By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Students from various colleges and universities of the city discussed at length on the issue whether ‘corruption issues are of importance only to the great Indian middle class’ in the debate organised by North Eastern Council (NEC) as part of the Central Vigilance Week celebration on Friday.
Speaking from opposition Bench, T Gin Sua N Khup of Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) said that it would be wrong to say that corruption affects only the great Indian middle class.
“Corruption has become an integral part of our whole system. The corrupt practices which prevail right from the top to the bottom affect not only the people of the middle class but also of lower class,” Khup said.
While citing an example, he said that it has always been found that people instead paying fines after violating traffic rules they tried to bribe the traffic personnel, adding that “this is a clear indication that everyone is corrupt by one way or other”.
According to Khup, corruption in all its form is a violation of human right. “If it is a violation of human rights then people at all levels are being affected by the corruption in our system,” he said. Another speaker from the Opposition bench, Rangky Lyngdoh of Shillong Law College said “It is the people in the lower class who are badly affected by the corruption which are prevailing at all levels”.
“The people at the lower levels are not getting the benefits from the various schemes which they were supposed get since the funds of these schemes are being misappropriated by officials at various levels,” Lyngdoh said.
Supporting his claim that the lower class are the worse affected, he said that it is the people in the rural areas who are mostly using the RTI to find out the implementation of the various schemes like MNREGS and NRHM in their respective villages.
“This only suggests that the people in the lower class are more aware about the evils of corruption then the people coming from the middle class,” Lyngdoh said.
On the other hand, Pito Samuel Sumi of MLCU who spoke from the treasury bench said that the middle class actually are the mediator who fights against the corruption at the higher levels to protect the interest of the lower class.
“The people of the middle class are the one who are keeping a close watch to various corrupt activities at the higher levels,” he said while adding that if it was not of the middle class, the people in the higher class would have exploited the people in the lower class in whatever way they would want. Another speaker from the treasury bench Saphronia Mawniuh of Shillong College said that it is the people belonging to the great Indian middle class who are fighting against the evils of the corruption in our system.
She also said that Anna Hazare who is responsible to organised the campaign for a strong Anti-Corruption legislation is also man who represents the middle class.
‘I do not think the people in the lower class would understand about the effects of corruption since majority of them are too busy in their struggle for their daily earnings,” Saphronia said.
Khup of MLCU and Lyngdoh of Shillong Law College were adjudged as the winner and runner-up of the debate respectively.