The rise against corruption

After the exit of A Raja, Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi, the Opposition has tasted blood. It is not relenting in its campaign against corruption, the new demand being the constitution of a JPC to look into the mega 2G Spectrum scam. A JPC would help to keep the issue alive virtually on a daily basis with its members briefing the media regularly. The Supreme Court and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament are already seized of the matter.Realising that corruption is becoming an issue agitating India’s middle class, as it once did in the mid-1980s, the Congress moved into a damage control mode and sent Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi packing. But it took the Congress a week to show A Raja the door. The time lost was the Opposition’s gain. For, the exit of the controversial telecom minister was seen to be done under pressure from the Opposition and the media, which bayed for his blood afresh, after the CAG report indicted him in the mindboggling Rs 1.76 lakh crore scandal. Had Raja stepped down along with Chavan and Kalmadi — his exit has been on the cards for some time — the Congress might have been on surer footing. The delay meant Advantage Opposition, whetting its appetite for more.

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