Letter from the Editor-In-Chief

Dear friends,

The year 2010 was a standout when it comes to revelations of various scams which were being run throughout India and the year ended with a lot of unanswered questions and speculation about the fate of the accused and the course that matters would take. As such, the sordid events of 2010 spilled over to 2011 and after the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scandal, the issue of illegal Swiss bank accounts is now hogging the limelight.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had claimed to be in possession of volatile information – names of people who hold Swiss bank accounts and is planning to make this information public through his website. The fallout of this move by Julian Assange with regard to India can be gauged by the fact that the Government of India is unwilling to take a hard stand and go after these account holder even after a study by Global Financial Integrity has estimated that the illicit money outflow from India at 462 billion US Dollars. It is a widespread suspicion that if such a list is actually made public, the names of prominent political, bureaucratic and industrial veterans may feature, the direct effect of which will be a complete collapse of the Government. It is no wonder then that the Opposition is so vocal about this entire affair. If speculated facts and figures are not too of the mark and provided the Government of India musters the gumption to go after this sum, the return of this illegal money to India could mean a new beginning to a country in which more than 450 million people live below the poverty line. In spite of this drain of wealth from the country, India is still ranked among the fastest developing economies in the world. Imagine the possibilities of an India at full economic strength, an India which is not being robbed blind by its own people.

Considering the number of scams unveiled so far, it is no wonder that India tops the list of countries from where the national wealth is being siphoned off. Even those sworn to defend the country have been found with their hands in the cookie jar as has been revealed by the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai. An ironical turn of events in this scam is that the people victimized by it are pensioners and the widows of the comrades of our ‘defenders of the nation’. What can be looked upon as a sort of compensation for the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces in the defence of the nation was grabbed from the hands of the helpless by greedy bureaucrats and army top brass. Is there a greater shame for India as a nation than this? Is there no end to human depravity?

Here, one must question why scams are so rampant in India. Is it the laxity of our laws and if so, is this because corruption has seeped into the judicial system itself? One thing is for sure, unless we, the people demand accountability, things will go on the way they are and India will continue being bled dry by its own people.