Part III
Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount said “they (the meek) shall inherit the earth”. But who shall rule it ?
We live in kalyuga that Vishnu Purana so presciently foresaw as one where “ kings will be of churlish spirit,violent temper ,and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness....dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence..” Till the redeemer, Kalki , arrives the world, therefore, is likely be ruled by the corrupt.
Or the ‘honest’ corrupt, the more vicious. Like a ruminant they keep regurgitating righteous indignation at the corrupt. All are caluminiated as corrupt who dare not sit on their bandwagon . They carry a laundromat about them. The corrupt ‘others’ are incentivised to drop their ill-gotten coins into it and emerge laundered as Snow White BJP denizens ; like Himanta Biswa Sarma who BJP identified as the Assam kingpin in Louis Berger bribery case ; like Sukh Ram convicted in telecom scam ; like Mukul Roy of Shradha scam infamy ;like Pema Khandu charged of “corruption and criminal conspiracies” by none other than his former chief ministe, Late Kalikho Pul. Unabashedly, they will rail against the corrupt from a stage populated by men prosecuted for corruption and their political mentors like the Yeddys, the Reddys and Sriramulu.
The honest are honestly compelled to keep honest company. The ‘honest’ corrupt ,on the other hand ,while they do not allow a single speck of dirt to settle on their jackets, let their ‘fellows’ in sullied clothes dip their hands in muck to achieve the collective goal of Congress mukt Hindu Rashtra first , and the mundane existential concerns of aam aadmi as a byproduct. Any political order that believes in ends justifying the means is well and truly on the corruption highway.
The honest corrupt will not further an eco system that inhibits corruption like putting a Lokpal in office, and operationalising an effective Whistleblower legislation, and making funding of political parties more transparent. Rather ,it allows floatation of electoral bonds that flow into coffers of political parties anonymously, opening up secret negotiating chambers where corporate donations get weighed and balanced with appropriate quid pro quo.
The honest corrupt will apply the law uniformly differently. Allegations of Dushyant Singh selling his company shares to Lalit Modi of IPLgate notoriety @100000 per share , or Piyush Goyal his at 1000 times book value to Piramals involving a clash of interest, or Jay Shah’s company sales jumping 16000 times within a year on BJP’s ascent to power at centre are all laughed away. But Kirti Chidambaram gets the stick, hounded by multiple agencies, including CBI & ED looking for straws of evidence , ending finally in arrest for lack of cooperation in investigations. The temerity of not confessing his guilt did him in.
The honest corrupt will not inquire what suddenly induces MLAs from opposition parties breaking away to it at crucial junctures like RS elections in Gujarat,; or assembly elections in UK, Assam ; or an entire Congress govt in AP shifting to BJP, or how the largest party at hustings, fails to gather majority support but by some queer circumstance, a losing BJP does , whether it be Manipur, Meghalaya, or Goa.
The honest corrupt are like an umbrella . Under its canopy cronies can go about their business unmolested . Hyigher and Shahl in their typology of corruption include,
“state capture or regulatory capture - collusion among public and private agents for private benefit “ ,
“state capture or regulatory capture - collusion among public and private agents for private benefit “ ,
In layman terms, cronyism.
And it is here that the honest corrupt are implacable. We will look into it next .
To be continued....
Sir,
ReplyDeleteAlmost all Prime Ministers may have been personally honest but none could actually stop his or her party from generating illegal funds for fighting elections including the present Prime Minister.
To mention a few, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri would probably qualify for being the most honest. Even today, as far as I am aware, none of his grand children are super rich. While Gulazari Lal Nanda who was stop gap Prime Minister on two occasions, was fairly poor at the time of his death and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's integrity as Prime Minister too cannot be questioned.
Most CMs however, have managed to amass personal fortunes. Their palatial houses, businesses and the properties owned by their offsprings, spouses and siblings is proof enough. We just need to look at their extravagant lifestyles and one knows all that.
Luckily so far, none of these type of CMs, ex CMs have managed to become Prime Minister, which is why I am hopeful that none of the heads of family owned parties will ever make it to the post. I am sure you know who all I am talking about.
Deviating from the subject, I may say that there are a lot of other good things which have started rolling out during the present govt's rule.
I do subscribe to the idea of highlighting the emergence of India and China as two large
economies with both strategic and decisional autonomy, the two 'great' and leaders 'honest corrupt' as you have defined, have stated during their recently concluded informal summit that their decisions have both regional and global implications.
I'm of the viewpoint that an apt characterization of the warming up of the bilateral ties could be noticed in
their effort to strengthen the ‘Closer Development Partnership' in a mutually beneficial and sustainable
manner in pursuit of both national modernisation and greater prosperity for its people .
And now, political matters apart, your creative ability to think out of the box in the most challenging situations and
your ability to think of alternatives and constant strive to experiment and drive results is reflected in your write-ups which has always been a great source of inspiration and a driving force for me to follow you.
The word power in your write-ups are beyond imagination(s) and exceed the normal standards of output delivery.
In fact, I'm always in lookout for new words in your writings and try to improve upon my stock of words.
I really love going through your articles.
Hat's off to you, Sir.
Fantastic Ashok , brilliant write up and smooth flowing flawless language. Do write more.
DeleteYes ,I do agree Modi sarkar is doing well in some areas ,the pluses, and poorly in others, the minuses. So much is written of the pluses that I can add little value to it. To me it’s just as important to critique a regime as to eulogise it. I leave the latter part to others and take up the former role -pointing out the jarring notes.
About China ,India is yet to evolve a policy - to oppose its expansionism or setting aside boundary issues engage with it on the basis of reciprocity. So far India just remains a market for Chinese goods without equal access to their markets.It imposes too many non tariff barriers on our exports.