Parmanand Pandey, Advocate, Supreme Court (Secretary General IPC)
Villages are rapidly changing in India – in both ‘Good and Bad’ ways. Let me share my experience in this regard. After a long gap of time, I visited my home village in the Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, which till recently was considered as the nursery of terrorism but now the goondas are on the run due to the toughness of the Yogi administration.
The inordinate gap in my visit to the native place was mainly because the movement was restricted in the Corona time. Only a few years ago, electricity was like a wild-goose chase for most of the times but now it is available almost twenty-four into seven hours. Even remote villages are seen to be awashed with the whiteness of shining lights during night-time.
Unemployment has, without doubt, increased but there is no starvation on this account mainly owing to many government schemes. Almost all needy families get monetary and monthly ration benefits. Kisan Samman Nidhi and other cash benefits have certainly raised the social standards of villagers. The mud (kuchcha) houses are fast vanishing. Bulls and calves have now, by and large, been tamed providing much protection to standing crops against their unwanted intrusion.
But what is actually shocking is the open and flagrant misuse of the money in the Panchayat elections. Though the election dates are yet to be announced still prospective candidates have started throwing lavish parties of liquor, chicken and mutton foods. Even the Scheduled caste candidates, in yet to be declared ‘Reserved Constituencies’, are liberally squandering money on such vices. Regular drinkers (I am deliberately avoiding the use of word drunkards) have the choices for the liquors of their tastes and interests. Some prospective candidates have been offering money to the ‘clever contractors’ of votes.
This disease of money-based politics is not confined to such elections, it was recently seen in the most naked form in the Supreme Court Bar Association election of New Delhi. The growing influence of money in elections is visible at every step. DJs at birthday parties were unheard of in our villages a few years ago but have now become a regular feature and a current fashion.
There is no doubt that the income of the money has percolated down to the lowest level, thanks mainly to the various welfare schemes of the state and the central government. Pradhans and the government officials at the village and Block level have become filthily rich due to the cuts and commissions, which they get in the implementation of such welfare schemes.
But, as they say, every dark cloud has silver linings and in these sordid circumstances too, the rapid growth of education among women and girls brings new hope and satisfaction. There is, no doubt, that due to the increased use of modern technology, the cancer of corruption has been reduced to some extent but not eliminated. The money is directly transferred to the accounts of beneficiaries but the Pradhans and other officials do not clear the proposals if a certain percentage of cut is not offered to them.
Administration alone will not be able to remove the corruption, so long as the mindset of the people is not changed. The public awakening needs to be heightened.