know that by no normal means can we multiply our money manifold within a very short span of time, but then we hope that the person may be like a DhiruBhai Ambani, and may have a clever plan to make fast returns, or may have contacts with highly connected and influential person, who can influence the outcome we are aspiring for, but know not how to get it by normal means. Isn't that the perfect recipe for a scam to dupe you? We read such reports daily in the newspaper, but are still susceptible to such scams. Even though we know that if our worst fears were to come true we would have no one to go to? Why do we do so? Are there any means to escape? Lately I have resumed thinking about it, the reason being all the news I hear and view about corruption on the TV channels! I am thinking about the genesis of all corruption and all my thinking points to this word! It indeed is perplexing, why highly placed bureaucrats, politicians engage in corruption! But it is no more so when one takes into account the aspirations of their family members. One really cannot escape pressures from them even if one is occupying a high office. Take for example, the case of 2G spectrum allocation, in which A Raja the telecom minister in the Government is being implicated. A Raja is not the only one who is apparently guilty. He was just acting on the orders of Karunanidhi, the present powerful chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the supremo of Dravid Munetra Kazhgam party that is now running the government in Tamil Nadu. He has a big family, and understandably all of have certain aspirations, as much as Karunanidhi, who can very well be aspiring for a more powerful party. How can he fulfil all the aspirations? Simply by exerting political pressure on the Congress Party, the party that is responsible for running the Government at the Centre, but does not enjoy the majority in Lok Sabha. It critically needs the

support of DMK. So it is a God given opportunity for DMK, and who can grudge that opportunity. Don't we all wait for the right opportunity to fulfil our aspirations, so what's wrong if KarunaNidhi is en-cashing this opportunity to fulfil his own aspirations to make his Party much more powerful and those of his family members. After all he is lending a helpful hand to Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of INC to fulfil her aspiration to further the chances of Rahul Gandhi, to be a Prime Minister in near future. (Rahul Gandhi can not gain as much popularity if Congress was not in power). So, it is the case of I rub your back and you rub mine!! Now let us come to the highly placed defence personnel accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Even if they are very honest, they are equally susceptible to the pressures from their siblings, who most definitely know how the most powerful people in the country had gained their power, it is the money power, and what so ever remuneration and respect their father might be earning, it most definitely is not sufficient to fulfil those aspirations. So it is not surprising at all why an Army General should fall prey of the greed to own as much property as he can. The greed of a person in society is directly proportional to the present financial status of the person. A lowly placed person like me. Can at best aspire for a well paid job and attendant facilities, but a person who is already owning large financial assets, would aspire for more power. And the power can only be bought with money. Not small bits of money, but money that can be stacked away in Swiss banks, that is money in millions!!! How can one acquire that money? Of course through corrupt practices only!!! So, whether it was Lallu Prasad Yadav, the former chief minister of Bihar, Late Pramod Mahajan former Telecom minister when BJP was in power or the young son of the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Government, Jagan Reddy, or Yediurappa the present Chief minister of Karnatka, it is most likely the same story. Each and every political leader knows this fact, whether it the present Prime Minister, Finance Minister or Home Minister, all of who carry a reputation of unquestionable integrity. They know that they are in power by the grace of so many corrupt colleagues only. They have to accommodate their interests if they dream to be in power for long enough, they have to protect in face of any public outrage over corrupt actions, otherwise political vultures are waiting for their chance. I would like to conclude this note with a philosophical note. The riches and the attendant power is never ever lasting, in fact one realizes the cost one has to pay only when it is too late. One who aspires for only spiritual wealth on the other hand, has hardly ever anything similar to be afraid of. So aspire one must, as each one of us does, but not for material wealth!!! Rakesh Mohan Hallen