It Happens Only in India

It was indeed a foregone conclusion that the tamasha of digging for treasure by Archeological Survey of India, based on a godman's dream, had to end sooner or later as a damp squib. But it also revealed how deep rooted the ties are between the political class, godmen and bureaucracy.

Godman Shobhan Sarkar dreams of a 1,000-tonne gold treasure buried on the erstwhile fort premises of former king  Raja Rao Ram Bux Singhat in Daundia Khera, Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. He later reveals this to his ardent bhakt Union minister Charan Das Mahant and even writes to prime minister. The godman claims the 'gold' can be used by the Reserve Bank of India to tide over the economic crisis. Now don't tell me Raghuram Rajan's men had kept an empty strong room ready!

The Minister pulls the right strings and three months later on October 18 the Archeological Survey of India  willingly suspends disbelief and gets down to dirty its hands. For those who always saw the country as snake charmers' paradise, it was an euphoric 'I-told-u-so' moment. For this erstwhile sleepy village the excavation site soon acquired a mela like atmosphere with a steady stream of onlookers, vendors and TV reporters.

The Congress party initially put up a brave face with its spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury saying there is no harm if the country 'benefits' from it. It was indeed a far cry from Jawaharlal Nehru's days of inculcating scientific temper among the Indian masses and treating power plants and industrial complexes as new 'temples of India'.

Narendra Modi initially took a swipe at the Congress by saying the world was mocking at us over the treasure hunt and it should rather strive to bring back black money stashed abroad. But this sparked off angry reactions from the godman's followers with some questioning what NDA has done to bring back black money while it was in power. The loh purush meekly capitulated and the very next day said that his objective was not to hurt the feelings of the spiritual guru. He even went to the extent of sending a clarification, which was physically handed over to the godman by a BJP MLA. For him this was not the time for 'puppy coming under the car' analogy or other specious arguments.

The ASI which had landed itself in a hole by agreeing to carry out excavations had only ancient pottery and artefacts to show as result. The Congress party too changed its tune and said it was purely ASI's decision and it had nothing to do with it. The godman's disciple Omji now says that gold will not be discovered until and unless Shobhan Sarkar wishes so!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat