| Published on 28-02-2008 In National |
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Written by
Cho Ramaswamy |
The information coughed up by the kidney racketeers [around New Delhi] has resulted in the arrest of a sub-inspector of police.
The officer has been accused of accepting bribes running into lakhs of rupees to ensure that the ringleaders beat the rap.
Reports allege that a manhunt is afoot to nab other cops involved in the case who have dropped out of sight.
Arrests of cops on charges of graft and being eventually sentenced are certainly not novelties as corruption amongst the uniformed fraternity is as much an open secret as the knowledge of the birds and the bees.
Those caught with their palms in the till, no doubt, ought to be prosecuted and punished.
But, will such steps result in weeding out corruption?
The fact that this malaise doesn't originate from the human resources meant to maintain law and order is evident from another nationally accepted axiom – the presence of the crooked in every nook and corner of public life. From dirty verandas in the tahsildars' offices to the seats of power in the secretariats, sleaze triggered by dishonesty, deceit and avarice is officialdom's largest common denominator.
Therefore, to expect this reprehensible part of public life to be banished by merely booking a sub-inspector or jailing an assistant commissioner is as foolhardy as believing in mirages to yield the nectar of life in a bone dry desert.
The exact amount of money that changes hands to get individuals into the governmental system may be known only to those who are willing tools who complete the despicable vicious circles.
And on that count, blaming a few junior officials in the police hierarchy for this sorry state of affairs is sillier than placing confidence on convicted con-artists.
When bird-flu belaboured certain districts of West Bengal did anyone believe that clipping the wings of the odd bird would even out the danger?
Large scale culling was the corollary to constrict the catastrophe.
Yet, poultry in the neighbouring states was polluted.
Let us admit the fact that bribery is a virus that has adversely affected our lives unalterably. Hence, the act of fleecing a solitary feather – in other words - hauling a minor minder cannot be a quick cure of an epidemic.
But then, errant humans who have permeated our society cannot be simply culled like common cockerels. To correct the corrupt, one has to control its core cause – our crass political class.
Believe me, it is not going to be easy.
Can our central regime be expected to cook the geese of those who facilitated Quattrochhi's facile flight a la the kidney kingpins?
Will anyone gather enough guts to bring the black sheep, whose machinations manifested themselves in Mayawati's diabolical decamp to book?
When the powers that be at the centre audaciously aid and abet those accused of stinking sins, how do we cleanse our Augean Stables?
Well, one method is to butt by ballot mendacious managements that mar our motherland's magnificent majesty through their multiple misdemeanours.
Viruses of the winged have to be wrung out as they destroy human habitation. Similarly preventing political pests' prolongation in power is indeed our patriotic punctiliousness.
(Translated from Thuglak by TSV Hari)
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