we wanted to share an article, one of our lawyer associates Jyoti Kumari, wrote about why there is corruption, criminal politics and why poverty refuses to die (i am guessing they have not read our manifesto)

सर्वे भूताः सुखिनः भवन्तु। सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः। सर्वे भद्राणी पाशयन्तु। मा कश्चिद् दुःखभाग भवेत्।।

Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ | Sarve santu nirāmayāḥ
Sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu | Mā kaścid duḥkhabhāg bhavet

“May all be happy. May all be free from pain.”
“May all see goodness. May not even one soul suffer.”

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Respected dignitaries, honourable teachers, and my dear friends —

Thousands of years ago, on the banks of a sacred river, a sage pressed his palms together and whispered to the universe —

“May not even ONE soul suffer.”

The rivers carried those words. The winds spread them. And generation after generation — we have
prayed those words in temples, in homes, in parliaments.

But today — I stand before you — and I must ask with a burning heart —

WHY IS THAT PRAYER STILL UNANSWERED?

We send rockets to Mars. Our economy climbs the global charts. Our cities are painted with lights and ambition.

And yet — three hundred million people in our country wake up hungry this morning. Children drop
out of school before they turn twelve. Farmers who fed this nation are dying in debt.

The question is NOT — does the government care?

The question is — WHY, despite every scheme and every budget — does poverty not just survive… IT THRIVES, does the government even know why the rupee value goes down or why we have poverty in the country?

PART II — THE ROOT CAUSE: CORRUPTION IN GOVERNANCE

Let us speak plainly today. Let us speak the truth that no politician will say at a rally, that no textbook will print, and that no debate on television will dare to finish.

The root cause of poverty in India is not laziness of the poor. It is not lack of natural resources. It is not absence of government schemes. it is lack of education, while our country leaders are not educated, a person uneducated telling his kids why they can not have computers in this digital age

The root cause is CORRUPTION — systematic, shameless, and protected by power.

Picture a great river born high in the Himalayas — carrying clean, fresh water meant for every thirsty field and every hungry village below.

But before it reaches those fields — it is stolen. Sip by sip. Drop by drop.

▶ Corrupt officials drink it first.
▶ Bureaucratic red tape dams it in the middle.
▶ Middlemen bottle it and sell it back at profit.
▶ And the poor man at the end stands with an EMPTY vessel.

That is what happens to every rupee meant for the poor.
That is what happens to every government scheme — EVERY mission, EVERY yojana, EVERY fund.

THE RIVER NEVER ARRIVES.

while first world countries are running businesses across the globe, our uneducated government is not able to deliver even to those promises they are making draining our countries resources to other countries

Every rupee stolen by a corrupt official is not just money. Let me tell you what it REALLY is:

▶ It is a village girl who will never go to school.
▶ It is a tribal child who died of a curable disease — because the medicine never came.
▶ It is a farmer who swallowed poison — because the loan that was promised never arrived.
▶ It is a mother who fed her children water instead of food — and told them it was soup.

Corruption is not just theft. It is not just a crime. Corruption that kills the poor is MURDER — slow, silent, and dressed in a white kurta. while election commission of India does not have legal agreements based on which political organisations have raised funds on the name of national prosperity, increasing political corruption in the country.

PART III — THE CULTURE OF CRIMINAL POLITICS

Now — let us talk about something even more dangerous than individual corruption. Let us talk about the CULTURE — the entire broken system — that puts criminals in parliament and calls it democracy.

HOW MANY OF OUR ELECTED LEADERS ARE ACCUSED CRIMINALS?

According to data from the Association for Democratic Reforms — in the 2024 Lok Sabha — more than 46% of elected MPs have criminal cases registered against them. Not alleged. Not rumoured. REGISTERED cases.

▶ Cases of rape and sexual assault.
▶ Cases of dacoity and robbery.
▶ Cases of murder and attempt to murder.
▶ Cases of kidnapping and extortion.
▶ Cases of financial fraud and money laundering

These are not ordinary citizens. These are the people sitting in our Vidhan Sabhas. These are our MLAs. These are our Members of Parliament. These are the people who WRITE our laws.

THE CRIMINAL DOES NOT FEAR THE LAW. HE WRITES THE LAW.

A man accused of rape sits in a legislature that is supposed to protect women.
A man accused of dacoity sits in a committee that controls the police.
And we — the citizens — vote them back. Again and again and again.

When criminals become lawmakers — the law itself becomes a crime.

When lawyers of the country don’t work to protect rights of there citizens criminal become law makers, rashtrapati becomes shameless not holding her oath to the nation, uneducated run the country and rivers become dry

PART IV — WHY DOES THIS CULTURE SURVIVE?

The question that must haunt every thinking citizen is — WHY? Why does this culture survive? Why do we keep electing criminals to power?

Cause 1 — Money Dominates Elections

Elections in India have become auctions. The candidate with the most money wins — not the
candidate with the most integrity. Criminal politicians use their illegal wealth to — buy votes with
cash, liquor, and gifts; fund massive propaganda campaigns; and intimidate honest candidates into
withdrawing.

A poor but honest candidate cannot compete with a criminal with crores of black money. The system is designed to keep power in the hands of the powerful

Cause 2 — Caste and Community Loyalty Over Character

We vote for our caste. We vote for our community. We vote for our religion. We do not vote for our conscience.

