Respected Chief Guest, honorable judges and distinguished members of the audience.

The motion proposed before the house is Can a citizen in a democracy prevent corruption? I am going to speak for the motion. Well let me say that I am indeed honored to be in the presence of such learned personalities and I am sure that all of you would be aware of the term CORRUPTION! But to be on the safer side, let us go by the book. I have a standard oxford dictionary 2011 with me here. It defines corruption as a dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. I am sure that most of us have had a firsthand experience of paying bribes. But for those who havent, let me cite the statistics for you. According to a study conducted by transparency international in India, more than 55% of Indians have had a firsthand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling so as to get their job done in public offices successfully. Before we come down to the topic let me state a simple concept of life. If you are not part of the solution, then you are the problem. Now, as far as corruption is concerned, it seems that the world of politics is pretty much associated with it. But is it so? Look into yourselves. After all we are citizens of a democracy. We do have the right to vote. Hence a corrupt government implies that it is a result of a corrupt society. Leaving the corrupt out, the duty of the other citizens, stands as a global question. Here, we citizens may either choose to do nothing and eventually suffer the consequences, or we may choose to stand up and change the ways of the corrupt. As far as my opponents are concerned, they may justify how a citizen in a democracy is unable to prevent corruption. But whether its a democracy or not, such people will always be categorized as under those corrupt. They may cite examples of how helpless we are, but in actual mean they are just unwilling to take a stand. Whilst most of them are of the type mentioned afore, others decide to bear with the burden. The latter ones are too frustrated to carry on with the struggle against corruption. But let me tell you this that, being indifferent is also an accomplice to crime as was stated by Myerson Bess - I quote The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. The indifferent have already lost the way but there is a ray of hope. There has always been a requirement of constant endeavor so as to achieve ones goal. We are all aware of the numerous scams and evidences of corruption that have taken place in recent times. 2G spectrum scam, the common wealth game scam, Satyam scam etc are just some of the examples. But in this world of the corrupt there exists a streak of goodness as well as honesty. This can easily be explained as the reason why numerous ended up following Anna Hazare .And hence it is to the indifferent that I say, it is never too late, and you may rejoin the clan waging war against corruption.