Climate of corruption

Source: Livemint

In our previous post, we summarized the current state of the AGW debate in the world in the wake of the climategate scandal. In covering these issues, we also took a departure from the big stories of Indian politics for several weeks. It was very hard. Consider the following stories:

• A Goa Congress politician rapes a Russian woman and then tries to weasel out using political clout. Comment by other Congress politicians? The woman should not have been out and about! Yeah, who are the Taliban here?
  
  
• A Karanataka Congress politician caught with a woman and subsequently into immoral trafficking dragnet.
  
  
• Telengana or not to be? A fine example of leadership. Crown Prince not available for comment even as his Youth Congress erupt in riots in Kerala.
  
  
• A church pastor in Karnatana vandalizes his own Church and media spins the story. Nothing new here.
  
  
• In Mumbai, evangelicals use deceit to convert children without the permission of their parents.
  
  
• PDP Politician Madani's wife caught by police on terrorism charges inevitably leading to secular indignation, signature campaign by concerned citizens etc.
  
  
• The usual minority related troubles including busting of a gang in Bangalore that used to kidnap bar girls and sexually assault them to force their employers to pony up.

As you can see, it tested the very limits of our self-control to pass up stories like this, yet we did. Why? Because the issue at hand is that important.

In India, we have a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. We obsess over silly little political games they play and that have no real consequence. We debate over the Swiss minaret ban which has practically no consequence in India, thankfully, aside from the comic relief provided by presumably Hindu secular journalists feigning more indignation than Muslims themselves. Yet, scams worth tens of thousands of crores get virtually no attention.

Funny thing is, we can at least recognize those scams. Take for instance the Madhu Koda scam or the Ambulance scam. These were low tech 19th century scams. Then the spectrum scam - tricky, but nothing you couldn't explain to the Mufassil types over a cup of tea.

Just how exactly do you even begin to explain the AGW scam? While you remain fixated over Copenhagen, your aam aadmi friendly Government has already bartered away your interest and you don't even know it.

In our next post, we will expose how our Government has already committed to a certain energy regime at a potential cost of literally hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, please take a few moments to ponder over the chart at the top of the post as well as the following:

Delhiites wrapped themselves up in more woollens today as the national capital woke up to a chilly and foggy morning with the mercury plummeting to the season's lowest of 7.4 degree Celsius. The capital is likely to get chillier ahead of Christmas with the Weatherman predicting minimum and maximum temperatures falling below average levels. (Source: Yahoo India)

Cold conditions intensified in most parts of the northern region on Monday as mercury dipped by several notches with Leh in Jammu and Kashmir freezing at minus 16 degrees. The minimum temperature in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh hovered between two to four degree Celsius below normal at several places. (Source: IBNLive)