Esplanade and beyond by Puneet Rajhans

Esplanade and beyond by Puneet Rajhans

As i take a walk through Esplanade, mirroring the expectations of those out with their wares and those binding by bargaining skills, the streets appeared to be comparatively free of commotion and fusion given the weekly holiday it happened to be. Thursday being the last day of the current festive occasion, the normal bristle and brisk pace was expected to gain momentum. But Friday onwards not much of a break from festive frame could be gauged and all those stores out to do a windfall were seeing fewer enquiries. This followed by a Sunday when things were no different.
The hawker and his collection of papers and journals suggested they had been rolled out in anticipation of demand. One had the cover on how the 2G scam was being bandied around and an attempt being made to get in the legal tussle even those figures who solely abided by the Cabinet Decision. If you start going by this logic, half of the Cabinet would be seen putting in their papers, not realising that a fair amount of action has been taken against the actual beneficiaries and conduits. Hoping against hope they (who have moved petition in the Courts) want to zero in on those who had no role whatsoever as the then Telecom Minister (Czar) was the sole mover and in entire defiance of rules laid down. The moot question being was the then Telecom Czar listening to anyone? Well, he milked the system to his advantage.
The rush for bank guarantees and first come first served exceptional route employed showed how eager the then Telecom Czar was to make a windfall. And in the entire process detected and dissected later, people are being made fall guys. The bottomline is that against whom allegations stand tall and unwavering have seen action coming and now any attempt to draw a political mileage can boomerang.
The political class is already under unmanageable stress; can't hope to brush everyone with the same taint brush in the face of absurd allegations. If things start proceeding this way no politico with a comparatively better grasp and scale can sail; the political theatre would suffer and we would have a weakened nation state.

People can't see where the civil rights movement is headed towards. Being apolitical , some in the movement have tried to turn mighty political. Well most of us despise most political formations across board. And here some activists have given a call to defeat one particular formation not realising that this political formation is a fringe player as far as this parliamentary seat goes. Because two political heavyweights from two different political families who made fortune by getting into state politics are locked in the contest. Does that mean that civil society would like to throw weight behind those who have made fortune from political innings in the State? Or it would like to be apolitical and stress on the task it is geared towards? Why not try this experiment in the state assembly polls beginning next year. It could fetch the response you desire. It would be better no civil upsurge of uncontrollable nature the country is witness to.

Well the telecom scam was a blessing in the guise in the sense that all private players and govt. departments who believed in tweaking the rules come what may would desist from doing the same - and the money quotient that came into play would be a thing of the past. Probably we would be in a spell of indecision on various decision-making fronts ; and that could get the system restructure from the state of disrepair it is in.

As these observations cross wide sections of people including me, the other headline on the Nadia mishap and the details coming out show how a private driver brought this nuisance around. As reports in papers suggest that a private driver of a junior politico in the State of West Bengal went past sea of humanity giving a damn to instructions to stop. When the cop put the cane on his vehicle, he informed his political boss that he had been mishandled. And the junior politico came with his followers and this led to a ruckus. The private driver who was bent to disregard rules led to this inflammation and the administration took the stick. The times we live in and the administration that gets the stick for stray elements like drivers who are a law unto themselves.