Kalmadi is all over the news channels and newspapers. I mostly had ignored the CWG scam news and everything else associated with it. I treated it as some rot that I did not want to waste much of my time on. Among many of the frauds and scams that the thick skinned politicians of our country keep executing, this was one of them. What drove me back to this news was Mr. Gill giving a clean chit to Kalmadi; maybe it was just a lame attempt to turn the focus from fraudulent practices to seeing the games being finally held.
I do not intend to justify or falsify any of the claims made by either sides of the government or the general public. I am, however, confused, as I have always been to understand the psyche behind people doing such frauds, scams, and adopting to ill means to achieve what they want. To put it simply, I always wanted to understand, “how much should be enough”; the greed keeps increasing ever after. Even in my wildest dreams, I can never think about what I would do with Rs. 200 crores of assets, if I could ever make that kind of wealth (I did dream about that once, accumulating 200 crores of assets was in itself a gigantic task, and it was morning by the time I could reach that mark. I assumed that I already had that asset base and dream again, yet I failed to conceive of anything to do with that kind of wealth). And here there are people who guzzle down 10 times or even 100 times of that money with so much each and pretense like chewing a paan.
What will happen to Kalmadi only time will tell; maybe he will be found guilty and tried under law; maybe he will die a tragic death; maybe he will contract some suffering, and so on. The end result of all such species has been the same; I can remember very rare ones (there could be many) who have escaped ill consequences of their wrongdoings. Not many were spared. I am not talking about the penalty that one will face on the judgement day or about fearing the God up above. Some morale or self respect, at least to make you bother about your transgression.
See the cases of Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parikh, Dinesh Dalmia, Telgi, and most recently Raju of Satyam. They all reaped what they sowed. They all were big and powerful, yet had to confront the results of their unlawful activities. It is very rare that one can outsmart the law.
And then looking at these big names, there are many small timers who follow the suit. They get blinded by the path of fictitious glory that they set their foot onto without giving any stirring thought to what could consequently happen – a miserable end result is inevitable.
Bribing, evading taxes, not following legal rules & procedures, overriding the law, taking officials & rules for granted are some acts that people with such mentality take pride in. Their belief that “I never got caught that time so I will never get caught” makes them commit a bigger and bolder offense the next, which subsequently starts resulting in fraudulent activity taken in small steps. This not only such people of inferior morale but also contaminates the surroundings where such people dwell, thus forming a strong substrate where corruption breeds. “Arey usko paisa khila denge, aur kaam ho jayega”, people often use such phrases as lightly and easily as saying “I love you”.
I fail to understand what people try to achieve doing such malpractices. “If there is any query, paisa khila ke sort out kar denge yaar”; why should there be time for such a situation to arise when there is a chance to play safe right from the start.
It is indeed small timers like these who successively gather might to keep on doing the wrong thing, manipulate data, bribe government officials, dupe the investors, and so on. And this sooner or later gives birth to Kalmadis, Parekhs, Kodas, Mehtas etc. For how long, though? You eventually will fall to the mercy of the law or to you self – a miserable end life. And even if none of this happens, in the end would you feel proud enough to look into the eyes of your loved ones and proudly proclaim your acts of dishonour.
I do not intend to justify or falsify any of the claims made by either sides of the government or the general public. I am, however, confused, as I have always been to understand the psyche behind people doing such frauds, scams, and adopting to ill means to achieve what they want. To put it simply, I always wanted to understand, “how much should be enough”; the greed keeps increasing ever after. Even in my wildest dreams, I can never think about what I would do with Rs. 200 crores of assets, if I could ever make that kind of wealth (I did dream about that once, accumulating 200 crores of assets was in itself a gigantic task, and it was morning by the time I could reach that mark. I assumed that I already had that asset base and dream again, yet I failed to conceive of anything to do with that kind of wealth). And here there are people who guzzle down 10 times or even 100 times of that money with so much each and pretense like chewing a paan.
What will happen to Kalmadi only time will tell; maybe he will be found guilty and tried under law; maybe he will die a tragic death; maybe he will contract some suffering, and so on. The end result of all such species has been the same; I can remember very rare ones (there could be many) who have escaped ill consequences of their wrongdoings. Not many were spared. I am not talking about the penalty that one will face on the judgement day or about fearing the God up above. Some morale or self respect, at least to make you bother about your transgression.
See the cases of Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parikh, Dinesh Dalmia, Telgi, and most recently Raju of Satyam. They all reaped what they sowed. They all were big and powerful, yet had to confront the results of their unlawful activities. It is very rare that one can outsmart the law.
And then looking at these big names, there are many small timers who follow the suit. They get blinded by the path of fictitious glory that they set their foot onto without giving any stirring thought to what could consequently happen – a miserable end result is inevitable.
Bribing, evading taxes, not following legal rules & procedures, overriding the law, taking officials & rules for granted are some acts that people with such mentality take pride in. Their belief that “I never got caught that time so I will never get caught” makes them commit a bigger and bolder offense the next, which subsequently starts resulting in fraudulent activity taken in small steps. This not only such people of inferior morale but also contaminates the surroundings where such people dwell, thus forming a strong substrate where corruption breeds. “Arey usko paisa khila denge, aur kaam ho jayega”, people often use such phrases as lightly and easily as saying “I love you”.
I fail to understand what people try to achieve doing such malpractices. “If there is any query, paisa khila ke sort out kar denge yaar”; why should there be time for such a situation to arise when there is a chance to play safe right from the start.
It is indeed small timers like these who successively gather might to keep on doing the wrong thing, manipulate data, bribe government officials, dupe the investors, and so on. And this sooner or later gives birth to Kalmadis, Parekhs, Kodas, Mehtas etc. For how long, though? You eventually will fall to the mercy of the law or to you self – a miserable end life. And even if none of this happens, in the end would you feel proud enough to look into the eyes of your loved ones and proudly proclaim your acts of dishonour.
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bharat dabholkar