Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL CONCRETE MEASURES It is for the umpteenth time that Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal has raked up the issue of rampant corruption amongst the bureaucrats. His diagnosis is correct and the factors indicated by him are true to the last detail. But the tragedy is that the tendency of sticking on to single point agenda 'thus far and no more' continues to guide those genuinely concerned with corruption. None suspects the . ....more EQUALITY BEFORE LAW It has been repeated by almost all the Apex Court benches that howsoever high you may be, the law is above you. This is very comprehensive terminology which also implies equality before law. But there appears to be some sort of discrepancy and element of discrimination ....more		J&K's Accession Rules Out Plebiscite By a political analyst India's firm rejection once again of Pakistan's demand for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir is not at variance with. . ... more The man who could never be wrong By: M.J. Akbar A chance encounter with Dev Anand does not make me nos-talgic. Nostalgia thrives on the past and Dev Anand was always made for the future. He . .....more Bizarre rags to riches story Men, Matters, Memories By: M. L. Kotru We have to be grateful to Ramesh Sharma, the crook, who allegedly has scripted in real..more

EDITORIAL CONCRETE MEASURES It is for the umpteenth time that Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal has raked up the issue of rampant corruption amongst the bureaucrats. His diagnosis is correct and the factors indicated by him are true to the last detail. But the tragedy is that the tendency of sticking on to single point agenda 'thus far and no more' continues to guide those genuinely concerned with corruption. None suspects the sincerity and approach of CVC. He is indeed concerned about the well-entrenched corrupt practices at almost all bureaucratic rungs. He is right on course when he points out some basic causes that fuel corruption. Shortage of goods and services, red-tapism, lack of transparency, shielding of the corrupt officials and the casteist approach have all added up to perpetuate corruption. He also attributes it to culture of 'secretarydom', the all powerful hand that makes even ruling politicians quite scary. Amongst the remedies suggested by him are freedom of information for greater transparency, speedy conduct of departmental enquiries and breaking the corrupt politician - businessman bureaucrat nexus to make democracy more meaningful. He also calls for drive for total literacy and use of information technology to check corruption and improve quality of life. This appears to be quite a tall order. To be precise statements on similar lines and with additional factors continue to be issued every now and then by all those who matter like Chief Election Commissioner, Prime Minister, President of the Republic. Add to it the promise of rooting out corruption included in every party's election manifesto only to be forgotten once in power. There is also that nasty habit of making corruption as the main issue by indulging in rhetorics, polemics and mud-slinging during run-up to any battle at the husting. Our State is notorious for it. Look at the manner in which this issue was raked up, included in the manifesto and then after gaining power remaining mute spectator to all that is called corruption, better call it way of life. Such is the magnitude of corruption. Such is the hold of factors that bind politicians, businessmen, criminals and bureaucrats. Look at the dismal record of all previous Governments having won the mandate on the basis of rooting out corruption. In fact maximum scams at the highest level occured immediately thereafter in which the ruling clan plays the pivotal role and find in the bureaucracy ready takers for perpetuating corruption. The recent history is replete with instances of mass corruption amongst the highest echelons of ruling and bureaucratic clans. It is apparent that basic issues are not being addresed because none of the parties are interested. Take the case electoral reforms which have been repeatedly put on the back