If even 1% of what Pritish Nandy writes is true, this Government must be thrown

out. Please forward.

A SHIP ABOUT TO SINK                                                      --- Pritish Nandy         I like Manmohan Singh. He has immaculate credentials. It’s thesecredentials that have seen the UPA through its most stormy years. IfSingh wasn’t Prime Minister, the Government would have collapsed along time back. No, not because of its inherent coalitioncontradictions but because it’s simply not possible for so many crookswith conflicting agendas to loot the country together, almost as if inperfect unison. The Indian Political Philharmonic Orchestra must bethe world’s most amazing cacophony of rogues, rascals and robbers.Luckily for the UPA, there was always Singh to fall back on. Mostmiddle class Indians refuse to be cynical. We know exactly what’shappening around us, we criticise it constantly, but when it comes tothe crunch we all rally around the nation and the flag. We are notbat-brained paranoids. Neither are we wide-eyed innocents ready to buyinto every ridiculous explanation thrown our way to explain the lootthat’s taking place in broad daylight. But the latest season of scamshas flummoxed all. This is not just Alibaba and his chaalis chors.Everyone among the chaalis chors is another Alibaba with his own fortythieves. That’s the way the pyramid of crime operates today. Butbecause Singh, soft spoken and self effacing, is the face of thisGovernment, India has kept faith. But now, enough is enough. Neither Singh nor Pranab Mukherjee, noranyone else is capable any more of saving this Government. It’s neckdeep in its own sticky sleaze. What’s worse, you haven’t seen anythingyet. All these scams are but the tip of the iceberg. Talk to anyoneand you will get an instant dhobi list of scams in queue tobreak. No, I am not saying this. Congress leaders are, in private.Look at Singh, wan and waylost. Or Mukherjee going apopleptic in fauxanger because he has to defend what he knows is indefensible. Theylook less convincing than Rakhi Sawant playing Joan of Arc.   The problem is: We have voted into power the stupidest bunch of thieves.They are such losers that they can’t steal a hamburger without leavingketchup stains all over. Yet they are constantly trying to pull offthe biggest scams in history. From Rs 64 crore in Bofors, they haveupped the ante to Rs 170,0000 crore in 2G and no, I am not includinghundreds of aircraft Air India bought while sinking into bankruptcyand preposterous sums spent on arms deals that havemade India the world’s second largest arms buyer when we can’t providefood and healthcare to 60% Indians. Our leaders are making deals onthe sly with greedy builders, land sharks, illegal mining companies,corporate fixers, shady arms dealers and, O yes, US diplomats who wantto manipulate our political choices. And, what’smore amazing, they do it like bungling idiots. Even Inspector Clouseaucan outwit them. But that doesn’t mean they are not malevolent. These are people whoare destroying India from within. They are not just robbing you, me,and the exchequer. They are destroying institutions, subverting laws,vandalising our heritage and history, and trying to build a dazzling,amoral edifice of crime and corruption unprecedented in the nation’shistory. It’s a scary scenario that could turn the land of the Mahatmainto one gigantic Gotham City with a flyover to hell.But my question is more basic: Can we trust these idiots to run thisgreat nation? If you travel and meet people across India, you will realise that forevery scam that breaks—and currently there’s one breaking everyweek—there are ten more waiting in line. The media has never had it sogood! And it’s the same gang whose names keep coming up. Kalmadi,Satish Sharma, Sant Chatwal, Ashok Chavan. The NCP lot.The DMK. And everyone, in private, is protesting his own innocence,pointing fingers at someone else. It’s a sure sign of a collapsingregime. It’s what happened when Rajiv with a staggering majority inparliament lost his mandate to govern. Rats alone don’t leap off asinking ship. So do everyone else. So even though Singh, like Pontius Pilate, may wash his hands offevery scam that hits the headlines, the fact is: The longer thisGovernment stays, the more compromised the Congress will be, and theless capable of coming back to power. You can’t allow the sovereigntyof a nation to be compromised just to win a confidence vote. You can’tbribe MPs to get your way in parliament. You can’t allow a shadyhotelier, with CBI cases against him, to play roving diplomat and,worse, give him a Padma Bhushan for it. You can’t appoint a taintedbureaucrat as the nation’s CVC. You can’t file a FIRagainst a corrupt CM and then allow him to melt away. You can’t letthe prime witness to the nation’s biggest scam, who offered to turnapprover, be murdered in broad daylight and pretend it’s a suicide.If this is the best this Government can do, it’s time to step down. Pritish Nandy