Bhrashtachar to Bhrashta - Panch

So how can we stay stuck in the field of cheating and conning? WE are not disappointed as a lot of progress has been made by crooks too. Cybercrime is yet to be tackled and we are being heckled by Artificial Intelligence- deep fake and hacking of accounts, swindling millions.

Greed also has moved up exponentially. 1960 British romantic comedy film the Millionairess starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers a loose adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1936 play of the same name had million dollars as the high point. Today Billion seems to be the order of the day.

I remember there was a Hindi movie called ‘Dus lack’ or ten lack rupees, a million Indian bucks- and that was enough to give anyone a high- a big high those days. It was a comedy made in 1966 with Sanjay Khan, Babita, Helen and Pran. Within a matter of five decades, we have become very aspirational- especially the crooks to super crooks. Today, we have moved on to multiples of hundred crores which seems to be the new normal in Bhrashtachar- Char to panch makes it Brashta panch. Crooks are catering for aspirational inflation it seems.

This may be included in the lexicon of the oxford dictionary.

You can fool all of the people some of time; you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”

“You cannot make all the people fools all the time was like a gospel truth.”

But ‘political actors’- or politicians who can act, can get an Oscar for changing this stated truth. Americans think themselves to be the smartest guys this side of Suez Canal and within America the Washingtonians are the smartest. Look what their past president is into a mega-mess with several conning cases against him- Fraud. Hush money. Election subversion et al. And Trump still has supporters- hell of a lot of support base.

Nixon was a crook, but he was our crook. He didn't have the KGB do the Watergate job. - Richard Painter

In India BJP government under Narendra Modi leadership looked at corruption differently. It had got into the blood and attitude or ‘Blatitude’ of the nation. Blood transfusion of 1. 4 billion people was an impossible task. Male or female- average human body has 5 liters of blood. A rough and ready Seven billion liters of blood transfusion was a no no.

Therefore, he decided to remove the human from the system by making India a digital web where all money transfers could be and should be done digitally. No man no ‘ghotala’.

DBT- Direct Benefit Transfer ensured zero percent leakage or pilferage by transferring money digitally to the bank accounts of those who were beneficiaries of government schemes. Almost 35 lack crores have been transferred through this methodology. Even if one takes 50% leakage saving (according to former PM Rajiv Gandhi, the leakage was 85%) the national saving would be close to 18 lack crore!

But there are smart alecs or smarter guys who can fool all the people all the time.

Like Washingtonians, Delhites also ‘feel’ they are the smartest but there was reverse DBT applied to them- here the government was the beneficiary. Acting in person and acting brilliantly is a propaganda that works for sure. Glycerin tears in an actor’s eyes make you cry for real in a movie hall. When the movie hall has millions of people- a city- you got to be a greatest actor alive to convince them that you are Mr. clean and clean the system. Delhites could never imagine that they could be taken for a ride as they themselves have been giving ride to others- don’t mess with a Delhite was saying- ‘Mere jaisa shatir koi nahi’. Such people are the most gullible it seems.

Things are improving in every sphere including conning. While everyone is chasing technology, smart guys go back to the old school- quietly change the policy! Change it so that everyone is happy- supplier, consumer and policy maker. The loss to be borne by the state.

When Neta becomes a great abhineta, the audience can go astray. Fodder scams have been overshadowed by ‘sharab ghotala’ or ‘liquor gate’ and right in the city of India gate.

Political immunity sometimes gives a false sense of security, when you are in a system that is being boldly overhauled it can catch up with you fast, if not fast enough but sure enough.

Delhites are in a quandary – they cannot believe that they have been taken for a ride- these guys famous for saying ‘ tu janta hai mera baap kaun hai’ have finally come to know unka baap kaun hai. It is like Boman Irani in Khosla ka ghosla telling his guys not to talk about it- that he was had by some middleclass guys – here a simple Aam Admi.