India's Fight Against Corruption - Germany

To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh, August 16th 2011
Prime Minister of India
7 Race Course Road, New Delhi
(Through the Indian Consul General, Various Locations, Germany)

Subject : Anna Hazare's Arrest, his fast unto death and the Jan Lokpal Bill

Dear Dr Singh,

Please consider this as the voice of all Indians and Non Resident Indians living, studying and working in Germany. Every day, we hear of scams in the government and private sectors 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, passport, get a permit, register an adoption, etc. and then on the flip side see the state of our government schools, health care 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. On regular intervals we read and hear news about honest police officers being suspended or transferred, RTI activist being killed, most recent being Ms. Shehla Masood shot dead in Bhopal. No action can be realistically initiated and none is taken against the corrupt. The government is ignoring this problem and is proposing a bill (Lokpal) that is mere eyewash and cannot effectively curb corruption.

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. Thanks to these movements that we have at least few corrupt politicians like Kalmadi and Raja behind the bars for now.

We are supporting Anna Hazare and the leaders of this movement in their indefinite fast to get the Jan Lokpal bill considered and implemented by the government. We greatly condemn Anna Hazare's unethical arrest today. 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,
Indians and Non Resident Indians in Germany.