Over the past few decades, India, has witnessed several cases of top level politician corruptions. I don’t think any Indian aged above 25 years would find it difficult to list a few, Bofors Case, Fodder Scam and then the mother of all embarrassments the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Never, has any action been taken of any Politician or top bureaucrat. The 2G Scam, seems to have created history? Not only is it one of the largest scam but also a scam that has claimed the first formal arrest of a former cabinet minister.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja was arrested on 2nd Feb 2011. Also arrested were two men who worked closely with A Raja - R K Chandolia, who served as his Personal Secretary, and Siddharth Behura, who was Telecom Secretary. Amazing isn’t it? I mean, a politician and 2 bureaucrats arrested, not even the pain of thousands of deaths in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy brought such a massive reaction.
Is this for real? Does this mean that sentiments of the citizens really matter? Or is it just a smoke screen. Well, the Congress Party has been managing a corrupt system post-independence, BJP started only later and in my view is less corrupt. A few thousand crores has never been a problem. So why this sudden change?
To be honest, I think a lot of credit for this should go to three group of people first the Media, they have done exceedingly well in revealing details of the scam. Second, the opposing NDA alliance never colluded with the ruling UPA this time, no back door settlements were made. This is surprising. Finally, the third and most important group of the growing educated class in India. The recent election results in Bihar have been an eye opener to all political parties and I believe hadn’t Nitish Kumar won the election on issues related to development as opposed to cast and poverty this arrest would have never happened.
So here it is, INR 1.76 lakh crores lost by Indian Citizens, in return of something that is truly priceless, an arrest of a former cabinet minister. I hope this change is for real and is permanent.
