By Kiran Varma
Which could be the hottest commodity that India’s politicians trade? No, it is not wheat, rice or maize. It is cash, bundles of hard cash, if the drama surrounding the just-concluded vote of confidence that the nation witnessed in the Parliament is an indication.

During the days leading to the trust vote that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced in the Parliament on July 22, members of parliament and political leaders have been leaking out news that rival leaders were offering them millions of rupees to abstain from voting or shift loyalties.

So there were allegations that three Bharatiya Janata Party MPs were offered Rs 25 crore each from the Samajwadi Party that bailed out the Manmohan government after the Left pulled out of the ruling coalition citing the nuclear deal with the United States.

Manmohan Singh won the trust vote. It was a ‘historic’ win, as never in the history of Indian parliament have a bunch of honourable MPs risen from their chairs with bundles of currency notes, saying they were bribed by a rival party. And to make sure that the cash deal indeed took place, leading news television channel CNN-IBN carried out a sting operation and shot the bribery scene.

Now the video tapes that contain the parliamentary cash scandal and the original cash are with the Speaker, so that his office can examine why Indian politicians love to trade in cash.

The moral of the whole episode is that politicians in India, as in many countries in the world, never work for the welfare of the people. Look around in India. There are millions of people who haven’t got enough money to buy one kilo of rice, wheat or other essential commodities. During elections, politicians go to these rural folks pleading for votes, luring them to a make-belief world, promising that once elected they would provide them food, clothing, drinking water, and even colour televisions.

But political analyst Aditya Sinha writes: “Once elected, they forget these promises for five years. Thereon, what politicians trade is cash. They amass money; and instead of serving the people and providing them the essential commodities to survive, members of parliament make lots of money. Yes, I would thus say, cash is the most traded commodity among the political class in India.”

True statement, indeed. Cash is the hottest and most traded commodity among politicians in India. Some years back, a number of politicians including the current Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav were charge sheeted in a bribery scandal: the case was that they amassed cash by selling fodder meant for cows. So we had the infamous fodder scam, in which several politicians and bureaucrats were charge-sheeted and jailed. The commodity that even cows eat has been turned into a cash-cow by Indian politicians.

There are several hundreds of small and big scams wherein politicians have amassed wealth by stealing from public funds, selling wheat meant for the poor, diverting funds meant for water and health projects etc etc. The list goes on.

Politicians continue to trade cash as the most saleable commodity in India because public memory is short, or the people don’t bother much about it these days.

In less than one year, India would go for another parliamentary elections. Then, the voters—people—would see the same cash-scandal-ridden members of paraliament and politicians going around the rural folks, asking for votes with folded hands.

Indians are getting ready to vote for them. Indian politicians are getting ready to entice them with a big set of promises.