The Supreme Court judgment of 10th February 2011 has been a silver lining amidst a pall of gloom that was surrounding the Indian political landscape. We had been haplessly watching the all-round loot of national wealth by politicians, beurocrats, judicial luminaries, mediamen….the list is endless. In such a depressing scenario, conviction of an ex-minister of Kerala by the Supreme Court makes one hope against all logic that things can still be rectified, that some day somewhere punishment will overtake crime. It is possible to book the corrupt and fight for justice can yield result someday, somewhere.
Credit certainly goes to Comrade V.S.Achuthanandan who almost single-handedly fought the political and legal battle for more than 2 decades. He had numerous other battles to fight including his own intra-party struggles, his own ministerial colleagues, party hierarchy and of course the Opposition parties.He also has an image problem-that he is an aniti devolopement,outated, ideological hardliner ...and so on That he could check the loss of focus amidst such a hostile atmosphere is itself a great achievement. He took a stand alone, an attitude among politicians in general who are unwilling to take charges of corruption to its logical end for fear that the hunter may turn out to be the prey someday in some murky deal.
The general trend in politics is to bring out an allegation, mostly without proper homework - like in-depth study, proper documentation, gathering of relevant facts etc.
For some time, there will be a lot of din and commotion, signifying nothing. Politicians at the receiving and giving end will receive some media attention.. till the media finds a juicier story which can take their rating in the cutthroat competition a notch or two higher. We, the people of India would like to have fresh news along with our freshly brewed bed coffee. So the allegation goes into the garbage, to be raked up at an opportune political timing (if at all) or given a quiet burial.
The la-Balakrishna Pillai affair also would have met with the same fate but for V.S.Achuthanandan. It was all but buried with a High Court verdict in favor of Pillai and the then ministry in which Pillai was a member deciding not to go on appeal. It could well be a judicial and political landmark where the leader of Opposition entered as a party in the legal battle in a corruption case and took the fight to the finishing point.
Yes, even at the grand old age of 85 years and more, he still holds the spirit of never say die, with which he fought the freedom struggle at Punnapra Vayalar against the forces of Imperialism armed with .303 rifles with an untrained revolutionaries armed with makeshift spears of arrocnut tree.
The mainstream media ignored this landmark verdict. They had branded Punnapra Vayalar also as fool hardiness, throwing innocent peasants before the brutal forces of CP, misdirected adventurism and so on. They are busy now scripting the sob stories of Balakrishna Pillai tragic hero of the moment. But the fact is that this is a moment to celibrate for all the interested to see the rampant corruption to have some road blocks
