Bundelkhand,a forested area long,long ago,is the darkness close to the geographical heart of India. Barren of vegetation,its inhabitants poor,this region is long deprived politically and economically. Rescuing it was never going to be easy,and the proposed division of Uttar Pradesh which envisages the states share of Bundelkhand as a new state is still a proposal,formally made as recently as last month. As is always the case with a humanitarian necessity,the crisis had to be met first at the subsistence level. The Centrally approved package of Rs 7,200 crore,granted in 2009,sought to make a dent in the poverty and drought by helping farmers procure farm machinery,with the largest subsidy of Rs 45,000 reserved for the most essential of them all tractors. As reported in this newspaper on Friday,beneficiaries of this subsidised tractor scheme include relatives of UP PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and others linked to the ruling BSP,as well as some contractors. These individuals have other employment,such as businesses,and their ties to farming are tenuous. When the political class finds itself cornered by an all-and-nothing-less street campaign for a draconian anti-corruption law,this is precisely the sort of occurrence that damages legislative credibility. Every time news of such dubious acquisitions routed through a process without transparency breaks,can the aam admi be faulted for believing that leaving the law (in this case,the scheme) to the lawmaker is the surest way of ensuring its subversion? UP Chief Minister Mayawati,too,will not find this comforting,following as it does at the heels of several skeletons that have recently walked out of her governments closet. Such scams and alleged scams also list a standard set of responses from the glib I cant remember anything about the selection process,or the brazenness of pehle aao,pehle pao,to little-hidden pride at knowing everyone who matters. It is not a crime till the mechanics of distribution are proved corrupt,but the first instinct it triggers in everybody else is suspicion. And then cynicism. Thats where the battle against corruption lies.
