ceasersvault

Politics in India

I am not sure what made me think of politics and history of the recent political developments in India. But then when I started thinking of it and ponder over it for quite a while I got the feeling its quite a big story out there even if you considered just the last one decade or two.

Well that reminds the trigger that pushed me to start pondering over all this, some news that came over CNN about a story that a senator had swindled with the state treasury reserves. The first thing that struck me watching the news was the Bofors issue that every Indian has grown up with. I have been hearing about the Bofors issue since the earliest of my memories. I remember having read in Kuswant Singh’s autobiography “Truth, Love and a little Malice” the good words he had for Rajiv Gandhi. He explains how Rajiv’s political career was smeared in a big way by the issue that covered the arms deals with the Italian middlemen in picture. Kuswant seemed to think that Rajiv, more of a philanthropist and person with strong moral inclinations, wouldn’t have volunteered into such a deal unless he had tremendous pressure from his Italian wife Sonia Gandhi. He went on to say that it was Sonia who had introduced the industrialist him Quotrocci who had been in India for quite a while and made quite a dough for himself with his clout in the Gandhi family before the Bofors itself. I would assume Bofors was his last and bitter deal he had in India after which he seems to have left India for good presumably fearing interrogation and persecution.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that shortly after the congress came to power this time, for the first time with the support of a coalition (Congress was the single largest party that ruled India for the major part of the first 40 years after freedom), that the government went out of its way to break all legal provisions to defreeze Quodrocci’s accounts that had been frozen when Interpol raised a case on him on the request of CBI from India. An open warrant from CBI still exist on the name of Quodrocci and extradition efforts are at least officially still in place. It was a dastardly move on the part of the government to send the foreign secretary of the country in person to UK to oversee the unfreezing the accounts of a person charge sheeted by the highest investigative body of the country. The public outcry and media response to the move was more than encouraging. The opposition out for blood of the ruling coalition and even a part of the ruling coalition went public with their disapproval of the move from the government. It was amazing and horrifying to watch how the highest political powers were reigning in all their bureaucratic powers to push the blame on to the law enforcers; so much so that CBI director had to come up with a press conference that it was the CBI that had completely doctored the move. The legal system cranked to place and placed an order on the government to refreeze the accounts barring which they would face dishonor of the court. But the damage was already done and the masterminds who had planned the whole game knew it well. The government gave a quick statement explaining their helplessness and lack of authority to do such a thing.

The media carried the stories for nearly two weeks after which the noise started fading and then just vanished!!! No one seemed to care anymore!!! But then it shouldn’t be a matter of surprise at all because that’s how the Indian people have always been. Always forgetting and forgiving whatever heinous crimes have been committed to them, or perhaps that’s the nature of a larger community that has had a long history of atrocities committed on them. India has perhaps the longest history of invasions, plundering and looting by foreign forces since time immemorial. For long have they proved their peace loving nature and all encompassing compassionateness towards foreigners who have been embraced and adopted as one of them.

Looking back there has been Tehelka report, the fodder scam, the body bag scam, you name it, there has been a scam on every thinkable commodity and perhaps that has by now been accepted as a part of politics itself. But there is one particular pattern in all these patterns that strikes one when you observe them. The scam creates a big hue and cry when they are discovered and the media, political parties and all thinkable NGOs and other agencies jump on them as if they would eat the culprits alive. Two weeks pass by with heated activities that gives you the feeling the perpetrators have had it for their lives and then the miracle happens!! Another 1 week, and something else comes up to take its place and the past one is completely and conveniently forgotten. Perhaps that’s the beauty of it all, there is always some new issue that comes up to take place of the old all the time. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the politicians have long identified this pattern and have done their best to get the most out of it. Crimes of worst proportions are committed with the complete cognizance that the media as well as the public alike would soon forget them. So what’s the solution to all this one may ask? To be frank even I have been pondering over that for quite a while and my creative and intuitive mind hasn’t struck gold yet!! Hope someone else get luckier at it soon.

posted by Mahesh Vijayamohanan @ 5:11 AM