| If the evidence is anything to go by, the criminal, the
politician and the bureaucrat in India have always been good friends. Each has a use for
the other, a nexus that has been traditionally lucrative. Every once in a while though a
criminal hits the front pages and as his life unravels politicians run for cover. A
fortnight ago, for instance, we ran such a story, detailing how an entire spectrum of
Uttar Pradesh politicians was accused of protecting the deceased don Shri Prakash Shukla.
Tragically justice is rarely delivered. For, once off the front pages, the case is
forgotten. It will be interesting to see what
happens to Romesh Sharma, the latest example of a politician accused of consorting with a
criminal. Or is it the other way round? Men like Sharma represent a new breed. They wish
to acquire political acceptability, and if they cannot join a party, they float one -- in
Sharma's case the Rashtriya Bharatiya Congress Party. They buy social acceptability too,
plush farmhouses with 30 air-conditioners and 19 cars parked in the driveway. So what if
their sources of wealth remain unknown? Soon they are rubbing shoulders with former PMs,
present CM and the cream of the city's glitterati. Could a man who serves nuts in good
silver be involved with Dawood Ibrahim? Once the underbelly of society restricted itself
to its netherworld; today, as our cover story reveals, they do not just roam the halls of
power, but also the drawing rooms of society.
Tracking the Sharma phenomenon was Principal Correspondent
Kumar Sanjoya Singh and Associate Editor Harish Gupta. While Singh met policemen to chart
Sharma's criminal connections, Gupta interviewed politicians to discover the patronage
Sharma enjoyed and the spread of his influence. It was not easy. Gupta says, "Sharma
is no longer a name anyone wishes to drop." Socialites who once were part of his
circle have turned coy and are now wary of being quoted. Predictably, photographs of
Sharma posing with notables are also suddenly in short supply and in danger of being fed
into the shredder. So intense is the squeamishness that one former minister who
recommended security cover for Sharma now denies he was minister at that time. So what if
the records say something else.
(Aroon Purie) |
