I have seen so many people constantly on the move to make sure that they are able to have enough to support their lives and their families. They have sacrificed so much; their hometown, their friends, their close relatives, their memories, everything that belonged to them. And they come over to new places looking for jobs, work like crazy and the government asks them to pay taxes for the maintenance of basic utilities and even to make improvement to the services available to the people. I am so proud of my government when I hear this intention of asking for taxes.
But the moment I am encountered by news like the alleged Commonwealth Games scam, the 2G spectrum scam and that also touch such crazy figures that I am left to think that if lakhs of crores of rupees are available to be siphoned off the government exchequer, why are we still a "developing nation"? Why are people still dying in India due to the lack of basic amenities? Malnutrition, unhygienic conditions, lack of power supply, lack of adequate medical facilities in the remote locations or even in small cities... there is probably no end to the list because we can probably not imagine those rough circumstance in which people have lived their entire generations. We have so much money to just share among these white-collared people? Nothing for those who are paying it out of their hard-earned money? And if this is how money is being laundered in our country, why should we pay taxes anyway? Or why should we pay the amount of tax that we are paying? We might as well pay just 2-3% of the total tax that we currently pay and still manage to run the basic services running right now, only we won't be paying for the scamsters...!
I am wondering why are people still not rising up to such acts? Why are we still having discussions in our drawing rooms or in the news rooms? Why are we still reading and writing about such stuff over blogs and social networking sites? Why has there not been a single voice stating that no Indian should be asked for taxes unless the actual scam pertaining to the CWG or 2G spectrum is in the open? Why should the Indians not be exempted from paying income tax for one full year as a punishment to the government? Is the common man only supposed to get the entire brunt of punishment for non-payment of taxes?
And then I realize that we have learnt to live like this. We are used to whine about our sorry state and have dreams to become a part of the better western world. We can sing laurels about the western countries, about their "system", but never try to make one for ourselves. Thanks to the media that we now "know" about these scams, otherwise God only knows how much money have we lost in the earlier 50 years of independence when the only news we got was from the voicebox of the government - Doordarshan!
I wish there was someone to speak up, stand up by my side and make it a movement. I am so very ready to take it all the way. But I know that it doesn't matter to anyone. They will continue to live like they always have. Keep complaining about it and hope to move to USA one day.
But as I said earlier, after having this entire "khichdi" of thoughts, I only end up asking myself - "What's the point?"
1 comment:
Well said! The point of paying just 2-3% of the total tax means that the country will go to shambles. My gut feel says that every 100 bucks paid in taxes, less than a ruppee is actually used for the country. So, if we pay just 2-3 bucks, you can imagine where we will be heading.
Corruption is inherent and inevitable in any soceity. Specially the way we are brought up. As a child, in school you are taught to excel as an indvidual and not as a team. So, when we grow up and some of us happen to be in positions, which allow us to siphon as much money as possible, we do so.
Now, if we talk of sacking the beaucrats who are guilty, do we have a back up ready? Can we be sure that the people who replace them will not be tempted when given such powerful positions? How can we assure that they will not be guided by their upbringing and not what is for the greater good?
The social networking sites and the media are, in my humble opinion, a medium for everyone to start accepting others as a part of their lives, thereby allowing us to think differently from our upbringing - i.e. as a society/country and not as in individual.
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