05 October,2010 09:45 AM IST | | Bv Shiva Shankar
Allegations and counter allegations are overflowing as stories of murky dealings Recently the IT minister's involvement in the case of gobbling up compensation money for a government land meant for industrial area development board has raised eyebrows. This was followed by his son's arrest, who is a councilor, for offering bribe to a main witness in the case.
Also, Chief Minister favouring his relatives by de-notifying their land, while his MP son pockets high-ended BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) sites through forged documents is doing rounds of the paper.
Indeed a sumptuous stuff for the media to feast on and to satisfy its journalistic appetite. But is media celebrating the momentous proactive spur or is it being credited for showing the crooks naked?
Alas, the answer is negative. Unearthing the scams was not the fruits of an investigative journalism nor was it done in the public interest. The news papers and news channels had just provided space for the groups in the ruling party to settle scores against rivals and the netas used them as flavoured condoms for the political blowjob.
People on the streets were talking that it was chief minister behind the revelation of IT Minister's scandal because he wanted to throw him out of the cabinet. Also, it was a time-tested trick as it was successful in getting rid of medical education minister, who is a nobody now.
The next day another newspaper carried a juicy story to describe how the chief minister used his position to de-notify the land belonging to his relatives, while an opposition leader flaunted documents in a press conference to prove his son was an illegal beneficiary to get a BDA site under G-category. The fur-capped IT minister isn't timid unlike his sacked cabinet colleague.
Media seems to have come to terms with the corruption and has no qualms in joining hands with the manipulators for clandestine benefits such as a BDA site, a house in the city or a handful sum of cash.
It is amazing to see how these hacks show criminal innocence, when it comes to journalistic execution while dealing with these sort of issues.u00a0 Some of the journalists were questioning the integrity of politicians grabbing G-category sites, while they themselves were the earliest beneficiaries. What an irony!
