When pots call the kettle black, the only choice the kettles have is to return the compliment by calling the pots black! Of course, in this never ending war of mud-slinging, which surely dates back to even before the world’s oldest profession, it is invariably the country that emerges blacker than the pot or the kettle. And the frequent elections only add a few more dark coats as the mutual tarring reaches a peak.
Corruption in India is not just skin deep, rather it goes to the very core of our polity, with no one remaining above board. It has a well set hierarchy, ranging from sleaze at the common man level to scams in high places. Everyone is scratching everyone else’s back endlessly in a true spirit of to each according to his needs from each according to his ability. The secular, casteless fabric of corruption is no respecter of linguistic or geographical barriers. It’s long tentacles have reached out everywhere with the palms always open for someone to grease them.
To be sure there are politicians who might have never put their fingerprints on ‘suitcases’. But even ,they cannot claim with conviction that they have never ‘seen’ a suitcase. A Manmohan Singh certainly knows how and from where his party gets its Vitamin M, yet his hands are tied despite his chastity, and he is well aware that it is difficult to adopt a puritanical approach.
Several types of treatments had been recommended in the past for this malaise, but every antidote has only resulted in making corruption and the corrupt more immune.
It was once felt that corruption is the product of illiteracy. But one look at the rogues gallery would reveal that there is a surfeit of MBAs, CAs, lawyers etc etc who figure in one scam or the other. In fact these eminent well lettered men have singularly elevated corruption to a highly professionalised avocation. These days one does need a palm to be greased. It can be done through a computer by pressing a few keys!
What was once the sole preserve of the politicians is now everyone’s domain. From birth certificates, to death certificates, corruption follows you like your shadow, keeping you company, goading you to get things done the easy way and even tempting you with its attractive attire of lucre. It is a very seductive Menaka and the entire nation is Viswamithra personified.
Can elections offer a permanent cure to this disease? Certainly not. At least the people have demonstrated so. Summons, chargesheets et al are plain legal gibberish to them. Such jargons only complicate the issue. The people are familiar with sleaze in its simple pristine form as they pay their way out of any and every situation, day in and day out. They also know at heart that it is well nigh impossible to choose 540 non-corrupt men for Parliament. Also, they realise that when they themselves are willing partners to corruption, it would be a hollow morality to expect the politicians who have better access, to refrain from licking the back of their hand. This is the reason why a Laloo or a Kalpnath Rai or a Sukh Ram could make it to Parliament despite being faced with a plethora of corruption charges. It is not that the people have absolved them. It is just that, given the prevalence of corruption from the top to the grassroots, it cannot be made an election issue; and has to be tackled at a larger forum. And the larger forum can only be a man’s conscience! But for the present, this ultimate judge in everyone’s psyche appears to have gone for a long vacation.
The voters decide based on the immediate past which does not mean that the practitioner of this art who belongs to a distant past has been exonerated. The skeletons in their cupboard can be pulled out anytime for the benefit of the public memory and if it happens it could sound the deathknell for these messiahs with a dubious history.
A Jayalalitha has made bold to ask her nominee to quit the Union Cabinet after he was chargesheeted. Now, will the rulers follow suit? After all Muthiah has only been chargesheeted and it is bound to take quite a few legal mandays for him to be acquitted or indicted. But what about those in power now, who elevated corruption to a science, who pioneered the art of pillage, all of which have been well documented by a man called Sarkaria? Will these pots in the ruling party and that includes the Chief pot, stand up and be identified, for their black past and blacker deeds? Definitely not. For black, though, they are a different kettle of fish!
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