The grey area

Talking about corruption is fashionable isn't it? After all we are one of the most corrupt countries in the world and we don't need any UN or any other international agency to come and tell us that. It's the system we all deal with all through our lives on a daily basis which proves it us.

However we all do want to change this. We want a revolution, we want the system to be changed, we want corrupt to be brought to book, we want accountability etc. and this is all fair. We deserve it. This change desired by so many is big news. This is the India on the move, this is the Indians taking matters into their own hands and ensuring that what has carried on for years will not go on.

I think we as people have become insensitive to the news of the corruption scandals but we do want to know what is being done to bring the corrupt to books and ensure that the stealing should not go on in the future. Since the politicians have lost all credibility the media, civil society and the judiciary has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the normal people to clean up the mess. So we start hearing terms like the media overreach, judicial overreach but the question which comes up is who is policing the media and the judiciary. Who ensures that when media goes to town with a story it is truly conforming to the journalistic ideals or when the judiciary is acting then there are no vested interests are involved.

At the same time there were two comments on NDTV over the last couple of days which brings out the helplessness of the politicians -
- Maharashtra CM talking about the fact that any government official is afraid to procure anything due to the fear of being pulled into a corruption scandal. This means that CCTV cameras needed for additional security have not been procured for Mumbai.
- Arun Shourie recounts an anecdote from his time as a central minister where he was hesitant to act on certain matters as he was sure that he would be pulled into corruption quagmire if he did.

How do we deal with this grey area? Are all politicians corrupt? Is all media and judiciary honest? Are we hampering our progress because of this "fear" of being called corrupt? How do we deal with that anybody can come up and say "tum chor hu" and then one is deemed corrupt unless proved otherwise?