The last two days witnessed and covered widely in the electronic media the great IPL auction process – Corporate houses , media barons and prominent film personalities bidding for Indian and foreign cricket players to form different teams – 10 in number this year for the 74 league matches and knock out series during April and May . Millions of Dollars or Crores of Rupees pledged to bag the international mercenaries of bat and ball . We are a truly rich country !
Let us look at the money reportedly changing hands in illegal manner due to various scams last year – four to five lakh crores or billions of dollars with no tax liability ! . CWG Scam , 2 G Scam , Adarsh scam , statue scam , fodder scam , real estate scam – the list is pretty long and impressive .
The great Indian marriage circus is another example of vulgar display of money power which only benefits the jewelers and money bags in the society . Why can’ t we legislate norms for expenditure in such cases to avoid ostentation and chanelise such funds to the welfare of the downtrodden in our society ? A few trillion dollar thus saved from the parallel economy can feed , educate , cloth and create bread winners for our poor village folks who die by the dozen due to floods , malnutrition , lack of adequate medical care and crops failure in this country .
It is high time that the citizens of this great country mobilize public opinion in a meaningful manner to put an end to this rut we have found ourselves in .