From criminalization of politics to politicization of criminals. Gone are the days of Greed for Power. Today it’s all about the Power of Greed. Three words that are the tragic epitaph of political India. Whereby the lust for riches overpowers all else. Dictated by the dictum: There is no such thing as enough money!
Showcased in one monstrous and gargantuan scam after another. See how Messers Kalmadi of the Rs 70,000 crore CWG fame, Raja of Rs 1.76 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam along-with lobbyist Nira Radia roam free and brazenly assert they have done no wrong. Why expect anything different?
They have no fear of law, cocooned in the belief that it shall never touch them. Instead they rule by law. Testimony once again, that political greed and corruption has become the raison d atre of our feudal democracy. A celebration of mediocrity at best and debility at worst.
Wring your hands all you want, cynically yell that law is an ass, but that does not take away from the fact that morality, honesty and integrity are words non-existent in the political vocabulary. Sadly, legal loopholes are trotted as an excuse for political immorality. While a Union Cabinet Minister trashes the CAG’s findings in the 2G scam. Another draws a fine distinction between a “criminal” and “corporate” charge-sheet.”
Whereby we have allowed ourselves to be overly obsessed with the written word because of our genius for driving a coach and six through any Statute. Said an MP accused of embezzling State funds, “Where does the Constitution enjoin its citizens to speak the truth and nothing but the truth?” does that mean we speak lies?
Less said the better about the Government investigative hand maiden, CBI. Which continues to insist that it cannot rely on “media-leaked documents” about Kalmadi and his cohorts, Radia and Raja. Never mind if they are Government papers? Equally, shocking is that it continues to insist that there is no case of bribery in the Bofors case! So what if the Income Tax Tribunal nails Italian middleman Quotrochchi’s lie!
Alas, in a chor-chor-mauser-bhai political milieu of you-scratch-my-back- I-yours, our leaders have left it to the “call of conscience” of individual leaders. Happily, all follow the principle of “politics of direct sale”. Appalling, none have time for the gasping and groaning aam aadmi who reels under the onslaught of spiralling prices of vegetables, pulses and food-grain and sky-rocketing inflation.
From Chandigarh in the north, to Ranchi in the east, from Bhopal in the Hindu heartland to Kerala in the south, a cacophony of voices have been raised against the relentless price rise, with the common man caught between the political plunder wondering whether things will ever return to normal.
Rising prices are like a fire feeding on itself. Onions are selling at Rs 70 a kilo, tomatoes at Rs 50, cauliflower at Rs 42, garlic at Rs 300 a kilo and chillies at Rs 70, playing havoc with household budgets and forcing people to drastically scale down purchases of non-essential commodities. Gone are the days when pyaaz and roti was considered the garib aadmi’s khaana.
The touchstone of the much-hyped and illusionary deal of roti, kapada aur makan. Look at the irony. Cell phones go a-begging, yet people continue to beg for food. Shockingly, from the Prime Minister downwards all have thrown up their hands and merrily assert that they are helpless in taming prices. Then whose job is it?
Notwithstanding the statistics reeled out about India’s incredible growth story, galloping at over 9 per cent. Arguably, do we measure the Government success by this or the fact that the common man is being made to pay for the Administration’s follies which waited much too long to read the signs of the agrarian crisis facing the country leading to spiraling prices?
Bin bijli, bin jal, bin pyaaz, whatever happened to the Congress ka haath aam aadmi ke saath?
Look at the dichotomy. Not having enough to eat is a reality for half of India’s 1.1 billion people with over 700 million living below the poverty line. And nearly one million die every year due to inadequate healthcare facilities and one in every five children is malnourished. On the other, Bentleys’ and BMWs are parked in Brand India’s glitzy and gaudy mansions outside Asli Bharat’s slums and a dying blind man found on the steps on a billion dollar building.
India has not only a third of the global poor but also there are more hungry people than any other country, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Worse, hunger stalks every State and the condition of its mal-nourished, over 50 per cent, is worse than some sub-Saharan countries, states the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. Adding, if food prices continue to rise, more could be pushed back to poverty.
Add to this the fact that violence is now the rhetoric of our times. From Union Capital Delhi in the grip of road rage and intolerant frenzy, to UP wherein the probability of a political murderer or rapist being brought to book is an unbelievable 0.1 per cent.
See how in UP a BSP legislature roams free while the minor girl raped by him languishes in Banda jail. In far-flung Kerala too there is incredible political subversion of the rule of law as skeletons tumble out. The number of allegations of tainted ministers in the States and at the Centre is increasing day by day, election after election. Reeking of an overpowering stench of our decaying political culture. The bitter truth of 21st century of Mera Desh Mahan!
What next? The Government needs to pull itself by the bootstraps. Empty rhetoric and pious promises will not do. Globalisation is welcome but not at the cost of agriculture. There has to be a proper, balanced long-term investment plan in agriculture. Unless the supply is increased, prices of food materials will never come down.
Warns a study by Oxfam India, “If India does not invest more in agriculture, it could be potentially exposed such a reversal of development”. While the broader economy has averaged close to 9 per cent growth annually over the past four years, agriculture has been growing just over 2 per cent a year.
In the ultimate, the impotence of the Government to provide good governance based on honesty and credibility should make it incumbent for our netas to do some soul searching. It is perhaps time to rekindle the debate on the need for near self-sufficiency in essential foods and investment in food storage infrastructure without which any nation can hope to sit on the world’s high table of super powers.
In the rising disparities between the rich and poor Bharatvasis’, India desperately needs a course correction and chart a new path. We can no longer act blind to the swirling profligacy which could devour the nation. Time to put an end to this political atyachaar called the power of greed. Enough is enough! INFA
Saturday, November 23, 2024