Rumi Nations

Our revered Army Generals after all turned out to have feet of clay. Surveys generally tend to show the Army as the most 'trusted' institution, as the one institution that has not succumbed to the rot that has become an intrincsic part of most or all other institutions of India. But I always thought that this was a somewhat wishful sort of thinking. If the Army is not as tainted with corruption as other institutions, may be the simple reason for that is that the Army does not have too much scope for indulging in corrupt activities. Where there is some scope for indulging in corruption, Army men show themselves as susceptible to the lure of the lucre as any other Indian. So, the recent land scam in which top generals seem to be involved was not really unexpected. In a country where politicians and bureaucrats and others routinely indulge in scams running into thousands of acers, what is a few acres of land ... I say, let's give them some slack, shall we?

It's interesting that a 4,000-crore scam involving former chief ministers doesn't cause too much heartburn in the public's imagination. It's perhaps only the media that starts creating a flutter as it smells something to increase TRPs. These scams have unfortunately become all too common. This particular one comes so soon after the one involving telecom licenses. People have become jaded with these all-too-numerous scams. People don't see that much can be done about these and so have come to expect these as the natural order of things. Indians, as it is, are rather fatalistic and like to leave things to a "higer power." So, I guess one can say: "even this shall pass." And the Koda affairs would not be even a footnote in the history of modern India when historians write it. I guess one can still feel happy about this broken state of governance and a less-than-perfect form of democracy.