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IT IS A MATTER OF UTTER DISGRACE THAT AS A NATION, WE HAVE FODDER BILLIONAIRES, IPL BILLIONAIRES, CWG BILLIONAIRES,

AND HUNDREDS OF ‘ADARSH’ MILLIONAIRES!

Amidst a long list of myriad scams and land grabbing acts, the recent Adarsh Cooperative Housing society scam appears to be one of the most unfortunate of all. The housing society, which was supposedly meant for Kargil martyrs’ families, ended up getting allotted to everyone but the actual beneficiaries. As if the scam pertaining to buying of coffins was not enough, the widows of the martyrs had to go through this ordeal too. In fact, the location of the society speaks volumes. Being located at one of the costliest areas of Mumbai, in Colaba, the political, defence and bureaucratic classes of India left no opportunity to illegally get their names registered in the list of beneficiaries – despite having no links with Kargil martyrs. What is most hilarious is the way our babus and politicians reacted after being exposed by the media. On the one hand, while the Maharashtra Chief Minister offered to quit, on the other, the former Indian Army Chief Gen N C Vij stated that he was not even aware that the Adarsh Society flats were meant for Kargil war widows; and so he purchased one! Now, if Gen Vij is honest, then I really wonder who would be the right person (except him) to know the truth? A similar answer was given by the recently retired Gen Deepak Kapoor! What’s more, in documents submitted by politicians to get flats in the infamous Adarsh Housing Society, some politicians even showed their monthly income to be less than Rs. 20,000. Among all, Suresh Prabhu, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and family, former bureaucrat and NCP MP Shrinivas Patil, declared their income in the bracket of Rs.20,000 to Rs.40,000! Many of these politicians are reported to own multiple properties. And mind you, all of them got their allotments at a tenth of the prevailing prices in the market! What is even more unfortunate this time is that even the top brass of the forces are involved in this loot. And now it comes to the fore that the land on which the society is being built is situated on a sensitive area of Indian Navy – forcing the Navy to brand the society land a “security threat”!

But then, amongst the others, the armed forces are probably the cleanest! Th ere is no doubt in the fact that whether Indian businesses, or the political class, or the bureaucrats, most of them possess an unending appetite to grab land and that too at any cost! So what if these apartments were meant for the widows who have lost their husbands fighting for the same country, our corrupt classes have left no stone unturned to grab as much as they could. Thanks to media that this scam came to the limelight; otherwise, there are so many similar such scams, which do not even get reported! And the blatant and shameless loot continues. There are innumerable examples that corroborate the fact how the entire system stinks. Recently, a few more land scams have been unearthed in Mumbai itself – one involving the revenue minister and the other involving the top cops. Another land scam has been unearthed recently in Karnataka involving the top ministers of the state. Still another one has surfaced in Rishikesh, in the state of Uttarakhand. And each one of these scams runs into multiples of crores. Mind you, these are just a few land scams where, given the obscene appetite of the business, political and the bureaucratic classes, the magnitude of corruption has crossed all shameless benchmarks! In the past one decade, we have had the famous Ketan Parekh scam, the Satyam scam, the Barak missile scam, the oil for food scam, Madhu Koda scam, the fodder scam, the IPL scam, the CWG scam, and the list goes on and on...

Each one of them is a glaring testimony to the fact that national loot has been a perpetual national pastime! Billions of rupees get siphoned off into the pockets of a few. According to Late C K Prahlad, the cost of corruption to this country is a staggering Rs.2,50,000 crores! Though I feel that it is impossible to put the right value to the billions that are getting systematically siphoned, but then, keeping Prahlad’s figure as the basis, the per capita corruption for India through various scams comes to a whopping Rs.2500!

What is most unfortunate is the fact that as scams magnify, both in scope and scale, crony capitalism becomes the order of the day! That’s why as a nation, we might have a hundred billionaires, but not a single billion dollar value product! It is a matter of utter disgrace that as a nation, we have fodder billionaires, IPL billionaires, CWG billionaires, and hundreds of ‘Adarsh’ millionaires!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks to media that most to the scams are now coming to public notice. Hoping that media will help to bring these criminals behind the bars.
Ashok said…
Arindham is a Brahmarshi.
Thanks dera torch bearer.
Dear Arindam,

It is said that "A scam a day keeps..." !!

A lie uttered very frequently, doesn't become an utter lie does it?

On the other hand, a truth revealed in whatever manner, is always and truly true!!

Is a scam a scam, or is it? (This type of a sentence is called by a particular name, whcih we can discuss in a different column).

While it's logical to endeavour to get to the root of any scam (unearth it as they say!), so that the extent of all the dirt & muck will be revealed, it's a different matter altogether when one tries to understand the etymology of the word "scam" itself.

That's because this slang word doesn't have a decided origin!!

The word has no particular parentage, but interestingly & ironically, words from several languages other than English, have staked their individual claims for creating it!!

The ole Queen's English, Flemish, German, French, Norse and even other words of Indo-Eurpoean or Semitic derivation, have all some alleged link to this derisive word, it seems.

The language-connections go back to 60,000 years ago (this does make one wonder whether "scamming" was an original vice after all!!)

Let's face it, whatever the background, scams have always been there, are continuing to be so, and will thrive in the future too.

For every scam that's been exposed, there will ever be several which have gone un-noticed or let pass by.

Lakshman Rammohan
Tej said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tej said…
you are a real life example of a hypocrite and attention seeker my friend...i say this utmost respect....you first cheaply criticize the commonwealth games terming them as slave games and hence calling the athletes slaves and then you praise the athletes who made India proud during the games. i hope u look for your lost piece of mind...,may god bless you
Unknown said…
Think you should give a watch to the Bollywood movie "KNOCK OUT". U MUST!
List of scams in India r endless and our politicians r shameless. Media in democracy is knw as a fourh state & is indeed performing is duty to fullest and instead of CBI more investigative cases or corruption is unearthed by media.Keep on the great work media.
Unknown said…
This is indeed a better topic than the one you wrote on Pres. Obama. I agree with you on this and as a nation its high time we start clearing our own house, before we look into our neighbour's cleanliness. Our great politicians, bureaucrats and not least our all powerful businessmen, whose money power can influence governments on national and international levels, have to set examples to the citizens, by leading an honest life, and not by threatening them with their strength of power. People in glass houses should not throw stones at their neighbour's window panes....These people can create scams and wangle out with their connections and wealth, but if a commoner has to make a mistake... then he has to pay for it...
srinanda sen said…
What I fail to understand is why NO ONE noticed all this was happening while the building was being constructed!! After all its a BUILDING...something we can SEE. Did it actually have to reach 30 floors above the ground for all this HUGE talk about SCAM about allotment comes out, when the building should not have been built at the spot it should have been????....Where was the CRZ body and media during construction??
shaily said…
The article is doubtlessly good and enlightening, but just talking about all these scams stuff will be enough help to our nation...no doubt media did a good job by bringing into light the details of this scam...but there have been instances where media was the one trying to hide scams for itz personal incentives...the only way out to all this corruption is keep ur eyes n ears n mind open...and to initiate with, one shud start cleaning one's own mess before paying attention to neighbourhood dirt...if one is able to stop a really small mishap in one's surrounding...that will lead to a bigger change in society...so instead of occassional blood boils from such articles nd thereafter minding ur own business...start bringing little changes in your own wayz...nd that in ur surroundings...i.e; if u r really PASSIONATE ABOUT INDIA.
shaily said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
shaily said…
This comment has been removed by the author.

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