From Anna Hazare to IPL

The ongoing IPL spot-fixing incident may be dismissed by some people as an aberration which should not be given too much importance. The inference here is that the general picture is much brighter than what the corrupt behaviour of a handful of cricketers and cricket-administration officials may suggest.

This is no doubt a happy and comforting thought, an intended spin-off of which is that people should continue with their lives as though nothing much has happened – that, among other things, cricket of all varieties should be allowed to be played in the way it has been.

There is nothing surprising in all this. After all, when ministers get caught in corruption scandals — both directly and otherwise — a constant refrain of the Government of the day (irrespective of its political colour) is that probes are on and that the guilty will be brought to book. In recent times, no Government leader has ever drawn attention to the “bigger picture”, namely, what the increasing incidence of corruption among those who are entitled to use the red beacon on their cars really means for Indian society. Has the cancer progressed beyond the point where no one with the good of the Indian Republic at heart can afford to be complacent any more?

Strength of the ‘corrupt class’

One thought which has permeated discussion on the subject is that the only hope for our society, as far as effectively combating the scourge of corruption is concerned, is the low tolerance level of the youth. One remembers the heady days of the short-lived Anna Hazare campaign against corruption which galvanised thousands of young people with the help of the Internet to take part in a campaign which, among other things, made politicians of all hues sit up and take note of a phenomenon they had never faced in their lives.

Of critical importance to this group of people was the fact that such campaigns, spurred on by the Internet, had even led to the fall of Governments in some countries.

That the Anna Hazare campaign has fizzled out today is common knowledge, which was also to be expected given the huge reserves of strength which the “corrupt class” has built up over the past decades. This new class is different from the “new class” of Milovan Djilas (1957), which the latter wrote about as an offshoot of the post-World War II Communist experiment with governance in Europe.

Historically, the corrupt class in India has always been an important adjunct of society from much before the days of the British Raj; in recent years, its members banding together even more closely to counter young protestors, the latter having already given notice that they are poised to play a critical role in the evolving future of the country.

Youth, the beneficiary

The point here is: Why has the youth of the country not raised its voice to protest against corruption in cricket? In this specific instance, young people themselves have been responsible for playing the corrupt game, and without the active participation of the players, no spot-fixing effort can ever succeed.

It is, of course, another matter that match-fixing probably is a direct result of cricket being thoroughly monetised. The principal beneficiaries of the new system have been the young players, but then do they also have to be corrupt to enrich themselves even further?

COMMENT NOW