OTN: Fwd: The Politics of Money
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Sent: 5/3/2010 9:18:56 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: The Politics of MoneyTHE POLITICS OF MONEY
Anadi Naik
It is reported that the relatives of Central Ministers Sharad Power and Praful Patel have been given a large chunk of shares of the Indian Primier League of cricket by the League’s original investors. The relatives of the Ministers, the silent partners, have earned their shares not because they have a special skill to serve the League but because they are relatives of powerful ministers. Incidents like this have become common and they continue to be a fact of life in India although such share swapping at IPL cost Shashi Tharoor his job as a member at the Manmohan SIngh Cabinet.
Attempts by a group of super rich people, the investors in the Indian Primier League, trying to curry favor from the cabinet members, does not affect the common man directly. Giving free shares is a transaction among the rich and the super rich. However, it helps strengthens a system of corruption in public life. Elected officials making money, in this case in a roundabout way, from their positions does not bode well for the welfare of the country.
One of the things the Manmohan Singh Government has promised the country is to root out corruption. How can it do such a thing if its own ministers carry on corrupt behavior?
Politicians need money and a lot of it for their elections. For that, they have to continue to raise funds as money is the mother’s milk in politics. Yet, their public services should not be beholden to the fact as to who gives them the most money. It is the welfare of the people that should be the deciding factor. Over the years, successive Governments have made decisions in favor of specific groups. They have given tax breaks to industrialists and manufacturers of their choices. They have supported specific trades and trade groups. They have also made decisions in favor of the poor with programs like Indira Niwas and BPL grants. At the local level, a lot of money is being siphoned away as Party workers and petty officials and their cronies do the scheming. Irrespective of who is in power, the same thing continues.
In a sense, people connected to Government officials and agencies at all levels continue to strengthen a corrupt system throughout the country. Their behavior saps the population its collective strength and weakens the trust of the ordinary people in their government. In many cases the situation becomes desperate and people at the bottom need help. Their desperation creates an opportunity for other to take advantage and they do. Thus, a system of corruption continues unabated.
The free shares given to a minister’s relative is nothing compared to many other corruptions in the country. However, it shows how influential people in sports, politics, business and entertainment work with each other to make money. Sports and entertainment people collect their millions from tickets sold to the public. The beautiful people on the silver screen are enriched by millions who flock to see them as heroes or heroines. So, all of them have a stake in the honest running of the system. The politicians, on the other hand, are directly paid from the public exchequer. who have a responsibility to the people of India for honest behavior. Giving or taking bribes – directly or indirectly - negates that spirit.
On its own part, the general public over the years seems to have developed a thick skin to tolerate official corruption and looks the other way when it happens. It is the lack of public vigilance that encourages corrupt officials – ministers down – to carry on their corrupt behavior with impunity. The press in India has been doing a tremendous job in uncovering many of the official corruptions both high and low. But it is the attitude of the common man that is the most potent weapon we have to root out corruption from public life.
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