burner despite many recommendations of the expert committees. Take the case of Vohra Committee report on the criminal-politician-police nexus. It still remains shrouded in mystery despite many structures from the Apex Court and guidelines there of for concrete measure to stem the rot. Successive Governments have failed the people on this count. Instead of taking positive and transparent steps to root out the corruption, it continues to grow as never before. Reformative and legislative measures suffer either way when the ruling clan enjoys clear majority or even when it remains on others crutches. When the Congress Government had three-fourth majority to support any drastic measures, nothing of the sort happened to even remotely suggest any serious approach to tackle the fast growing menace. It is certain that corruption starts from the top and percolates to the lowest rung. So unless it is tackled at the top level it cannot be wiped out from the lower rungs. Incidentally, there is hardly any case to suggest that any one in the senior political or bureaucratic hierarchy has ever been punished to have deterrent impact on others. The process is very long and laborious full of lacunae and loopholes which invariably results in long delays and acquittals. The statistics in this State speak for themselves. Ever since popular Government assumed helmsmanship of the State in October 1996, 4892 complaints were received by the Vigilance Department out of which 3446 were referred for action. FIRs have been lodged only in respect of 396 while 16 await sanction from the Government. Challans have been preferred only in 75 cases while convictions obtained in respect of 36 cases which is less than 1% of the total complaints received. It is apt to say emphatically that none of these 36 belong to senior rungs. They are all petty fries. The sharks have the wherewithals to remain unscathed. Statistics from other States may be no different. This makes mockery of the entire Vigilance Department as also the prevailing system that helps perpetuate and increase corruption rather than even remotely contain it. This being so it is high time that CVC formulates his suggestions and action plan and insists on follow-up action by the ruling clan. CVC enjoys vast powers and any concrete measures taken by him or recommended to the Government shall have the total backing of the masses as also active judiciary. Someone has to start. Let it start from CVC. EQUALITY BEFORE LAW It has been repeated by almost all the Apex Court benches that howsoever high you may be, the law is above you. This is very comprehensive terminology which also implies equality before law. But there appears to be some sort of discrepancy and element of discrimination even when the charges are similar and being tried by the same Court. It stands duly manifested from the orders of Special Court remanding various accused in the fodder scam case to judicial custody. In the case of two former Chief Ministers namely Laloo Yadav and Jagan Nath Misra the judicial lock up happens to be palatial mess of the BMP (Bihar Military Police) while all other alleged accused in the same scam howsoever senior have been sent to jail. One fails to understand the rationale behind such approach, particularly when both happen to be the kingpins in the case while others towed their line as the most pliant and obliging servants. Earlier also during his custody Laloo remained in the same mess or in hospital feigning serious heart ailment but once out on bail he was the most active person using his lung power as if he was the fittest man on earth. One can corelate similar custody of former Union Minister Kalapnath in jail where he bemoaned about mosquito bites and other oddities in the cell. Why such mosquitoes should not bite all those in custody, be it police or judicial. It makes mockery of justice when two kingpins are 'guest of honour' enjoying all the facilities and perks while others in the same case are sent to jail. CBI has rightly mentioned this aspect before the High Court hearing appeal of Laloo and Misra for regular bail denied by the designated court. Let equality before law remains above all extraneous factors.

