Clearly, our military is riddled with corrupt generals cutting all sorts of deals -- land, jeeps, coffins, helicopters, submarines and whatever else.u00a0As for Hazare, he has two extra draws here -- he is a former army man himself and people in the army drink alcohol. Since discipline is an integral part of the armed forces, all officers accused of corruption and suspected of a tipple or two should be tied to trees and flogged in Ralegan Sidhi. Therefore, regardless of whether CBI enquiries and stuff prove anything, swift and severe justice would have been meted out.


Lost Allies: By calling MPs rapists, dacoits and murderers, Arvindu00a0Kejriwal has even turned his earlier
champions, the BJP, against theu00a0movement against corruption

I feel that I agree with this thought. Right now, the Hazare movement against corruption is running on empty. By calling MPs rapists, dacoits and murderers, Arvind Kejriwal has even turned his earlier champions, the BJP, against the cause. Plus, the BJP is part of the brigade which believes in some federal structure of India (The Federal States of India or FSI? Certainly, the builder-developer lobby should be happy with that) and therefore objects to the state lokayuktas being part of the Lokpal Bill. (Remember Karnataka being the legend looming like Banquo’s ghost presumably.)

Speaking of FSI (the current one, not the BJP dream -- so close to the US and yet so far, no wonder they’re squabbling so much about who should be elected to the Senate, sorry Rajya Sabha), there is an allegation by a well-respected RTI activist Krishnarao that Mayank Gandhi of India Against Corruption had some not-so-savoury builder-developer dealings when he was part of an NGO involved in the cluster development of the Chira Bazaar area in Mumbai.

This is not a completely new allegation but the “how dare you suggest we are not above board” motto of Hazare and friends accepts no complaints. If you doubt them, you are clearly evil, corrupt, shameless, conscience-less, uncaring, callous and all the rest of it. It is another matter that Kiran Bedi’s association with Vedanta is also being probed. This armed forces idea can shift the focus away from their own little tax fiddles and on to the larger issue -- the honour of India.