People indirectly pay for the damage caused to properties by rioters

Bhubaneswar, August 1:  We elect people to protect us. These people instead indulge in activities which later destroys us. Then the ill gotten money is used to mobilize supporters to browbeat the government and its agencies. And it is the people who pay for the expenses incurred by police or security agencies to control the mob that comes on the streets to stall the actions of agencies against the people who have caused damage to the interest of the people and the country as a whole. This is ironical.

Whenever a politician in the country is taken into custody, a sizable number of his supporters try to come on the street to protest the action. They indulge even in arson to vent their ire against the government and its agencies and cause damage to public properties. The government then spends money to set these damaged properties back to shape. At the end of the day the innocent people pay through their nose, in the shape of tax to the government. Every person, including those who indulge in unruly activities, knows the truth. But the saga continues. The  ‘non-violence’ or ‘satyagrah’ preachings of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi now appears to have fallen on deaf years.

Time has changed and the genre of politicians in the country has changed. In the current political sprectrum in the country every workers wants to contest election, become a minister and then ensure the future of his or her kin. It is a common sight these days that anyone who becomes minister tries hard to ensure that at least one of his family member is accommodated in the party with a ‘ticket’. The vicious cycle continues. Then the famous saying ‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Someone who has become a minister once craves for the post in the next term, many of them indulge in corrupt practices and a time comes when they become synonymous with corruption.

The present scenario in the country is a bright example. One often hears that a minister has fallen in the trap of the Government agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate or the Income Tax for corruption or corrupt practices. Corruption is not only accepting money from someone, but also depriving a genuine person from his dues to accommodate someone who is close to the politician.

In Maharashtra, two ministers are in Jail and a Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha taken in by the ED on Sunday, In West Bengal one Minister and one of his close associate is in jail for amassing huge wealth beyond his known source of income, three Congress MLA in Jharkhand have been arrested after recovery of huge cash from the vehicle they were travelling, there a huge number of bureaucrats who are in jail or are being taken in almost daily for graft or corrupt practices. These agencies spend a lot of money in probing the corruption and subsequently arresting these men. The most interesting and despicable aspect is that  a huge number of people gathered in the streets to express support for these leaders and security needed to be beefed up. An extra burden on the state exchequer.

But it is the common men who subsequently pay for these expenses incurred by the agencies through taxes in some forms or the other.