Comment

India in Europe

Those who are eloquent about India’s growth strategy and bid for economic superpower status, perhaps in the distant future, don’t bother about what others say about them. The hard fact is that the problem of corruption in the country has, of late, assumed enormous and embarassing proportions but it has been there for decades. It’s a way of life for the persons in power and authority. ‘They hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to high office’.

Manmohon Singh’s India in European media is a source of caricature. They say it is a nation in coma. Corruption in administration, even in judiciary, the possible impeachment of a judge, 2G-telecom scam, black money stashed away in overseas tax havens—the list is truly incessant.

In a popular prime-time television discussion in Germany, a member of the German Parliament quoting a blog recently said: ‘‘If all the scams of the last five years are added up, they are likely to rival and exceed the British colonial loot of India of about a trillion dollars.’’

One German business daily which wrote an editorial on India said: "India is becoming a Banana Republic instead of being an economic superpower. To get the cut motion designated out, assurances are made to political allays. Special treatment is promised at the expense of the people. So, Ms Mayawati who was Chief Minister of the most densely inhabited state, is calmed when an intelligence agency probe is scrapped. The multi-million dollars fodder scam by another former chief minister wielding enormous power is put in cold storage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chairs over this kind of unparalleled loot."

An article in a French newspaper titled "Playing the Game, Indian Style" wrote : "Investigations into the shadowy financial deals of the Indian cricket league have revealed a web of transactions across tax havens like Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, Mauritius and Cyprus." In the same article, the name of one Hassan Ali of Pune is mentioned as operating with his wife a one-billion-dollar illegal Swiss account with "sanction of the Indian regime".

A third story narrated in the damaging article is that of the former chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, who was reported to have funds in various tax havens that were partly used to buy mines in Liberia. "Unfortunately, the Indian public do not know the status of that enquiry," the article concluded.

"In the nastiest business scam in Indian records (Satyam) the government adroitly covered up the political aspects of the swindle—predominantly involving real estate," wrote an Austrian newspaper?

The Telegraph of the UK reported the 2G scam saying: "Naturally, India's elephantine legal system will ensure culpability, is delayed."

This seems true. In the European mind, caricature of a typical Indian encompasses qualities of falsification, telling lies, being fraudulent, dishonest, corrupt, arrogant, boastful, speaking loudly and bothering others in public places or, while travelling, swindling when the slightest of opportunity arises and spreading rumours about others.

Europeans believe that Indian leaders in politics and business are so blissfully blinded by the new, sometimes ill-gotten, wealth and deceit that they are living in defiance, insolence and denial to comprehend that the day will come, sooner than later, when the have-nots would hit the streets.

In a way, it seems to have already started with the violent acts of the Maoists. And, when that rot occurs, not one political turncoat will escape being lynched. The drumbeats for these rebellions are going to get louder and louder as Indian leaders refuse to listen to the voices of the people. Eventually, it will lead to a revolution that will spill to streets across the whole of India.
[contributed] 22-04-2013

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 42, Apr 28- -May 4, 2013

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