Two powerful politicians sentenced to prison in the last few days. In the UK former Labour MP for Bury North, David Chaytor was sentenced to 18 months in prison for receiving 18000 pounds in expenses due to false claims. He claimed compensation for rent on two properties, one of which belonged to his mother and the other to his daughter. That amounts to just Rs. 1.26 million which is peanuts compared to the billions that politicians are stealing in India. Forget prison, not one politician even wants to resign. Raja had to be pushed out, Ashok Chavan claimed that he would only resign if asked by the Congress chief, Yadyurappa is hanging on grimly and Kalmadi is still defiantly travelling the world as the head of the Olympic Committee. There is such a complete lack of sharam and izzat that you wonder if these creatures actually belong to the same human community as you and I. In the US the former House majority leader, Tom Delay who was once the most powerful Republican in Washington, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. His charge was one of money laundering in that he diverted $ 190000 in corporate money to state candidates which helped them to win their seats and, in turn, enabled him to gerrymander the state of Texas and send more Republicans to the US Congress. In India politicians regularly win elections by promising free electricity, rice a Rs. 2/ kilo and color tv sets at tax payers' expense. As usual Congress is the big daddy of loot winning the last general elections by forgiving farmers' loans and giving huge salary increases to useless parasitic civil servants. In India larceny is called helping the aam aadmi.