Cho Ramaswamy's Annual Meeting

Cho Ramaswamy, editor of the Tamil weekly magazine "Thuglak", addresses his readers on the eve of the Pongal festival every year. Yesterday this meeting was held at the Music Academy, Chennai. Predictably the hall could not contain all the attendees and hundreds of people had to stand in the open space outside the hall. As the event was on, it became difficult even to spot standing space. The present political situation in the country resulted in larger than usual number of participants. The well known columnist Gurumurthy also spoke on the occasion.

There were repeated references to secret bank accounts maintained in foreign countries by our national leaders. Coincidentally, on the same day the Supreme Court has asked the Central Government why it hesitates to reveal the names of those who have deposited their black money in the Liechtenstein Bank in Germany now that the German government had furnished the details. Rumours are rife that Sonia Gandhi and her relatives have stashed away huge deposits in such banks. It is incumbent on the Government of India and also the Congress party to come clean on this issue. If the rumours happen to be true, the party should be sensible enough to disown her leadership. Such a step is indispensable if the party wants to regain credibility.

However such things are unlikely to happen when even supposedly honest persons like Kapil Sibal have decided that it is worthwhile to defend the indefensible and that morality is alien to politics.