Christmas has come early for A Raja and Kanimozhi as a special CBI judge acquitted all the 19 accused in the 2G scam case. The scam was uncovered almost a decade back, and the subsequent investigation and court proceedings mirrored the timeline of the hit Bollywood franchise Golmaaal. The movie is a perfect metaphor for UPA-II. Coincidentally, one of the leads in Golmaal didnt speak either.
According to the CAG, the license allocation cost the exchequer a loss of ? 1.76 lakh crore. A figure so huge that the font size had to be reduced in the newspapers the following day so they could print the number in its entirety. But a decade later, as everyone was streaming videos on their Jio 4G networks, the news of the 2G verdict came as a rude shock.
2G has been a classic case of collusion between politicians, industrialists, media personnel, and brokers. At the time, the common man felt like he was among the only 27 people who didnt end up making any money from the scam. After a point, it became difficult to keep track of who was involved in which scam and what was the monetary sum involved. However, with all the accused having been acquitted, it is now the common man who feels like he has been scammed.
If corruption was an Olympic event, the UPA-II would have been gold medal winners. The Manmohan Singh led UPA-II government was rocked by the 2G scam, and then Coalgate, and then the Commonwealth Games scam, and then the country lost count. Manmohan Singh became the butt of all jokes, but today it seems the joke is on all of us. There is a feeling of betrayal today, as everyone accused in the 2G spectrum case judgement seems to have gotten away. For now. Even the Powerpuff girls were fallible once in awhile but that certainly doesnt seem to be the case with powerful people in our country.
Even the Powerpuff girls were fallible once in awhile but that certainly doesnt seem to be the case with powerful people in our country.
Between 2G, Modi ji, Mukesh ji, and 4G, we all grew up. After 575 applications, 122 cancelled licences, 5800 phone transcripts, a damning CAG report, and thousands of Whatsapp jokes, it seems that no one committed the 2G scam. Nobody killed Jessica and nobody committed the 2G scam.
In our country, it seems these things keep happening on their own, maybe due to bhaari shani and other planetary fuck ups. The Gods are to blame. Definitely no Raja.
This article was originally published on Arre.
Featured image: Sushant Ahire via Arre