Protesting arrest of Anna Hazare and Supporting JanLokPal Bill

To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh August 18th 2011
Prime Minister of India
7 Race Course Road, New Delhi
(Through the Indian Consul General, Various Locations, USA)

Subject : Protesting arrest of Anna Hazare and Supporting JanLokPal Bill

Dear Dr Singh,

Please consider this as the voice of all Indians professionals living and working in United States of America (USA). Every day, we see scams in India that involve colossal looting of national wealth for private benefit. Every day, we hear of and experience corruption in our daily lives where we have to pay bribes to get a drivers license, register a property, get a permit, register an adoption etc. and then on the flip side see the state of our government schools and infrastructure which are crumbling due to the funds being siphoned off at different levels before it can reach anybody at the ground level. The shocking aspect to this is that there is no way for the common man to raise his voice or try to stop this from happening. No action can be realistically initiated and none is taken against the corrupt. The government is ignoring this problem and introducing a bill (govt Lokpal) which main purpose seems to punish whistle blowers rather than punish corrupt. More over govt Lokpal bill doesn't cover any aspect of the corruption that we face on daily basis.

Common citizens feel helpless and powerless to do anything about this. Corruption is not only harming the country, it is also destroying our country's reputation abroad. We feel ashamed that our country is in the limelight for all the wrong reasons like scams, corruption, bribery etc. It's a shame that when we should feel proud of our country in a foreign land, we have to hide our identity as we hail from the corruption capital of the world.

We are happy to know that there is a movement going on to create stronger law which will act as a deterrent against corruption. We strongly support this movement and the "Jan Lokpal" bill, which we think can be a very effective tool to prevent corruption in our country.

We are supporting Anna Hazare and the leaders of this movement in their indefinite fast to get the Jan Lokpal bill introduced in parliament and implemented by the government. We hope and expect that you will heed the cries of the nation and be seen as the leader who not only freed India from economic stagnation in the 90s, but also as the leader who freed India for good from corruption. We hope government will take a serious look at the Jan Lokpal bill and implement it as soon as possible without procrastination.

Yours sincerely,
Non Resident Indians in the USA.
Sincerely,

The Undersigned