True Colours

Our politicians hae shown their true colours by their sleight of hand. They are at once appearing to listen to Anna and at the same time rejecting the Jan Lok Pal Bill (JLPB).

Today there are 151 MPs with a record of serious criminal cases against them. What if this number goes up to 300 or even 500 tomorrow? Will we still say that Parliament is Supreme?

During the emergency and later, these very people told us that law abiding citizens need not worry about draconian laws like the MISA. These are the same people who go out of their way to protect convicted terrorists and money launderers giving false excuses about their inability to challenge the laws of the country.

They do not want the JLPB simply because there are some provisions in it that will expedite legal action and prosecution against the erring people. No longer can they say, "Let the law take its own course". Because if the JLPB becomes effective they would be on the streets in less than two years and not enjoy the perks of a MP while being in jail or with the Fodder Scam case pending in courts for years. JLPB will expose them, many skeletons and wads of notes will tumble out of their cupboards and their wealth will be confiscated.

Hence neither the ruling coalition nor the opposition wants an effective Lok Pal Bill.

It is not the small time corruption that these self-appointed protectors of democracy and parliamentary traditions are worried about. The part of the money so gained undoubtedly comes to them but the real big money comes from granting permissions and approvals such as land use conversion, enhanced FSI, import/export license,contracts, appointments and a whole host of activity that allows them to seek and collect rent. Who says the 'License Permit Raj' is gone. Every new law is in fact carefully crafted to create new opportunities to collect rent/bribes. So why would they allow anyone to kill the golden goose?

All other explanations are intellectual jugglery and play on words by these very accomplished word-smiths.

These Ivy League types cannot stomach the fact that a former soldier, a lowly driver, with no high class education can make their life difficult or threaten to expose their very highly refined system of robbing the country.

They are now instigating the so called deprived classes like the Dalits and minorities against the Anna movement. In effect they are telling these groups that if the JLPB comes in we cannot look after your interests; so you better support us.

They are shedding crocodile tears on Anna's health and do not give a damn if corruption becomes even more rampant or inflation touches a new high, so long as they can continue to manipulate elections. The politicians are in fact proving Anna right by not agreeing to even discuss the JLPB in good faith.

Many intellectuals, historians, reputed(?) editors, media anchors and high-visibility academics and social workers dressed in designer clothes are shedding tears over the putative loss of parliamentary supremacy. All of them have at some time or the other benefited from the current system, be it a Sarkari house or a job, a fellowship or chairmanship or membership of some elite group that gives them extra-constitutional authority.

We the marginalised, disempowered and disenfranchised people better not get misled by these false, dubious and downright fraudulent entreaties of these corrupt leaders and their sophisticated supporters masquerading as defenders of democracy. Many of them have routinely supped with the enemy and the traitor. Is it any wonder that Arundhati Roy and Manishankar Iyer and others who regularly weep for Pakistan and for the human rights of the terrorists are among the more vocal opponents of the Anna movement. Wait a little longer and see how these chameleons again change their colours when the wind changes.