Snafu

Politics, it has been said, is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Last or not is open to question, but in India it is certainly a refuge for scoundrels. No place is safer.

Not a month passes without some fresh revelations about corruption by politicians.

The latest to join the crowd are George Fernandes over the Denel affair when he was defence minister in the NDA government, and Lalu Prasad over the fodder scam in Bihar when he was chief minister of the state.

Mr Fernandes is now in the same shoes as Rajiv Gandhi was over the Bofors affair, and we know what he said then. But both he and Mr Prasad will simply brazen it out-just as Sukh Ram and others have done before them.

Nor do people believe that the law will take its course against any prominent public figure if caught with his hand in the till.

When was the last time a politician was punished for corruption? In 1952, that's when Arjun Singh's father was sent to prison by Jawaharlal Nehru, who 10 years later, when it came to Pratap Singh Kairon, had become less idealistic.

So what we have is a systemic breakdown which has fostered a permissive atmosphere that implicitly accepts such wrongdoing as either routine or inevitable.

Where the politician is concerned, it is a case of "boys will be boys". So even when the crooks are caught, which is often enough, they are never punished.

To be sure, a certain amount of political drama does take place, lest the opportunity to embarrass the other side slip by.

There are statements galore, Parliament (or the State Assembly) is held up and no business is allowed to be transacted, and the politicians have a jolly good time, secure in the knowledge that they are safe from prosecution.

But deep down everyone knows it is a charade. When was the last time that charges, once framed, were pressed to their logical conclusion?

When was the last time that the CBI was allowed to discharge its role properly and without interference from the politicians?

Why is there so little outrage when the head of the CBI tells a newspaper that his organisation is constantly subject to pressure from the government? The marginal social disutility of corruption appears to have fallen to zero.

No one minds corruption any more, least of all the political parties, who put "winnability" above every other consideration. As long as a particular politician can win, or help another party or candidate win, or get a government a majority, all his sins are ignored.

What can be done? Nothing, as long as the ends are seen to justify the means. Even someone as upright as Manmohan Singh has had to accept this principle of Indian political life.

But just because something has become the norm, it does not mean that does no harm. Let no one believe that unpunished corruption will not take its toll on the country.