Telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, who has been quite brazenly hitting back at demands for his resignation in the 1,76,000 Crore 2G Spectrum Scam, has – finally – decided to step down and submit his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. All’s well, that ends well, right?
Absolutely not!
A mere forced resignation of a Union Minister, who is seen to be neck-deep in corruption by most, cannot be the ‘end’ of a sordid saga of criminal indulgence with public money. It can only be a beginning. For, if it were the end, it would add to a trillion instances like a policman getting transfered to another chowky when found of corruption (or even custodial death or rape et al). Doesn’t that tantamount to telling the accused that while his act of rape or corruption is not acceptable at that place, it might be in sync with the place that he is getting transfered to?
1,76,000 Crore is an obscene amount; an amount that can make a difference to a significant percentage of Indian population. If that has been lost because of (or gone into the pockets of) a select few, those select few should be made to pay it back.
There haven’t been too many instances of the high and mighty being made accountable on charges of corruption in this country. But it would never be too late to start, by emulating the example of justice meted out to the likes of Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju, big bull (late) Harshad Mehta and the rest.
Whether it is the Commonwealth Games Scam, the Adarsh Society Scam or the 2G Spectrum Scam, justice simply cannot be the mere resignations or removals of a politician or two. Justice can be done – and seen to be done – only when the accused are tried under Indian Penal Code and made to serve sentences in Indian jails.
That is what League of India demands from the Indian democracy. That is the least that the Indian democracy deserves.
