Hail CobraPost and Shame to Indian Politicians

For all of us who forgot the Tarun Tejpals and Aniruddha Bahals of the world, here comes another sting operation. 12 members of parliament are caught taking bribe on camera for asking questions represeting some Cobra Business from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Besides the obvious implications involved about corruption and morality in public life, Aniruddha Bahal has also used tonnes of humour in this operation. I am using a particular newsitem available on Outlook India so that all the readers of this blog can enjoy it. You can also visit the website of Aniruddha Bahal at www.cobrapost.com

Excerpts from the Outlook Article:
Writing way back in The Hindustan Times on March 20, 2005, Bahal, while arguing that using intrusive gadgetry like hidden cameras for stories could only be justified if the contours of the story were such that tremendous public interest would be served if the story got some technicolour buoyancy. He had then gone on to suggest how

"an undercover investigation into how questions really get asked in Parliament would yield rich dividends. It would be reminiscent of the mid-’90s The Sunday Times "Commons-cash-for-questions" sting in the UK. If it were upto me I would float a dummy company and approach MPs across party lines requesting them to ask questions regarding purported and maybe non-existent business rivals and get it all on tape. Apart from the seriousness of the matter it would generate a lot of humour.

Imagine the comic spectacle of an MP asking something like: "Why was the Gorilla International Pvt Ltd blacklisted by the Railway Ministry in spite of having bid the lowest for Tsu-tsu diesel engines?"

If you thought that was outlandish, consider some of the questions that the hon'ble MPs took money to ask in Parliament from Bahal and company:

Whether the Railway Ministry has placed any order for purchase of the Yossarian Electro Diesel engine from Germany? Is the ministry aware that the Tom Wolfe committee report in Germany has halted its induction into the Euro Rail system?

Whether the Government has given sanction for the seed trial of Salinger Cotton of Monsanto? If so, has a report been prepared on Catch 22 cotton so far?

Has the ministry lifted the 1962 ban it imposed on the book "For whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway and the 1975 ban on Ken Kesey’s book "One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest" and Hunter Thomson’s book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"? If so, when were the bans removed?

Whether the government is aware that a domestic flying license has been denied to Cobra Cargo for starting operations in India? Since when has Semper Sursum Private Limited, the holding company of Cobra Cargo, applied for the domestic cargo license?

As Aniruddha Bahal himself explains:

And now, that I have paid homage to Yossarian, I am a little upset that Major Major and Milo Mindbinder got left out. But I am happy that the Yossarian brand name has infiltrated the German market in spite of strong opposition from Tom Wolfe thanks to the foresightedness of the Indian parliamentarians. As for the Catch 22 and Salinger cotton strains I hope they are tremendously profitable for farmers and that the lifting of the bans on Hemingway, Thomson and Kesey, long due and deserved, will lead to a tremendous fillip to the publishing industry in general.
And as for Semper Sursum Private Limited I feel that the Union of India should promptly issue them a domestic cargo license, if that facility exists, so that Cobra Cargo can fly the books of Kesey, Thomson, Hemingway, Salinger, Wolfe and Joseph Heller all over India free of charge. Which undertaking Cobra Cargo has given to me personally.

As for the British authors, the motley bunch of Shakespeare, Kinglsey Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, and many others, who might be fuming at not having made it into the record books of the Indian Parliament, more specially because these American upstarts seem to have made it, I furnish my unqualified apologies and say that there are many mad Allahabadis around and it’s only a matter of time before this lopsidedness is rectified.