Dear Veronica,
It is sad that this article written by Pritish Nandy in March-2011 is still doing the rounds with a lot of Wow...Wows... I agree that it has been written well, and that much of its contents were relevent at the time when it was written, and I am as enraged and worked up over the scams exposed. But today, sixteen months after and a lot of water has passed under the bridges...(including the insufferable 'Anna' movement by by so-called crusaders with questionable agenda.... and much as I am all for seeing the scamsters all meet the ends of justice....... to me Nandy's good writing sounds no more than rhetoric with an agenda too - and so falls totally flat.
The problem with our country is that it is so easy to jump on the band wagon to pull down a government! Had Nandy said one word in his entire piece on what or who is the alternative - whether we can really have the luxury of pulling down governments without concrete steps at preventing bigger rogues from taking over, I am sorry....
For me a known rogue is a better bet than an unknown rogue!
And as everyone agrees (...Pritish Nandy too), Manmohan's credentials are still better that others'. He is not a crook or a rogue - and to me he is better than the crooks (known or unknown) waiting for opportunity round the corner....
With regards,
With regards,
Maxie
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On 22 July 2012 15:42, veronica peris <veronicaperis2009@gmail.com> wrote:
A SHIP ABOUT TO SINK --- Pritish Nandy
A very well-written article! Please read all the way:
A very well-written article! Please read all the way:
I like Manmohan Singh. He has immaculate credentials. It's these
credentials that have seen the UPA through its most stormy years. If
Singh wasn't Prime Minister, the Government would have collapsed a
long time back. No, not because of its inherent coalition
contradictions but because it's simply not possible for so many crooks
with conflicting agendas to loot the country together, almost as if in
perfect unison. The Indian Political Philharmonic Orchestra must be
the world's most amazing cacophony of rogues, rascals and robbers.
Luckily for the UPA, there was always Singh to fall back on. Most
middle class Indians refuse to be cynical. We know exactly what's
happening around us, we criticise it constantly, but when it comes to
the crunch we all rally around the nation and the flag. We are not
bat-brained paranoids. Neither are we wide-eyed innocents ready to buy
into every ridiculous explanation thrown our way to explain the loot
that's taking place in broad daylight. But the latest season of scams
has flummoxed all. This is not just Alibaba and his chaalis chors.
Everyone among the chaalis chors is another Alibaba with his own forty
thieves. That's the way the pyramid of crime operates today. But
because Singh, soft spoken and self effacing, is the face of this
Government, India has kept faith.
credentials that have seen the UPA through its most stormy years. If
Singh wasn't Prime Minister, the Government would have collapsed a
long time back. No, not because of its inherent coalition
contradictions but because it's simply not possible for so many crooks
with conflicting agendas to loot the country together, almost as if in
perfect unison. The Indian Political Philharmonic Orchestra must be
the world's most amazing cacophony of rogues, rascals and robbers.
Luckily for the UPA, there was always Singh to fall back on. Most
middle class Indians refuse to be cynical. We know exactly what's
happening around us, we criticise it constantly, but when it comes to
the crunch we all rally around the nation and the flag. We are not
bat-brained paranoids. Neither are we wide-eyed innocents ready to buy
into every ridiculous explanation thrown our way to explain the loot
that's taking place in broad daylight. But the latest season of scams
has flummoxed all. This is not just Alibaba and his chaalis chors.
Everyone among the chaalis chors is another Alibaba with his own forty
thieves. That's the way the pyramid of crime operates today. But
because Singh, soft spoken and self effacing, is the face of this
Government, India has kept faith.
But now, enough is enough. Neither Singh nor Pranab Mukherjee, nor
anyone else is capable any more of saving this Government. It's neck
deep in its own sticky sleaze. What's worse, you haven't seen anything
yet. All these scams are but the tip of the iceberg. Talk to anyone and you will get an instant dhobi list of scams in queue to break. No, I am not saying this. Congress leaders are, in private.
Look at Singh, wan and waylost. Or Mukherjee going apopleptic in faux
anger because he has to defend what he knows is indefensible. They
look less convincing than Rakhi Sawant playing Joan of Arc.
anyone else is capable any more of saving this Government. It's neck
deep in its own sticky sleaze. What's worse, you haven't seen anything
yet. All these scams are but the tip of the iceberg. Talk to anyone and you will get an instant dhobi list of scams in queue to break. No, I am not saying this. Congress leaders are, in private.
Look at Singh, wan and waylost. Or Mukherjee going apopleptic in faux
anger because he has to defend what he knows is indefensible. They
look less convincing than Rakhi Sawant playing Joan of Arc.
