One More New Year -2011

The time waits for no one. The entry into New Year 2011 brings a time of reflection – an affectionate glance at the pleasant memories and a meaningful & purposeful scrutiny and evaluation of unpleasant events of the past year, as well as a hopeful look at the promise of the New Year.

 

The pleasant memories of 2010, to mention a few, - Improvement of bilateral relations with other nations demonstrated by the visits of many heads of state to India and our PM's visits to many countries, the commendable performance of the Indian Sports Persons etc  were something noteworthy.

 

Wikileaks

 

On the global front, whistle-blower website Wikileaks has been releasing classified messages sent out by American diplomats from across the world to the US Administration, and many of these leaks have caused a furor in many countries, including India

 

Scams Prior to 2010

 

The problem of corruption in India has assumed enormous and embarrassing proportions in recent years, although it has been with us for decades.  In the past the big league of scams in India included Bofors, Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, Telgi (fake stamp)  the UTI  and Satyam Scams. The Satyam fraud ( Rs 14, 000 Crore) was the biggest in many years, in the list of the largest scams. 

 

Scams in 2010

 

Going by the estimated size of the Scams-  2G, CWG, IPL, LICHF, Adarsh etc-  surfaced during 2010, the total for the year  could be well beyond Rs 2,00,000 Crore -- a 13-digit figure -- although much of the loss is presumptive in nature. The scam with the shortest name -- 2G -- alone, according to various accounts, deprived the government coffers of Rs 1.76 Lakh Crore in potential revenue.    This scam is said to be only the tip of the iceberg.

Infamous Nexus

 

There are many more scams in the States of Karnataka, Andhra & Jharkhand involving Mining, Land Grabbing etc, exposing the infamous nexus between Politicians, Bureaucrats and Corporates/Builders/Contractors. This Nexus is becoming stronger and all powerful year after year , in spite of aft repeated assurances by the Politicians in power "No Body Would Be Spared", "Guilty Would be Punished" and "Law Will Take Its Course:"

 

 Disillusioned & Indifferent Public

 

It is the public knowledge that the ill-gotten wealth, had not been confiscated from any of those from the nexus found guilty, nor there had been any swift and harsh penal action against them and the enquiries drag on for years and are forgotten.

 

Every one including the man in the streets knows about Rampant Corruption, at almost all the levels of the Administration, large scale Tax Evasion, Circulation of Black Money in all most all transactions, Bogus Land Registrations/Transactions, Clandestine Transfer of Black Money to Foreign Banks etc.

 

Are we to believe that the people at the helm of affairs, both the Politicians and Bureaucrats, with access to information from the Enforcing Agencies, Intelligence Agency, CBI etc, are not aware of these hard realities of life and are helpless to unearth and stop them?

 

Unfortunately the Public also got used to and had become a part of this corrupt system as they do not choose to swim against the stream, till they find that they are being washed away by the stream of all pervading corruption.

 

Welcome Initiatives

Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of UPA, has launched a crackdown on corruption in her ruling Congress Party to staunch the growing number of scandals besetting the government. She is reported to have warned her senior party colleagues that they must clean up their act,

She called for a fast-track system for corruption cases to be heard in courts, new transparent procedures for the award of public contracts, greater protection for whistle-blowers and for Chief Ministers in Congress-ruled states to give up their privileges, particularly the discretionary powers to award plots of land "As a party, we must confront corruption head-on, the simplicity, restraint and austerity must be our chosen way," she told the party's high command.

In a gesture to the growing public disenchantment over scams and corruption in public life, Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh's New Year resolutions for 2011 include "Cleansing" the country's governing process. 

Promise of the New Year

 

Let us hope for a brighter New Year, with the  "Crack-Down on Corruption" and "Cleansing the Governing Process" put into action right from the top and  with renewed sense of what is more important-- Commitment to Welfare of People, Compassion for Nature and Concern for Sustainable and Inclusive Development, in the Year 2011 and the years to follow.

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