Scams : New Zero Tolerance
Something is afoot. Not the ongoing serial exposures of IPL shenanigans , Commonwealth Games Scams, Adarsh Society, 2G scam, Karnataka Mining mafias, LIC Housing loans, and now Radia tapes leaks, etc. Only the birds and school kids ever believed in the brightness of the Emerging India script . We all have known, and known for long decades, that it is not only in Denmark or the Allahabad High Court where something is rotten. The smart have in fact deciphered the genetik and politik of the Indian rottenness and prospered by shrewd sub radar navigation through it for decades. Of course.What is new is the serial nature of the expose`s and the curious aftermath. Exposures of scams in India are old hat , and there is a whole repertoire of dealing with them commissions, CBI probes, JPCs, etc- to carry on business as usual while creating the second- order illusion that scams can be tackled. But this time a different script seems to be unfolding.
From the outset the messages is of no shielding of the unfortunate guilty. Tharoor had to go ; Kalmadi and company were told that they will have to go and they are going; Raja has gone; Ashok Chavan had to go, and the Generals and Admirals are being chased; others are being readied for similar punishments.
A new rectitude is in the air. This is strange .And it goes further. Vedanta, POSCO, Karnatakas mining syndicates, telecom companies, Lavasa etc which are among the main pillars of Emerging India have been put on real, and legal, notice. Astounded, the pillars are complaining, and going to high courts and cutely demanding natural justice. But the buzz is : rule of law to prevail and guilty be punished , even if holy cows like foreign investments or market sentiments are hurt. This is surely something new. Even Pawar has uttered sentences of protest. It is this new nip in the air and not the shaggy old JPC for 2G spectrum that has jammed up not only the parliament but the whole darbaristan of New Delhi today.
So, andar ki baat kya hai?
Is it a new conversion or the good old Haj after eating 900 mice? Are the half- unveiled Mr and Ms Cleans of India striking out for a gleaming India, or is it yet another, third- order sleight of hand of the bad old India? Hm , lets see. What are the straws in the wind?Unlike the post WW II south- east Asia or the newly fledged
Russia, India has been holding out on full scope Reforms just as it has been doing so on full scope NPT/IAEA regimes. Indias elite , shrewd like the firangi elites , wants its full pound of flesh. The Indo-US nuclear deal was the turning point, crafted by Bush and Manmohan Singh.
An aside: the Club is not an ossified restroom of English baronetcy, but a sort of poolroom hangout of yankee-european old money-new money tango , often a mafia, a FIFA / Formula 1 cabal, or even a neo- Masonic knightly parade- ground.
Now it will not do as it was possible earlier to stop POSCO on environmental or any other laws
and let our Jindals and Aggarwals, or even Tatas and Ambanis , get away. Now law
has to be law, no feudal exemptions please. Obama has already promised Security Council seat and pointedly told the Indian parliament that India, therefore, has to behave and fulfill obligations of a responsible world power.
From now on global capitalisms club- rules apply. This transformation is what is actually going on today in newspapers , magazines , and TV screens.Of course there are many sides to it, as all club rules always have.
Indian domestic and foreign policies will of course be made covergent with America`s, still the fattest cat of the club. Of course all this will have to be dovetailed with launching of Rahul Gandhi the prime Ms Clean in 2014; new managers like Jairam Ramesh, Manishankar Aiyer, Digvijay Singh, Omar Abdullah etc are busy jockeying for stewardships. Of course, and yadda yadda of course.
Manmohan Singh, the humble beadle of this conversion since his 1991 Budget Speech unleashing animal spirits is now well on his way to apotheosis despite his ever- pardoned , correct, but politically inept or ill timed foreign policy sallies on Kashmir, Pakistan etc. There is even talk of a Nobel prize. Yes , dont be surprised.
See?
Bihar has already understood this first in India, as usual.In short, what we are seeing is Indias own New Deal unfolding towards a globally syndicated non welfare- state of pure, unalloyed , capitalism. And naturally it will have Indian Characteristics. Jai ho !