J&K's Accession Rules Out Plebiscite By a political analyst India's firm rejection once again of Pakistan's demand for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir is not at variance with the principle of self-determination, which is valid only when it deals with nations as a whole. If it is applied to an integral part of a country or a section of its population to enable it to secede, it will only result in a nation's fragmentation. The US fought a civil war when the whole of its South wanted to secede and become an independent country. Let Americans, who are friends of Pakistan, remember this chapter of their history. Let us recall that tragic part of our history, when the nascent nation of Pakistan dared to seize India's territory. The last week of October, 51 years ago had been an eventful week for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It was during this week, even while the Pakistani raiders were knocking at the doors of Srinagar, that Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession. The accession was accepted by India and the first contingent of Indian Army landed at Srinagar post haste and went into battle to throw back the raiders with the active participation of the Valley people under Sheikh Abdullah's leadership. Jammu and Kashmir was one of the 560-odd princely states which acceded either to India or to Pakistan. The decision of the princes was final as far as the accession was concerned. Neither did the Indian Independence Act, passed by the British Parliament, provide for any conditional accession. Once the accession was accepted, either by the Governor-General of India or of Pakistan, the particular princely state became an integral part of one or the other of the two sovereign nations. There was no provision that the accession had to be ratified by ascertaining the wishes of the people of the acceding State. Several princely states acceded to India or Pakistan. It was never suggested either by India or by Pakistan that these accessions were in any way incomplete or some other action was needed before they became conclusive. The question of the religious complexion of the population of the princely states was certainly not a factor. The ruler of the State decided whether to accede to India or Pakistan. The British Government's announcement of June 3, 1947, had made this very clear. Therefore, there is no ground to support Pakistan's argument that being a Muslim majority princely State Kashmir should have become a part of Pakistan. Even so, the accession of the State to India in 1947 was supported by the National Conference. And there was no voice of dissent from any political section in J&K. The problems regarding Jammu and Kashmir arose because the Maharaja of Kashmir, unlike most of the rulers, who had acceded to India or Pakistan before August 15, 1947, did not make up his mind. Pending a decision on accession, he asked for a standstill agreement both with India and with Pakistan, in regard to communication, supplies and Post and Telegraph arrangements. Pakistan concluded the Standstill Agreement, but before a similar agreement with India could be concluded, the tribal raids started. Pakistan also cut off communications and stopped essential supplies, inspite of the assurances under the Standstill Agreement. The State forces of Jammu and Kashmir were unable to resist the armed invasion by the tribal raiders, backed by the Pakistan Army. The raiders pillaged the towns and villages, committed large scale killings, loot and arson. It was then that the ruler requested the Government of India that the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be allowed to accede to the Indian Union. The State's only mass-based political organisation, the National Conference, also appealed for help. Meanwhile, the operations in Jammu and Kashmir continued. On January 1, 1948, India approached the Security Council requesting it to call upon Pakistan to put an immediate end to the ‘‘act of aggression against India’’ by supporting intruders who were nationals of Pakistan and tribesmen from the North-West. India was the complainant before the Security Council. Pakistan, of course, at first denied it had sent its forces to Jammu and Kashmir and tried to persist in the fiction that the people of the State had risen in revolt. But for how long? When the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan visited Karachi in July 1948, Mohammad Zafrullah Khan informed the Commission that three regular Pakistani brigades had been fighting in Kashmir territory, since May 1948. Sir Owen Dixon, the UN representatives for India and Pakistan, pointed out that the entry of hostile elements into the territory of Jammu and Kashmir on October 20, 1947, was ‘‘contrary to international law’’ and the entry of regular Pakistani forces in May 1948 was also ‘‘inconsistent with international law’’. When the tide of operations turned against Pakistan, Mohd. Ali Jinnah, the then Governor General of Pakistan, told Lord Mountbatten that if Indian troops were withdrawn from Kashmir, ‘‘I will call the whole thing off’’. So much for the pretence that it was a people's uprising. Pakistan never tires off talking of UN resolutions and their implementation. What are they? India had accepted the resolutions of August 13, 1938, and of January 5, 1946. Both these underlined that the presence of Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir was illegal and it must withdraw its troops and vacate the aggression against India. The resolution of August 13, 1948 spelt out that - (a) the Government of Pakistan agrees to withdraw its troops from Jammu and Kashmir. (b) after the withdrawal by Pakistan ‘‘the territory evacuated by the Pakistani troops will be administered by the local authorities under the surveillance of the commission’’. (c) the Government of India will withdraw the bulk of its forces from the State in stages to be agreed upon with the Commission; and lastly - (d) the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan reaffirmed their wish that the future status of the State will be determined according to the wishes of the people. It was only on Pakistan's complying with the essential condition - withdrawal of all its forces -- that the possibility of holding a plebiscite could arise. Pakistan never withdraw its forces. Can the UN resolutions be made to stand on their head because of Pakistan's intransigence? There are many other methods for ascertaining the will of the people. When Pakistan did not withdraw its troops, the State Government convened a Constituent Assembly in 1952 enacted a constitution which confirmed the State's accession to India. The State of Jammu and Kashmir enjoys a special status by having its own constitution, and provisions of Article 370 ensure that this has the sanction of Indian Constitution also. The option of self-determination does no longer exist. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have expressed their will in all the General Elections held in India, whereas in Pakistan the people of the Northern Territories of Gilgit and Baltistan have not had an opportunity to do so, not even elect their representatives to the PoK Assembly or even local bodies. The country has had to fight three wars thrust on it by Pakistan in 1947-48, 1965 and in 1971. Now we are at the receiving end of a proxy war, which had lasted for nearly eight years. Even the United States has officially accepted the fact that Pakistan has been aiding the secessionists in Jammu and Kashmir and yet it vacillates on taking a stand contradicting the principle on which it fought a civil war.

