Editor,
Apropos an article in your esteemed paper, titled ‘Are common people equally corrupt?’, I would like to say that I harboured similar views expressed by Group Captain M Panging Pao until I came across an article in The Hindu by BJP MP Varun Gandhi, titled ‘Are freebies a way to mask state inaction?’, wherein he writes that “the common public has been disappointed for so long by the policymakers that they would rather seek short-term benefits during election instead of a push to build state capacity that improves their lives meaningfully in long term.”
So, this idea that the vicious cycle of corruption starts with the voters who take cash or material benefits during election is a comfortable narrative set by the politicians to blame the public and to justify their own selfish goals. In fact, had the politicians been sincere and worked solely in public interest, why would they have to buy votes in the first place?
A reader