Politics of lies and loot:-
The Indian Express
15.06.2013.
Politics of lies and loot:
Sudheendra Kulkarni : Sun May 12 2013, 00:56 hrs -
The battle of Mahabharata is over. Pandavas won the battle, caused by greed and lust for power on the part of Kauravas. As Krishna proclaims in the Bhagavad Gita, the good must prevail over the evil, and it has. Yudhishthir, the eldest and the most pious among the Pandava brothers, is persuaded to take up kingship despite his desire to take sanyas. One of the most instructive episodes in the epic comes when Yudhishthir meets Bhishma Pitamah to learn lessons in good governance.
The sage, then on his deathbed, tells Yudhishthir: "O King, just as the foot of an elephant covers every other foot, so does raj dharma cover every aspect of dharma, in all conditions. Among all dharmas, raj dharma is supreme, as it provides welfare and security to the entire society."
The true meaning of dharma is not religion, as is commonly misunderstood, but righteous performance of duty. Hence, if the king performs his dharma, it helps and prompts all others in society to perform their own respective duties righteously. Similarly, if the king resorts to adharma, it encourages others to do the same even more brazenly.
Doesn't this sermon from the Mahabharata describe what is happening in Bharat today?
What Bhishma Pitamah tells Yudhishthir next sounds even more contemporaneous: "For kings nothing except adherence to truth becomes the cause for the trust placed in them."
I remembered these lines when the Supreme Court censured the CBI for committing a "massive breach of trust" by presenting a government-doctored and truth-destroying status report on the coalgate scandal. But I also remembered them in the context of the massive raj adharma practised by the BJP government in Karnataka, because of which the party has received a well-deserved drubbing in the Assembly elections.
As remarked by the apex court, the CBI allowed the "heart" of its report to be changed by the law minister, who had demanded that the report be shown to him. Worse still, a senior law officer of the government appearing for the CBI was instructed to lie before the court that the report had not been shown to anybody. The pecuniary aspects of the coalgate scandal are a separate matter, and the truth about who gained how much due to arbitrary allocation of coal blocks, and at whose behest, must come out. But far more shocking is the crime of undermining the independence of the investigating agency, which has become, in the stinging rebuke administered by the Supreme Court, a "caged parrot speaking in its master's voice".
The law minister wouldn't have so arrogantly interfered in the CBI investigation had the aim not been to protect the Prime Minister, who was holding the coal portfolio at the time of the scam-tainted coal block allocations. But why does Dr Manmohan Singh need protection? Even his worst critics have not questioned his incorruptibility in monetary matters. The unsavoury truth is this: The PM is personally clean, but he turns a self-servingly blind eye when the credibility of the CBI, Law Ministry, Railway Ministry, JPC (probing the 2G scam) and several other institutions and instruments of governance are reduced to tatters. He has cut a sorry figure in performing his dharma as the 'king' of democratic India.When the king cannot discharge his duties righteously, Bhishma Pitamah's advice is: "Sacrifice your office, but don't subject it to sacrilege." Dr Singh is unlikely to heed it. By not doing so, his government will contribute further to the spread of adharma in both administration and society.
But why talk only about the Congress-led UPA's wrongdoings? The BJP's corrupt rule in Karnataka has considerably robbed the party of its moral right to criticise the UPA for its corruption scandals. The mining scam in the state, which resulted in not only the loot of a precious resource, but also environmental destruction of an egregious kind, remains the biggest blot on the BJP's claim to be a party wedded to good governance. Several BJP ministers in Karnataka made big money by selling the posts of vice-chancellors of universities, police officers, revenue officers, etc. Land-related scandals in Bangalore and other cities had become the order of the day. All this wasn't hidden from anybody, not even from senior BJP leaders in Delhi. Rahul Gandhi was perhaps right in saying, in his speeches during the election campaign, that the BJP broke all previous records of loot in Karnataka. What he failed to promise, however, was that the Congress, when voted to power, would provide corruption-free governance in the state.
Thus it's becoming more and more obvious that, when it comes to corruption, there is no political party with only Kauravas and no party with only Pandavas. All are tainted to varying degrees, even though the Congress must take the additional blame for routinely enslaving democratic institutions for its cynical power games. If this continues, not only our democracy but even India's development and national security would be in grave danger. The rot must be stemmed. And it can only be stemmed if individuals committed to raj neeti (ethical politics) and raj dharma fight the rot in their own respective institutions. They must raise these issues within their parties; they must also join hands with like-minded people regardless of their political affiliations, even if this entails risks and sacrifice of personal positions and comforts.
sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
15.06.2013.
