Government, Politics and Corruption

From 1989 to 2013, from Bofors to IPL spot fixing scams, the part that has remained (and shall be remaining) constant is to protect the powerful. The parliamentary committees ever formed in all such massive scams have done their best in maintaining the constant scenario. This, in turn, has resulted in a complete failure to fix the accountability, or in other words, “who” kept the “how much” in “where”. The amazing part of all is how one after another scams of better numbers are getting divulged and the way strings are being pulled to cause distraction or a cloud around it.

The present political scenario has somehow some resemblance to that of 1989’s. The Bofors scam has been forming the dark smokes around the then government with the number Rs. 64 crore. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report has been rejected by opposition and the government steps down en masse from the parliament forcing national elections. Presently, the JPC draft has also been rejected by the entire opposition, on 2G spectrum case. Only this time, the government has presented its report card for it “good-doings” during its term.

Yet again, the government is continuing committing mistakes one after another regarding its involvement in and after the scams. The mess-up in CBI’s report on Coalgate scam, rooted in the Law Ministry and PMO as a measure to save the present Prime Minister (who was also the Coal Minister when the scam took place).

India’s standing in the international arena has been deteriorating since 1987 after the Bofors scam has been brought to light by the Swedish radio. And the denial of responsibility has continued since then. The journey through CWG, Hasan Ali case, Harshad Mehta case, 2G, Coalgate, Railways scams has seen the same fate. The powerful players are never held accountable and investigations are left in a state of spoilt food, that none dares to check for values and looks over as a matter to dump off.

The Coalgate scam proved another dreadful scenario that was till then just feared to be true. The CBI has somehow “acted slave” to its political masters that it is supposed to be investigating. Thus, some faults in the system are being well exploited by the policy makers. And this works well as the key players in each scam are never put to the criminals’ dais to be questioned and the investigations hangs up somewhere as the people who “know” are either not questioned or they remain silent.

Another scene commonly that is observed in these cases is the shuffling of ministries or resignation of some MPs. Just a question, who sacrifices one’s career unless the stakes are very high?

It’s a time for the nation to awaken and take a lesson from what’s happening and remind the government that it is “of the people, by the people, for the people”.