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Moral stupor in the midst of rising prosperity

Saurabh Sharma

The purchase of a woman by the journalist Ashwini Sarin galvanised the country when its gross domestic product was a mere blip. Sarin's expose inspired the movie Kamala ; there were headlines, editorials and public debates. The outrage and anger in the country was palpable.

Today, our GDP has risen by three more digits and in inverse proportion, our anger at the purchase of a woman would merit but three lines in a newspaper and three seconds of our attention today.

In the world of money, things are no different. Harshad Mehta made headlines with his Rs 624 crore (Rs 6.24 billion) securities scam in 1991. At the turn of the century in 2002, we can narrate with confidence scams of mind-boggling magnitude.

We have a Rs 50,000 crores (Rs 500 billion) food purchase scam, a Rs 24, 000 crores (Rs 240 billion) power theft scam ,the UTI scam of Rs 14,400 crores (Rs 144 billion) and the state borrowings scam of over Rs 80,000 crores (Rs 800 billion).

The pension fund scam that is emerging could dwarf all the above put together. Harshad Mehta became synonymous with cozenage; the scams cited above lasted one to three days in the newspapers and have died down.

Why has this happened? For one, the lack of our cognitive abilities to keep pace with the growth in GDP is responsible. Two lakh crore rupees is a large amount and cannot be explained in terms of a house, a car or a bungalow.

Explaining away this amount has to be in different terms. If we suggest that the biradariwallahs of the ruling party made Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) each, our common man would either sense an opportunity or drink another round and shower colorful words.

An explanation that this leakage would have removed poverty in Bihar would again attract his wrath, but half a per cent of GDP would mean nothing.

The media has contributed to this stupor in its own way. For one, the endless scandals on television desensitises us. Two, both the print media and television fails to communicate in terms that the common man can easily grasp.

It is for the media to introspect why the rising prices of onion, which was possibly a paltry Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) scam changed governments in at least five states while our food purchase scam of Rs 50,000 crores (Rs 500 billion) has not unseated anyone. The media can certainly do better.

On the moral front, nothing surprises us anymore. The Tehelka scam where we had George Fernandes exposed is already forgotten and he is back in the saddle. Rail disasters that occur with alarming regularity are just as easily forgotten.

Bofors is dying down - the mighty gun once shook the nation with its blazing cannons of corruption charges. The Hindujas were arrested, summoned to the country to meet their fate but the reality is that they are back in the UK, enjoying the high life. There is no outrage.

We have surplus foodgrains being exported at Rs 6 per kilo after being purchased at Rs 15 a kilo; our vigilant Opposition party fails to bring Parliament to a halt. Ramnath Goenka's Indian Express highlighted the corruption and misdemeanour of the petrol pump party.

The petrol pump scandal has slinked away down the pipeline with no tangible residue of resignations, fines, court cases or probes. The oily Ram Naik won the battle of allotment of petrol pumps. Truly, we have arrived at a point where nothing shocks us. Nothing also can shock us long enough.

This waning impact of moral scandals is setting further lows. Hunger, deceit, theft, corruption, sleaze are but blips; we have traversed a valley of despair to the point where genocide alone has the power to attract and retain our attention. The crocodile tears of Vajpayee over Gujarat have frightening implications. State-sponsored terrorism has gained acceptability.

The next such instance will go by with lesser degree of outrage and protest. This situation is in direct contrast to our experience of Emergency where the violation of human rights overthrew a government.

Let us look at some future video clips. If tomorrow it is discovered that the peon in the Supreme Court charges you Rs 50 to meet the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, would it cause comment?

Would it arouse revulsion if another woman journalist having an affair is murdered in the capital and her pieces put in a microwave oven? How many remember if the killer in the tandoor murder case has been brought to justice? Was he ever arrested? How many people care?

Does the boiling injustice to our fellow countrymen and women cause us to pause? Assume that 1,00,000 tribal labourers in Bihar are forced to genuflect before their respective local zamindars to get their daily wages, would it be worthy of television coverage?

By letting Godhra and Gujarat go unpunished, we inspire belief that these video clips will be digested with far lesser outrage than Sarin's purchase of a woman. The burning tandoor of injustice to the poor will remain a dying ember on an ever-darkening horizon of public morality and ethics.

The genesis of scams is the public wealth available by way of taxes. Should citizens stop paying taxes? The Boston Tea Party was a revolution triggered by taxes that were high and unfair.

The citizens of that honourable city felt that they could take care of themselves and that they need not pay a tax to kings who squandered their hard-earned money in rich palaces and in entertainment allowances.

Our experience with the Central budget is similar. Our hard-earned money feeds our rapacious politicians and bureaucrats.

Are we then to hope for a likely solution or are we doomed to watching, in horror, as rapes, murders, and microwaved flesh leave us unmoved? A Mahatma walks the earth once in a thousand years; the next is due some time in 2868.

The emergence of another Jaiprakash Narayan is a dying hope with the BJP and the Congress emerging as two sides of the same coin. Life, to the BJP, is a pursuit of the treasures of Kuber - mere obstacles like murder, scam, rape, pillage are inconsequential.

While the BJP may protest this description, the petrol pump scam, the land scam in Delhi, the Tehelka scam, Gujarat, the divestment mess and Pramod Mahajan speak louder. Can a third force emerge? Look at the disarray in VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and so on. The situation is indeed grim.

The future is also grim. The next generation or the great hope for India accepts the bankruptcies, distress foodgrain sales, non-performing assets in financial institutions, and the systemic loot and exploitation of the downtrodden, poor, illiterate, and the impoverished.

Instead of dharma , the next generation is being taught paisa . Naiveté' is lost, murders are passé'. The next generation is living in a mindscape of television, beauty contests, farmhouses, fast cars and fast women. Increasingly, life resembles Bruce Springsteen's version of life: "57 channels and nothing on".

If the mind is without corrupt influence and the head is held high, into a heaven of dharma , the next generation of this country could awake. However, as the BJP merges into the Congress and the hope of a Mahatma is forlorn, this moralistic flash of words has to end…we have to return to life after these messages.

Sorry folks, interruption ke liye khed hai ... we take you back to your favourite program- Chalo Banein Crorepati . ("Our apologies for the interruption. We take you back to your favourite programme: Let's all become Millionaires")

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