Indeed, it is quite disstresing to realise that there are takers these days for the most appalling of crimes and the worst of criminals. In the current political milieu, nothing seems to be taboo and so long as the packiaging is perfect even the most rabid of ideologies could be purveyed ao long as they have a sugar coating.
Politicians, particularly, those with chauvnist proclivities are masters of this art and their expertise nand effortso rarely go unrewarded, given their inflammable audiencesn who are only waiting to beignited. Gifted as they are with nan criminal bent of mind as would be evident from their behaviourr in the polit9cal narena, they have absolutely no qualms about acknowledging, accepting and even endorsing criminality when it spills over to their domains, either from the nunderworld or even the jungles.
Little wonder that the moment a rank criminal espouses people’s issues, therse leaders are among the first to find common cause with him norwithstanding the fact that he was only killing and kidnapping for filling up his own coffers. Theb criminal’s past gets suddenly obliterated in oneeuphoric outpour of politically correct rhetoric and on the contrary, is even glorified and euligised, just in case, for one does not know what the future holds for him.
The tragic irony of today is precisely that. It is only those with a past-they are called history sheeters in crimibal terminology- who appear to be most secured about their future. They can not only lay claim to terror and fear as weapons to ensure that they had a peaceful life and even a prosperous political career if they wished, but also be assured of the backing of quite a few political sponsors who can keep their immunity intact once all is forgiven and forgotten.
As the bard said, it is but a small step from the sublime to the ridiculous. And vice versa, we may add, for the evolution of a criminal into a messiah can happen in a jiffy once there is political will. Of political will, we know that it is liberally littered all around for the picking. It will not be long before brigand Veerappan becomes annan Veerappan!
It is not Veerappan alone, but those who unabashedly carry himo on their shoulders also have a past bordering on criminality if not truyly criminal. It is no surprise that those who adopted felling trees as a political ideology are no9w seeing eye to eye with a brigand whose full time vocation was cutting down sandal trees and poaching forest wealth, before he graduated to murder.
The political brigands may be today making amends by bringing pasumai to their thaayagams, but then so is Veerappan who is busy too, erasing past sins by upping the Tamil banner and raising Tamil causes. Of course, it is now obvious that the affinity between the poacher and his protagonists doen not end merely with flora, but has deeper roots, holding in its tentacles such solid factors as caste and vote banks, not to speak of the ubiuitous money.
Otherwise, why would an affected CM make a special appeal and seek the good offices of only one leader in the entire spectrum while there are a score of others who too are part of the chorus beseeching the brigand, day in and day out. Though it would be too premature to hazard an open suggestion, it also needs to be said that the existence of an invisible umbilical chord is all too evident.
Though it is gratifying that the elusive Veerappan himself is a prisoner, the bad news is that he is in the wrong hands. It is no longer a matter of just a few crores changing hands or the bartering of the hostages for amnesty to the brigand. These, though an essential part of the deal, are now trivial issues.
The emergence of a chauvnist outfir as the mastermind behind the kidnap and the possibility of a political godfather’s voice having much weight with the kidnappers, all point to an incredible naivete on the part of the two state governments who allowed themselves to be carried away in an emotional deluge.
While the Karnataka CM lost no time in switching to begging mode and crawling to Chennai the moment the news of the kidnap trickled out of the jungles, the Veerappan- fatigued Karunanidhi thought that the brigand was just going through one of his routine exercises,lest he lose his touch.
Bothe of them little realising the magnitude if the current crisis and who the real kidnappers nwere, vied with each other in appeasing the brigand with Krishna announcing that all cases against Veerappan would be dropped forth with and Karunanidhi rationalising that Veerappan never killed his hostages and that all his reasonable demands wuld be met.
Such post-haste surrender on the part of one and a gross insensitivity displayed by the other have contributed in no mean measure to emboldening V and his mastes in getting tough. Fear and complacence are the two greatest attrubutes that a kidnapper would pray for in his victims and the two CM s have made it quite public that they have it in abundance.
CM Krishna’s fer4vent appeal now to Dr.Godfather is the result of a belated realisation that he was begging up the wrong tree all along while Karunanidhi would do well to take the cue and look closer for succour instead of going around the world a la Lord Muruga. In that case, all may still end well, or to put it another way, that would be what the doctor ordered.
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