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The youth can fight for human values, protect national culture By M D Nalapat A drop of poison in a glass of milk can prove fatal to the individual who drinks the potion. In like manner, the Republic of India finds itself afflicted by a minuscule number of individuals who act as poisons draining the vitality and future of the country. In the field of politics, these comprise of those who view "public service" as merely the most effective way of amassing wealth for themselves and for friends and family. One particular family is estimated by those in the US tracking such flows to have secreted away $9 billion over the past six years. Unlike most other political families,who spend the bulk of the illegal money made by them in India,this particular clan makes sure that 100 per cent of its earnings flow to other shores and in no way create employment or opportunities in India. Should the Indian media awake from its torpor and finally place the interests of the country and people above its reflexive subservience to the very powerful, it would be a simple matter to document the close family members of India's VVIPs who are residents abroad.To track their assets and their travels,and to correlate these to the high offices held by their annadatas in a country where 300 million people go to bed hungry each night. Only the greatest level of transparency can slow down the propensity of the very powerful in India towards accumulation of assets.And because these often get mis-invested or stolen by similarly venal people abroad, VVIPs in India constantly seek to make ever more cash. Because they form a mutual protection society,they know that such dishonesty will never result in any problems from agencies whose legal responsibility is to cleanse the Indian economy of undisclosed assets and income These "drops of poison" are there in Indian business as well. There are corporate houses (each controlled by a single clan) that seek to ensure that the maximum profits get gouged out of the consumer. If they start a medical test centre,they charge the maximum, that they believe will still get patients.A test (such as that for detecting prostate cancer) that may be free of cost cost in a hospital run by genuine human beings such as the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai may be charged Rs more than Rs 25,000 in an institution run by ghouls whose sole motivation is to enter the so-called Halls of Fame in magazines that celebrate wealth. Such drops of human poison include those few big speculators who corner food stocks so as to make money out of starvation,the way a few traders in rice profited from the deaths of six million Bengalis in 1944. Let us take the case of onions. Thanks to the linkage between VVIPs and speculators,these days huge hoards of this vegetable are rotting in secret. Those responsible know that even if 75 per cent of their stocks rot,the balance 25 per cent will give them a far higher profit than if they (and other ghouls) were to release all their stocks. Farcically, solely to mislead television viewers a handful of small traders get raided and harassed by the authorities while those few actually responsible for the shortage accompany the policymakers concerned as the latter travel around the country in corporate jets provided by the former. More than a few VVIP families in India freely use corporate jets,some from entities located in places such as West Asia,in order to travel around continents such as Europe. Within India, the story is the same. But when was the last time that such a poisonous fusion of public and private interest became known through the media? Indeed, those that destroy the future of India by their greed will get punished,but by the look of things, this will be in the hereafter. To those believing in karma, it is clear that such drops of human poison will be reborn as the very type of individuals now being crushed by them in this life. Those running corporates that seek to extract every ounce of profit from a situation -no matter what harm this does to the country-will be reborn as destitutes who get turned away from the very corporates that they ran in their previous birth. Those politicians and civil servants squeezing every illegal euro out of each transaction by buying junk from abroad will in another birth be among those who suffer because of the substandard items that such purchasing methods bring into the country. Weapon systems that are faulty, pharmaceuticals that sicken rather than cure, foodgrains that are not even fit for animals, yet get served to human beings. To those believing in Paradise, it is clear that such drops of human poison on the body of India will forever be consigned to hellfire. However, an equitable system would have ensured that they get their comeuppance in this life itself. Worldwide, there is a resurgence of the drops of human poison who collectively caused the 2008 financial collapse.Once again,huge amount of money is going into the cornering of commodities such as foodgrains and minerals, including hydrocarbons. Once again,the false excuse of "supply constraints" or "geopolitical instability" are being used to mask the naked exercise of greed. Once again, the international economy seems headed towards a collapse,as the few seek to drain away the money of the rest of society. This international gang of depredators has been joined by their counterparts in India, in whose eyes can only be seen greed and not compassion, and who know that they will be protected by the VVIPs to whom they give so much treasure and facilties To expect change from within is to expect the impossible. What is needed is for the morally healthy youth of India to each set about the task of identifying and eliminating the pernicious effects of the drops of poison within the vitals of the country. Those in receipt of information about misfeasance and about speculation need to use new-era channels of communication to share this information with others.They need to make clear that Enough is Enough. That they will no longer accept a world in which the many who are good are being cornered by the few who are putrid. A world in which those that steal spectrum can smirk while those entrusted with safeguarding the public interest pretend that nothing untoward has happened. Unless those responsible for the Commonwealth Games and the 2G scams get sent to jail,the way their counterparts in civilised countries have been, the youth of India will find their future slipping away from them. Why only the Commonwealth Games or 2G? What about Coal? What about Roads? What about the many sectors of the economy where drops of human poison have made the policy brew too toxic for human health? Each deserves the laser beam of publicity, exactly as does the personal trajectories of the VVIPs of India and their relatives,whether these be in India or abroad. Today, there is much brouhaha about Justice K G Balakrishnan. But is the former Chief Justice of India the only former CJI to have sons and in-laws? What is needed is an enquiry into the assets and incomes of the close relatives of at least a few of the predecessors of Justice Balakrishnan, if the charge of caste bias is to be removed. As Gujarat and Bihar have shown, the individual at the apex can make a universe of difference in outcomes. Hopefully, the tenure of the present Chief Justice of India -an individual of extraordinary integrity-will see the Supreme Court of India take up the task of cleansing India of the poison of greed and graft that is slowly choking the future of its people. Unless the Supreme Court takes up this task, there is very little hope that the guilty will ever face the punishment that they deserve and would have got, but for the protection they are getting from some political families who have sucked away billions of dollars from India in just the past decade. Even the cultural treasures of India have not been immune from such theft.There are reports that genuine works of art of historical value have been replaced with replicas,even in state museums. What is needed is an inventory of such treasures and a check of their authenticity. Finally, Interpol needs to be alerted to apprehend any individual who may be in possession of cultural treasures looted from India. Culture is the bedrock of a society.If Indians are doing better than those from many other countries in locations such as London or New York,the reason is their knowledge of being part of a culture that has few peers. The neglect of culture by those in authority saps the confidence of the country in a way that benefits only those who see India the way Clive or Ghori did,as a vessel to be plundered. Let us not forget that both these alien plunderers were assisted by those in India, and in the case of Ghori,actually invited to enter and to loot.But for such actions by the human drops of poison of those times,the history of slavery that has been the lot of India for a millenium may never have taken place Yes,curricula are important as are educational standards in general.But above all else is the need to identify and cleanse India of the drops of human poison that are slowly but certainly draining away the life of this ancient land,exactly the same way as the Jaichands and the Girija Shankar Bajpais (who in 1942-43 argued against giving freedom to India). Unless the youth of India take on this task, their future is lost.India would face another dismal millenium.

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