Editorial»
Scandalously yours, from India
NOV 29 - Indian politicians never ever fail to disappoint. They keep bombarding the hapless populace with their various acts of omission and commission at constant frequencies. Those who were hooked on to their television sets last week saw the grainy image of Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo, attired in standard army gear, handle bar moustache and holding a glass of Scotch in one hand while his other hand greedily accepts a bundle of currency notes. And then came the masterstroke. Judeo places the bundle to his forehead and bombastically remarks, “Paisa Khuda To Nahin, Par Khuda Ki Kasam, Khuda Se Kam Bhi Nahin (Money is not God, but swear on God, money is no less than God).
Judeogate is the latest scandal involving top politicians. He was caught, thanks to a brilliant scoop by the formidable national Indian newspaper The Indian Express, which released a video tape of the minister wherein he was caught accepting bribe from the representatives of an Australian company who were eyeing a lucrative mining contract in his home state of Chhattisgarh.
The exposure has brought afresh in my mind the shocking incident by the web portal Tehelka, which created a Tehelka (storm) when in a bold sting operation, its reporters posing as international arms dealers, trapped on camera the then president of the ruling party - Bangaru Laxman - into accepting one hundred thousand rupees cash to facilitate the clearance of a non-existent arms order worth several thousand millions.
Like Bangaru earlier, Judeo too was made to quit but not before the top honchos of the ruling party went to town hurling all sorts of extremely pitiable accusations including the by now cliché charge of “an international conspiracy”. Inured as we are all to the disgusting shenanigans of the equally distasteful political class, the fact that a sitting central minister was caught accepting bribe was not the shocking thing. The shocking thing was the cover-up. The high moral ground that was taken to shield him. Prime Minister Vajpayee, in a quick volley lambasted a Congress CM Ajit Jogi for “not resigning despite facing a forgery charge”.
His Deputy, the formidable L K Advani went a step further and put up a stout defence of his corrupt minister, whom he duly exonerated of all crime without waiting for the findings of an impartial inquiry into the entire sordid affair. Advani even shared the same dais with Judeo during a meeting in the latter’s home state which along with three others is due to hold crucial Assembly polls on December 1. “Judeo will lead our party’s campaign in the polls. He is the hero of re-conversions”, thundered a defiant Advani into the mouth of television cameras.
Seeing and reading all about this makes me disgusted. The top most men in the country, men who hold the reins of the ruling national party in India, go out of their way to hail a bribe taker as a national hero. I indeed pity their definition of nationalism and heroism.
This shows it is not just politics, which has come down to this gutter level. The moral fabric of India has also collapsed. Almost everyday, we get to read about one mega scam after another. Delhi, the capital of India, has become synonymous with rapes. Hardly a day goes when a rape is not reported in Indian dailies. The other day an eight-year-old girl was lured from an election rally and raped by a 23 year-old barber.
Down South, the megalomaniac Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, unleashed the worst form of press censorship against what is arguably the most authentic, upright and fiercely independent newspaper in India, The Hindu.
Smarting under a string of critical leaders, editorials and news reports about her “dictatorial style of governance”, the ex-film star-turned-gold digger unleashed her loyal police hounds on the shell-shocked senior journalists of the paper, in a manner reminiscent of the extreme ill-treatment meted out to her bette noire and arch political rival Karunanidhi.
She was forced back to the wall after a hue and cry was raised all over the country with scribes, rights activists and ordinary men and women hitting the streets to demand rescinding of the arrest order passed against the brave journalists.
If that was not all, a thick-set man who went by the unusual name of Telgi, we are told, is the mastermind of a sensational fake stamp paper scam. Stamp, it now has turned out, is the mother of all scams, and pegged at over 300 billion rupees, makes pygmies of other past scams such as Urea, Fodder, Coffingate, Bofors et al.
I am not for a moment amazed by all this sleaze and wheeling dealing that goes on with the express desire to siphon off every single penny from the state exchequer and to fill the pockets of over-ambitious, greedy, materialistic men who prefer to loot, cheat and scoot, instead of honest earning.
What is shocking is that over the years, as one shocking scam after another comes to the fore, the media and the common man are fast beginning to display a lethargic, damn care attitude towards it all. I have discerned a clear tendency in society nowadays wherein nobody is willing to tinker with the status quo.
Yes, with more and more Indians shedding the high moral ground, they are increasingly becoming less critical of their ‘illustrious’ corrupt brethren. In fact, corruption today is being seen as a badge of honour to be worn with pride. It seems competition among the greedy Mammon worshippers is to see who gets to wear the maximum number of these honourable badges. Yes, the real story is not corruption that has become a deep-rooted malaise in India. The real story is that there exists a well-entrenched caste hierarchy among the corrupt in India.
(The writer can be contacted at <apanicker1@rediffmail.com>)Posted on: 2003-11-28 11:51
Headlines
Advertisements
