Hang on to power at any cost.

Silvio Berlusconi has been Prime Minister of Italy 3 times so he should know what he is saying when he said that " Bribes are necessary " because " those are the rules in that country ". He was talking about bribes paid to Indian officials and politicians to secure the deal to sell 12 AW 101 luxury helicopters for our VVIPs. This has led to much derision and consternation but it is something every Indian knows. He said," Bribes are a phenomenon that exist. It's useless to deny the existence of these situations. These are not crimes." Exactly. Everyone around the world knows that Indian politicians and civil servants are criminal beggars with one hand permanently outstretched, no matter the harm done to the nation. If these villains are not bothered about the safety of the nation why should foreigners care? After all, taking a bribe is 100 times more serious offence than giving one. The government actively encourages these criminals by interfering with investigations so that in the last 3 decades our much celebrated Central Bureau of Investigation has failed to bring even one to justice. TOI, 18 February. There was Bofors, in which CBI officials had enormous fun chasing Ottavio Quattrocchi across all the continents, including the millionaire playground of St Kitts. There was the HDW scandal in which a German company admitted to the Indian embassy in Germany of having paid 7% in commission. The CBI closed the case without even charging anyone. The Tehelka tapes revealed the Barak missile scandal in which the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes and the former Navy Chief, Admiral Sushil Kumar were charged. Admiral Kumar later used the Right to Information Act to prove that the charges brought by the CBI were totally false. In 2007 the CBI charged the Israeli firm Soltam of paying bribes to arms dealer, Sudhir Choudhrie but closed the case in 2010 by saying that payments received by Choudhrie were for " electric and non-electric stainless steel kitchen utensils ". Every time a crime comes to light a high ranking armed forces officer is blamed so that all the blame falls on him and the real criminals escape. This time the former Chief of the Air Force, SP Tyagi is being blamed. Why are the criminals so brazen? About 1 week back the government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that MPs and MLAs convicted of crime could not be disqualified because it would have " serious consequences " if the government is " surviving on razor thin majority ". HT, 13 February. So, it is alright for murderers, rapists and armed robbers to be lawmakers just to hang on to power. Does that mean that if a Pakistanis terrorist with false papers, which are easy to get, becomes an MP he will be immune because he supports the government? It is hard to imagine any human being saying that. There is no creature lower than a human with no sharam and no izzat.