Scam India Galore

I had written about my obsession with Khushwant Singh writings sometime back. The 95 years old columnist never stops amazing me with his kind of sharp wits and divine sarcasm. Now, of a very few political observers, of late I have started following the writings of M.J.Akbar, who contributes weekly columns to Deccan Herald, which publishes his articles in their editorial page. Apart from his observations, I very much appreciate the kind of language he uses in condemning political chicanery and corruption at high levels. About the latest scam that occupied a lot of space in all national dailies, The Adarsh Housing society scam of Mumbai a few days back, see what language Akbar uses to condemn the higher ups: "Greed is the new religion and all are welcome to feed the trough. Nothing else is sacrosanct; not the highest offices in public service: chief minister, army chief, navy admiral, or top bureaucrat through whom the file must pass. If there is a flat to be stolen in a housing society sanctioned for the welfare of war widows, then every single one of these crooks are ready to cheat the blood of Kargil martyrs......"  Later in the article he writes "....The stink of hypocrisy now permeates through all levels of authority and institutions - like our defence forces - which cannot co-exist with corruption. They will be (either) corrupt or a force; they cannot be both".  How true!

Every one of the top officials in the scam have denied the charge of corruption, - drinking the blood of martyrs who laid their lives in protecting the nation's borders - and the Present chief minister of Maharashtra is going to be the sacrificial lamb just as the Congress did with Suresh Kalmadi not so long back, about the CommonWealth Games. If your memory can go a little further back, they could not find any goat to sacrifice in the 2G spectrum scam simply because they had no ways other than to surrender to Karunanidhi's blackmailing tactics!

India is projected to become the super most power in the world not in far future. India is looked upon as the most successful democracy in the world. What a joke! A petty thief if caught while snatching a woman's gold chain is beaten to death by the angry public in Mumbai. What are they going to do with Ashok Chavan and his party brethren? Let alone beating to death, can they touch them?

Akbar exclaims, "There is no shame left. It is tempting to ask if there is an India left when its ruling class has abandoned every principle". The shame is not only with our ruling class; what about top defence personnel? General (retd) N.C.Vij and General (retd) Deepak Kapoor, Admiral (retd) Madhavendra Singh all have now surrendered the flats telling that at no point of time they had any idea that the flats were meant for the widows of Kargil war martyrs! Who are they fooling? Remember sometime back the Govt. land grab issue of Ex-Chief Justice of Karnataka, Dinakaran? How shamelessly the higher judicial authorites tried to rescue the tainted judicial officer, finally yielding to public anger resulting in his transfer! Is there any shame left? Really?

Quite often I read with disgust the news of stoning women to death publicly as the prescribed punishment of their religious criminal code for the proven crime of adultery in some Islamic countries. I now sincerely feel we, at least in this country are not more civil than these countries practicing barbaric laws in the name of religion. I feel the necessity to have similar penal code for these wretched, shameless cheats and thieves in higher places! These people make us feel ashamed to be an Indian! Are you, Indian, proud to be an Indian?

And the most disturbing fact is, to my knowledge,  not a single politician or bureaucrat has been handed down exemplary punishment in the entire history of independent India! Every scam coming in the open on regular basis is not only bigger than the earlier one but also the involvement of judiciary and defence forces, very disturbing indeed!

भारत माताकी जय!