JOIN USUnion home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s comment on the fickleness of public memory in cases of corruption shows the extent of cynicism among politicians and the complete lack of a sense of responsibility among those who hold positions of power.
He feels that the issue of corruption brought out by the coal scam will fade away from memory like the Bofors scandal, which he thinks has gone away from the public mind. It is not just that his statement is absurd. More worryingly, the callousness behind the words is shocking. The Congress had lost an election because of the Bofors scandal and it still carries the taint of corruption and cover-up. It has never recovered from the political setback it once suffered in the wake of the scandal. The loss of memory lies in the party, not with the people.
What the statement also implies is that the promises that the government has made on the coal scandal and the investigations its agencies have undertaken are all sham. If a senior minister laughs away the scandal, what is the credibility of the investigation? He may be sure that the coal will be washed off the hands because he knows that the investigations will not lead to a sticky situation. This is entirely possible as long as the investigation is done by an agency which the government controls. We may remember that investigators did not get at the truth about Bofors but mounted a cover-up and allowed the suspects to escape. It still continues to be an archetype of corruption in the collective consciousness of the people.
Another implication, unknowingly given away, of the statement is that the masses are asses and they will not remember the misdeeds of the rulers for long. This amounts to taking the people for granted and imagining that the rulers can get away with any wrongdoing. That is callousness and cynicism of the worst kind and a person who gives public expression to them should have no place in a system accountable to the people. Shinde says that the remarks were made in a lighter vein, but are charges of momentous corruption, brought out by responsible institutions and agitating the minds of people, matters of joke? Dismissing such issues as passing waves in public consciousness is a sign of arrogance and the disconnect between the people and those in power. That Shinde is Sonia Gandhi’s one of the ‘favourites’ shows her too in poor light.