A few years ago when the late Rajiv Gandhi was embroiled in the Bofors scandal, the amount he was supposed to have received as a kickback was Rs. 64 Crores.

No amount of spin doctoring could save him and he lost Prime Ministership and eventually lost his life. But a Media Professional calculated that the amount of media space dedicated to debate whether he took the money or not cost much more than the Rs. 64 Crores in question. Add to the front pages debates the amount of executive time dedicated to the issue, the figure multiplies exponentially.

A few years down the line we are seeing a slew of scandals hitting the headlines and the number of zeroes being bandied about has left us, or most of us, breathless.

Did Maran make a thousand Crores? Is Jagan’s take really 75000 Crores? Is 214 Crores all that Kanimozhi made? Questions like this have occupied mind space for too long now and the cost of debating these issues has crossed the figures being thrown around. Just look at the Print Media, the Electronic Media and the opportunity cost of a million bureaucratic souls.

And at the end of it, the net result is that the Tihar Jail has been offered to the Taj Group of Hotels as a property they can manage. And convictions are a far off dream.

So where is the logic? Are we guilty of a crime worse than the criminals’? After all, the corrupt at least took the money for a healthy cause. We on the other hand are just wasting it!!!