…and then there
was one more!!
This time it is the world’s most
famous and the richest cricket league, the Indian Premier league-IPL. Although
I am sure IPL lovers across the world knew that there was a parallel universe
of match fixing aligned to the glamorous cricket matches. Players and
executives use to participate in match fixing when they played for their
country so it is no surprise that they will get involved in this reprehensible
activity when they are literally playing for money.
Jawaharlal Nehru once said “Merely shouting from the house tops that
everybody is corrupt creates an atmosphere of corruption. People feel they are
in a climate of corruption and they get corrupted themselves.” The words seem
particularly apt for today’s Facebook & twitter era. Patriotism these days
is defined by ones tweets and Facebook status.
I am all for freedom of speech. And
social networking sites have done an astounding job to give voice to the people
who were lost in the bureaucratic democracy. But social media is not a magic
bullet. Let us not exaggerate its power, especially when it is still in its
infancy, in most of the developing economies, where literacy is low and corruption
has become the fact of the day to day lives.
Social media outpouring should
be followed up by an offline action- such as a change in the law, or the prosecution
of a guilty party. Then only social media campaigns can truly become a
foundation for a better future and a corruption free society. Until then it
will only be a hot button issue for a couple of days and weeks until a new scandal
emerges.
"This is India. This happens” said one of the fans of IPL. Is this
the society we want to build for our children’s? Social change is tough to
achieve, particularly when it involves something like corruption, so deeply
ingrained in our political and social society.
