Opinion
Who Cares?
It seems scams will come and go or, like Tennyson's brook ''I go on forever''. But true to our Indian characteristic, we create a lot of noise for sometime and the excitement slowly peters out. What has happened to the money stashed away in Swiss Banks, and all the scams after it- 2 G, Commonwealth Games, Coal Gate etc? The people in power know this very well, that Indians are a voiceless majority, at best they kick up a ruckus for sometime, the media joins them to whip up news that sells, and then it is all over. We continue to vote back the same people to power.
There seemed to be some national dissent after the anti corruption movement, but there too politics has played a superb interventionist role and the group seems now to be a pawn at the hands of some political forces. Otherwise how can you expect them to offer a Puja, in one of their meetings? India is a country of many religions, and if you have a puja, then you must accomodate all the other religions for your blessings. This makes such groups or political parties suspect. Nothing could be more dangerous than playing into the hands of rightist parties, the people of India do not like such whipping up of sentiments.
The then Finance Minister had clearly said, regarding the Swiss bank accounts, that the government is in the know about who these people are, but the names cannot be divulged immediately. Why? This means that there are higher ups and ploiticians, whom the government would not like to name, because they are the lacqueys of the latter, or belong to a particular political party. We have the temerity to uphold such corruption, and get away with it.
The fact is that governments after governments are creating their own Frankensteins and draconian laws to protect a few, as well as to save plutocracy and oligarchy. These coteries have ruled India for too long, have done nothing to alleviate miseries of the poor, have framed ad hoc fiscal policies, have protected criminals, and have used the politics of money and muscle to survive.
But the bad augury is that there are Maosists, there are groups who are fighting for independence, and there is Talibanism at home and nearer home. We have not yet anatomized the reasons for the emergence of fractious forces, nor why the Naxalite movement has shown such a resurgence. We are blind to the fact that corruption is such a home truth, that it is almost legitimized, from the top to the bottom. But we say bottoms up to it!
Transparency is the last thing in our governance. But corruption is so transparent, that we have taken it for granted, and made it a part and parcel of our lives, with half the population starving. And that decrepit population is the least we care for. We are obsessed with growth, but not equality. Year after year we are impervious to floods especially in North East India, which are threatening to decapitate islands and livelihoods. No measures are taken to prevent them, though they have become quite predictable.
But that is the Indian way of life- insensitive and happy so long you have all material comforts. This sheer commodification of culture and life styles, is now at its abysmal worst. So long as we have these commodities, we are happy and arm chair intellectuals will continue to write their books published by Penguin, or Harper Collins!
Anyway, who cares?
14-Nov-2012
More by :
Ananya S Guha
Top | Opinion
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I really liked the views: "Indian way of life- insensitive and happy so long you have all material comforts". Harsh, but a truth we cannot deny or move away from.
We have become a nation too obsessed with the 'shor-bazar' attitude. That seems a new term, but nevertheless this is the characteristic of most of the Indians - we are ready to burn crackers worth Rs 50,000/- + in a Diwali night and buy properties where we can land out private airjets, but we are too timid to think of people who are dying of hunger. Oh! that reminds me of the symbolical 'fasts' our would-be-netas are following to achieve thier goals.
Facade may be too tiny a term to describe this Nation of corrupt die-hard fans and politicians.
Who cares indeed! The visionary Winston Churchill once forecasted that India would again be a slave after Independence --- Are we not now and more so????
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