Lead Story

IS CORRUPTION an issue during elections? The Lok Sabha bye-election in Hissar did not have any meaningful results to prove that corruption was an issue. This was in spite of the fact that Team Anna pulled all stops against Congress candidates. The debates on electronic and print media on issues involved in the forthcoming Assembly elections in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Punjab hardly consider corruption an issue. Goa hardly figures in any national debate, since it is too small to merit any footage either in electronic or the print media. The only time it hits headlines is when drug trafficking and rapes of foreigners are exposed. Baba Ramdev failed to get back the black money stashed abroad. Team Anna failed to get a strong Lokpal Act for the country. Baba Ramdev’s campaign against corruption all over the country started with a bang and also ended with a bang. The only sad thing about the last ‘bang’ was that it was executed mercilessly and swiftly by the Delhi government. Team Anna’s campaign also started with a bang at jantar mantar and then at Ramlila Maidan and died (or was it just halted?) with a whimper. The bang in this case was unwittingly helped by the government but the whimper was entirely by the people. The initial euphoria seems to have died down. Baba Ramdev’s anti-corruption campaign is still going on, but on a very low key and Team Anna has already announced its decision not to use the anti-corruption platform against any particular political party in the forthcoming Assembly elections, but to exhort the electorate every where to elect ‘clean candidates’.