Much ado about nothing!

An individual had recently posted this status on Facebook: “Pehle sirf ghotaale hote the, ab sirf khulaase” (Earlier we had only corruption, now we have only expose). Allegations and expose have truly taken over corruption in the last few months. Sadly, those making allegations are not often coming up with sound evidence and those making expose are not persistent with their evidence. In the process, allegations without concrete evidence are dismissed as baseless and threats of legal action are immediately issued. The ones who fall in the latter category are more busy gathering political points by stepping into many boats.

Take the case of Arvind Kejriwal. No one till a few months would have thought that someone would take on giants like Robert Vadra and Mukesh Ambani. An English business newspaper had earlier reported on the Vadra case, but most Indians never even heard of it. Kejriwal took on these political and corporate giants. The national media which would otherwise be afraid to report against such individuals and entities for the fear of legal backlash, used the evidence presented by Kejriwal. It heralded a new style of reporting in the Indian media.

However, allegations against Vadra's land deals had not even settled down that Kejriwal shifted his focus to Nitin Gadkari. The subsequent shift in media's focus gave the Congress enough time to collect solid proof which enabled Robert Vadra to get a clean chit in his land deals. A post or two on Twitter was all we had from Kejriwal in defiance to the clean chit.

In fact, it can be safely said that Kejriwal and the media are borrowing content from each other and needs each others' survival for their own revival. One important case was that of Salman Khurshid which made the senior minister go red in the face and blank in the head. Kejriwal basically picked up the whole case from India Today's sting against the then law minister. He had a golden opportunity to gherao Khurshid and force him into resignation. He failed to do that and it resulted into Congress finding so much breathing space that they elevated Khurshid from the law ministry to the external affairs minister.

The Congress did not stay behind when it came to retaliating. If Kejriwal has asked questions of the Congress, the party's final weapon in the form of Digvijay Singh has raised questions against the activist's NGO and government career itself. Members of India Against Corruption (IAC) have not been spared either. Question marks have been raised against some of their characters. It is the media which is in a win-win situation at the end of the day. Except for those unfortunate few who have attempted to come up with content and sting of their own instead of relying on quotes and bytes.

An interesting aspect that has come to the fore of late is the substitution of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) by threats of defamation case against the makers of allegations. Almost everybody who has been accused of late has threatened legal action immediately. At the top of the recent list is Salman Khurshid who took the first step and threatened suing the India Today group in not only the Indian courts but also courts in London. Others followed soon enough. Gadkari has planned legal action. Both, Naveen Jindal and Zee News have contemplated dragging each other to court. Even P. Chidambaram's son Karti has managed to send a man to jail for questioning his business activities on Twitter.

The latest in the list is Rahul Gandhi threatening to sue Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy for defamation. Swamy seems to be BJP-led opposition's answer to Digvijay Singh. He has directly launched a frontal attack against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, alleging that irregularities have been committed while transferring property and funds from a trust to a private company in which the Gandhis have 76 per cent stake.

It is a known fact that being a lawyer himself, Subramanian Swamy prefers visiting the court every now and then. Rahul's threats might not mean much to Swamy. The various allegations by anyone against anyone else might not change the state of the nation. The expose might not bring a change in the system of corruption. But one thing is sure that the series of allegations and expose will dent the images of a few personalities and political parties. And a few political equations will change in the coming elections.