SEVEN GOLDEN RULES FOR CORRUPTION.

One of the most fascinating things about India is the durability of its corrupt. Cats with their nine lives would look modest in front of Sukh Ram or J Jayalalitha or George Fernandes. Why are the corrupts so durable? How does corruption function as a rule game? What does it say about morality?

The tehelka tapes, the bofors scandal, the hawala scam or the fodder scam and many such cons to con the common man. Yet each time these politicians slip and make the judicial system dance to their tunes. When a scam surfaces these politicians vanish into thin air, some boldly refute the allegations yet they all come back to ‘lead’ our nation towards progress and prosperity(sic!)

You can be on the take but don’t challenge the normative nature of system. Be a crook but don’t question goodness. You become a villain when you do both. Rules of corruption need to be understood:-
RULE ONE: Even if you are bad, do show some signs of goodness. Appeal to values. Value-based politics like value-based education can hide a lot of things. Hint that you fought corruption 90 per cent of the time. That is good enough to get you elected 100 per cent of the time. Sukh Ram understood it. So what if the goose feathers in his pillow were genuine currency notes. He returned to power on an anticorruption plank.

RULE TWO: Don’t be arrogant; don’t talk down to people. Jayalalitha does that. She is a solo performance. Watch Laloo Yadav now. His corruption is like a joke he shares. It implicates everyone – the listerners, the media, the police and sometimes even Laloo himself. Laloo’s corruption is a collective joke. It is populism at its best. With Laloo one feels, corruption is a possibility all of us share – like loot. We end up thinking none of us is all that bad. Jaya Jaitley thinks she is the prima donna. She does not know there is no ivy league of corruption.

RULE THREE: Share, always share your loot. Even if it is 80:20. Don’t hog all 100 per cent. That is what Jayalalitha did, while Karunanidhi survives offering a theory of sustainable corruption. Corruption , like distributive justice, is all about sharing.

RULE FOUR: Remember corruption is a sport and a competitive one. Remember it should never be a zero-sum game. When one is punished and wiped out, the sense of sport, the possibility of eternal return is gone. In corruption like in Hindi cinema, one must always allow for a second chance. A R Antulay understood it like other politicians. It is not a shortness of memory, it is the necessity of forgetting as the only way of forgiving. In corruption as in Hinduism no one is totally good or bad.

RULE FIVE: Allow for the rule of law. Nothing protects the corrupt like due process. It helps the innocent but saves the guilty. Start a court case and it can stretch longer than an Ekta Kapoor serial.

RULE SIX: Love democracy. It treats everyone alike. Everyone is a citizen as a voter. You can get elected even from jail. Shibu Soren would indeed be the right person to tell this in details. Yes!only Indian jails stimulate so much electoral activity.

RULE SEVEN: Be bold and honest in rebutting the allegations made against you. Claim valiantly that the company or the contract is fictitious….a la George Fernandes. Assert that the tapes or photographs or conversations are all maligned by the opposition. Assure everyone that you have fought corruption, MNCs and are a true patriot. Your political skills on display!

Wow….seven lovely rules. Remember it and be corrupt as you like. Buy Harrier jets, Bofors guns and forget your taxes. But do send a little something to the local police stations; even they need to survive this big game of corruption...

MANY MORE 'BOMB'AYS TO EXPLODE.

The recent terror attacks in Mumbai, the daily killings in Kashmir, the naxal attacks, the infiltration of terrorists through the seas, a failing intelligence service and the frantic calls for the government to act, point to nothing strange or novel. If anything, all these underline a state of affairs which has existed right from the ’93 blasts to the 26 November 2008 terror attacks and perhaps might continue…

The people of India are weary. India is crying for peace. We yearn for freedom. Everybody out there has a formula for peace and prosperity but nobody seems to be able to transcend these talks and statements. This war against India is a fruit of politics which was seeded in 1947, when mother India was split and divided on religious norm. The deadly game of politics played then, has given birth to the likes of LeT, Al Badr, Hizbul Mujahideen and others. These Islamic groups have waged their ‘holy’ war against India and its citizens. Their objective is to merge J&K with Pakistan. They view Kashmir as the gateway to our country for rescuing Muslims here. They have now successfully moved out of Kashmir and spread their wings across India. Militant Islam is actually a dangerous and scary political force that is using Islam as a convenient ploy to extend its tentacles of fear worldwide

Terrorists for us, jehadis for some – yet humans in the end!!! Times and now I have tried to think from their point of view, understand their psychology, their thought processes. Tried to find an answer….why this war? These young, little ‘terrorists’ are brain washed, are taken advantage of their weakness. Some are lured in by cash like the case of Mohammad Aamir Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Some join in influenced by lunatics. Money, religion, family are all such reasons why these young men become scapegoats. Well a bigger reason could possibly be - a lack of identity.

The Muslims in India, particularly in Kashmir and in POK have continued their struggle for the right to self determination for more than five decades, despite the brutality and suppression inflicted on them by Indian Occupation forces. The Pakistanis have seen defeat at the hands of Indian forces in 1965, 1971 and 1999. Their blood boiled when they lost East Bengal (Bangladesh) and always blamed it on our lack of ‘love for Islam’. Pakistanis fight for an identity. A nation of their own, not as a part of something.

The rise of militancy in Kashmir was never well tackled either by India or Pakistan. The blame game continues and has resulted in people, in both countries, loosing their - lives, families, a sense of trust on their respective governments. If the security route was the right course to follow in Kashmir, India’s problems would have been long solved. But the problem as every sane man or woman in India realizes, goes deeper. It touches the sullenness of an entire population. What is India’s answer to this deep rooted alienation? More battalions to the Indian army? Harsher measures against the local population of Kashmir? Beating louder drums of cross border terrorism? All these have not worked before. Are they likely to bring any miracles now?

Terrorism must be tackled and weeded out from its roots itself. Let us admit that these roots are the young Muslim men and women who have heard stories about their forefathers being driven out of their country, who have witnessed the brutal killings of their fellows, who are tired of telling people that they are INDIANS, who live as strangers in their country, who are continuously being judged by their names and religion, who are fighting for a nation of their own, who demand an identity, an individuality of their own. Our failure to understand them, their needs, their feelings have all while proved us costly. A sense of belonging to their motherland and respect, love and tolerance towards other countries needs to be developed and nurtured within them. If countries across the globe fail to understand this very point and treat these ‘budding’ terrorists as outsiders or Satan’s agents, many more ‘Kasabs’ and ‘Ismail khans’ are waiting to explode many more bombays.