j gopikrishnan
The year 2011 can be remembered as the year of uprising against corruption in India. The year started with nationwide raids of CBI on 2G Spectrum Scam and the arrest of tainted former telecom minister A.Raja, leading to the arrest of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, when caught up with crystal clear evidence. Unprecedented things like the subsequent arrests and chargesheeting of corporate honchos, though some escaped boosted the morale of common man to rally against the corruption.
2011 summer was real hot summer for the Government and the Rulers, when Anna Hazare kick-started his strikes from April. Raja, Kanimozhi, CWG’s selectively caught scamster Suresh Kalmadi and corporates must had thought of non-validity of money at least once in their life, when hearing the protest of masses assembled in front of Tihar jail, demanding the release of Anna Hazare in August. Atleast for politicians it was a surprise on the assembling large gathering, without spending single paisa for such kind of crowd flow.
The year 2011 also saw the collapse of mining barons Bellary brothers, after the Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde cracked the whip. Ofcourse there are still some persons waiting in the league to rally to jails. The credit goes to the Judiciary for getting up from its more than five year long hibernation and the persons who tirelessly fought against corruption in the streets as well as in courts.
However, we should not forget the existence of some mighty forces, which protect the corrupt people and collapse the probe and cases against corruption. Remember the CBI’s U-turn in the Special Court by not opposing the bail of Kanimozhi, just 48 hours after her father M Karunanidhi met Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Shockingly CBI was forced to change its stand, even after it pledged in the Supreme Court that they will oppose the bail plea of all the accused in the Spectrum Scam.
In CWG investigation, CBI action was similar to the surgical strike of a commando opeartion by fixing only Suresh Kalmadi, who had only dealt with around five percent of the expenditure on the administration and execution of the games. The saved persons can breathe till none crusades like what Subramanian Swamy or Prashant Bhushan did to expose the spectrum scam. Same is the case of KG Basin scandal, where Mukesh Ambani minted money. Somehow his brother Anil Ambani saved though his top officials caught in 2G scam. I defer from CBI findings on this issue like Chidambaram’s involvement or reasons behind the silence in spectrum allocation.
The year 2011 also witnessed the dirty tricks from government side against crusaders, especially belong to Team Anna with help of certain media. CDs were created to defame people, hit squads were bought in. Look at the way Delhi Police being demonised to deal Baba Ramdev.
In India the law enforcement is still in nascent stages, when compared to civilised countries. Here the Law acts person to person and case to case basis. No media persons involved in the Nira Radia were questioned any agency or any forum. There was a hue and cry from certain quarters when Public Accounts Committee made an attempt to call media persons like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi on Radia gate. I envy on the courage of British Parliament panel which summoned the mighty media mogul Rupert Murdoch and brought to books. When will our Parliament and Parliamentarians get such courage?
Certain politicians only make false claim that “Parliament is supreme” and force us to believe so, though the fact of the matter is – We the people made Constitution is supreme. Battles have won. But the war is still on. Let us expect more victories in 2012.
