Why is it every politician accused of a scam, however big and ugly, always protests his innocence, asks for an inquiry, and states (without the slightest embarrassment, even though he may be caught with not just his hand but his arm, elbow and shoulder in the cookie jar) that he is clueless about the crime and therefore finds no reason whatsoever to give up his office? Ashok Chavan is no exception to this rule.

Suresh Kalmadi is exactly where he was before the CWG scam broke out and the nation woke up to the fact that a huge part of the Rs70,000 crore spent on the Games was simply purloined by a bunch of shameless crooks who held up the nation to ridicule before the world. Despite all the hot air blown and the multiple inquiries launched from the PMO, Kalmadi still sits in his corner office with a smirk on his face, telling the whole world to go do its worst. He is Teflon-clad. Nothing hurts him. He appears to be beyond all inquiry, above the reach of all investigators, and by the time the multiple agencies complete their mammoth task of chasing down the crooks in this huge heist, the nation would have moved on to other, bigger scams and the media will be chasing yet another set of irascible rogues. No wonder Kalmadi smirks.

So does A Raja. It’s well over a year since the 2G scam broke, assessed between Rs 20,000 and Rs 60,000 crore, but all that the media and the Opposition could elicit from the Government was a half hearted CBI enquiry that, last Friday, made even the Supreme Court comment on its tardy pace and inquire sarcastically whether a decade will have to pass before the inquiry is complete. What about the man involved in this huge scam? No, Raja is not cooling his heels in a prison. Nor does he look embarrassed in the least. He still struts around as India’s telecom minister, much to the dismay of even the Supreme Court. He remains a respected member of the Prime Minister’s cabinet. Does he give a damn about the inquiry? No, doesn’t look like it. He sports the same smirk that Kalmadi does.

Chavan looks more dour than both. In that sense, he is closer to Satyam’s Ramalingam Raju. But like Kalmadi he is now busy pointing his finger at others. Senior and not so senior but critically placed bureaucrats, most of them chosen by him, army and navy chiefs, even his own so called distant relatives who wangled flats at Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society. He claims he had no idea that they were up to no good. Just as Kalmadi is pointing his finger at Shiela Dixit, the Delhi administration, and all the other agencies who were involved in expending the astronomical Games budget. Kalmadi also tried to whip up patriotic sentiment, suggesting that those criticising the loot of the exchequer were actually anti-nationals trying to undermine India’s image before the world just before the staging of the Games. Luckily, no one fell for that arrant nonsense and, even after Indian athletes performed spectacularly at the Games, Kalmadi was still booed every time he got up to speak. So much so that to avoid embarrassment the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi nixed his name from their guest list for the celebration parties.

But see, he is still there. In office. So is Chavan. So is Raja. So are a whole bunch of people who have been, otherwise, spurned by the public. Even RR Patil, Maharashtra’s Home Minister (and Deputy CM) during 26/11, is back in office. This time, he has Ramesh Bagwe with him, as his Minister of State, to make matters worse. Shinde and Vilasrao cannot return to Maharashtra to replace Chavan because, it appears, they too played a crucial role in the same scam. So did a whole lot of senior Government officers who have mastered the art of breaking rules to please their political benefactors and make money and property for themselves on the sly. Land reserved for Kargil widows and war heroes. Homes for the homeless, for beggars, vagrants, street children. Land for public hospitals. Parks. Public gardens. Mangroves. Forest land. Land under the CRZ. Salt pan land. There is nothing they will not grab.

The tragedy is not jut the loot. It’s the punishment. No one in power ever gets punished even when they are caught in flagrante delicto. Yes, a few get rapped on the knuckles but the process of inquiry, investigation and, eventually, justice takes so long that seasoned scamsters have learnt how to cope with it. Even when punishment happens, which is rare, very rare, it is too little too late. And by that time no one quite cares. Newer, bigger rascals have emerged.

Strange, how we beat a pickpocket to death. We lynch a petty thief. We lock away for years on end, poor people who may have committed some minor indiscretions out of severe, back breaking poverty. But the rich and the powerful step away from their enormous crimes to pretend that nothing ever happened.