Although human mind is very complex, human actions are often predictable. Most conscious actions are driven by motivation. Hunger, greed and fear are probably few of the very strong motivational factors. If we are able to look at the actions of Indian Government we can associate all these motivations to their current actions. How? Let’s look at few seemingly mutually exclusive events that happened over last few days.
17 January 2011: Wikileaks given data on Swiss bank accounts
“A former Swiss banker has passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Mr Assange promised full disclosure once the information had been vetted. The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009, according to a report in Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag.”
What does this mean for India? We know that most of Indian politicians and businessman are accused of stashing huge amount of money in Swiss Bank accounts. This money is looted from common people in India either through corruption or tax evasion. This money is looted through scams in many huger projects, fodder projects, arm purchase deals, telecom deals, games organization, infrastructure projects you name it! चोरों के भी उसूल होते है !(even thieves have rules!) but unfortunately that is not true with these scamsters. They hold big posts in public offices, they are supposed to be the guardians, caretakers and at the same time at the service of the nation and people. They take oath to do so but when the time comes the motivation of power hunger and greed overpowers them. Very sad!
22 January 2011: Tunisian police join protesters calling for PM's resignation
On Saturday, police joined thousands of protesters on the streets of Tunis demanding the cabinet to resign. Until a week ago the police were defending the now-ousted government of Mr Ben Ali, but the officers said they too were victims of the former regime, with many chanting: "We are innocent of the blood of the martyrs!"
Tunisians got fed up of the selfish, corrupt, inactive and incapable politicians and came out against them. The police refused to side with the corrupt. Similar protests are happening in Yemen and Egypt. The Military or police are refusing to attack and kill protesters. That leaves no option to the politicians but to fly away. Can it happen India? The politicians, bureaucrats and businessman have given every reason to say yes but not the Indian people. People still don’t seem to have any strong feelings towards these looters. The government’s role in rampant corruption is also highlighted due to deliberate inaction. But there are no widespread protests. Are you sleeping when your house is being looted by the watchman?
2 February 2011: Indian police arrest ex-telecoms minister A Raja
India's former Telecom Minister A Raja at the Central Bureau of Investigation in Delhi on 24 December 2010 A Raja quit in November amid what has been described as India's biggest corruption investigation. Auditors estimate the mis-selling of the licences cost the exchequer nearly $40bn (£24.5bn) in lost revenue. The scandal has prompted India's worst political stand-off in recent times. Mr Raja belongs to the DMK party, an ally of the ruling Congress government. A DMK spokesman said Mr Raja's arrest would not affect the party's ties with the Congress.
This is little too late! Prime Minister Manmohan Singh knew or at least was warned by others (read Subramaniam Swami for one) about the unprecedented corruption right from the beginning. They waited for more than 2 years for any kind of action. Culprits used this time to destroy all evidence, moved the money around and survive the future court case. With the corrupt history of Congress (who helped Beforce corruption beneficiary, Italian citizen, Quatrochi run away) it will be foolish to think top leaders of Congress will let Raja get the whole pie alone. Same with Commonwealth. Kalamadi couldn’t have done this without the support from party leadership and that is the only reason he is still smiling. Last 3 of 3 Chief Ministers appointed by Congress in Maharashtra are tainted. Two of them are still central minsters. Even after the reshuffle.
After a lot of questioning from people, media and courts they appointed Thomas to head investigations. Guess what! Thomas himself is corrupt and Supreme Court slashed PMs Office for this appointment. So shameless!
How all this links?
Why did the government wait for 2 years before arresting Raja? Why is this week so special to arrest him? Well, there is one more motivational factor, fear, might be at work. With Swiss leaks there is a very high probability that some top leaders finding a place in accounts list with money looted from India. With the corruption and inflation and then knowing who is looting and stashing money in fat accounts, I think will create the perfect staging ground for ‘Tunisia effect’ where people take things in hands. The boiling point of people’s tolerance is not too far. If it explodes it will be formidable for sure!
The fear factor is forcing the Government to put up a show of arrests and investigations. Eventually nothing will happen. Even the worst terrorists don’t get any punishment in Congress Raj, forget about these corruption-terrorists getting in any sort of trouble. This arrest is a mere temporary cover up. If we wait now I think it will be too late!
