When
a politician says something both true and important, I try to applaud without
regard to his political colour. So here is Babul Supriyo, BJP MP from Asansol,
complaining that the public come to him (and politicos in general) by and large
with requests for out of turn or even absolutely illegal favours – get me off
the hook in this police case, get my undeserving son a job, get my daughter
with hopeless examination scores into a good college, get me a flat though I
didn’t make it through the lottery. He went so far as to observe ruefully that
the very same people walk out and then condemn the same politicians for being ‘corrupt’.
All I can say is ‘Hear, hear!’
I
have always maintained that in this country the man in the street has no right
to call politicians names without taking a good hard look at himself first. As
I see it, we call a politician corrupt if he gives undue favours to
someone I don’t know or dislike. Also, if I take bribes in
hundreds or thousands, I am honest, but he takes them in millions, so he is
corrupt.
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2 comments:
Dear Sir,
This was a nice read.
As you used to say that everyone claims they are honest, their parents work sincerely and if that is the case, who are the corrupt people!
Recently, the comment made by some politician that Indians are not racists because we co-exist with people from the south. Many people are apparently very upset by this blatant statement where one just needs to browse the matrimonial advertisements to see our general social outlook.
With regards,
Saikat.
Indeed, Saikat. Good to see that you remember. And also that you are keeping in touch from so far away!
One major truth about us Indians is that we are very very thin-skinned, which stems from the fact that we have a very high opinion of ourselves as a 'civilization', despite having countless ugly faults. So we get very angry when they are publicly admitted, although we don't seem to have any desire to get rid of the faults! We are going to become more and more insufferable as the country becomes more significant on the global stage...
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