The Anna Hazare anti corruption movement dominated newspaper headlines and bulletins alike for the greater part of 2011. It also brought to light a group called the IAC (India Against Corruption) and a certain Mr. Arvind Kejriwal who fought tooth and nail for the Lokpal Bill which was ultimately slated to be passed during the monsoon session. Conveniently for the Congress, the BJP would bring up a totally unrelated scam and halt proceedings almost completely and this bill was never passed. It's lovely that the Government has been involved in so many scams that it can bring them up to distract people from other scams; it adds so much flavour to our country. I don't think I've been bored since CWG or Adarsh or 2G (honestly can't remember which one came first) came into the limelight.
Forgive me, I digress. After the Government sort of agreed on the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare would disappear and start working on other things. Kejriwal wanted to start a political party of his own to fight the 2014 elections. However, there is a flaw to this master plan. Kejriwal did not want any sort of political framework in his party. It now looks like a vague, ambiguous blob which regularly chants 'For the people, By the people, Of the people' while pausing to express outrage that Anna Hazare has decided not to promote it. This 'Third Front' has greatly troubled the Government on various issues which is great to watch, but accusing the Congress Chief's son-in-law seems like taking the matter one step too far. I mean sure, accusing a businessman and a major company of mutual masturbation while slyly mentioning that the businessman happens to be Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law seems like a good idea in theory, but do you really think it's a strong enough accusation to force the Government to quit? This Government has messed up an international sports event, sold for profit a building meant for war heroes, made horrible business decisions while allocating 2G spectrum and a limited fossil fuel, watched silently as Assam erupted in violence and still claimed to have the people's interests at heart, and THAT was the best you could do? Seriously?
If you really want to dent the Government's armour of corruption, don't move on to unrelated, unpolitical businessmen just because they come from the same family. You've slyly made an enemy of the DLF now, and I can guarantee that more people want to watch the IPL than the amount of people who vote in every elections. If you want to make a genuine effort to eradicate corruption in the business world, there are bigger fish to fry. Go after the Ambanis or the Mallyas, they have enough skeletons in their closet. Don't pick a soft target such as a random son in law who happens to be a businessman. It's the political equivalent of sitting on the fence, especially since your political party is still somewhere between genuine party and people's movement. 2 years to be taken seriously, you can't waste time like this.
It's unfortunate that 300 crores seems like loose change in India now when it comes to scams. What's ironic is that in the United States, Obama's getting a better challenge from Romney than the Congress is from the BJP simply based on not being active enough. There's no corruption, no skeletons in the closet, nothing involved. It's a fair election over the economics and politics of America and in India, we're still trying to choose the lesser evil. What's scary is that as a journalism student, you read about Watergate and marvel at how Bernstein and Woodward got President Nixon to resign over a break in. In India, the Government would blink, laugh at the effort and move on, unfazed. They eat scandals like that for breakfast.
Forgive me, I digress. After the Government sort of agreed on the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare would disappear and start working on other things. Kejriwal wanted to start a political party of his own to fight the 2014 elections. However, there is a flaw to this master plan. Kejriwal did not want any sort of political framework in his party. It now looks like a vague, ambiguous blob which regularly chants 'For the people, By the people, Of the people' while pausing to express outrage that Anna Hazare has decided not to promote it. This 'Third Front' has greatly troubled the Government on various issues which is great to watch, but accusing the Congress Chief's son-in-law seems like taking the matter one step too far. I mean sure, accusing a businessman and a major company of mutual masturbation while slyly mentioning that the businessman happens to be Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law seems like a good idea in theory, but do you really think it's a strong enough accusation to force the Government to quit? This Government has messed up an international sports event, sold for profit a building meant for war heroes, made horrible business decisions while allocating 2G spectrum and a limited fossil fuel, watched silently as Assam erupted in violence and still claimed to have the people's interests at heart, and THAT was the best you could do? Seriously?
If you really want to dent the Government's armour of corruption, don't move on to unrelated, unpolitical businessmen just because they come from the same family. You've slyly made an enemy of the DLF now, and I can guarantee that more people want to watch the IPL than the amount of people who vote in every elections. If you want to make a genuine effort to eradicate corruption in the business world, there are bigger fish to fry. Go after the Ambanis or the Mallyas, they have enough skeletons in their closet. Don't pick a soft target such as a random son in law who happens to be a businessman. It's the political equivalent of sitting on the fence, especially since your political party is still somewhere between genuine party and people's movement. 2 years to be taken seriously, you can't waste time like this.
It's unfortunate that 300 crores seems like loose change in India now when it comes to scams. What's ironic is that in the United States, Obama's getting a better challenge from Romney than the Congress is from the BJP simply based on not being active enough. There's no corruption, no skeletons in the closet, nothing involved. It's a fair election over the economics and politics of America and in India, we're still trying to choose the lesser evil. What's scary is that as a journalism student, you read about Watergate and marvel at how Bernstein and Woodward got President Nixon to resign over a break in. In India, the Government would blink, laugh at the effort and move on, unfazed. They eat scandals like that for breakfast.
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