Saturday, March 26, 2011

Commonwealth games – Lip service to Accountability?


The games have now concluded long but what happened to the corruption case surrounding it. Where is the account of the taxpayers money that went to pay for goods at several times their market price and more? The government and political leardership had promised swift and decisive action once the games concluded. But whither? 

In a swindle of this magnitude the public needs to know more and regularly. Ideally a week by week account, but any clear reporting has gone to a trickle. What little is visible is the familiar sporadic and abstract commentary of "ensuing investigations" and "officials being questioned" which given previous cases, indicates justice is going to be far and likely  elusive.

In India corruption trials die a slow but sure end into the vague apathy and surrounding noise of newer scandals. This one seems going the same way. CWG scandal overshadowed by 2G scam, and that further by Cash for votes. Perhaps its quite reassuring for the tainted, that their story will be overshadowed by the one around the corner and soon there will be less to worry about.

The media either doesn't seem to be doing much to follow up and report, now that the the initial rush is over. Surely if it exists in conscious of the public mired in their daily bread and butter, it should well in that of media whose daily bread and butter it actually is! Or perhaps there is  shortage of investigative journalists given the volume of cases in India and priority of current cases over old ones!

CWG stands out in its impact on India's reputation more than many of the other scandals and justice in this case is as much about amending India's image externally as answering citizens. India may be a democracy with all supporting pillars - free media, independent judiciary, investigative agencies and right to information. But in matter of executive accountability towards public funds, the democracy is appearing increasingly dysfunctional.


And now with the world cup in hands guess this is what they (our politicians) may well be upto!



Thursday, March 24, 2011

Renaming the blog

6 years after having started this blog have decided to rename it. Choosing the new name based on the the posts to date,  mostly from random experiences and thinking, than a fixed theme. More akin to responding to the random summoning of the creative spirit..and hence the name!