The problem is: We have voted into power the stupidest bunch of thieves. They are such losers that they can't steal a hamburger without leaving ketchup stains all over. Yet they are constantly trying to pull off
the biggest scams in history. From Rs 64 crore in Bofors, they have
upped the ante to Rs 170,0000 crore in 2G and no, I am not including
hundreds of aircraft Air India bought while sinking into bankruptcy
and preposterous sums spent on arms deals that have made India the world's second largest arms buyer when we can't provide food and healthcare to 60% Indians. Our leaders are making deals on the sly with greedy builders, land sharks, illegal mining companies, corporate fixers, shady arms dealers and, O yes, US diplomats who want to manipulate our political choices. And, what's more amazing, they do it like bungling idiots. Even Inspector Clouseau can outwit them.
But that doesn't mean they are not malevolent. These are people who
are destroying India from within. They are not just robbing you, me,
and the exchequer. They are destroying institutions, subverting laws,
vandalising our heritage and history, and trying to build a dazzling,
amoral edifice of crime and corruption unprecedented in the nation's
history. It's a scary scenario that could turn the land of the Mahatma
into one gigantic Gotham City with a flyover to hell.
But my question is more basic: Can we trust these idiots to run this
great nation?
If you travel and meet people across India, you will realise that for
every scam that breaks—and currently there's one breaking every
week—there are ten more waiting in line. The media has never had it so
good! And it's the same gang whose names keep coming up. Kalmadi,
Satish Sharma, Sant Chatwal, Ashok Chavan. The NCP lot.
The DMK. And everyone, in private, is protesting his own innocence,
pointing fingers at someone else. It's a sure sign of a collapsing
regime. It's what happened when Rajiv with a staggering majority in
parliament lost his mandate to govern. Rats alone don't leap off a
sinking ship. So do everyone else.
So even though Singh, like Pontius Pilate, may wash his hands off every scam that hits the headlines, the fact is: The longer this Government stays, the more compromised the Congress will be, and the less capable of coming back to power. You can't allow the sovereignty of a nation to be compromised just to win a confidence vote. You can't bribe MPs to get your way in parliament. You can't allow a shady hotelier, with CBI cases against him, to play roving diplomat and, worse, give him a Padma Bhushan for it. You can't appoint a tainted bureaucrat as the nation's CVC. You can't file a FIR against a corrupt CM and then allow him to melt away. You can't let the prime witness to the nation's biggest scam, who offered to turn approver, be murdered in broad daylight and pretend it's a suicide.
If this is the best this Government can do, it's time to step down.
Pritish Nandy
the biggest scams in history. From Rs 64 crore in Bofors, they have
upped the ante to Rs 170,0000 crore in 2G and no, I am not including
hundreds of aircraft Air India bought while sinking into bankruptcy
and preposterous sums spent on arms deals that have made India the world's second largest arms buyer when we can't provide food and healthcare to 60% Indians. Our leaders are making deals on the sly with greedy builders, land sharks, illegal mining companies, corporate fixers, shady arms dealers and, O yes, US diplomats who want to manipulate our political choices. And, what's more amazing, they do it like bungling idiots. Even Inspector Clouseau can outwit them.
But that doesn't mean they are not malevolent. These are people who
are destroying India from within. They are not just robbing you, me,
and the exchequer. They are destroying institutions, subverting laws,
vandalising our heritage and history, and trying to build a dazzling,
amoral edifice of crime and corruption unprecedented in the nation's
history. It's a scary scenario that could turn the land of the Mahatma
into one gigantic Gotham City with a flyover to hell.
But my question is more basic: Can we trust these idiots to run this
great nation?
If you travel and meet people across India, you will realise that for
every scam that breaks—and currently there's one breaking every
week—there are ten more waiting in line. The media has never had it so
good! And it's the same gang whose names keep coming up. Kalmadi,
Satish Sharma, Sant Chatwal, Ashok Chavan. The NCP lot.
The DMK. And everyone, in private, is protesting his own innocence,
pointing fingers at someone else. It's a sure sign of a collapsing
regime. It's what happened when Rajiv with a staggering majority in
parliament lost his mandate to govern. Rats alone don't leap off a
sinking ship. So do everyone else.
So even though Singh, like Pontius Pilate, may wash his hands off every scam that hits the headlines, the fact is: The longer this Government stays, the more compromised the Congress will be, and the less capable of coming back to power. You can't allow the sovereignty of a nation to be compromised just to win a confidence vote. You can't bribe MPs to get your way in parliament. You can't allow a shady hotelier, with CBI cases against him, to play roving diplomat and, worse, give him a Padma Bhushan for it. You can't appoint a tainted bureaucrat as the nation's CVC. You can't file a FIR against a corrupt CM and then allow him to melt away. You can't let the prime witness to the nation's biggest scam, who offered to turn approver, be murdered in broad daylight and pretend it's a suicide.
If this is the best this Government can do, it's time to step down.
Pritish Nandy
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