Dance of death in mp

By Prem Chandran

India’s deceptive democratic system of governance is, in multiple ways, baring its fangs – rather its ugly underbelly or the filth that it has smartly covered with the lilywhite dress-code of the unscrupulous and crafty political class which keeps fooling the large mass of the poor and disadvantaged sections of the society. If you thought the Congress party was the curse on this nation in the post Nehru era, think again. If news coming from BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh is any indication, we as self-styled upholders of democracy have to hang our heads in shame. This here is a sham of a democracy.

Are we here to elect the wanton and the wicked as our leaders and put them in positions if only for them to perpetrate frauds on the people, engage in a mix of corruption, nepotism and favouritism, or to govern the land and its inhabitants on proper lines? When these creeps are not indulging in one fraud, they are engaged in another.

What does the BJP think of itself when it reels out justifications to say Madhya Pradesh’s long-serving chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is beyond reproach, when emerging facts show he and his government turned the governmental recruitment process to a virtual fraud and palmed off posts including that of teachers to undeserving people at the grave expense of the qualified youths of the state? It kept happening all through his 10 year governance, which is continuing unhindered, also for the reasons that Madhya Pradesh is composed of a large mass of poor and illiterate people, with neither the awareness nor the drive that are so crucial to democracy, and the so-called leaders on either side of the political spectrum are a bunch of self-seekers out to exploit the state, its institutions and the people in general. The elite manage to get what they want; but what of the ordinary masses and the middle class, who are treated to promises election after election, and ignored thereafter by these gutter-class?

To say that a fraud of Himalayan proportions was perpetrated on the people by the BJP dispensation there in the form of the Vyapam scam is to speak half the truth. Truth, it is believed, is also that a massive cover-up operation was undertaken by the high and mighty – that also includes the offices – or families -- of the CM Chouhan and Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, as is understood widely.

And, this cover-up is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill cover-up that is normally indulged in by the country’s political class and the bureaucracy. A more heinous attempt is being made in MP through the help of multiple agencies, and what they are suspected to be engaged in is the most condemnable act; of murder, or a series of murders. Over 30 people involved in the scam -- a probe into which is overseen also by the state high court – have either been found dead in mysterious circumstances or have committed so-called “suicide,” in a running series of horror acts. Such dead also includes senior police officials, women, governmental functionaries who were either a party to the fraudulent recruitment drive or witnesses to such activities in the ongoing case, and above all governor Yadav’s son himself. Even journalists who painstakingly probed the case on their own have met with untimely death. Police submissions to the high court itself testify in clear terms that these were “unnatural deaths”.

A nationwide public outcry has forced Chouhan to recommend a CBI probe, but that is not an end in itself. Chouhan should not be allowed to beathe easy with such a step. Also, a CBI probe by itself gives us little of reassurance that the lid will finally be off the massive fraud. For, how much do you think the CBI, or the “caged parrot” as it is known, would go when the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is at the helm in the national Capital?

In a way, why are we so complacent as to allow someone to play such a fraud on us for over 10 years – marking the entire duration of the Chouhan governments, when the process of state recruitments to professional and other bodies, including that of the large number of school teachers, was hijacked and scuttled, and when both the chief minister’s and governor’s offices allegedly influenced the finalisation of the lists so as to include the near and dear ones of the high and mighty in the state?

Who knows, or knows not, that even those from within the judiciary too were not part of the massive fraud, though now it is seen to be overseeing the investigations? When everyone in the power hierarchy there had a finger in the dirty pie, of sharing the spoils, how would one institution stand itself fully out? A fraud upon another fraud is the name of the game. For, an agency to which the state police investigators report about their findings, which briefs the high court, is packed with confidants of the state chief minister. And, you expect things to be unravelled even to the judiciary that oversees it! Another ten years of investigations, and chances are that the final report will be thrown to the dustbins of history. This is how India’s democratically elected leaders function – not just in Madhya Pradesh but surely elsewhere too. It so happened that the fraud in MP came to limelight by chance; and we are making a hue and cry. What of the recruitments in other states? What are state public service commissions if they are not puppets in the hands of the respective state governments, ruling parties and unscrupulous leaders? And, you hope the ordinary citizens of this country would get jobs and justice!

Shameless men like Chouhan and Yadav are sitting pretty on the specious plea that the allegations are not proven yet; and, when challenged, they come up with an ear-to-ear smile and suggestion that we rather wait for the final probe report; till when they can warm the top seats with their dirty backs. After all, the BJP is standing by them and the RSS is keeping its cool.

Common sense dictates that an establishment that is believed to have foisted such a fraud on the state and its people also carries with it the grit and determination to scuttle the probe – sooner or later. The only question is, how many more killings or deaths it would take to hush up the whole matter or distort the process of justice. Where is Narendra Modi, who promised change to governance of this country? Other than the PMO seeking a report on the scam and on the series of deaths of witnesses and accused in quick succession, Modi is keeping his cool too. Or he is preoccupied with his foreign jaunts. And, if we are made to believe this is governance, how would we react other than with utter contempt to those who promised us the moon? As things stand, Chouhans and Ram Naresh Yadavs are a curse on the system of democracy itself.

Waiting for the probe report to surface after so many years is not the way forward. Modi, the BJP and the RSS would do well to take stock of the situation, make a clean breast of what has gone right or wrong with the governance process in the state, and send the Chouhans and Yadavs packing if they are prima facie found to be guilty. Giving them a long rope would not serve the purpose of justice. If there is prima facie evidence, they should be put behind bars without bail, as the fraud that was perpetrated, or seen to have been perpetrated, is of such notorious proportions.

The very system in a democracy was undercut by those who were given the handle to take it forward. The educated and qualified youths from ordinary families were sidestepped to give jobs through the backdoor to the undeserving candidates by a mix of corruption, bribe-taking, nepotism and favouritism. When the chief minister’s wife herself is among the accused, and the governor and his family are also believed to be a party to the wrong-doing, there is no escape route for the guilty if a fair probe takes place and action taken. It is only a question of whether the BJP and Modi would want to act or not act. premcee@gmail.com; India here and now