By Mata Press Service

It has been a troubling year in the life of Surrey businessman Joginder Singh, originally from the city of Ludhiana in Punjab, India.
His family’s ancestral land outside the industrial metropolis has been taken over by a ‘land mafia’ group.
“When we came to Canada, we left the land under the control of a cousin...he worked with a group of guys and they managed to bribe cops and government officials to change the title...now I am fighting to get back this land,” he said, replaying a story often told by Indo-Canadians stung in such scams.
Vivek Pai, is a young engineer based in India’s western city of Pune. A close friend had been killed in a road crash and Pai needed to provide an embalming certificate to the airline for the body to be flown to New Delhi.
‘I had to bribe the hospital in the early hours of that terrible morning to get a professional to come and do the embalming ... I had to pay a clerk 500 rupees (11 dollars) to get the certificate for the flight so that the devastated parents could see their son one last time,’ he said.
Pai later heard of accounts of poor people being forced to bargain over bribes for getting bodies of their kin released from hospital morgues. ‘I am ashamed of our corrupt system,’ he says dejectedly.
Pushkar Sharma, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, refused to pay a 1,000-rupee ‘extra fee’ for his marriage certificate and was forced to report to the registration bureau repeatedly for months by an official who kept demanding additional documents.
Corruption is so rampant in India that it pervades almost every aspect of daily life, from petty payoffs attached to basic services to graft at the top rungs of government.
People have to pay bribes to set up businesses, register flats, obtain driving licences, passports or even their university degrees, a series of interviews reveal.
Today India is ranked 87th among 178 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2010.
The cost of corruption is estimated at US$345 billion dollars over the last decade, and the bulk of it has been laundered out of India through illicit channels, a recent study by a research firm IndiaForensic claims.
According to the analysis, corruption cost the average individual 2,000 rupees in 2009, 260 per cent higher than the amount 10 years earlier.
Frustrated by unprecedented levels of corruption, Manpreet Badal, the former finance minister of Punjab quit in protest and started a movement to change India.
But first he wants to change Punjab, where the bulk of B.C.’s South Asian population hails from.
Last weekend, after a whirlwind tour of North American cities, he addressed a packed Cloverdale Arena near Surrey to bring his ‘Jago Punjab’ (wake up Punjab) call to Canada’s west coast.
“Punjab has always set the tone for India...if we can change Punjab, we will set the tone for India,” Manpreet Badal told the South Asian Post after a visit with the newspaper’s publisher, Harbinder Singh Sewak in Vancouver.
“We need to weed out corruption, change the process and the laws and put an end to dynastic policies,” said Manpreet.
The suave, 49-year-old law graduate, who constantly reaches into the annals of military history to portray what he preaches, says he knows what he is talking about after spending close to two decades in the bosom of Punjab’s most powerful political family – the Badals.
His uncle is Parkash Singh Badal, the veteran leader of the ruling Akali Dal party and chief minister of Punjab. His cousin Sukhbir Badal is the deputy chief minister and heir apparent of the Akali Dal.
There are at least a dozen other members of the Badal clan who serve as MLAs and senior government officials.
Manpreet’s rise to become the youngest finance minister of an Indian state after a four term-MLA stint has been credit to his uncle.
“I saw first hand what nepotism can do,” said Manpreet in Vancouver.
Last October 13, Manpreet quit the Punjab cabinet to kick start his People’s Party of Punjab – a secular and nationalist entity, devoted to fighting corruption by getting rid of everything from entitlements like police escorts and sirens to setting term and age limits for political leaders.
His detractors, including family members have said Manpreet is an idealist who preaches populist ideas which in the long run do not benefit the poor, he claims to be working for.
His cynics say Manpreet did not make any changes when he lived in the same system, to which he is now a prodigal son and suggest that he is a pawn of the Congress Party to split the Akali votes in the upcoming Punjab state elections.
However, they agree that he is a force especially because of his Obama-like speaking style which has drawn tens of thousands, especially the young of his homeland mesmerised by the promise of change, to the Jago Punjab rallies.
“I am not interested in politicians...I am interested in patriots who can bring India back to its former glory,” said Manpreet, who has shunned armed police guards and VIP passes, to symbolize his vows.
Given the attendance last weekend in Cloverdale and elsewhere in the multi-city North American tour, Manpreet’s message is gaining momentum.
The shrill challenges and accusations by his former Badal allies and ex-Congress Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh, has also helped Manpreet gain stature in his homeland.
Manpreet’s Jago Punjab movement dovetails nicely with the on-going demands for change in India which has been hit by street demonstrations in the wake brazen corruption scandals, including those linked to the shoddy organization of Delhi Commonwealth Games.
The anti-graft movement since April has demanded an effective anti-graft ombudsman and also called for repatriation of billions of dollars of untaxed money stashed away by corrupt Indians in banks abroad.
The campaigns by Gandhian activist Anna Hazare and Yoga guru Baba Ramdev have drawn support mainly from the youth and are backed by business leaders concerned over corruption hurting foreign investment in Asia’s third-largest economy.
But Manpreet bristles at the comparison to Hazare or Ramdev, describing them as passive icons who go on hunger strikes.
“I am here to make change by forcing change...I don’t want to sit around and ask people not to eat...This is war...we have to battle the real enemies of India which are hunger, poverty and corruption.”
“I carry a sense of guilt for not doing enough and I want to lead the change actively.”
Manpreet said his Canadian-North American tour is to gain goodwill not votes from the people who left his homeland.
“They have seen in their new home countries how the system works and why corruption is not endemic...they can use this and bring their experience and influence back to India.”
“Everywhere I go, I hear the success stories of Indians overseas...They all have a keen sense of honour and belonging to India...now is the time to show it.”
“If need be, I will change India one Indo-Canadian at a time,” said Manpreet.
For Surrey businessman Joginder Singh, who is battling a corrupt group in India to get back his family land, Manpreet Badal is a refreshing change to what he has heard before from Indian politicians.
“Can we make a change...I really hope so,” said Joginder, echoing the aspirations of the man he came to see at the Cloverdale arena.

with files from IANS