Righteous and Dharmic Governance

Bharat has been reeling under one corruption scandal after another under a venal and
corrupt government. Hanumanji must surely be praying for the return of his beloved
Rama to Bharat. Even the Prime Minister, hailed as being incorrupt, is now revealed as a weak one who looked the other way during his tenure. No doubt he will go down in history as the first Indian PM who has been asked to file an affidavit by the Supreme Court concerning the question raised by a responsible citizen about prosecuting A.Raja, the minister who piloted the mother of all scams, the 2G Spectrum scam.

The fourth estate, except for one or two shocking cases, has acquitted itself well. The various scams have been exposed. Kudos especially to Shri Gopikrishnan of The Pioneer who determinedly went after the scamsters and uncovered the massive corruption of the Congress-DMK alliance in the 2GSpectrum scam which has defrauded the national exchequer of Rs. 1,760,00,00,00,000 !

The nation also owes a debt of gratitude to Dr.Subramanian Swamy, former Law Minister and professor of economics at Harvard University, for his patriotic commitment to find out what actually happened and initiated the process over three years ago of writing to the Prime Minister asking for sanction to prosecute A. Raja. While Dr.Swamy continues to pay tribute to the Prime Minister’s personal integrity, the larger and deeper question he raised is : why did the PM not act until a few days ago, when he was forced to do so under media and public pressure ?

Dr. Swamy’s answer seems to be that the circumstances of the PM’s appointment (not elected) prevented him from acting independently of what Dr. Swamy calls the ‘sanctions’agent above the PM. This agent was responsible for his elevation to the high
office of prime minister of India.

This raises the question of whether an individual in public life who may himself be above
corruption should condone corruption around him. There are varieties of corruption and silence and inaction emanating from an individual whose first allegiance should be to the nation and to the Constitution and not the fortunes of a political party, is a type of corruption, in the opinion of the present writer.

The jhollawallahs and the GDP wallahs can continue their round of milking the national exchequer, along with the openly corrupt ministers in government. But the Indian public must ask the question : why is a corrupt and venal government continuing in office ?

And should such a party have nominated Dr. Singh to his post, knowing fully well that he was expected to be a mere figurehead ? Above all, should Dr. Singh himself have imposed a misguided silence on himself . Hanumanji’s prayer alone can now save Bharat.

(The writer is a Political Philosopher who taught at a Canadian university)