Indian government has come to become strangely synonymous to the word ‘corruption’. One could replace these words with each other and still find no difference. The recent coal mining controversy proves nothing but this fact.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has accused the Indian government of a corruption scam that has led to a gargantuan loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crores. The CAG has pointed out to the lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks to private entities, instead of auctioning it to the highest bidder. Termed by the media as the ‘Mother of all Scams’, this scandal has caused widespread rage in the Opposition.
The usual scuffle between the Opposition and the Government has cropped up yet again, but this time it seems worse. The BJP has demanded the Prime Minister to resign from office and has also threatened not to allow the Parliament to function until this demand is fulfilled. It has also reached out to other opposition parties to support its demands. While the other opposition parties are ready to give the Prime Minister a chance to explain himself, the BJP thinks that such a debate would be a complete fiasco. Top opposition leaders, many of whom consider this issue as one of the greatest scandals of the country, have been quoted as saying that a one-day debate in the Parliament would not suffice to solve the issue.
However a statement made by the Prime Minister defended his government and accused the CAG for making baseless allegations without any proof. He also requested to the Opposition, via Twitter, to let the Parliament function and to let the nation decide where the truth lies. Finance Minister P.Chidambaram’s zero-loss theory also was blatantly rejected by the Opposition. According to the Finance Minister, as long as the coal is not mined, there would be no loss incurred. However he claims that the media had coined the term “zero loss” and that such a phrase was never used by him.
As far as the Indian citizens are concerned, corruption in the government and such on-going scandals has become a part of their lives. The government which claims to be “of the people” is no longer interested in the welfare of its people. More interested in power and money, the Indian politics which includes the inefficient government and recalcitrant Opposition has managed enough to malign the name of our great nation. And more effectively managed to make a “tamasha” out of what we call Politics!