The resignation
of the British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, over fast-tracking a visa
for the Filipino nanny of a former lover seems to be a case of the Raj
showing the way. With the unsavory publicity resulting from the episode,
Tony Blair was forced to let go of a close friend and colleague whom he
was loath to lose. What makes the matter even more ironic is the fact that
Blunkett had been responsible for formulating some very Draconian laws
relating to immigrants and immigration, not to mention the most recent and
controversial of them all – the introduction of national identity cards.
What is interesting is the role of the British media, which relentlessly
pursued the matter forcing Blunkett to step down. What was not so fair,
though, was a certain interpretation by a journalist from the BBC who made
a very unfair comparison between Blunkett’s action and that of politicians
in a very poor continent like Africa. There is no denying that nepotism
and favoritism are regular features in developing countries like Africa
and India, but to hint that Blunkett could have been let off the hook
because “it happens all the time in Africa”, is ridiculous. There are many
things, which happen in the Southern countries that the Northerners have
perhaps never had to face, including poverty and hunger. And in the case
of former colonies like Africa and India, one has also to hark back to
history to pin responsibility on those who looted the wealth of these
nations, leaving them in dire straits. However, this does not in any way
absolve the governments of these countries from their acts of nepotism. A
free and fair press has a big role to play in this matter and can take a
cue from their counterparts in Britain.
One cannot say much about Africa but among the well-known exposes in India
is that of Prakash Singh Kairon, who was forced to resign from the Chief
Minister’s post in Punjab on account of placing his relatives in pivotal
posts in the government. In more recent times, J.S. Rajput, an appointee
of the NDA government, was asked to step down from the Chairmanship of the
NCERT, after it was discovered that he had given his spouse a job in the
same organization along with very attractive emoluments. Undoubtedly, this
factor must have come as a welcome piece of information to the UPA
coalition to ease out someone perceived to have saffron leanings. What is
of importance here is that the press was able to bring out this fact.
But one or two swallows do not a summer make and there must be hundreds of
incidents where nepotism prevails in government in the poorer countries.
This is not to say that the richer ones are absolved of such acts. Even
the once-perceived holy cow, the United Nations, has not escaped the taint
with charges of nepotism now being leveled against its Secretary General,
Kofi Annan. From Hillary Clinton being named in what is now famously
referred to as White Watergate to George Fernandes, India’s
erstwhile Minister of Defence, being accused in the Tehelka tapes,
there are innumerable instances of misuse of office by the powers that be.
The argument that these are commonplace and to-be-expected-happenings does
not in any way detract from their seriousness. What it does boil down to
is the misuse of power vested on a leader by the people who voted him to
that position. Surely, the role of the media in the Blunkett episode is to
be appreciated. One fervently hopes that the press across the world will
take a cue from their English compatriots and make a shift from idle
celebrity journalism to well-researched, investigative exposes.
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