HELICOPTER SCAM

Like the Bofors Guns deal, the news of the helicopter scam has come as a bolt from the blue --from the international media, following an expose and arrest in Italy. Now, we are bracing for endless TV debates which, for the government, would mean little. They will be no more than mere rituals.

The money is no big deal, though. Some three hundred or five hundred crores is today just peanuts for the Indian politicos and middle men. We hear of corruption rather in multiples of thousands of crores. We have been sensitised to such news for a long, long time now. What next?

Defence minister says nobody will be spared. But the question is whether the minister himself would be spared.

This is no small matter, and a CBI enquiry will be another hog wash. What is CBI, after all? Let us see whether this country's spineless Opposition would be satisfied with a few days of shouts and walkouts in parliament and then forget the matter for good.

--Prem Chandran