Fallout of ‘scam fatigue’
Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar of the NCP is back at his job just two months after he quit following allegations of a `20,000-crore scam in the irrigation department that he headed. His early return came after a “white paper” in which the department essentially gave itself a clean chit.
The BJP, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena walked out of the Assembly in protest on Monday, and with some justification: the “white paper” exercise was almost like asking a student accused of cheating in exams to evaluate his own paper.
Every Indian state has several scams in which the highest and mightiest have been named. Almost every day someone like Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party comes up with allegations of yet another scam. It’s so mundane that no one appears fazed by the daily litany.
The cumulative effect is that the political class ends up looking terrible. People’s anger, meanwhile, continues to build, and starts manifesting itself in the desire, voiced by so many Indians these days, for “strong leadership” and “strong punishment” for crimes. There is cynicism about the system, and a growing sense that only extreme remedies can cure ills.
This leads to vigilantism, seen in cases of “mob justice”, and in growing support for extremist politics. This may help leaders like Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and some others like Mr Kejriwal. But the middle ground is now shrinking as those who are its custodians have done their own cause so much harm so persistently for so long.
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