The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A rustic view of corruption

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 04, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A rustic view of corruption

Alladi Jayasri

A woman rendered an earthy song exposing the menace

BANGALORE: So the city-slicker-come-lately-into-politics thinks, ostrich-like, that the country bumpkins back home don't know about his corrupt ways? That the poor farmer is naïve enough to hope and wait for the messiah who will turn his village into the land of milk and honey?

If one of this tribe had been present at the final session of the conference on two decades of Panchayati Raj in Karnataka, he'd soon have learnt that burying his head in the sand is no way to keep a secret.

Delegates from all over the State, mostly panchayat presidents, vice-presidents and members, were passing the time until the valedictory function on Monday, lustily singing rustic songs and celebrating the colours of rural Karnataka. A matriarch from North Karnataka turned out to be very popular, with the audience clamouring for an encore after she had rendered an earthy song.

But the loudest cheers were reserved for the lady who sang about the Government, which swallows farmlands whole, and leaves the farmer in the lurch. She sang in a droll manner about the Minister who eats the MLA for breakfast and the MLA who feeds on government officials, the bank that swallows the poor villagers' loans, and the bank officer who washes down the bank itself with a drink of water.

And all the time, so the song went, they adroitly swallow pills and take a swill of tonic. The "pill" is bribe and the tonic is brandy, and together they make for a deadly "combi," the lady sang, and it was not long before the audience was laughing away. What a pity there was no Minister around to see how the village regards him!

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