People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

The Ravana of Corruption is Still Alive

WE greet our readers on the festive occasions of Dussera and Id-Uz-Zuha.

As we go to press, on Vijayadashamai, a large section of our people are celebrating the mythological triumph of good over evil.  However, the irony is inescapable. This irony lies in our contemporary realities where, perhaps outnumbering the multiple heads of Ravana, the evil heads of corruption keep popping up ever so often. The triumph of good over evil symbolised by the death of Ravana appears to be relatively insurmountable in the fight to weed out corruption from our system. 

Crony capitalism, defying nature, is in full bloom, as winter sets in, baring all its multiple fangs. The Congress and the BJP are busy trading charges against each other’s leaders. It is these two parties that are principally responsible for putting in place the current structure of the neo-liberal economy and reforms that have opened up hitherto unknown and inconceivable avenues for mega corruption. This neo-liberal trajectory led to the mushrooming of crony capitalism of the worst order. As a result, lakhs of crores or trillions of rupees have already been looted and continue to be looted further. During the past three years, various mega scams have come to light like the 2G spectrum, coal block allocations, Commonwealth Games scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam etc etc etc. 

While the government of the day – Congress-led UPA-2 – is in the dock to explain and be accountable for many of these scams, it has not gone unnoticed that the origins of some of these scams date back to the BJP-led NDA government of 1998-2004. Many, if not all, of these scams are yet to be fully investigated and the guilty prosecuted and punished. India’s track record of punishing the guilty in such matters is, indeed, woeful. 

One of the few of India’s top political leaders to be convicted on charges of corruption has been the former BJP president Bangaru Laxman. The current BJP president is now facing charges and seems to prove the point that he is carrying forward the legacy of his predecessor. One of the general secretaries of the Congress party has demanded that the prime minister order a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office into the allegations against at least, five corporate entities set up by the current BJP president and their alleged fraudulent activities. On its part, the BJP said that their president “is open to a free and fair investigation.” The BJP is already in the dock in Karnataka on charges of mega corruption involving, amongst others, illegal mining of the country’s natural resources. Its then chief minister had to be removed on these charges and is currently leading an inner-party rebellion. 

On its part, the BJP mounted a counter attack against the Congress by targeting a former union cabinet minister and now the chief minister hopeful in Himachal Pradesh.  The election campaign for the state assembly is currently in full swing. The BJP’s leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha has alleged that Mr Virabhadra Singh revised his income tax returns 12-fold to show an agricultural income of Rs 6.15 crore in 2012 as against Rs 51.05 lakh in 2010. The BJP has asked for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe these allegations. Mr Virabhadra Singh was earlier shown the door as a union cabinet minister on the basis of reports of alleged graft. Many years ago, a union minister from Himachal Pradesh was the centre of a large-scale corruption scam.  Therefore, like the current BJP president, is Mr Virabhadra Singh also carrying forward a legacy?

We had repeatedly argued in these columns that the current neo-liberal economic reforms have opened up the flood gates for money laundering, speculation and sweet heart deals that regularly siphon huge sums of money and resources for personal gain. More importantly, this is at the expense of denying our people a better livelihood status.

Such corruption is not just a moral issue. Of course, it is highly immoral, unethical, dishonest and amounts to daylight robbery.  The guilty must be punished. At the same time, however, if only the monies so looted were used for social welfare measures, the vast majority of our people, currently suffering under multiple economic burdens, would have vastly benefited. 

In contemporary Indian realities, therefore, the fight against such mega corruption is not only a moral question of the `good’ triumphing over the ‘evil.’ The success in this fight will directly result in providing a better quality livelihood to our people. Any success in this fight can only begin if the struggle is directed against the current trajectory of neo-liberal economic reforms, which is the fountainhead of such mega corruption. Thus, amongst all other important reasons to reverse the current policy trajectory in our country, the fact remains that this type of mega corruption cannot be eliminated unless this policy direction is reversed. 

Therefore, for the ‘good’ to triumph over the ‘evil’ in its complete sense, it is incumbent that popular people’s struggles must strengthen to force a reversal of this neo-liberal economic reform trajectory.                                        

(October 24, 2012)