Indian politicians need ethics and morality check

Jagjivan Ram could well have been the first Dalit Prime Minister of independent India, had his son not entrapped in a sex scandal that came to the light when everything was going in his favour. Indira Gandhi was defeated in the Janata Party wave in 1977 and Jagjivan Ram was a favourite contender for the PM’s post as he had broken away from the Congress and had a good reputation as an experienced politician and an able administrator. Unfortunately, for the then deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, nude pictures of his son Suresh Ram were published in a magazine named ‘Surya’ that showed Suresh Ram in compromising positions with a girl named Sushma Chaudhury. The most interesting fact was that the magazine was edited by none other than Maneka Gandhi, the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi. Clearly, the pictures had more to it than what met the eyes. In those days, the pictures were taken on an automatic Polaroid camera.

Jagjivan Ram’s political fortunes fell, the Janata Party broke into two, the Morarji Desai government fell and Charan Singh, with the outside support of Congress, became the Prime Minister. Harak Singh Rawat, the then Uttaranchal minister of Congress party, was accused in 2003 by an Assamese woman of having fathered her newborn child. Indira Deori alias Jenny alleged that the Congress leader had fathered her child only. Rawat had to resign in the wake of the allegation made. His position became untenable after a fact-finding committee of assembly submitted its report that highlighted the firm allegation levelled by the Assamese woman. The political storm that followed her allegation lost steam when the CBI tabled its report to the court stating that the DNA of the child did not match that of the minister.

Bihar was rocked in 1982 by the murder of a girl, Bobby, who was working in the Bihar secretariat. The murder caught headlines after the names of a number of ministers belonging to the then Congress government came under the scanner. The government at that time was headed by veteran Congress leader Jagannath Mishra. Under immense public pressure and media scrutiny, the case was reopened and the dead body of the girl was exhumed for forensic analysis. Some of the culprits were identified later on. Dhruv Narayan Singh, BJP MLA of Madhya Pradesh, was accused of having an illicit relationship with many women and it resulted in the murder of one her lovers, Shehla Masood, an RTI activist, who got eliminated through contract killers hired by Dhruv’s another lover Zahida Parvez. Masood was an activist working primarily on wildlife conservation, and also supported other causes like good governance, RTI Act, Police reforms, environment, women’s rights and issues and transparency. She sat on a fast in support of Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption Campaign. She was actively involved in raising issues related to the deaths of tigers in the various sanctuaries of Madhya Pradesh. Shehla herself was working for the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Trust, organising events for them from Srinagar to Kolkata to Delhi.

A married woman of Jaipur has accused former Rajasthan minister Babulal Nagar of sexually exploiting her. According to the victim, the minister promised her a government job for her and then sexually assaulted her. The woman alleges that the minister threatened her to keep her mouth shut otherwise she will meet the fate of Bhanwari Devi, an auxiliary nurse killed by unknown persons after reports came that she was blackmailing a Rajasthan politician. A CD had surfaced in Indore of Madhya Pradesh that showed Congress MLA Satyanarayan Patel in a compromising position with a woman. Patel had blamed his local rival from his own party, Vishal Patel, of tampering with the CD and trying to defame him. According to Patel, this was a well-planned conspiracy against him on the eve of Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. A forensic lab found that the video of a female was interpolated with that of the politician to create the sex CD. Every time a politician is caught in a sex scandal, he blames his political opponents for hatching a conspiracy against him but this not true in all cases. Politicians and sex scandal is not new to Indian voters, but the question is that how to keep a moral check on such people’s conduct?

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)