Following the style of weddings in political families the one Laloo Prasad Yadav organised for his daughter was lavish and ostentatious to a fault, just the kind of tamasha to attract the attention of tax sleuths. So why is the RJD outraged that its leader has been sent notices by the Income Tax Department? It was giving hostages to fortune for someone currently entangled in the huge fodder scam to mount that kind of spectacle.With a national cast of politicians in attendance and hotels and cops in Patna commandeered for the occasion, who could fail to ask how much the wedding cost? It will not be surprising if the affair helps the CBI's case in the fodder scam in which it is sought to be proved the Bihar leader had accumulated assets disproportionate to known sources of income. With so much at stake the Patna wedding was either a display of brazenness or of conviction in his ability to prove himself innocent of the charges standing against him.Those who do have every right to be outraged by the goingson in Patna are the people of Bihar. In this age of newly minted maharajas nothing seems to matter but the acquisition of power for the accumulation of wealth. For ordinary people nothing has changed. Government teachers can go for months without their salaries being paid and villagers still have to make do with contaminated water supplies. Only politicians and their hangers-on have done well, extraordinarily well. There were senior leaders at hand from every political party in the country to testify to that fact in Laloo Prasad Yadav's case and a couple of years ago in Jayalalitha's.The Income Tax Department has done well to start an investigation. It is essential to find out who footed the extravagant bill for a reported 30,000 strong guest list. But it is a pity that the department is so selective. It is quite legitimate to ask why investigative procedures are not carried out in routine fashion whenever lavish expenditure is on display whether by political or business or other big-wigs. During themarriage season it is possible to see any number of expensively mounted receptions in any large city.While such shows should not automatically invite suspicion and harassment is to be avoided, the authorities should be beady eyed about all breaches of the law wherever they take place. Some kind of double standards are at work when Laloo Prasad's show invites tax queries but Mulayam Singh Yadav's a few weeks ago did not. Or is it a matter of a lack of courage and needing the green light from the top before income tax officials can summon up the will to do their job?There is an impression that there is overzealousness in Patna where all and sundry are being interrogated and anyone involved even remotely with the wedding arrangements is being treated as fair game. If true, this may be going to the other extreme. Overactivity is as bad as inactivity because it invites charges of political motivation and bias which wrong-doers are bound to exploit to their advantage.
