gfiles magazine

March 18, 2013

WHO’S AFRAID OF ‘VINOD RAI’?


GOVERNANCE
cag m g devasahayam
 
Who’s afraid of ‘Vinod Rai’?
Vinod Rai and Digvijay Singh have raised and responded contrastingly to two very critical issues directly related to democracy and democratic accountability
 
In the mid-sixties, there was a popular play titled ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf’?’, a parody of the song ‘Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Wolf?’ from Walt Disney’s The Three Little Pigs. The story revolves around two couples trying to suppress certain truths, which to their consternation manage to come out leading to thunder and fury. In her writing, Virginia Woolf attempted to reveal the truth. When the couples sing the song together, they make a mockery of their own fear of the truth and attempt to project a false image.
 
The song is a witty joke, but it also represents the very real, though also very petty, fear so common in intellectual circles.
 
Do we see a parallel in this with Vinod Rai, the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the present scenario? Indeed, we should. More than the CAG’s horrid exposure of humongous scams – Commonwealth Games, 2G Spectrum, Coalgate, to mention a few – it is what Vinod Rai said in a speech on ‘Social Obligation of Public Auditors’ at Harvard Kennedy School the other day that saw the ruling ‘intellectual’ cabal going to town mocking him!...Read More

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