Shameful servants

In a welcome move, the Centre has instructed the establishment of 12 special courts for the trial of 1581 MPs and MLAs, who have found themselves on the wrong side of the legal ladder. This decision addresses two primary concerns that have been impinging upon the successful functioning of our democracy in modern times. First, the nature of ministers and their discrete nefarious activities that show little regard towards law or towards the preservation of any kind of ethics in the face of maintaining the decorum of public administration. And second, the onerously long time that is spent in the judicial conundrum without an adequate final verdict ever being reached within respectable time. Over the years, there are a handful leaders in our country who have managed to escape the flipside of power—the possibility of manhandling it, leading to widespread corruption. This phenomenon was particularly potent during the tenure of the successive UPA governments, with endless scams coming to the forefront and regional parties too flourishing with their underhand network. From the RJD in Bihar to the AIADMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu to the TMC in Bengal to the BJP in Maharashtra, never have we found a political party that presents an entirely clean chit. The current BJP government rose to power partially with this sentiment, that it would undo the corruption that has plagued Indian politics. The Commonwealth Games scam and the 2G scam being the most noteworthy, for which DMK leaders Kanimozhi and A Raja still await a verdict. The Narada scam had shown the shameful face of how Bengal's leaders practice a freehand, despite the Chief Minister abstaining from any kind of illegal engagement. These instances just bring to fore the fact that Indian politics is synonymous with corruption. From the days of intellectuality being central to political authorities, the ability to launder money and engage in illegal scams now forms the pivot.