Best kept Secrets
In these times of investigative
reporting, sting operations and the new found access to many of the
Government’s activities and deeds through the Right to Information act (RTI),
the best kept secrets of especially the Hukumath are found on the
front page headlines of the National and regional news dailies. And for good
measure, popular newsweeklies and fortnightlies run deeply investigated and
well researched features in their pages that leave no fig leaf for cover. The
erring Nethas or the corporate honcho is stripped of all cover and has
to depend only on denial for defending their position. Not that it shakes up
their situation or position in any significant way. They merely suffer a
temporary set back and the scandal is quickly forgotten, giving prominence to
the next bigger scam that gets reported next morning. We the people have a
right to know. But mere public knowledge is not a deterrent to the enactment of
the next scam. Prosecution of a harsh and unmerciful nature must follow.
Secrets small and big cross our lives
from childhood the deathbed. How many of us can keep a secret intact? I for one
can’t! My wife calls me a loose mouth and, I even suspect she chooses what
“secrets” can be told to me. I do make an effort to keep it that way. But along
the way, somewhere I do blurt it out to someone if in a somewhat conspirational
tone. Spymasters, secret agents, intelligence agencies having ultra vital
secrets are all lore of the realm. But for the mere mortal that I am, keeping a
so-called secret bound within me is a little difficult. Yes, necessary caution
is definitely mandated. The world war generated aphoristic
maxims,
“Loose lips sink ships and the other one about walls having ears “ did have
significance with relevance to their times.
True also that Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, the transparency and restructuring policies, while doing
great things for the Russian people, in a way eventually fragmented the once
mighty Soviet Union.
No secret is really
sacred anymore. Right from private affairs and proclivities of the high and
mighty, the rich and famous to the sordidness of common individuals are grist
for the newspaper mills. Not a day can you scan the news papers or watch TV
news channels without some dirty linen being bandied about for everyone to see.
Big brother is always watching! The secrets that really need to be kept locked
in steel safes are the military and antiterrorism measures and efforts and
those of the police’s efforts to apprehend criminals are out in the open too. Scam
by politicians, individuals and even the personnel of the armed services losing
their integrity for material gratification has become so passé. However the
conclusions of the investigations that follow at considerable expense to the public
exchequer are generally themselves well-kept secrets. The parts that are
revealed to the public are the air brushed version leaving out more important
names and details.
India could well do
with its own glasnost in the running of the country. The demand for
transparency and honesty from the lawmakers and the mandarins is gaining
momentum. Naturally there is severe resistance to Lokpal bill’s drafting as
envisaged by people who really want to rein in the runaway corruption. The
establishment want to water it down so much, we might as well not have the new
legislation passed. Let us hope the proposed new laws to bring to book the
thieves and charlatans who rob the public, will come in to effect and a New
India emerges with the transparency of the waters of a mountain lake.
Written on 29/12/2013
