IPL: The Slimy World Of Sin!

It was happening all the time; it was only waiting to get exposed. Since the inception of IPL in 2008 we have been steadfastly asserting our opposition to IPL in these pages and following last year’s sting operation we had indicated that the underbelly of IPL was waiting to explode. Unfortunately what is being played in various stadiums is cricket of course, but the myriad layers of corruption surrounding it are far removed from the game and are sinister games in themselves. IPL has always been a sordid saga of sin, greed, lust, slam and glam, rampant betting and money laundering, underworld sponsorships and blackmail. Most of the revelers filling the stadiums go there to freak out, have wild picnics, enjoy cricket movies and shout their throats out. They are hardly cricket fans!

Delhi Police, always lambasted for its shoddy handling of crimes against women,  does good work this time by hauling up three Indian Premiere League (IPL) cricket-fixers in the dead of the night of Wednesday, the 15^th of May, 2013 from a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Working on phone transcripts indicating dubious exchanges between players and bookies, parties where women mixed freely with players and others, and making sure the evidence was enough the three players were arrested and taken to Delhi for interrogation and police custody. The spot fixing episode became bigger with bookie and underworld connections spanning various cities of India, and Pakistan and Dubai. Eleven bookies were also arrested in the following days. This huge story broke around noon of Thursday—the 16^th of May—when all media attention was focused on the surrender of the mega movie star ‘Munnabhai’ Sanjay Dutt who finally gave himself up at a special court in Mumbai after running out of all appealing options for his involvement in the Serial Blast Case of Mumbai in 1993. Another huge day for the media was thus created.

The three IPL cheats were—Sreesanth who played both Tests and one-day internationals, and was known to be a volatile, emotional and aggressive cricketer and who became famous in IPL after the slap he received from Harbhajan Singh; Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila both of whom are spinners. All three cheats belonged to the franchise owned by film actress Shilpa Shetty, Rajasthan Royals. Using codes while in action on the field they spot fixed at least three matches played by their team.

Yesterday Mumbai Police made some more progress by seizing Sreesanth’s laptop, I-Pad, mobile phones and some cash from the five-star hotel where they stayed on their own and not on the hospitality of the IPL—another dubious finding. Mumbai Police is also having access to the CCTV footage of the hotel and reports indicate that the bookies might have tried to lure the players not only with huge cash but also with women, and even tried to blackmail them by making MMS of their sex orgies. Delhi Police has also been trying to access CCTV footage of other hotels involving other matches and a whole lot of players. The full IPL-6 and other versions are fixed tournaments? You hardly know!

And, the father of IPL, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has done nothing so far apart from suspending the three players. (To be continued…)

Politics: Corruption And Punishment!

Even as the worst crisis for the ruling UPA-2 coalition government continued to gain momentum every day this week witnessed two huge days for the media fraternity—Wednesday, the 8^th of May 2013, and Friday the 10^thof May 2013. That momentous Wednesday was a picture of ecstasy and agony—a political study in contrasts. And, on Friday yesterday heads rolled as expected and anticipated on a daily basis.

The main national opposition BJP has been chasing the Congress led UPA-2 Government relentlessly, tirelessly and also ambitiously on the issue of corruption for the last at least two years. In its obsessed aim of cornering the Government the BJP, basically a political party that ruled India earlier, even did not bother joining hands with the anti-corruption activists—at times with Anna Hazare and with Baba Ramdev at other. But, the BJP was routed in the Assembly Elections of the southern state of Karnataka the counting for which was taken up on Wednesday for running a corrupt and non-performing government there. The root cause being BS Yeddyurappa, a veritable symbol of corruption, defecting from BJP and forming a separate political entity thus splitting the votes as well as creating a somewhat anti-corruption wave in the state.  

Congress party of the scam and corruption infested UPA-2 got a landslide victory and was in a position to form the government on its own. This was the ecstasy for the beleaguered national party—the highlights being the prevention of further corruption through possible horse trading on a hung verdict and the marginalization of Yeddyurappa who naturally wanted to be a kingmaker. However, almost simultaneously that Wednesday the agony came in the form of the Supreme Court of India slamming UPA-2 for meddling with the Coalgate report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the apex court and making the premier investigating agency of the country a ‘caged parrot’. The position of the Law Minister became untenable after those scathing observations and the Railway Minister was already in the dock for Railgate. Pressure mounted on UPA-2  to punish the indicted ministers. The ministers’ alleged closeness to the Prime Minister made it all the trickier for the ruling coalition. The stock responses like ‘Let investigations take the due course’ or ‘The matter is sub-judice’ failed to convince anyone. 

Mounting media and public pressure forced the Government to take the much awaited action. Two top cabinet ministers were sacked within just one hour last evening, the Friday we mentioned. Now, this move can very well be interpreted as taking cue from the so-called anti-corruption wave of Karnataka Poll and punishing the corrupt, and if it is so things are not to be merrier for the BJP. Because, to try coming back to power in its only southern bastion, Karnataka, the BJP still wants Yeddyurappa badly. If it does take him  back it will be criticized as welcoming back corruption for political ends. Therefore, the citizens of this hapless country stand to benefit by default if the issue of anti-corruption becomes the main plank for 2014 General Elections.

However, politics is politics. For the latest the BJP and the Left parties are now, as expected, after the Prime Minister of India demanding his resignation.

Politics Of Corruption: Chaos, Scams And Gates Galore!

The Indian ruling coalition, UPA-2, never faced a bigger crisis than this. Already embroiled in various scams the last few days witnessed explosions of opposition ire and an increasing threat to the very existence of the government with the prospects of General Elections-2014 getting really fluid and volatile. The opposition political parties, prominently the BJP, demand immediate resignations of two indicted central ministers linking this to the ultimate and outstandingly maintained demand for the resignation of the Indian Prime Minister. They have been stalling the proceedings of the Indian Parliament session continuously making this 15^th Parliament the lowest productive ever in terms of passing crucial bills.

The cornered Government has been trying desperately to buy time since it understands that even after sacking the two ministers the opposition would hardly stop and go vigorously after the Prime Minister—the ultimate target. The Government has also been trying to turn attention to passing Bills meant for the common people like the Food Security Bill and for this top leaders have been negotiating with the opposition to allow Parliament to function till the budget session ends on 10^thof May, 2013. But the BJP having relishing field days in opposition politics says nothing doing—first resignations, then Bills.

We have always been familiar with two Gates—the IndiaGate in Delhiand the Gateway of India in Mumbai, both being historical monuments and heritage sites. Of course, in the eighties we heard about the Bofors Gate that rattled up India for more than twenty years and proved India’s corruption capability to the world in terms of reach and volume. However, in the last two years the ‘Gates’ have multiplied banishing 'heritage' out of the window and some of them have even made Bofors look like child-play.  The Coalgate, the Railgate, the Adarsh Gate, the Chitgate and more of the like if you qualify the 2G Spectrum Scam and the Commonwealth Games Scam as Gates.

The situation is as chaotic as dangerous. You wonder, if some government officers afford to pay millions of bucks as just bribes how much s/he must be actually earning out of salaries with corruption. As corruption refuses to leave the Indian roots you tend hopelessly to lose faith in getting a job on pure merit and getting a posting as per your efficiency. If top government posts are up for outright sale what about the other jobs in others sectors of public domain? If someone buys a job for a handsome amount of cash his/her immediate urge would to be to recover that money by hook or by crook in quick time and thus fitting naturally into the vicious circle of corruption.

Talking of elections, the voters have just one option—reject the most corrupt party and vote for the less corrupt one. So sorry to say that. Hope India would finally prove us wrong. Somehow!