An appeal to Anna Hazare

Dear Anna,

I am writing this post to make you aware that you are wasting your time and life for the people of this country. Why are you doing this?

A person has to live with bribe in India - from birth till death. We can't simply avoid it. As soon as a child is born, the bribe one has to pay for getting his/her birth certificate is a warm welcome to this country. Not to forget, once someone dies, we have to get the death certificate by paying bribe again. It's from birth till death here. Anna, How can you expect to change this?

We take pride in getting our work done fast by paying some amount to Govt officials and we also tell the world that' "I didn't stand in the line, I got my work done sitting home." We are so proud of this bribe culture, how can you make us change? Don't let us feel ashamed of ourselves by not paying bribes to Govt officials. Anna, Please don't take our pride away.

When a policeman stops an errant driver on the highways or city roads, he is doing good for a family, his family. The policeman takes bribe so that he can take good care of his family at home. What's wrong in that? In fact, what's wrong if that erratn driver kills some innocent people on the road accidently. We should be and are proud of our corrupt police force! Anna, Why you're taking our pride away?

It's with joy that we tell everyone that,"I got my passport in 15 days." Do you know how much effort goes to get it as fast? Do you know the "Joy of Giving"? Every Indian (mind you when I say 'Every') pays some money for the police station's hawaldars to 'Give them Joy' so that they can share your happiness when your police clearance gets through. You can't get your passport without the Joy of Giving! Anna, Why are you taking away our happiness?

To get a Govt contract, we have to make sure that the concerned officers are treated well. What's wrong in that? If someone gives you a gift, won't you accept it happily? Its sheer love and affection. Anna, Why are you taking away our love and affection?

It takes a huge effort to make things like Common Wealth Games happen in a 'Developing Country' like India. Do you know how much money and efforts went into making the game successful in New Delhi? Do you know how many 'extra miles' the officials went to get the games going in such a wonderful manner? You don't Anna! You really don't know anything.

So please stop worrying about us Indians. We are really very happy with our way of life. We are happy giving bribes and it's in our blood. Our generations have lived with this and we can't change for anyone. We're ok if our children or elderly die on roads due to errant drivers who have paid brives to get the driver's license. We're ok if our next generations get filthy roads and infrastructure. We're ok if India gets rotten with the contribution of corrupt Govt officials.

We're Indians! We are proud of the rampant corruption going on in the country. We are happy to talk about corruption in airconditioned rooms, offices and hotels. To be on the roads, someone needs to be a fool like you Anna! A fool who has for, some reason still the love for India alive in him and a fool who cares for a billion people.

An Indian