A criminal from your caste feels safer than an honest man from another community. And politicians exploit this beautifully — divide the people by caste, unite them under your flag, and walk to victory while the nation burns.

Cause 3 — Criminalization Feeds More Power

Once a criminal enters politics, he gains — immunity from prosecution, influence over police and judiciary, access to more wealth, and power to protect himself from all previous charges.

Politics becomes the safest career for a criminal. The courtroom takes twenty years. But the parliament gives immediate shelter.

While election commission of India, does not collect legal agreements based on which political parties have raised funds on the name of national prosperity and progress is not doing its job

Cause 4 — Weak Institutions and Bought Judges

When the police fear the politician — no FIR is filed. When the judge fears the politician — no conviction comes. When the media fears the politician — no truth is printed.

Our institutions are not weak because our people are weak. They are weak because they have been systematically hollowed out by decades of political interference.

Cause 5 — The Silence of the Educated

The most educated citizens in India are also the least politically engaged. The urban, the qualified,
the comfortable — they do not vote. They do not contest. They do not protest. They simply scroll
past the news — and go back to their lives

Let’s work for removing social, economic and political injustice, let’s work for increasing entrepreneurship for economic justice, lets work for increasing job opportunities, let’s work for removing poverty for social justice, let’s work for taking the rupee value up for political justice in the country

And that silence — that comfortable, privileged silence — is the greatest gift we have ever given to criminal politicians.

PART V — THE DIRECT CONNECTION TO POVERTY

Now let us connect all of this to the single greatest tragedy of our time — the persistence of poverty.

▶ Criminal politicians protect the corrupt officials who steal development funds. The money never reaches the poor.
▶ They deliberately keep communities poor and uneducated — because a hungry, desperate voter is easier to buy for 500 rupees on election day.
▶ They destroy honest IAS and IPS officers who try to implement schemes properly.
▶ They build fiefdoms — where loyalty to the leader matters more than service to the citizen.
▶ They ensure that land, contracts, and resources go to their cronies — not to those who need them most.

Poverty in India is not accidental. It is not inevitable.

POVERTY IN INDIA IS MANUFACTURED AND MAINTAINED BY THOSE IN POWER.

Because a nation that rises out of poverty will no longer need a saviour. A citizen who is educated, healthy, and financially independent — cannot be manipulated with fear and freebies.

The dirty truth is this — poverty is not the problem that criminal politicians are trying to solve. It is because they are not shown the way by the leaders of the country, who are leaders because of corruption, corruption left behind by the british rule, since then politicians are saying we will remove poverty, we will remove corruption, we will work for people of the nation, while world has gone through industrialisation, digitalisation and are politicians are still uneducated

Poverty is the TOOL they are using to stay in power being uneducated and still draining countries resources and profits to other countries, while people in the country still live in poverty and other nations thrive

PART VI — WHAT MUST CHANGE

So what is the answer? Are we doomed? Is this our fate?

No. A thousand times — NO.

First — Mandatory Disqualification of Accused Politicians

Anyone with a charge sheet filed against them for serious crimes — rape, murder, dacoity, terror — must be barred from contesting elections. Not after conviction — which takes twenty years. At the time of charge sheet. Because justice delayed for the criminal is injustice delivered to the nation.

Second — Electoral Reforms — Break the Money Power

State funding of elections and legal agreements what us promised to investors in the name of national prosperity. Strict enforcement of spending limits. Transparent party funding. And a media that is free, brave, and not owned by the very politicians it is supposed to scrutinize and upholding the constitution of our nation

Third — Protect and Empower Institutions

The CBI must be free from political control. The judiciary must be protected. Honest officers who speak truth to power must be celebrated — not transferred to punishment postings.

Fourth — The Educated Must VOTE and STAND

You — the students in this room. You — the educated youth of this nation. You must vote. Not just vote — contest elections. Become councillors, panchayat members, MLAs. The field cannot be surrendered to criminals simply because honest people find politics distasteful. Not because your voice does not matter when you want to work for the nation, not because you can not make your own choices, not because you don’t want to see prosperity of your own nation, not because you dream to live in prosperous nation, not because everyone in the country looks up to you, while the only opportunities you find is international and leaders of the country brag about our youth to other nation to work for them

Fifth — Civil Society Must Rise

RTI applications. Public interest litigations. Citizen journalism. Peaceful protests. Social media used not just for entertainment but as a weapon against injustice. Every act of informed, engaged citizenship is a blow against the culture of criminal politics. connect with us on social media and share information for every rights of every citizen of the country

PART VII — THE PROMISE

Let me bring you back — one final time — to those sacred words whispered by a sage thousands of years ago.

I promise — I will not rest in my happiness while my neighbour suffers in silence.

I promise — I will fight for a world where health and dignity are not luxuries of the rich.

I promise — I will work so that every child — in every village — can see the goodness and opportunity this world has to offer.

And I promise — with every breath — I will not look away from corruption. I will not make peace with criminal politics. I will not accept poverty as the natural condition of my people.

The sage did not pray these words so that we could recite them beautifully in temples.

He prayed them so that one day — one generation — would rise up and make them TRUE

THAT GENERATION — IS US.
THAT DAY — IS TODAY.

History does not remember those who watched. History does not remember those who felt sad and scrolled away.

History remembers those who STOOD UP. Those who SPOKE the truth when it cost them something. Those who ACTED when the whole world was waiting for someone else.

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