Politics of lies and loot:
Sudheendra Kulkarni : Sun May 12 2013, 00:56 hrs -
The battle of Mahabharata is over. Pandavas won the battle, caused by greed and lust for power on the part of Kauravas. As Krishna proclaims in the Bhagavad Gita, the good must prevail over the evil, and it has. Yudhishthir, the eldest and the most pious among the Pandava brothers, is persuaded to take up kingship despite his desire to take sanyas. One of the most instructive episodes in the epic comes when Yudhishthir meets Bhishma Pitamah to learn lessons in good governance.
The sage, then on his deathbed, tells Yudhishthir: "O King, just as the foot of an elephant covers every other foot, so does raj dharma cover every aspect of dharma, in all conditions. Among all dharmas, raj dharma is supreme, as it provides welfare and security to the entire society."
The true meaning of dharma is not religion, as is commonly misunderstood, but righteous performance of duty. Hence, if the king performs his dharma, it helps and prompts all others in society to perform their own respective duties righteously. Similarly, if the king resorts to adharma, it encourages others to do the same even more brazenly.
Doesn't this sermon from the Mahabharata describe what is happening in Bharat today?
What Bhishma Pitamah tells Yudhishthir next sounds even more contemporaneous: "For kings nothing except adherence to truth becomes the cause for the trust placed in them."
I remembered these lines when the Supreme Court censured the CBI for committing a "massive breach of trust" by presenting a government-doctored and truth-destroying status report on the coalgate scandal. But I also remembered them in the context of the massive raj adharma practised by the BJP government in Karnataka, because of which the party has received a well-deserved drubbing in the Assembly elections.
As remarked by the apex court, the CBI allowed the "heart" of its report to be changed by the law minister, who had demanded that the report be shown to him. Worse still, a senior law officer of the government appearing for the CBI was instructed to lie before the court that the report had not been shown to anybody. The pecuniary aspects of the coalgate scandal are a separate matter, and the truth about who gained how much due to arbitrary allocation of coal blocks, and at whose behest, must come out. But far more shocking is the crime of undermining the independence of the investigating agency, which has become, in the stinging rebuke administered by the Supreme Court, a "caged parrot speaking in its master's voice".
The law minister wouldn't have so arrogantly interfered in the CBI investigation had the aim not been to protect the Prime Minister, who was holding the coal portfolio at the time of the scam-tainted coal block allocations. But why does Dr Manmohan Singh need protection? Even his worst critics have not questioned his incorruptibility in monetary matters. The unsavoury truth is this: The PM is personally clean, but he turns a self-servingly blind eye when the credibility of the CBI, Law Ministry, Railway Ministry, JPC (probing the 2G scam) and several other institutions and instruments of governance are reduced to tatters. He has cut a sorry figure in performing his dharma as the 'king' of democratic India.When the king cannot discharge his duties righteously, Bhishma Pitamah's advice is: "Sacrifice your office, but don't subject it to sacrilege." Dr Singh is unlikely to heed it. By not doing so, his government will contribute further to the spread of adharma in both administration and society.
But why talk only about the Congress-led UPA's wrongdoings? The BJP's corrupt rule in Karnataka has considerably robbed the party of its moral right to criticise the UPA for its corruption scandals. The mining scam in the state, which resulted in not only the loot of a precious resource, but also environmental destruction of an egregious kind, remains the biggest blot on the BJP's claim to be a party wedded to good governance. Several BJP ministers in Karnataka made big money by selling the posts of vice-chancellors of universities, police officers, revenue officers, etc. Land-related scandals in Bangalore and other cities had become the order of the day. All this wasn't hidden from anybody, not even from senior BJP leaders in Delhi. Rahul Gandhi was perhaps right in saying, in his speeches during the election campaign, that the BJP broke all previous records of loot in Karnataka. What he failed to promise, however, was that the Congress, when voted to power, would provide corruption-free governance in the state.
Thus it's becoming more and more obvious that, when it comes to corruption, there is no political party with only Kauravas and no party with only Pandavas. All are tainted to varying degrees, even though the Congress must take the additional blame for routinely enslaving democratic institutions for its cynical power games. If this continues, not only our democracy but even India's development and national security would be in grave danger. The rot must be stemmed. And it can only be stemmed if individuals committed to raj neeti (ethical politics) and raj dharma fight the rot in their own respective institutions. They must raise these issues within their parties; they must also join hands with like-minded people regardless of their political affiliations, even if this entails risks and sacrifice of personal positions and comforts.
sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com
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