WHY ARE INDIANS SO AVERSE TO LAW
Take the simple example of Mother and Daughter. It’s a very lovely, warm, affectionate and selfless relationship. But the moment we make it Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law, the whole scenario changes to one of dislike and bad taste.
So the aversion for law begins at home and the tendency to break it pervades all aspects of our life. When we are driving, we take the first opportunity to jump signals or sneak into no-entry zone. When we are walking most of us do not even know what a Pedestrian crossing zone looks like. The practise of Jay-walking seems to have got legalised in India. We all get unusually hard-pressed for time the moment we enter a Government Office that we start giving money to any person with a hand to get to the concerned official quickly. We are so much habituated to giving money that some of us end up giving money to our spouses when they open the door for us when we return home. So much so that even when we grow old, we buy Senior citizens ticket for Rail travel and board the train without the proof of age and then blame the ticket checker for not being competent enough to judge our age without the age-proof.
The Industrial community and the common man was once upon a time making such a hue and cry about the license raj and Control system when Government approval was required for anything and everything causing huge delays, undue hardships and too much spent on bribes. But now its just more than a decade since the license raj has been totally abolished and we already see Cement and Sugar prices soaring up abnormally and hoarding of Sugar leading to artificial scarcity prompting the Government to think on re-installing some kind of controls again. Definitely control would mean power to government officials and more corruption. But then who is responsible for that now ? Definitely it is not the Government.
We are the same people who will raise voice about total lawlessness prevailing all over the country and blame it on the Government. But none of us realise that we the people are the ones who give the Members of Parliament and state assemblies the first chance to become corrupt, break laws, not make adequate laws and help them become corrupt and make huge sum of money to accommodate our laziness and aversion to be a law abiding citizen. IGNORANCE OF LAW IS NOT EXEMPTION FROM LAW.
So the aversion for law begins at home and the tendency to break it pervades all aspects of our life. When we are driving, we take the first opportunity to jump signals or sneak into no-entry zone. When we are walking most of us do not even know what a Pedestrian crossing zone looks like. The practise of Jay-walking seems to have got legalised in India. We all get unusually hard-pressed for time the moment we enter a Government Office that we start giving money to any person with a hand to get to the concerned official quickly. We are so much habituated to giving money that some of us end up giving money to our spouses when they open the door for us when we return home. So much so that even when we grow old, we buy Senior citizens ticket for Rail travel and board the train without the proof of age and then blame the ticket checker for not being competent enough to judge our age without the age-proof.
The Industrial community and the common man was once upon a time making such a hue and cry about the license raj and Control system when Government approval was required for anything and everything causing huge delays, undue hardships and too much spent on bribes. But now its just more than a decade since the license raj has been totally abolished and we already see Cement and Sugar prices soaring up abnormally and hoarding of Sugar leading to artificial scarcity prompting the Government to think on re-installing some kind of controls again. Definitely control would mean power to government officials and more corruption. But then who is responsible for that now ? Definitely it is not the Government.
We are the same people who will raise voice about total lawlessness prevailing all over the country and blame it on the Government. But none of us realise that we the people are the ones who give the Members of Parliament and state assemblies the first chance to become corrupt, break laws, not make adequate laws and help them become corrupt and make huge sum of money to accommodate our laziness and aversion to be a law abiding citizen. IGNORANCE OF LAW IS NOT EXEMPTION FROM LAW.
posted by hari at
3:22 PM
5 Comments:
Hi everybody. Please feel free to comment, even criticism would be a compliment.
By
hari, at 2:51 AM
Mahadevan sir, but who else than we ourselves can best bring about that realisation.
By
hari, at 2:30 AM
All I can say is that the mother in law daughter in law situation is not unique to India, in fact I've come across other end of the spectrum here where the parents feel that no guy is good enough for their darling daughters, so the son in law is always at fault :)
By
Unknown, at 2:18 AM
Hari, the "mother-daughter" relationship is not enforced by law... perhaps that's why it works. :) As for the lawlessness... I guess the problem is that each person wants the rest of the population to obey the law, always exempting their own self from this path of obedience.
Each of us has to take responsibility for our own bad habits before setting out to change the world for the better.
By
Shammi, at 5:39 AM
absolutely.I agree.corruption is perpetuated as much by the giver of bribe as the taker. And there is no difference in magnitude - a 1oo rupee bribe is as eveil as a 1 crore one.
By
Usha, at 8:32 AM
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