POLITICIAN- CRIMINAL NEXUS
Years ago, my uncle had shown me an article in an English news magazine. I read it as I was told. After reading it, I mentally praised the police officer who had taken so much of pain, despite his no set-timing official work as a senior IPS officer. He had unearthed many glaring events, one of which was the politicians who patronize the criminals!
It took about five years for this officer to delve deeply, interviewing some hundreds of criminals their origin, education, family background and hat made them to resort to crimes like robbery, chain snatching, extortion, and even committing a murder.
The reason why they became criminals was chiefly due to poverty in the family.
Didn’t someone say that, “Poverty is the mother of all crimes?” The article further pointed out which area in Chennai was the breeding ground for them all. It was mostly some areas in North and Central Chennai that produced more number of criminals!
How a newcomer is selected in a criminal gang is another deadly truth. It reminded the classic novel, “Oliver Twist,” (1837) by Charles Dickens. The newcomer would be given an assignment, like assaulting a person of a rival gang. If he succeeds in his attempt, only then he would be roped in as a gangster.
So the thesis goes. But what stunned was the interlink between the hardcore criminals and politicians who engage them for similar reasons of wiping out a rival! How disgraceful! The police officer’s thesis said that “74 per cent crimes are politically motivated!”
There was no opposition to this bitter truth. To this sensational finding, all politicians remained tight-lipped! About politics, great writer Disraeli had said, “There is no other gambling like politics.” The senior police officer published a book of his thesis under the caption, “Politicians Patronise Criminals” It is worth mentioning here that this police officer was later decorated with a Doctorate title for his book from the high-profile University of Madras.
This is the true colour of politicians, “If you want to succeed in politics, you must keep your conscience well under control.”