The media is the new ruler?

The 2G spectrum scam has last Thursday claimed its second victim in the Union Cabinet when Shri Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the post of Textiles Minister. The DMK supremo Shri Karunanidhi who is Maran’s grand uncle said it was the news media that is ruling the country and that it had defamed Maran and could defame anyone and everyone it chooses.

It is ironical that in the present Government, all illegalities and scams have been unearthed and busted by the media and all arrests and prosecutions have resulted only because of the hue and cry raised thereafter.

The official watch dogs including the opposition, the CBI and the police have been toothless and totally ineffective in controlling the rot in the system. The opposition does not seem to be interested in spotting and stopping any of the scams, but rakes up issues that have no financial kickbacks.

So in our own State of Goa, the opposition makes a hue and cry on the medium of instruction issue, fuel price rise issue, etc but is silent on the blatant corruption existing in the PWD and real estate business.

Every person in the street knows how much money is to be paid to which Minister or which of his Trusts, for either getting a job in a Government Department, or for getting a work contract in the PWD, or for getting a building plan approved.

The opposition appears to be making a database of all the scams for future use in case they come in power and are able to rake in the income themselves.

Like the DMK made the mistake of believing that the coalition government had sufficient leverage to stall any investigation into its scams, so is the present Government making the mistake in believing that the existence of a toothless opposition making it immune to ramifications of corruption.

The Government has failed to learn its lessons from examples of the support a person like Anna Hazare could generate on a single issue of the Lokpal Bill. The State Government as well as the Central Government has not concentrated on the pulse of the common man and one fine day, it is going to have to succumb to its might.

Meanwhile, they might already have reserved a room for a VIP in Tihar jail.