It never rains

Since people have a tendency to remember different years for a single overarching or overwhelming event in their lives, Indian politicians will probably remember 2005 as the year when their sins began to catch up with them in a horribly concerted way. There has been no dearth of scandals this year. Whether it was K Natwar Singh in the UN oil for food programme for Iraq, or the 11 MPs caught demanding money for asking questions, or their brethren trapped similarly by hidden camera asking for bribes in the MPLAD scheme, or Sanjay Joshi being filmed in the act with a woman on a video (as an RSS pracharak he is supposed to be a celibate) it has been""as the saying goes""just one damn thing after another.

Nor is it that only a few bent individuals have been caught out. The entire class of politicians is now in the dock because so many of them (in Delhi till now but elsewhere, too, doubtless) have been found breaking zoning laws. Not just that: they have ganged up across party lines to oppose the court-ordained demolition of their illegal structures. In Maharashtra, in an act of brazenness that tests the limits, they have even passed an Ordinance legalising all illegal buildings built in Ulhasnagar before January 1, 2005. It is only a matter of time before other states follow suit and extend the new law to all illegal buildings everywhere""putting paid to whatever hopes the country can have for orderly cities. India's politicians are looking very tattered indeed""with their normal way of life threatened. It might not be a bad idea for all political parties to collectively hire an image consultant. A more effective course of action, however, might be to call a joint session of Parliament, debate corruption and draw up some binding rules.

Till such a debate takes place, one might like to ask whether the speed with which Parliament responded to the bribery scandal marks a new will to deal with political corruption, or whether it is a flash in the pan. For instance, why has no party asked its MLAs caught owning illegal buildings in Delhi to resign? Putting up an illegal building cannot possibly be less heinous than taking Rs 50,000 to ask a question or two in Parliament, for it tells the country that the law-makers have become a law unto themselves. Likewise, it will be interesting to see how many parties swear not to give election tickets to history-sheeters. These and other such questions will tell the country whether there is any real desire to clean up. It will also reveal whether, with the social environment, the available technology and the media's operating procedures having changed, the less fleet-footed politicians who are used to the old rules are getting caught. In short, we will be able to find out if there is any real systemic response to the sleaze. The heuristic answer is no. All that LK Advani could say at the BJP's silver jubilee celebrations in Mumbai was that his party has been "Congressised" and that the Congress remains the fountainhead of corruption. This is a pathetic response to recent events and suggests that fundamental issues are not going to be addressed. To her credit, Sonia Gandhi has struck a more sober note of introspection in some of her recent remarks, but there is so far nothing by way of a systemic response.