In 2012 the Indian Republic stands disgraced as never before by the unabashed and unapologetic loss of political morality manifested in the daily cascade of alleged massive corruption scams and financial irregularities involving the Government of the day. The culpability is not of only the Congress-led Government in power but also the silence of constituents of the UPA coalition and those supporting the Government from outside. The culpability is also of the BJP as the main Opposition party for its inertia in not hitting the streets since 2009 when the cascade of scams started hitting the Indian Republic like a Tsunami.
The Indian Republic is sad spectator of what one might call “competitive relative morality” where the Congress Party instead of owning up to accountability of the dirty swamp of corruption that has emerged, hotly debates that their political opponents when they were in power were equally corrupt, if not more. Obviously the ruling party is in a “state of denial” on the magnitude of the corruption that has taken place in its two tenures and the reference point cannot be the record of their predecessors.
In this “state of denial” the apex levels of Congress Party leadership has gone to deplorable lengths of denigrating an honest and upright Comptroller & Auditor General of India, a person constitutionally charged with responsibilities of overseeing that the Government of the day does not indulge in financial irregularities. Left with no logical or factual reasons to doubt the financial irregularities exposed by this Constitutional Appointment, the ruling party brazenly accuses him of political ambitions.
The Government would have fallen by now had the Coalition Partners stood by moral principles that they vehemently declare publicly. The Government would have been toppled by now had the outside support extended to it by the Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Ms Mayawati. But as per media reports they are held in check by the ruling party by brandishing the Damocles Sword of using the CBI for investigations against them on disproportionate wealth cases pending.
Perceptionally in the public mind the impression that is so created about the coalition partners of the ruling party and those parties providing ‘outside support’ as that of complicit silence for whatever reasons.
The BJP as the main Opposition Party would have won political laurels if it had hit the streets of India on the issue of corruption scams like Jaya Prakash Narayan’s movement of the mid-1970s. The BJP hierarchy stands singularly disconnected by its absence on the streets leading the public upsurge against corruption.
Perusing media blogs and other blogspots one gets the distinct impression that there is an all-pervasive disgust in the minds of the citizens of the Indian Republic on the sordid loss of political morality in the nation.
Instead of crusading against political corruption India’s political parties vehemently opposed or were lukewarm to such movements spearheaded by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. Their opposition to such movements highlights their intentions.
The Indian Republic stands damned therefore by its utter loss of political morality and loss of political shame. There are no political icons or shining knights in spotless armour who can lead India out of its murky swamp of political corruption.
It is high time that India politically opts for a ‘Second Republic’ as advocated by me periodically in my Columns.
As a parting shot on the present state of the Indian Republic I would like to leave a thought which I read somewhere which states that “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis choose to remain silent”.
