It is now a common fact that our politicians are hopeless rogues who always have an axe to grind. Every day we hear about one scam or the other and each major scam seems to involve important politicians. In the recent times one of the Prime Ministers and one of the Chief Ministers made headlines for accepting kickbacks and siphoning off the government exchequer. I strongly condemn such guilty politicians and firmly believe that charge sheeted politicians should not only be asked to resign but they should also be taken to task. They are the real snakes in the grass, the devils hampering the progress of the country.

In the recent years, daily news has been dominated by the extremely sorry spectacle of a Chief Minister continuing in his position even after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheeted him and others in a case involving huge money. Demands of resignation were met with an arrogant refusal and threats to bring down the Central Government. Here is an interesting but dangerous example of a politician furthering his personal interest at the cost of national welfare.

It also exposes the mind of the average politician, he thinks that he has a license to amass black money once he gets elected and nobody has the right to question him. The minister concerned argued that nobody appointed him Chief Minister. His argument was that he got the post as he had won the elections, so how does anybody have the right to remove him? To any sensible mind, this argument will appear odd. Politicians are elected by the people as they trust him. They are the choice of the masses.

If a leader does not match up to their expectations, the people have every right to remove him. It is really sad to find the concept of democracy belittled thus. There should be built-in safeguards within the system so that a corrupt leader can be removed, if he does not have the moral sense to resign himself.

The Fodder Scam is one of the most famous examples of corruption. Since it broke into public light, the fodder scam has become symbolic of bureaucratic corruption and the criminalization of politics in India generally, and in Bihar in particular. It has been called a symptom of the “deep and chronic malady afflicting the Bihar government and quite a few other state governments as well.”

In the Indian Parliament, it was cited as an important indicator of the deep inroads made by mafia raj in the politics and economics of the country. Reference has also been made to the anarchic nature of governance (the “withering away of the state”) that occurs when a mafia develops in a state-controlled sector of the economy.

With elections drawing near, it becomes really difficult to choose the leader of the country. There are few choices left - who is clean, who is corrupt, who really has the right to lead the country to progress, is a very important question which we the citizens of India have to decide rationally.