Whistleblowers - The Unnamed Heroes

Who are Whistle-blowers? What do they do? I am sure that most of us are not even aware of the word whistleblower itself. They are the brave heroes who expose corruption in many offices and industries. But sadly exposing corruption is more of a suicide mission i.e. you are putting your own life in threat. Let me tell you why, according to the whistleblower protection act, any complainant has to reveal his real identity and then only a proper investigation will be initiated. Also, if there is an attack on the complainant, there attacker is not subject to any kind of penalty. We sing of so many heroes but do we even acknowledge these unnamed heroes who are putting their life in threat to make our lives easier. And what is more shameful is that we as the people of India do not even care to talk about them or do something for the amendment of the act. The irony of the situation is that so many whistle-blowers have been killed just because thay dared to speak the truth in a country whose motto is literally "SATYAMEV JAYATE".

Now, we all are familiar with the Vyapam scam which affected a lot of lives. The key person behind exposing this scam was Ashish Chaturvedi, an RTI activist. His life has taken a very ugly turn after he exposed corruption. Here are some of the things that he is facing after exposing corruption:

1. DEATH THREATS : It can be said that he is lucky to be alive because the 36 people associated with the exposing of Vyapam Scam have already died under " mysterious circumstances". Also he has been thrashed twice in front of the cops who have been appointed for his safety. You may ask why he didn't complain about it. Well, he did that and guess what, those cops refused to be the witness of the incidents. Everyday he has to live in fear of losing his life.

2. SEPERATED BY THE SOCIETY : After exposing the scam people have distanced themselves from him. We are the people who embrace reel heroes but when it comes to support a real hero like Ashish Chaturvedi we turn away our faces and show indifference towards the situation. How can we judge a person as nationalist or anti-nationalist when we are not even trying to save the very few real nationalists and heroes left in the country. Well, you may say that its none of our business and that we can not afford to come in midst of all this. Even Ashish Chaturvedi could have thought like that; that its none of his business and so many other people like him who died in "mysterious Circumstances". They all did this because they could not see their country go into a pit of corruption and scam.

3. A JOKE IN THE NAME OF PROTECTION : Ashish Chaturvedi's protection is a cop following him on a cycle as he himself rides a cycle to work. A country which has a fleet of cars running just for the arrival of a small minister finds it enough to give a man who has put his life in danger for this country and its people, a cop on a cycle for his so called "safety".

What has happened to our country where love and brotherhood prevails? have we become so cold and in-different to the people of our own country? After listening to such things one may think that, what is the need to be good? But we need to be, for the sake of our country, our families, our friends, our future generation. why aren't we raising voices for amendment in the whistle-blower protection act? Why are we ashamed to celebrate our real heroes? Why, Indeed.