Taint is acceptable. Ask the UPA

There is ‘no charge’ against Patil, says the PM as he joins the battle to escort her to the exalted chair of the President of India

Tainted’ is a word much used and abused by the political class. Like crying wolf, the more it is used, the more it loses its meaning. If one party or ruling combine uses it against its opponents, it is supposed to be taken seriously; even CBI inquiries can be instituted. Even the loyal media knows when to keep silent. If persons from this side become the subject of similar attack, the charges are brushed aside and seen as an “attack on constitutional authorities”. The end result is that innocent victims are damaged while perpetrators of real wrong-doing get away. Some may even go on to become India’s president.

The siphoning of public funds, cheating, fraud and bribery have increased exponentially over time, and have become part of public consciousness with the Bofors case of 1988-89. What became a battle against corruption at a major level was, through a series of dishonest twists, made out to be a political rather than an ethical battle. V.P. Singh used the Bofors battle to defeat Rajiv Gandhi and assume the prime-ministerial chair. But neither he nor anyone after him facilitated, expedited or ensured a quick resolution of the case and convicted the guilty. Every method was used to delay the process, and V.P. Singh lost interest long ago. Today we are left with large, lingering suspicions — like the proverbial elephant in the living room — about who the guilty are. Since Sonia Gandhi’s special friends make sure Ottavio Quattrocchi remains out of India, facilitated by a deliberately hamstrung CBI. The country thus observes a series of manipulated situations rather than an honest resolution through a proper trial.

More sadly, as corruption has become a mere word to hurl at political opponents while they are in power, only to be forgotten if the opponent can be turned into a friend, public cynicism has hit an all-time high. At the level of the general public, corruption increases daily because big and small crooks know that the word is only a part of political fencing and no one, not even our prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is planning to do anything about it.

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Not too long ago a TV channel revealed how Navin Chawla, a recently appointed election commissioner, had misused his official position to seek funds for an NGO set up by him and his wife, by accepting fairly large sums of money from prominent Congress MPs. He did not deny accepting the funds and found many ways of defending the indefensible. The president, unfortunately, passed the complaint that was presented to him back to the very government that took the decision. The matter is now in court and the government has dug in its heels, refusing to admit that it could have erred in not choosing someone whose reputation was less than impeccable. It was more important for the powers that be to ensure that their very own, friendly chief election commissioner, as he will be in 2009, was tainted and therefore vulnerable and amenable, by the time the next general elections come around.

Also, not too long ago, in an affidavit answering the Supreme Court on the justification for having in his cabinet tainted persons against whom trials were under way in various courts, the PMO explained in all seriousness that this was due to the compulsions of coalition politics. In other words, since he wanted his government to stay in power he had to do the bidding of criminals or their promoters. Did this not amount to his admitting that coalition politics compelled him to be susceptible to blackmail? And so the ‘good’ PM found justification for having a tainted cabinet colleague and offered this explanation to the highest court in the land without a blush. Taint was now declared good for the sake of continuing in power.

Today we have the third part of this tainted triptych being put in place by a dispensation that is proving that it will not hesitate to legitimise impropriety, crime and lack of integrity for some greater purpose. The UPA nominee for president, Pratibha Patil, has been shown to be an obviously tainted person, if one were to believe the RBI, the employees’ union of her sugar co-operative bank, the widow of a slain Congress leader, the Mumbai High Court and a pile of legitimate documents, many unearthed by a fearless section of the media.

Now that we know that taint is not only okay but sometimes necessary, there is ‘no charge’ against Patil, says the PM as he joins the battle to escort her to the exalted chair of the President of India.

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The writer is a former president of the Samata Party