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Written by Mathew Thomas

 

If Wall Street is to be in jail, so should be Dalal Street!

The Rolling Stones website in a recent posting on 16 Feb 2011, asks the question, “Why isn’t Wall Street in jail?” A senate investigator is quoted laughing as he polishes off his beer, “Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

How true is this about Dalal Street and India. TV tom toms news stories day-in and day-out, on corruption. Every day there is nothing but corruption that fills most of news hour. People must be sick and tired of it, but media does not seem to be so. Few listen to these broadcasts. TRPS that news channels have are perhaps due to those who wish to check out whether prices have gone up or whether tomorrow they would be able to get to their work-places without being held up due to a bandh.

People are perhaps resigned to a situation, where they feel helpless and find ways to live with it. It is  a kind of instinct that has developed immunity for self-preservation. They live with micro-corruption every day. These take the form a bribe to avoid a speeding ticket or speed money to get past the security gate while visiting a hospital after visiting hours. The other kind of corruption, the macro one, seems too far off and difficult to comprehend. Most do not know how many zeros are to be added when ill-gotten national loot is stashed away in Swiss banks or tax-havens in Lakhs of Crores of Rupees.

It is comforting to know that we are not alone in the planet in this logjam. The picture here from Rolling Stones describes the scenario so well.

‘Red carpet for Wall Street in USA and for Dalal Street in India’

Perhaps, the US form of economy is being repeated in India by the present government. Read the full Rolling Stones story here.