Milking away to glory!

Who would not love having a cow that can be milked for eternity? That’s probably why the Indian politicians are milking away the nation shamelessly for generations now. If one starts digging these milking stories, the list would run down all the way to pre independence era and I must say it will be quite an interesting research. Let’s refresh our memory with a few popular ones:

1990: Indian bad boys got on with the Italian bad boys to milk the mother cow and name of the story was “Bofors”. The value of this milking was estimated at Rs 400 million in those days, the highest at that point in time. While that amount appears to be petty today, it did shake the nation then. Nation was in huddle and the story became hot news.  It pulled curtains for the ruling party and brought in a new government which never proved to be any better anyway. Twenty years later if we look at the status of this story today, the bad boys involved have either escaped in to skies or have fled away to Italy. Watch dogs that were sent to hunt them, neither retrieved the milk nor did they ever catch anyone. They instead went into a long siesta. May be, they sipped in some milk too. But who is bothered about how much milk the dog had anyway!

1993: Mucky businessmen got on with politicians for illegal transactions amounting to bribery. The name given to the story was “Hawala” and the word became synonymous to scam ever since. This one broke shortly after bofors and was quite a saga. It involved several big names and though we cannot say the mother cow lost any milk this time, the estimated amount of wrong doing was put at around $18 million. 17 years later today if we see, none have ever been brought to justice. All have been acquitted for lack of evidence and this time too, the watch dog sent to investigate went in to long siesta. I am not even getting in to further details on whether the watch dog ever sipped any milk. But there certainly is a pattern to the nap of this one which is worth noting.

1996: Bad boys across political parties and from bureaucratic world started milking the mother cow yet again in a very coordinated fashion which later exposed a mafia nexus. This went on for a fairly long period of time, supposedly for over twenty years. They kept on submitting fake bills for procurement of fodder, medicines etc for a cattle that never existed. The story was named “Fodder scam” and it rocked the nation for a very long time. Estimated value of milking this time around was Rs 950 crores and needless to mention, the monies have never been recovered. None of the bad boys who milked the mother cow to glory have ever been brought to book. However one of them has been reduced from a political stalwart to zilch. And thanks to that, today that state is finally breathing a sigh of relief and is on growth path. So this milking story though is a disguise to the nation, none the less has some blessing too.

2003: The kingpin bad boy started counterfeiting stamp papers and had a group of more than 300 agents working for him to help sell these fake stamp papers in bulk. It’s just getting bigger isn’t it? The estimated value of milking this time was Rs 202 crores every day for a fairly long period of time trouncing a total of Rs 43000 crores to the exchequer. That’s an awful lot. Many countries would give a death sentence for such a crime. But in our case the bad boy was suffering with HIV and hence the court took a lenient view awarding a 13 year rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 202 crores (That’s how much he used to make in a day btw). The story does not stop there. He spilled several big names during narco analysis and those names have never been investigated. So the one who milked is caught and the ones who sold that milk are at large. Anyway there is nothing new in it for us. We have seen it one too many times to get baffled.

2008: Here comes the biggest of all, the spectrum milking saga. This is mother of all milking stories and at a time when the Indian crowd was by and large “used to” these scam stories and would not give a hoot for a new one. Yet they could not ignore this one, such was the magnitude.  A minister hailing from south had to finally give up his seat under pressure and right from the top several people are under the scanner. The usual blame game between the ruling and opposition goes unabated as the people watch the show in dismay. Further to it, the tape leaks had exposed a set of most embarrassing and shameful stories involving people of high repute from different walks of life. Raising a question in common man’s mind - Is there anyone clean? Or Is Hamaam Mein Sab Nange Hain? The government auditor estimates the value of this milking at Rs 170000 crores. Investigations are underway and going by the previous performance we can only expect a longer nap from them. If we come back to this after 10 years, would we see anyone prosecuted? At least this time?

If yes, then it will be a new beginning, else, we will be back at discussing another milking story with a larger value tagged. Look at the audacity of these politicians who have time and again milked the nation to glory in broad day light and the “aam admi” who has been robbed time and again is sitting naked and hungry ready to vote the same goons again for few drops of milk that has been looted from him.

I read it in a book several years ago and it still holds good. “World over politicians have mastered the art of robbing peter to pay paul. In our country, politicians have mastered the art of robbing paul to pay paul”

SIGH !