The whole world has watched in deep admiration at how the Japanese coped with the devastating tsunami that struck the country 4 months back. People showed great stoicism and dignity amid all the death and destruction. There was no pushing and fighting at shelters, no begging and no screaming show of sorrow. Engineers have kept on working at the stricken nuclear power plant at great personal risk and people have made every effort at conserving electricity to help business. Yet, even in Japan, politicians have been fighting among each other to bring down the Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. The opposition refuses to cooperate in passing a budget or increasing taxes to reduce deficit. Just as in the US, Republicans refuse to cooperate with anything that President Obama does. One would think that with the country facing a deficit in excess of $ 14 trillion politicians would unite to find the best solution to the economic problems but instead they are just motivated by personal greed and ideological fanaticism. While the soldiers sacrifice their lives for the country the politicians sacrifice the country to personal gain. India is no exception. The opposition just opposes everything that the government does, be it the Goods and Services Tax or the Nuclear deal. The impression is one of sore losers snarling at ministers because they are losing out on the loot. The function of the opposition is to keep an eye on what ministers are doing and give specific proposals to protect the people against bad law. Instead the mindless howling allows the government to lie, steal and beat up citizens to hide their crimes. Seems that politics is a home for scum.