BAIL OR JAIL FOR KANIMOZHI? DO POLITICIANS DESERVE ANY SYMPATHY

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and bOOks.

I think that the legal advice Ms Kanimozhi is getting is not only of poor quality, but worse it is proving counter productive. Kanimozhi and her father represent a strand of Indian political culture that takes India back to the days of dynastic rule and the culture of the courtier, courtesan, and criminal. The DMK as a party and as a political movement has shown scant respect for rule of law. In it said that in Tamil Nadu when the DMK rules the police cannot take action against criminals because of the rampant criminalisation of the political culture. In fact on the 100th birthday of Annadurai more than 100 hardened criminals were released from jail and all of them were serving life sentences. In fact the killers of Menaka, the fearless woman councillor of Madurai who took on the "tanker lorry mafia" in Maduarai were released and the main accused had served less than 1 year fin jail after being convicted of murder. So let not the DMK preach about rule of law. They suddenly discover the virtues of law only when King Lerar's daughter is in jain for criminal misconduct. I think the real issue is the sort of values this aging partiarch has imparted to his children. The DMK is a lumpen party with dynastic fascism as its core ideology just like the Congress.

I have met Kanimozhi on one ocassion and found her pleasant and engaging and was extremely courteous to me. So I would not have personally been offended if she had been granted bail. But we are addressing a larger question. Do politicians deserve sympathy. The answer to this question is no. They have systematically plundered the country. The 2G Spectrum sacandal is only one of several. The 1984 carnage organised by the Congress party after the death of Indiara Gandhi has not resulted in a single conviction. The case against that Yadava criminal from Bihar--Laloo Prasad-- will come up only after the last witness has been killed. The illiterate fellow is still disgracing the Parliament. So India has a nation has no symapahy for politicians. Political crime is a low investment and high return industry. See the case of Papu Yadava, D P Yadava, Neera Yadava and sundry others. Not one has been convicted.

Kanimozhi should have asked bail on the ground that her role in the 2G spectrum was limited to the 200 crores invested in Kalaignar TV and should have been successful in getting bail. However she said that being a woman, a wife and having an aged parent she should be given bail. Just imagine the chaos that would result if bail is granted on these spurious grounds. Every congress man will make his wife the benami for his crimes and the poor woman will be in jail and then bail. Thank god that O P Saini has seen through this argument. Moreover, the DMK is capable of having witness eliminated. If fact one of the directors of the Grrehouse Promoters was killed and the Chennai police made it look like suicide. What about the killing of Paul who was the E O of Tiruchendur Temple whose gold was looted by a DMK bigwig several decades back. DMK like the Congress party has crime in its DNA and deserves no sympathy. Let the patriarch suffer like King Lear.

Telecom Scandal, Dynastic Fascism, and Political Corruption

It appears that educated people in India do not want to make the obvious link between political corruption and dynastic fascism which is rampant in India. The linguistic division of state has spawned a whole array of regional and sub regional dynasties vying for space in the over crowded menagerie of Indian politics. The Congress Party started the slide by promoting a political dynasty and all regional parties along with their national affiliates followed suit. Only the two communist parties and the BJP seem to be bucking the trend. It is easier and safer for corrupt politicians to park their ill-gotten wealth in Party coffers and since they want their families to access that wealth the logic demands that families will inherit the parties. When Annadurai the founder of the DMK died no one in the DMK would have thought of giving the reins of leadership to his son. Though the 2 Dravidian parties swear by the name of Annadurai both of then have betrayed the legacy of that leader. None more so than Karunanidhi mistakenly called "kal;ignar" a term that means artist, but I have still to discover what he is so good at that he deserves that title. Tamils have become so backward that they have started the biruda game like the kings of old.
It is only a matter of time before A Raja the Telecom scamster is shown the door. The 75,000 crore scandal he presided over is directly linked to the DMK party funds.In almost all the recent by-elections the party has spent crores of money and it is quite obvious that some of the money has come from the Telecom scam. A Raja in fact violated the written directive from the Prime Minister's Office which instructed him to keep the "empowered group of ministers" in the loop. It shows that in this Age of coalition politics, the dictates of the PM can be ignored with impunity. It is also possible that the PM's directive was issued to provide a line of defence to the PM, just in case the scandal became too much of a stench. The Congress has perfected the art of political corruption and has trained its 'secular" allies very well in this art. Corruption and Dynastic Fascism are both the great gifts of the Congress to the country.
The only way to rid the nation of corruption is to appoint an audit committee to look into the funding and accounts of all registered political bodies. This is well within the purview of the Election Commission. After all political parties are only unincorporated association in law and it is within the competence of the Election Commission to order an audit into the accounts of all parties. If Hawala money poisons the IPL chalice, why not the political parties. And parties that refuse to comply must be forbidden to compete in the ELECTIONS.
This is a reform well worth attempting.