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Some new hope

For long, the game was on; and right under all our nose. In the collective loot of the nation and .....




  #1  
10-23-2012
Senior Member
 
: Oct 2012
: Adur, Kerala, India
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Thumbs up Some new hope


For long, the game was on; and right under all our nose. In the collective loot of the nation and its wealth, politicians of all shades helped each other, rival sides looked the other way and diverted people's attention by occasionally raising trivial matters, and the media dominated by vested interests played along. With Arvind Kejriwal entering the scene and playing spoil sport, here now is the dawn of a new era of people's voice being raised against the rot that is eating into the vitals of the national system of governance.

But, will Kejriwal succeed, or will these hand-in-the-honeypot politicians get away with their acts and have the last laugh? As of now, this is a million dollar question.

Consider the ambivalance with which men like Digvijay Singh talks: that, the Congress knew about corruption by those like LK Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee, and chose to keep quiet about it; or matters like Sonia Gandhi cautioning the BJP against mud-slinging as it would hurt both sides; or Sushama Swaraj boldly proclaiming she and her party would solidly stand by Nitin Gadkari, come what may; or Salman Khurshid ranting against Khejriwal, holding out his threat to get his own men to spill blood and his comparison of the activist to an 'ant' set against an elephant. What has given them the boldness to stand up and hold forth?

The sentiment behind such statements are all too clear. This is indicative of the abrasiveness with which these so-called people's representatives make light of the issue of corruption. Tragic as it might sound, by now, these men and women have emboldened themselves in a way that are under the impression that we, the people, are simply fools; that we would enjoy the rhetoric and laugh things out; and that we will dutifully stand in queue for the next elections, and return them and their parties to power. Why? Because, these men know that we have seen it all, sat back paralysed, and more or less given up the issue; that we have reconciled to the fate we have fallen in, knowing pretty well that the stranglehold of these politicos is such today that the only way open before us is sit back and blink -- to mind our own business and keep quiet about it all.

This, here, is a challenge before us: we the people.

Can Kejriwal clean up the Augean stables by diverting the water from the Ganges, first, to the filth that the political class has heaped on the system of governance that's well entrenched in capital Delhi, and take the crusade to the rest of the country in due course? In all fairness, the movement -- India Against Corruption -- is still in its infancy, and it does not yet have a proper base to start with; and it does not even have a strong support base. What propelled it, to begin with, was the aura that a selfless Anna Hazare has given it; but, frankly, even those who have initially taken to the movement with great enthusiasm was let down by what was generally perceived as the drift, the lack of momentum, the lack of direction, and even the rift within, a situation compounded by Anna's own sudden lapse into silence. But, in the past two weeks, with Kejriwal rising up decisively and taking the stand that he would rather confront the political system from within, and not from without, and putting his best foot forward with a flurry of exposes, the scene seems to change for the better. Without doubt, it has galvanised the mood to an extent.

Clearly, it now transpires, the interim period of relative silence on the part of the India Against Corruption activists, was a time when Kejriwal and his team were doing their homework. That they now have aces up their sleeves is, by now, without doubt. And, they are hitting right where it hurts, starting with the most powerful and the most talked about son-in-law of this country of 1.1 billion, sending shivers down the spines of the so-called first family. By comparison, Salman Khurshid was a small fry, and the allegations against him do not measure up to the levels of corruption that we, the public, perceive of our senior politicians as being capable of indulging in. Yet, an expose is an expose, and the hysterical way Khurshid and his family reacted to the allegations is proof there are skeletons in their cupboard. Nitin Gadkari, too, escaped with minor bruises, but it clearly was the trigger. With Kejriwal shooting the arrow, the media has picked thing up in right earnest, rising from its long slumber, and the BJP boss will have a lot of explaining to do if all his suspectedly shady activities come up for close scrutiny. How long can the RSS, which backed him to the hilt so far, carry on this burden on its mighty head is a moot point.

One guesses, the fact that the Kejriwal and Co has so far not touched the real big fish in the Delhi Durbar -- the ring leaders of corruption -- is less a matter concern, and more of timing. The years that passed by were years of a free-for-all. Perceptions are that an irresponsible leadership, or an extra-constitutional authority, hijacked all powers at the helm even as a well-meaning yet docile Manmohan Siingh and his team effected a major economic push for the country. The drama has gone to such an extent that the overall messing up of the national systems --and the national ethos that once was firmly anchored in Mahatma Gandhi's idealistic way of life -- is scary; so much so, the no-holds-barred corruption by the political class has percolated down to the officialdom, and the spectacle today is deadly.

A natural question that arises is why has the know-all media did little to expose the rot. The answer lies in the kind of media that we have today both at the professional and management levels, which are ably led mainly by a breed of self-centered, high-profile anchormen and anchor women whose commitment to a social cause, unlike in the distant past, and despite all the daily rants, is just about skin-deep. The Radia tapes exposed what was only the tip of the iceberg.

The Delhi elections, which Kejriwal and his men are obviously targeting at this point of time, to start with, will be a litmus test of the general public mood. It should give the citizens the first opportunity to put their foot down and cry a halt: a halt to the blatant abuse of power by men and women who get elected with our votes, then, taking advantage of the drift at the top leadership level, loot the national wealth, build their own personal and business empires, and lead the people up the garden path.

Till now, with political parties including the communists, maintaining a studied silence about the issue of corruption, skeletons tumbled from the governmental and political cupboard only when the CAG smelt a rat, or detected a massive scam, like the 2G Spectrum, or Coal-block allocations. Granted that Kejriwal and his men get the proper support from us, the people, who know it all and yet couldn't react, it should be the people's power that should ultimately triumph.

 



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