Honesty is now obsolete….it died a slow death

Malegaon’s Additional Collector, Yeshwant Sonawane was preparing to celebrate his 52nd birthday on January 28. His family had planned a celebratory dinner for him. A simple man, he was too shy to celebrate his own birthday. He preferred to stay out of limelight. Sonawane is now famous rather unwittingly and for reasons he may have never imagined. His gory death grabbed front page headlines and became breaking news. On January 25th he was burnt alive in broad daylight by the local oil mafia. His crime? He was guilty of conducting raids to uncover hoarding of kerosene and petrol. In other words, Sonawane was just doing his job. A Rs 10,000 crore fuel black market killed Yeshwant Sonawane.

The news made me seethe with rage. Have we now become a banana republic, moving towards utter anarchy! How can the accused murder a high ranking official with such impunity? The sad part is, you and I know what the bitter truth is. Shinde and his gang of goons know that they will get away with it. A man despite a history of pilferage and adulteration cases thrives because he has the support of the elected and the custodians of law. A nexus of corruption protects its kin and it’s eating into our nation’s integrity. It is tattered; it’s torn, ready collapse any minute.

Way back in 2005, S Manjunath was shot dead for cracking down on fuel adulteration in UP. In 2003, NHAI project director Satyendra Dubey was killed for daring to blow the lid off corruption in the NHAI. Is this is how you get rewarded, when you are the lone idealist? Believed what you read in books, what your elders taught you, that good always wins over the evil and truth always prevails! Baah this is all bunkum, get real. This is the new, improved shining India – compromise, adjust or else prepare to fail.

The government builds houses for the poor, the rich grab it. The house that you paid for has more sand than cement. The road contractor builds his empire by laying out roads that cave in at the mere mention of rains. The country is put to shame because a paunchy man treats the games as commonwealth and siphons off millions. The nation is enraged and expects the government to intervene. The government sacks him, three months after the games and strangely he continues to be the IOC chairman. Is this justice? Does our government think we are gullible fools – a sack here, a committee there, is enough to pacify the public! You sir are a mere spectator, just pay your taxes on time. You refuse to pay bribe and your case languishes for years in the musty cabinet of a babu with pan stained teeth. A faulty meter, your passport that you gave for renewal, a no objection certificate, your hard earned money that was kept aside for your old age, everything expects baksheesh now. It is you against the system, how long will you survive? Sirjee, chai pani is now our birthright!!

An IAS couple amasses over 260 crores of cash and stuffs it in their mattresses. The IAS lobby is firmly behind them, trying hard to scuttle the probe. The babus have collided to loot India. We read about it in papers, compose funny tweets and move on with our lives.

According to the latest issue of India today, 500 billion dollars, equivalent to nearly half of our GDP has been stolen and stashed away in foreign banks. As a former employee of a prominent Swiss bank hands over a list of over 2000 tax evaders to Wikeleaks, Delhi is peeing in its pants. Will we ever know the names? I doubt it! Committees will be set up, probes ordered and we will move on to the next scam. A pure and simple theft of national money is supported by soft governments who seem indifferent to this Great Indian Loot.

Pray, what is our ever vigilant Income Tax department doing about it? It trains its guns on the middle class, fixed income, law abiding citizens like you and me. It makes sure it keeps in touch by sending us a show cause notice even if there’s a tax differential of 298 Rs! The trillions can go to hell or rather the Caribbean Islands. And god forbid if you are the unlucky soul selected for their random scrutiny. You are fucked for life. But nowadays the IT department is busy doing their bit for gender equality. Why should men have all the fun, time we raided our cine goddesses as well. Open your doors Ms Chopra and Ms Kaif – we have come looking for your assets undisclosed! Arre we discovered more than just their assets, we saw Shahid Kapoor in his boxers! Haujee! c

If all three wings of our parliamentary democracy – Legislative, Judiciary and Executive – are largely corrupt, where do you and I go for justice? An RTI act sees light of day after years of hard work by people committed to a cause, but within a year, the bureaucracy and the political establishment seek to weaken it by limiting its scope and taking exceptions. Or better still, by killing citizens who uncover truths that are too uncomfortable.

Nowadays I do not want my daughter to read the newspapers. I am scared – what if she starts thinking that honesty as a virtue is defunct and can get you killed. That it’s better to consort with the mighty and corrupt to live happily ever after. Lots of money can buy you friends, policemen and a politician’s patronage. Be corrupt and you will have friends aplenty and being upright will get you nowhere.

Or is it that honesty was never a virtue, it was just evading guilt. So did guilt die a slow, painful death?