THE F O R T N I G H T THAT WAS

Cycle of Shame

AN this ever change? This remorseless cycle of crisis and conflict, of scandal
and shame, of desperation and deceit. It may have resurfaced in the fortnight
that was, but now seems to have been with us forever. There is a permanence
about the present situation that is sadly self-sustaining; one lie feeding on another,
one crisis precipitating a larger one, one pebble amassing an avalanche.
Once again, there is a conflict of crisis, a leadership under renewed siege, the return of a scandal that refuses to let go. And once again, there is an aura of deceit and
desperation as a government battles with its conscienceand its compulsions. It is
now abundantly clear that Bofors is no ordinary issue. For, in the end, it is a scandal
that has succeeded in tainting all of Indiaand all of its people.
More than any other issue, it is this that has destroyed the credibility of the
present governmentand raised the level of public cynicism. No matter how
convincingly the Government reacts to each new revelation, it has now
entrapped itself so intricately in its own contradictions that even the denials
Jofors is no
have become an embarrassment.
ordinary issue.
But finally, the shame, and the sham, reflects on us all. It is not, in the
end, the Government of Rajiv Gandhi that has soiled its stature but the
In the end, it
Government of India. What is more crucial is the fact that the Indian
is a scandal that
Government has allowed itself to be compromised by one foreign comhas succeeded in panyand that too for the sake of a mere Rs 64 crore. That is a cross every Inwill, perforce, have to bear.
tainting all of India dianThe
former chief of army staff has forcefully reminded us of something
and all its people. that seems to have lost its true meaning: 'national honour'. It is precisely
that which is being compromised, and with such unrelenting regularity. At
any other time, Bofors would not have been as incendiary an issue as it now is. But
there is today a discernible lack of faith in the institutions that sustainand
protectthat fragile thing called national honour.
It is for this reason that Bofors is no longer an issue of corruption alone. It is an
issue that affects this country's pride and its image in the larger world. And yet, the
Government has adopted a strategy that is as fatal as it is facile: any attack on the
prime minister is an attack on India. Now, with an election at hand, that strategy is
already acquiring a sadly familiar theme; of conspiracies, of traitors and of foreign
forces out to destabilise the country.
The real reason once again comes back to Bofors. Ensnared in a crisis of
leadership, the Opposition has just one gun, albeit a powerful one, to fire at
here is today
the ruling partyBofors. But in their desperate bid for power, opposition
leaders are using Bofors to denigrate not just the Government, but the armed a growing lack
forces and the effectiveness of the weapon itself. That is a despicable game.
And all this because of just one wretched gun, one single scandal, one cy- of faith in the
cle of shame that never seems to end. Bofors cost the country Rs 64 crore. The institutions that
eventual price is already unbearably high.
DILIP BOBB sustain that fragile

T,

thing called
national honour.

SEPTEMBER 30. 1989 I N D I A TODAY

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