Ponmala

When the words and actions of men who matter do not match, we have a directionless world. When society accepts it as the order of the day, we have an age of duplicity. Look around and you will find duplicity grinning at you from every direction. Worse still, you will also hear the deafening applause of its admirers. If you feel out of place, it is a sign that you are still a normal human being, a breed that is staring at extinction.

The BJP was swept into power by the anti-corruption movement headed by Anna Hazare, a Gandhian whom the nation greatly admired and looked up to. He had the full backing of the BJP. In fact, future developments would prove that he was a Trojan Horse of the BJP. The movement was aimed at ending the rampant corruption that was plaguing every field of governance through the introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Another aim of the movement was the repatriation of the huge amount of black money that Indian politicians and businessmen had stashed in foreign banks. Anna Hazare’s was perhaps the most successful movement after Gandhi’s Freedom Struggle. But, ironically, Anna Hazare will go down in history as a Gandhian who paved the way for a government that would dismantle the secular democratic India that Mahatma Gandhi created and would reap a rich harvest from the all-pervading corruption.

Bringing BJP to power was the only success achieved by the Anna Hazare movement.  All of its proclaimed anti-corruption aims just vanished into thin air. In fact, the BJP under Modi and Amit Shah proactively thwarted them. As a response to the Anna Hazare movement, the then Congress led UPA government enacted the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013, which provided for the establishment of Lokpal for the Union and Lokayuktas for the states. The BJP fought the 2014 elections on the platform of corruption but it did not even move a finger to appoint the Lokpal. Finally, after repeated chiding by the supreme court, a toothless Lokpal was appointed in 2019-20.  In the first year, the Lokpal received 1427 complaints and, in 2020-21, 110 complaints. That provided an opportunity to the Modi government to cite the declining number of complaints as proof that ‘there is hardly anything to complain against’ it with regards to corruption. With his stoic silence, Ann Hazare also seemed to agree.

The Modi government bought the spyware Pegasus and used it to snoop on opposition leaders, journalists who were critical of the government, judges and even its own ministers. The Supreme Court set up a committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge to enquire into that scam. The court has just said that the government refused to co-operate with the committee. Among other things, the Modi government used the information gathered using Pegasus to blackmail a judge into giving it a clean chit on the multi-million dollar Rafale scam through the ‘sealed cover’ route.

The prevailing atmosphere of rampant corruption has given Modi and Shah a double advantage. They can indulge in corruption without the fear of judicial scrutiny and are also able to send a message that the corrupt can enjoy peace only if they join their fold. They are toppling opposition governments in states by buying MLAS off or by threatening to unleash enforcement agencies against them if they don’t fall in line. The nation has taken it all in its stride.

During the election campaign of 2014 Modi had promised to repatriate all the black money kept in foreign accounts and give Rs 15 lakhs to every Indian. When that failed to happen, Amit Shah wriggled out saying “Modiji’s statement was a jumla(idiomatic expression) that was given during the LokSabha polls.” The country applauded that hypocrisy of the BJP by bringing them back to power with a far greater share of seats.

The communists were always looked upon as people who stuck to their word. But that is not the case anymore. The BJP and the Marxists are sworn enemies. At an election rally held in Kerala, Amit Shah accused the Marxist chief minister PinarayiVijayan of leading a corrupt government. Pinarayi hit back saying, “Amit Shah is an embodiment of communalism. He will do anything to nurture communalism.” He also reminded Amit Shah that he was gaoled for alleged “kidnapping and fake encounters.” But now, with the ED, Customs and CBI at his heels for alleged cases of corruption, Pinarayi is befriending Amit Shah. He has invited Amit Shah to be the chief guest for the prestigious Nehru Trophy Boat Race, this after accusing Member of Parliament N K Premachandran of being a BJP stooge for inviting Modi to inaugurate an NH bypass in 2019. Even communists take recourse to Duplicity to save their skin.

People whom our youth look up to in every sphere of life are competing in the practice of duplicity. So much so, they are bereft of guiding lights. Consequently, they are tempted to lead an aimless and reckless life. And that leads them easily to the world of illicit drugs and crimes. That is the prize society has to pay when duplicity unravels its moral fabric.