Tags:
Journalism of Courage
This surely must be some kind of a joke that the Great Anarch in the skies has sprung on us poor mortals. Just when we imagined that we have finally got our politicians 8212; with a little help from the Supreme Court and the Election Commission 8212; to come clean and make a clean breast of their worldly possessions and inheritances for the general edification of voters, a Telgi comes along and blots the stamp paper. So while we may now, with an occasional reservation or two, vouch for the honesty of the men and women who will soon get to rule us, their affidavits may alas not bear the ultimate stamp of honesty because nobody, but nobody, would vouch for the authenticity of their stamp paper.
Are these solemn testimonies then worth the stamp paper on which they are typed? Or, to put it another way, is the stamp paper that bear these solemn testimonies worth the information carried therein? Is there a larger symbolism in this quirky coincidence that unleashes a Telgi on the nation just as it prepares to make its candidates suitably accountable and transparent before five crucial assembly elections? Should we take it as a sign from divine quarters that we, the people, are not quite ready for the dipped-in-detergent neta? Or perhaps we should desist from wrestling with such insolvable moral dilemmas and enlighten ourselves by reading the affidavits instead.
