The Times Of India

24 November 2010

Hey, what's happening to India?

Tarun Vijay

"Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?"

Ran the line in the Open magazine exposing the wheeling-dealing between the corporate world and the most pious secular sirens of the noble industry — the fourth estate.

What after this?

Nothing. The media empire, the grand old houses of money and power protect each other. They have the platform to reach millions, but not a single one has tried to discuss it threadbare with the same savage ferocity they show in ripping apart their ideological opponents after having tasted a good French wine in a vineyard. They often use papers and channels for their political vendettas and abuse every other person they dislike without showing any civility. Then their outfits shut their doors for the other voices. No, the censorship is not by the state. It's by the media houses. They invite guests to their shows and use them to have their own "super Oprah" image projected at the cost of the other voices and other viewpoints. Look what they have done, which made Washington Post write this: "India's fiercely competitive and hungry free press has become the rising nation's watchdog, unearthing a long list of banking scandals, real-estate scams and most recently, extensive government corruption during the international Commonwealth Games. But in recent days, Indian journalists have been accused of wrongdoing, including having inappropriate conversations with a corporate lobbyist and acting more like power brokers in recordings released as part of an investigation into an audacious multibillion swindle — considered the biggest scandal to hit the new India."

India is going through moral turmoil. The man who helped go scot-free India's first Supreme Court judge slated to be impeached for corruption was rewarded to become minister for human resources directing the education system. The man who would supervise all corruption cases for ensuring punishment for the guilty is the one who himself is facing charges and when the Supreme court asked the reason for this, the attorney general had the cheek to rebuff the lords of justice in these words: "If impeccable integrity becomes an eligibility criterion, then all judicial and constitutional appointments will be open to question."

That's what is happening to the land of all virtues and 9% growth rate. The nation which boasts of a great functional democracy, looks dwarfed before countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. With a quivered lip and a smile that can't be hidden, they can say, oh my God, this is you? Your journalists, your ministers and your judges … phew!!

The fear of "revenge killings" is so deep that the politicians, otherwise so vocal in demanding a probe into many other scandals, are keeping their mouths shut, least a bruised journalist take on them at "an appropriate time".

Just see the grandeur of our scandals:

• Rs 1.71 lakh crore in 2G spectrum scam.

• A high court judge is charged with serious graft in West Bengal.

• Two most vocal sirens of "all that's good for secularism and vocal missionaries of anti-Hindutva brigade" are caught on tape discussing, perhaps, "spiritual aspects of politics and the ashram-life plans" of Rajaji and Radiaji, who might be a Bhakti movement poetess. Who knows, after a few weeks, these channels will prove that too.

• The Commonwealth loot is estimated to be anything between Rs 60,000 crore and Rs 80,000 crore.

• The Adarsh housing scam crossed all limits by insulting the memories of our Kargil martyrs.

• Karnataka is scandalized, more because of the moneybag politics. But that too, doesn't add to the glory of any of us.

We have an official voice of law and justice and all that is attached to it. He is called attorney general of India. He is respectfully known as a protégé or confidant of the ruling empire —naturally Soniaji and Manmohanji. If he was not so, he won't have acquired the position that he is holding today. His words of wisdom to the Supreme Court have lowered India in everybody's eyes.

As columnist Vrinda Gopinath said: "Let's not hoodwink ourselves to believe that this morally pornographic journalism is objective, fair and exact. All of it stinks, in varying degrees of severity and phoniness."

This is an India where every single party, with the exception of the BJP and the communists, is virtually a family fiefdom. They are known by the names of their "masters", and not with their ideological distinctness.

An India where the assaulters abusing Mother India and the honour of soldiers remain untouched and unpunished but a comment on the head of a political party, much discarded and disowned, results in arson and stoning.

An India where the forced exile of half a million Indians remains a non-issue but millions of foreign infiltrators are helped to get registered as voters for the political convenience of a vote bank.

An India whose citizens, politicians and industrialists and administrators, stash a whopping Rs 70 lakh crore rupees in Swiss banks and the government, in spite of an assurance by the Swiss government, feels reluctant to ratify a treaty signed with the Swiss which would enable us to get the list of black-money stashers and maybe get the money back.

A nation where the terrorists facing charges of killing innocent patriotic Indians are offered lucrative comforts of money and jobs if they simply say "I surrender", thus humiliating and insulting the families of the martyred soldiers and citizens who often get less than what the killers of their sons and daughters would get.

A nation where looters become members of the ruling class and whistleblowers turn to be schemers asking the corporate agent "Tell me what should I tell them?"

Let the people tell these "elite" that they would be assigned to the dustbin.