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Journalism of Courage
A year and a half ago, the hawala case marked a watershed in politics. It put paid to the notion that corruption was part and parcel of the Indian political system, something that had to be fatalistically accepted. It indicated that even the highest executives in the land were very, very touchable, and the man in the street would no longer have to content himself with make-believe politician-bashing from Bollywood B-graders. There was much more edifying entertainment to be had in real life, courtesy the legal correspondents. Most important, the hawala case refocused national attention on what had become an increasingly unfashionable subject: probity in public life. If it were not for that precedent, Lakhubhai Pathak8217;s suit would never have been admitted, and Narasimha Rao would have been confident that the law would never take its own course. A whole Cabinet would not have been depopulated by resignations. Tihar Jail would never have played host to VIPs.
So it is a sad spectacle that all the accused in this landmark case are being let off one after another. There is enough evidence to establish that the scam had taken place. Neither the Jain diary nor the entries in it were fictional as the figures tallied with the total transactions. Sharad Yadav has admitted to accepting money from the Jains. Politicians have indicated that they, and their colleagues, may have taken money for campaign funds. As Chief Minister of Delhi, Khurana had done the Jains a good turn: he installed street lights on the road to their farmhouse, while their neighbours continued to languish in primeval darkness. But unfortunately, a few cryptic diary entries and a little circumstantial evidence are not enough to nail the culprits.