The man who could never be wrong

By: M.J. Akbar

A chance encounter with Dev Anand does not make me nos-talgic. Nostalgia thrives on the past and Dev Anand was always made for the future. He steps lightly over age and heads towards every new idea on his endless horizon, fuelled by an enthusiasm which is synonymous with his life. He is such an optimist that he rarely allows even facts to interfere with the joy of belief.

So why do Navketan films, which once could do no wrong, now can do little right? Where is the discord between the concept and the market? Is it diminishing ability, or an ego that insists on a role in every movie? Where is the music? Where are the lines? Why has Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, main fiqr ko dhooyen mein urhata chala gaya been replaced by something so unmemorable that I do not want to believe that these songs are from the same banner that gave us S.D. Burman and Mohammad Rafi and Ham hain raahi pyaar ke, hamse kuch na boliye, jo bhi pyaar se mila ham usi ke ho liye and Hemant Kumar and Yeh raat yeh chaandni phir kahan, sun jaa dil ki dastan.

There is a reason and a good one. You have to be genuinely stupid to succeed these days, as Naseeruddin Shah has so wisely pointed out. And Dev Anand just cannot get the stupidity right. He tries hard, because he wants his films to still make money for those who invest in him; but there is too large a gap between the entertainer who had something to say and a contemporary market in which an ass like David Dhawan is the king. It is heartbreaking to see a genuinely intelligent man like Amitabh Bachchan sink to the idiocy of David Dhawan in return for a bit of cash; and neither Amitabh nor Dhawan seem to be aware that this dichotomy cannot work. Amitabh Bachchan cannot sell Bade Miyan, Chote Miyan through the kind of interviews he gives to print media or television, for the interviews portray a sensitive and brilliant man and that is not the man offered on the screen by a director whose specialisation is in the various formations of the pelvic thrust. There is a false ring about the whole show which communicates immediately to the audience, even if it has escaped the notice of the markers of the movie. Comedy does not have to be stupid, and who can prove this better than Amitabh himself, one of the great comic actors of all time. That patter of Anthony Gonsalves was better than anything Groucho Marx did on screen, even If Amitabh was influenced by the orignal Hollywood genius. The great drunken scenes of Amitabh could only come from a sober man who had watched, absorbed and then recreated, with the fluency of a superb artist, sozzled behaviour art and reality encourage each other in a classic Amitabh portrayal till it hardly matters which is what.

Dev Anand was the greatest entertainer of the most glorious phase of Indian cinema. He was never a lost cause like Raj Kapoor, or a missed opportunity like Dilip Kumar, the two weeping willows who found therapeutic value in different kinds of tears, Dev Anand saw to it that he may have started the movie poor, or a petty smuggler, or a knife-flicking gambler, but by the end he had won his battles; there was no way that he was going to hobble in tramp gear or search for suicide as an answer to his problems. He was always going to be dressed in the latest designer wear. When Shakila and baggy trousers were fashionable, that was the CID combination. When Zeenat Aman and flowers caught the imagination, Desmond Doig designed the shirts and jackets of Jewel thief and Hare Krishna Hare Ram. That wide collar is a part of fashion history.

Dev Anand had fun, but fun was a virtue then, not a vulgarity. There was a twinkle that glittered through all his films, and leavened the story like yeast. He did not change the receipe or the formula; he worked in a competive mass market, and he knew that there was no appreciation higher than the cash flow at the Box Office. But no refused to sink to the level of the village idiot in the search for success. He had the confidence to trust the wit of intelligent men for the film's dialogue, rather than resorting to a person who could not read a word with more than three letters. Dev Anand did not just act in his Navketan films: he conceived and supervised them. They were the fruit of his view of life.

Every actor lives out some essential idea which forms the soul of his image and which permeates through all the various roles he must play in a long career. The quintessential Dev Anand was born on the wrong side of the rich-poor divide, the street was his playground and then his office. He earned a few rupees as a pocketmaar,, or a kala bazaar ticketseller; he went to a smalltime gambling den in the evening, and his relationship with the dancing-girl which the golden heart was not necessarily one-sided, at least until the heroine turned up. ( In Baazi, Geeta Bali insisted that be bet his last paisa on a do-or-die show, and of course he won.) But it was not the crime of greed; it was crime born of need. Dev Anand had no time for the morality which asked for charity from the rich and sacrifice from the poor. He lived by the moral code of a young man determined to defear the odds, of a man who was certain that success was within his reach, and he would wrench it from destiny's grasp if necessary.

