Scams India Inc.

It is now obvious to all right-thinking people that the ‘tryst with destiny’ happened at an inauspicious time. The worthies mandated to lead the country led it to a parliamentary democracy which is the most expensive form of government unsuitable for a very poor country, India, in the 40’s.

Time has proved it so. Imagine the expenses. I don’t have the exact data. But here is the process, you calculate.

1. One-man-one-vote leads to vote bank politics and unhealthy competition of various communities to raise their population.
2. It encourages proliferation of small, regional, and communal parties that blackmail the mainstream national parties.
3. The government is always unstable and economy depends on political whims.n Every election throws up tons of black money and mid-term elections happen too often.
4. Despite spending gigantic sum on maintaining the democratic pharaphernalia, only scam, not kam(work) is produced.
5. Two-third of Indian MPs, and a substantial number of MLAs, are millionaires and they continue to get all privileges, economic benefits, and fat pension for life.
6. More criminals than decent people get elected.
7. Corporate corruption is encouraged.

Take the micro issue. For three days the AP Assembly has been producing air and gas — not work. While hundreds of problems affecting people cry for attention, MLAs indulge in verbal war, and yet, they get all the benefits. It’s not the Opposition that’s mainly responsible for this. It is the government of the day that has the onus of ensuring the smooth functioning of itself and the Assembly.

In the past five years the Congress government produced three major scandals that cost the country hundreds of billions

1. 2G Spectrum

2. Commonwealth Games scam

3. Coalgate

But how many hidden? Nobody has any idea. Let us now argue for the representative presidential system of government, which though is no angel, proves less debilitating than parliamentary democracy. It’s because there is indeed no alternative to democracy especially in a multi-ethnic polity.

Mother of all scam in the offing

If you wait a little more, you can witness a much bigger scam. It’s in the making. Cunningly called the Special Economic Zone, the government in Delhi has — in connivance with their pliable subjects in the states — have been given formal approval for 587 SEZ throughout the country that involves millions of acres of farmers’ lands. Singur would look a pigmy in comparison. Unfortunately, 110 of them are in AP alone. AP tops the country’s SEZ list. What would happen to rural people who believe their homes are their fort is anybody’s guess.

Tailend

This author does not guarantee the veracity of the following story. A man in a remote part in Madhya Pradesh (an honest man who lived by the sweat of his brow) left a death note to his wife. “I beseech you not to marry our daughter to a sarkari babu or a politician. You may consider any other, no matter if he be a butcher or a barber,” he wrote.

Tags: coal scam, featured, full-image, Hard Talk

Category: Opinion