Now, all we need is for Raja and Kalmadi to join Anna's crusade

The theatre of the absurd - that is what Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption is getting reduced to as it grows bigger and spreads wider. All the usual suspects—politicians, businessmen and even Mumbai’s builders—are part of the movement now. We have heard of CEOs of companies with a dubious reputation leading candlelight rallies against corruption and of personalities from our movie world who’ve had more than their fair share of Income Tax blushes getting vocal on the issue.

With almost everybody on the Anna bandwagon, the scene gets a bit complex. It becomes difficult to guess who the movement is directed at. Almost all political parties have decided to hit the street against corruption. It won’t surprise if former telecom minister A Raja and former chief of the Commonwealth Games, Organising Commitee, Suresh Kalmadi, join the movement too, demanding a strong law against graft.

Perhaps it is time to reconstruct the stereotype of the corrupt and rework the perception of corruption.

The builders of Mumbai, generally perceived as a hopelessly corrupt species, are backing Anna Hazare’s movement. They see no contradiction in charging 50 percent of the money for flats in black and supporting a cause against corruption.

“These are two different issues,’’ said a senior member of the builders’ association, speaking to DNA newspaper. The builders first have to pay farmers and land owners to save poor people from heavy taxes and then they have to accept money in black to rightfully exempt themselves from taxes, he added.

Self-serving argument this, and it certainly does not absolve the builders of any guilt. But they find nothing amiss.

The nine-party non-NDA, non-UPA political grouping which involves the Left, the AIADMK, the JD(S), the TDP and the BJD among others finds nothing wrong in supporting Anna. For the record, AIADMK is fighting its own graft cases and JD (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has been indicted in Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s report on the Bellary land scam. The others do not have an illustrious track record in fighting corruption either. The BJP is contemplating a street protest against corruption too.

In Surat, diamond traders shut shops for a day after Anna’s arrest. But there have been talks of many of them procuring tainted diamond from South Africa’s war torn neighbourhood - Angola, Sierra Lone, Zimbawe and stamping legitimacy on them through suspect means.

In April this year, Director General of Income Tax (investigation), BP Gaur, had drawn flak from the diamond merchants for his statement on illegal practices in the trade. “In certain areas like real estate or diamond trade, there is a lot of circulation of black money, but in case of diamond merchants, the books are completely manufactured,’’  he had said.

It’s time tainted bureaucrats jumped into the corruption crusade too. That would make the movement a total one with all of India in it. There’s nothing wrong in all sections joining in though. But it would leave everyone confused about who’s fighting whom.

There’s a feeling that those generally perceived to be corrupt don’t think themselves to be so. The builders mentioned above and the politicians don’t feel they carry any taint. This calls for an complete re-look at the general perception of corruption. Do they really realise what they do is legally and morally wrong? Or, is it good enough to have a strong justification for corruption to indulge in it?

Raja and Kalmadi may find themselves in good company if they justify their acts of corruption well enough. They can join Anna too.