The logical high point of the Dev Anand oeuvre was therefore Guide as R.K. Narayan himself said at some point, the film had much less to do with his book and far more to do with Dev Anand. The moral code of the guide can be deciphered: it is the variable philosophy of an opportunist who will demand a share from even the woman he has guided towards love, fame and wealth, in that order. It does not have to end in sadness, but even if the guide has to be haunted by questions, this is not the true motil of the story: Kya se kya ho gaya, bewafa tere pyaar mein... is neither a question nor a complaint: it is a haunting realisation that human relationships can rarely be free from exploitation, that Rosy left her archaeologist husband for the freedom and youth offered by the guide, but this was a kind of cage too. A gilded one perhaps, but still a cage. It was more sorrow than dilemma. The dilemma came later, when the guide returned to his own, the poor he had left behind when he entered the drawing rooms of the bold and the beautiful. He could in his search for success betray everyone else: his family, his love, his past, his future, but he could never betray the trust in the eyes of a village which believed that only his sacrifice could avert a famine. The last thing in the world that the guide wanted was to become a martyr, and he tried desperately to cut through this corner too and escape. But he could never really escape from himself, from that are deap commitment he had towards that child in him which had known hunger much much earlier than the adult in him had tasted Scotch.

Guide is the only film which Dev Anand dies.

In a delicious touch of irony, the man who would be alive is honoured as a saint who became a martyr in the New York Times, the gospel of modern truth, the newspaper which contains only all that the news that is "fit to print.'' There is always a twinkle, even in the tears.

I told Dev Sahab a story about the film which started the decline of Navketan and inevitably with it the slide of Dev Anand: Prem Pujari. We were freshers in Presidency College, Calcutta, the virtual city headquarters of the Naxalite movement since it was the palce from where Kaka (Ashim Chatterjee, now a fellow columnist in The Asian Age) operated. Since Prem Pujari was avowedly anti-Chinese, there was no question of it being allowed to freedom of expression in Calcutta. The naxalites planned to settle the matter by the simple procedure of lobbing a few bombs at Lighthouse, the premier cinema hall at which it had been released. Problem. We simply had to see Prem Pujari; and the naxalites of our college were equally determined that nothing derogatory to the China of Chairman Mao would be shown. Both sides were equally fervent in their hero worship. A quiet deal with struck. The bombs would be thrown but not on the opening day; we were given two days to satisfy our devotion.

The Naxalites needn't have bothered, although they did. The film bombed.

Dev Sahab listened bright-eyed to the story (told to him without the final sentence of course), smiled and asked: "But wasn't the film right?''

Bizarre rags to riches story
Men, Matters, Memories
By: M. L. Kotru

We have to be grateful to Ramesh Sharma, the crook, who allegedly has scripted in real life the most bizarre rags to riches story, one that would defy the imaginations of a Manmohan Desai or a Javed-Akhtar writing due. A man who began his career selling coat hangers on Delhi streets ended up owning 15 imported limousines, a helicoptre, some 32 priceless properties with one or two farm houses thrown in for good measure. And Ramesh Sharma, as the story goes, is only a lackey of the real don, Ibrahim Dawood. Even so, he presides over a Rs. 500 crore fortune. He wines and dines lavishly. At his table, according to the same story, have sat Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, bureaucrats, top cops and businessmen. He even tried to get into the Lok Sabha from Phulpur constituency, near his home in Allahabad. And just prior to his arrest he had set up shop as a political party, of all places, in a Government owned bungalow allotted to an MP.

About Ramesh Sharma it is said that anything that caught his fancy had to be owned by him. It could be a helicoptre, an imported car, a prime property, a stretch of land along a beach, or even pretty lasses. Girls, like houses, were a very special weakness. They came in handy while entertaining VVIPs. A firm believer in the philosophy of reward and punishment he was unsparing of anyone who dared to defy. You might call him a saddist but then Sharma always compensated the man or woman who had faced his wrath earlier in the day or night. That will always be the case with those who do not accept no for an answer. It meant little or nothing to him to keep someone confined to one of his numerous houses for weeks and months; you had to sign on the dotted line.... or else. That's how he acquired wealth, all of it ill-gotten.

The funny part of the Sharma story is that you could not really describe him as a man from the underworld. He grabbed a farm in Delhi's Chhatarpur area, built it up on a lavish scale and for the sake of record made it a place where the rich and famous could hold their parties (for a price). And every time he grabbed a new property there would be one of those typical Ramesh Sharma sizzling parties at his Mayfair Gardens house, another property acquired fraudulently. And to silence anyone who dared to object to these vulgar shows of opulence he always had a Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister or a police chief or may be a couple of Chief Ministers on his guest list.

