Unnatural Disasters!

The Indian political scene mimicked Japan this week. The nuclear ghost of 2008 came back to haunt MSingh, making his hot seat a bit too radioactive for comfort; Wikileaks came in a tsunami of waves, inundating virtually every facet of UPA governance and then scooping and setting afloat for full public view a sludge of skeletons. Quakes rocked alliances, supposedly on firm ground, bringing down the edifices of confidence and camaraderie that earlier seemed infallible; as political winds blew hither and thither, many politicians and parties now run the risk of being stranded or rendered homeless. And there are casualties galore ranging from long careers suspended on precarious political strings to 2G ‘carriers’ hanging by the neck from ropes!

The trust vote circa 2008 is not distant history, though a spate of subsequent scams may render it hazy. There was the precedent of the JMM bribery case but for the first time bribe money was not only traced through a TV sting operation but also displayed in Parliament for the whole world to see. Thanks to Wikileaks, we now have ‘confirmation’ that the money trail had its origins right in Cong’s kitty, what with a good part of the war chest getting exhibited to a US diplomat, who in turn had made a meticulous report of it to his superiors. Even otherwise, a JPC headed by a Congman had also recommended further probe by investigative agencies. What should a ‘clean man’ sitting at the helm do in such circumstances? But then what if that ‘clean man’ has a vested interest in winning the trust vote for which all that money was being laundered? Worse, the same clean man had himself drafted a ‘lobbyist’, (who was bestowed a Padma Bhushan later), to secure support for self! The only defence that is being touted now, against a charge that the entire universe knew to be true, is that that was UPA 1 and this is 2! No matter if the ‘confidence’ trick was played by the same MSingh, whose scam record in the second stint is actually worse! In any case, according to him, the Cong’s comeback in May ‘09 has erased the cash-for-vote scam! With such ingenious cleanliness on parade, there is no point in asking MSingh to quit. Instead, let’s just quit asking him to quit! The ‘unaware’ PM need face no enquiry, but just his conscience!

That was July 08. Just six months later, in Jan 09, at dusty Thirumangalam in TN, the cash- for-votes scheme got truly democratic. And at what scale! If the people’s reps could be up for sale for such astronomical sums, can those who unwittingly created that market for them through votes be left out of the loop? While petty bribes in cash, kind or the kicks, to voters was always prevalent, the T’mangalam ‘buy’ poll was a landmark of sorts that set out a perfect model for emulation at the national level, which, in my view, actually happened in ‘09 LS polls thanks to the bottomless 2G money trove at the disposal of the ruling dispensation. Once again, T’mangalam and its legacy ware no secrets and the Wikileaks about the dealings of TN’s politicians and their kin come only as confirmation.

But what is more appalling about the revelations is that all and sundry, ranging from the Karai Veshti annans down in Dravadanadu to the ji’s in starched kurtas in Aryan Bharath to the suit-clad diplomats of the various Blocks and Bhawans of the Capital, seem too eager to rush to the nearest US embassy to share private info or a personal grouse or generally pour their hearts out. But then, the fizz is also off all those spy thrillers or Hollywood blockbusters that portray Uncle Sam and the CIA as some kind of all powerful, all knowing entities. Intelligence gathering, it seems, is as petty and puerile as eavesdropping on teashop gossip and clearly India is confounding them with a surfeit of such stuff. Still, our loose tongues and their keen ears do pose an internal threat, not to speak of the external dangers posed by such meticulous interest and interference on the part of a super power that is guided only by its own concerns.

Much as the comrades would like to believe, used as they are to seeing American ghosts under every tree, there is, however, no CIA plot in J pre-emptively announcing her party’s candidates. An ‘in-house’ coup is a more likely provocation given the general perception that the AIADMK alliance might stage a comeback in power. And paradoxically, that perception may turn out to be the undoing, for the estranged allies are now sulking and may well separate if Poes Garden does not relent. Like the ubiquitous buffoon lurking in the shadows awaiting an interlude, the Third Front is suddenly back in the circuit, at least at the time of going to press. The balloon will likely burst much before the presses start whirring, but TF remains an amusing subject. After all, with single party majorities evading both the nation and many States, including TN, and the resultant tendency to form strong coalitions, we only have TFs around. So, may be we should dub these new abstract fronts, that thrive more in idle minds or in political vacuums, as Third Third Fronts. For example, a transient TTF was actually formed last weekend when the Cong-DMK drew their daggers out. The mental apparition of a TTF has moved now and is unlikely to materialise.

So what is a mere death amidst all these nuke boomerangs, political tsunamis and coalition quakes? Suicides happen everyday and suspicions arise in virtually all of them. An open and shut suicide case is possible only if the subject confirms it, but in the unlikely event of he/she rising from the dead to testify, an arrest is more likely for the attempt, forcing the person to deny suicide! Still, we would have loved to hear what Sadhick Batcha, a key player in the 2G scam who was found hanging from the wrong end of a rope, had to say. Many heads would have surely rolled, making his death all the more a subject of speculation. For, he surely could not have been a prime perpetrator, but at best a mute partner, now muted for ever, by fate or ‘friends’, we know not!

The Japan allusion at the start was probably a crude dilution of the disaster. The land of the rising sun appears to have made a tragic tryst with nuclear heat. Two of its cities were scorched to ashes during WW2 and now, it stares at the greatest radiation threat ever. But rest assured, this nation, which voluntarily forsakes an army and is at the forefront of offering aid to suffering populations the world over, will rise faster than the Sun. Japan has done it before and will do it again. Its people can be relied on to put the nation above politics or personal travails. Let’s look forward to Japan’s lesson to the world.

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