Money has a strange lifecycle. It starts off as nothing. Then it becomes Government property. Then it reaches the hand of individuals. And then goes back into the public domain. And then vanishes.

Corruption or looting of the system takes place at two stages. Once when the money is in private hands. And second, when it is Government property. The first type of corruption is when people, be they politicians or bureaucrats, demand from individuals like you and me, bribe money for granting some favours. The second is when they find some loophole in the system and scam off a few crores.

I feel that while the first case is personal and truly punishable, despicable and so on, the second instance is above reproach and above the law.

You see, it works like this...

Who is the Government? It is us, the people.

Who is the politician? It is our elected leader. Our very own representative.

So when the politician is looting the system, who is he taking money from?

From the Government...that is us! So he is taking only what is rightfully his...or hers.

So...if a politician or a babu takes money from you in his individual capacity he can and should be taken to task or to Tihar, whichever comes first. But if he scams money from a project he should be excused from harassment. He is after all taking what we have empowered him or her to do. And quite possibly quite a few times in succession (we call this system Election).

If on the other hand the crime is between individuals…where one man in a position of power demands a favour in cash or kind to do something to facilitate the process, then there should be no mercy. This blatant fleecing should not go unpunished.

If this basic lesson in law was understood by the people and by the legal system, we would be able to save the Government from going through hundreds of mock processes. Because I don’t know about you, but I am convinced that there is a higher plane of understanding between these politicians.

Their opposition chaps scream and shout, even make the symbolic arrests, judgements and so on, but eventually no one gets arrested. No one stays in jail. History will bear me out on this. I have yet to hear about one politician who was accused of being corrupt serving a sentence. The whole thing is drama. But the hero knows he can only bash the villain for show. And the villain knows that it is not blood, but tomato sauce.

So Lady J is granted bail. Lord J is practising Yoga in the Lotus Position. The Bihari Buffalo is feeding his cows. The Power Star of Maharashtra is still hoping he will be PM someday. And the beard is comforting himself with a smaller state. The list is endless.

It is just us who are the fools.