It’s time to forget Quattrocchi but we must never forget Bofors. It was the first time that corruption at the highest levels of the Indian government came to light and so Bofors must be remembered as an important milestone in the decline of Indian public standards.

Since then corruption in high places has reached such heights that it’s almost funny to think we got so upset over a paltry Rs 64 crore going missing.

Is there anything we can do to halt the decline? Yes. If we can make the justice system function as it should the decline will grind to an instant halt. When people in high places realise that they can go to jail for their misdemeanours, they start to behave. But, how can we expect important political figures to be brought to justice when anyone with enough money can manipulate the course of the law?

Last week marked the tenth anniversary of the Uphaar cinema tragedy, in which 59 people were gassed slowly to death because the cinema owners failed to provide minimum standards of safety. The victims died slow, painful deaths because they were locked into the cinema as it filled up with poison gas. The owners of the cinema are out on bail and their lawyers have been remarkably clever at delaying the process of justice in a system that works too slowly at the best of times.

That the sentencing in the 1993 bomb blasts case has taken several months speaks for itself. Why should sentencing not take months when it has taken fifteen years for the trial to be completed?

... contd.