Ramesh Sharma truly speaking is a mere symptom of a widespread disease which is slowly eating up the body and soul of India. He has not done anything that has not been done by his peers in the past. The Haji Mastans, Vardarajans, Yusuf Patels, Dawood Ibrahims, the Gawlis, these are some of the beacons that Ramesh Sharma has tried to look up to. When he sought to dabble in politics he was only hoping to emulate the 20 odd criminals occupying ministerual berths in the Kalyan Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh. Ramesh Sharma has every reason to envy Hari Shankar Tiwari, whose 37 indictments in cases involving murder, have not prevented him from staying on as a UP Ministers. What was so special about Hari Shankar, Sharma might well have asked himself. Or, for that matter what special attributes does a D.P. Yadav have to be a member of the house of elders (Rajya Sabha)-apart from his dubious criminal record. Ramesh Sharma like most done trying to establish an empire all his own, could be likened to a tiger on the prowl, roaming the jungle that is India, grabbing anything that catches his fancy. Never mind the fact that a real tiger kills only when it is hungry. Tiger Sharma's appetite is insatiable. And in his war on society blackmail, extortion, kidnapping, death and dishonour are the tools he has used with uncaring abandon. Women may have been lured to his many houses, compromised and filmed but so have many others, more "virtuous'' men, also been compromised. There are a dozen videos available with the police, seized from his premises, which to say the least, are not only distasteful but more ominously show important personalities indulging themselves in silly ways. A young colleague who has seen two of these says she was horrified by what she saw.

If Sharma has been able to carry on for 11 long years after moving to Delhi from Bombay it is a matter that should alarm us as a nation. There have been occasions in the past when he was caught on the wrong side of the law but no action was ever taken. The local police had reason to believe that Ramesh Sharma was becoming a threat to society yet it chose to wait and watch. Complaints against his house grabbing were not even entertained by the police. It's not the fear of a Dawood Ibrahim or of a Chhota Shakeel that caused the police to look the other way; it was in all probability his proximity to a former Prime Minister, two former Chief Ministers, a former Defence Minister, a Cabinet Minister at the Centre, top bureaucrats and policemen and some prominent businessmen (hawala link) that persuaded the police to give Sharma a virtual free hand. No one has yet told me how he managed to get a false passport for Dawood Ibrahim's mother and that too in a day. There are set procedure for issuing such "emergency passports. Someone somewhere in the External Affairs Ministry must have issued instructions to enable Mother Dawood to get a passport in one day. Non-bailable warrants against the man remained unserved for more than a year and a half at one of the New Delhi police stations. What kind of immunity did Ramesh Sharma enjoy and who made it possible? This is a question that needs to be answered. And it must be answered immediately. For, we have also had the report about Sharma having feted (alongwith an expensive gift) a Delhi Police Commissioner at the wedding of the policeman's daughter. What makes the allegation sound bizarre is the disclaimer issued by one of the two Police Commissioners whose daughters were married around the time the gifts are alleged to have been made. Taking the cue from the Commissioner, who has denied the allegation, the local police has now come out with a statement that no police official was ever involved socially with Ramesh Sharma. At the same time you have this funny bit about South Delhi Police refusing to handover the keys of two of Ramesh Sharma's houses to the Crime Branch on the ground that a prior court order was required. It took direct intervention by the Commissioner of Police to persuade the South Delhi Police to handover the keys to the other group of policemen who were trying to locate some papers mentioned by Ramesh Sharma during his interrogation.

If some of the complainants are having second thoughts about giving evidence against Sharma it is understandable. For, Sharma, to be sure, will be out on bail soon and given the impunity with which he has got away with heinous crimes, the potential witnesses have every reason to be wary. Five women who had registered complaints against him have already backed out and some others are frantically seeking police protection. Ironically Ramesh Sharma enjoyed police protection (Y category) for a while courtesy the then Minister of State for Home, Subodh Kant Sahay. Curiously, Subodh Kant says that he must have been given protection because everyone who asked for it in the early 90s was given it. Another twist to the tale is that Subodh Kant's Secretary then, is the Joint Police Comissioner handling the Ramesh Sharma case now. Or so it seems from the statements attributed to him by local dailies.

Sharma may or may not be found guilty by our courts but the episode tells us that the country is virtually slipping into the hands of likes of Ramesh Sharma. That's not an exaggeration. Look around in your own State and you will see how crime and criminals are flourishing. The nexus between criminals, policemen and politicians is growing thick and fast and at all levels of our society. Sooner or later this unwelcome mushrooming of crime and criminals may very well overwhelm the Indian State.