Gusshow, LS and RS!

The Parliament has acted very commendably in expelling the 11 MPs caught accepting money to ask questions in the Houses. Decisive and certain punishments are much more likely to curb undesirable behaviour than lofty punishments that are rarely and/or tardily enforced. However, I wonder if the same efficiency would have been displayed if a majority of those caught had been Congress/UPA members. Natwar Singh took ages to resign from the cabinet and Laloo Yadav continues to be Railway minister. Nonetheless, even the devil must be given his due, and in this case, the Parliament has upheld norms which are appropriate for the highest lawmaking body of a democracy.

I hope that sting operations in the future are executed as meticulously as this one (conducted by one Cobrapost.com and Aaj Tak) seems to have been. Such operations, which seek to probe actions of accountable officials are in the public interest, as opposed to the basically salacious operations (like the one which showed Shakti Kapoor asking for sexual favours) which are of limited value to the public at large. I would be inclined towards classifying the latter kind of operations as those breaching the privacy rights of individual citizens. The former type should be encouraged and acted upon to ensure that public officials have the fear of being exposed whenever they indulge in corrupt acts.