The Central Govt. has till now withstood the Tehelka storm, thanks to the acceptability of commissions as a normal course of political commerce by the ruling classes and their representatives in politics and the mainstream media. Its credibility, whatever of it was left, has however been seriously undermined, while its survival in power has depended upon their collective culpability and artificial inevitability.

It is indeed creditable that Tehelka team could still make bribery an issue at a time when it has ceased to make news. It did so by reproducing, through images and voices, the shameful acts done shamelessly. The actors personae were seen explaining in detail not only their past exploits but also their modus vivendi. In the process they brought all centres of power under the power of that great leveller of Indian ruling class politics. Corruption has graduated from the material filling the interstices of the system to the very constituent of it.

National President of the ruling Party at the Centre dealt at length with the division of labour in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) between his two secretaries and foster son-in-law and their respective areas of interest. He did not mince words that like his other swadeshi counterparts he would like the transaction to be only in dollars. The President of the Party, whose leader was the Defense Minister, openly asked for the money to be given to her party functionary for the work, and that too in the very bungalow officially of the Defense Minister. Long time Treasurer of that party dwelt at length on how he gets the work done. Not to be outdone, a long time functionary of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and one of its financiers, unmasked himself and his organization, exhibiting for the benefit of all their great art of ‘character building’.

And there were a number of Army Officers openly soliciting and accepting money for facilitating the deals. Obviously these rackets are being run with the involvement of both ruling politicians and bureaucrats, civilian and military.

As the storm hit Delhi, the prime actors got into the act, pointing their fingers at the conspiracy to frame them, without of course denying the fact of their images and voices. The ‘saint-poet’ adorning the prime chair in Delhi too smelt the conspiracy and took recourse to his pet prescription of ‘national debate’ this time on the party contributions. The erstwhile Defense Minister went a step ahead pointing his finger at the ubiquitous ISI. Making of the scoundrel was complete. RSS took recourse to its time-tested device of denying the link, which is easy as it has no formal membership. From Dara Singh to R.K. Gupta, its underlying presence can only be detected from its multifarious connections but without any formal acknowledgement.

An important aspect of this expose was that it related to defense deals. One can appreciate why the present Govt. would not compromise on ‘defense’ which should read “defense deals”. This should explain the continuously rising crescendo of the need of modernizing the armed forces and hence the need to make purchases from abroad which would fetch fat sums, that too in foreign exchange. They are of course not expected to compromise on their commissions. Mr. Hegde was to mention the insistence of Mr. Fernandes in having only defense portfolio, as that alone had the fattening purse in the times of trimming govt. expenditure.

The ruling NDA was shaken to the core, but the collective band stood with their colleagues in grief. Mamta Banerjee, with Bengal elections round the corner, dumped the NDA forcing resignation of George Fernandes. But simultaneously NDA hailed him as their leader signifying their solidarity with their partners in crime. RSS had to regret some failed ‘swayamsewaks’ and some incompetent officials in PMO who could not keep these doings under wraps. After all a thief is the one who is caught!

NDA, particularly BJP-Samata, took to organizing mass meetings to counter corruption charges. With the expenditure of huge sums, they wanted to counter charges of bribery, to wash money with money. That too, however, had to be abandoned in the face of hostility of the people and lack of support from allies. They set up a Commission with a retired Supreme Court Judge. But what will the Commission do with respect to the open doings? The very expose was not of any real deal which can be investigated by the Commission, but of the rampant corruption through the agency of a fake deal. So brazen are the ways of ruling NDA that they are trying to use even this distinction! Like a thief thwarted in his theft claiming innocence, as he was not allowed to commit the crime!

Tehelka reporters who took such great pains for bringing to light the deeds of the dark might be surprised at the resilience of the system to tolerate corruption. This breed of ruling elite would hardly be set into motion by such charges except to the extent of giving formal vent to the abhorrence of the people. But with the difference that with the people this revulsion and abhorrence is genuine and with them it is feigned. Many of the present actors and their defenders had posed themselves as crusaders against corruption in the past and many of today’s crusaders have been soaked in corruption. For them, soon it would be business as usual.

And why not? Are these very rulers not selling the whole country to the foreign companies? From Enron to Balco, to name only the recent ones, each of their deal is a big and criminal fraud against the country, but a fraud with the consensus among the ruling elite comprising of all the estates of the ruling classes. The treachery of the ruling classes is openly on display. Not that it was any time in doubt, but they tried to hide behind the talk of ‘economic sovereignty’. Now, dancing to the tunes of their imperialist masters and enjoying their share from the loot and plunder of the country and its people, they are proclaiming their servitude as the panacea for society, their treachery as their patriotism.

Corruption cannot be eradicated through judicial edicts or by CBI sleuths, for they too are only cogs in the wheel. See how the accused of Hawala were pronounced ‘clean’ by the judiciary; even those who had admitted to have taken the money. People and people alone can build an atmosphere intolerant of such open corruption. People and people alone must move to eradicate this evil. And when they move, they would learn what demons they would have to sweep away to achieve this goal.