The Hindu Business Line : Scary scene

NO ONE who reads the published reports of the Supreme Court's judgment transferring the disproportionate wealth cases against Ms Jayalalithaa to Karnataka and the unusually strong words used by it to condemn the roles of the State Government and Public Prosecutor is unlikely to get over the sense of horror in a hurry. Have all the values of India's resplendent heritage come to this pass? Has the state, as Lord Macaulay would say, become a prey to statesmen?

Has the democratic edifice in this country, so lovingly and so selflessly, built by our founding fathers of the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Rajaji and Kamaraj at so much sacrifice, begun to crumble? Is this nation facing the frightening prospect of drowning in the witches' brew of "whatsoever things are vile, whatsoever things are wicked, whatsoever things are false, whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil report, if there be any vice and if there be any infamy" (to use the stinging words of a critic from the19th century, quoted by former Supreme Court Justice, the sedate and staid H.M. Seervai, to describe the state of affairs in our country as early as in the 1960s in his monumental work on the Constitution)!

What other fate can await a nation whose institutions — political executive, legislatures, judiciary, media, bureaucracy, police, business — seem to have been blighted? A new scam breaks out every other week in one unending series, running counter to the sanctity of law, ethics or common human decency. What is revolting is the ever-escalating brazenness of the culprits when challenged or charged. Mr Dilip Singh Judev, the hero of the latest expose, justifies taking money from whichever quarter it comes for a public purpose or political kitty on the outrageous plea that Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad also did the same.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu too says there is nothing wrong in accepting hard cash for a "social cause", even if it be apparently for help in getting lucrative mining leases by promising to pressure the hapless Orissa Chief Minister in the bargain.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, has rallied to Mr Judev's defence and insists that he would be the BJP's "star campaigner" in Chhattisgarh. Not only are these people fouling up the present environment, but planting poison weeds for the coming generations.

It is plain scary when we think of the heavy price we are all going to pay just for tolerating a travesty of democracy and rule of law. Alas for India!

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