poor 'mango people in a banana republic' - Ministers rush to defend the 'private' individual

DLF shares sunk more than 7% overnight after the corruption scandal came to light. DLF presented a weak defence that it has lent any money to that person in news……………. to anyone possessing even an iota of common sense and morality the corruption is very clear. The person under the scanner is not a politician and not any ordinary person ‘son-in-law’ of Congress leader Sonia and immediately Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram, Jayanti Natarajan and Manoj Tiwary all sprung to the defence.  For P Chidambaram, Jayanthi – Cauvery issue and the travails of delta farmers will never cause any concern !!

Those of us who were educated in ‘vernacular’ medium in schools, might have had the tendency to frame words in their own language, then translate them in mind and speak in English – sometimes cutting a comic figure !! Did you understand the ‘Mango people remark’ – famous comment of Robert Vadra on his FB "mango people in a banana republic".

Have heard of ‘banana republic’ earlier but not ‘mango people’ until one of my Hindi knowing friends pointed out how simple it was ~ it is simply the literal translation of the hindi phrase:"aam aadmi", meaning 'the common man'. "aam" also means mango, and aadmi  would  mean "people" and  you have the coinage  "mango people"!

There is news that  Robert Vadra  shut down his account on Facebook days after a controversy broke out over his business deals with realty major DLFBSE -1.00 % as civil society activist Arvind Kejriwal raised questions over the rise in his fortune.  Reportedly he was upset with his lighthearted banter "mango people in a banana republic"  and the strong reactions to that.    In response to that Kejriwal tweeted "evidence pouring in from mangomen from across the country. Mango men wud prove to be nemesis for the powerful."

The rise of Robert Vadra from Moradbad has been phenomenal. This is no post about his Mother being Scottish origin or of their brass and woods handicrafts business nor of his marrying Priyanka, nor the talks of his entering politics but more of the comment ‘banana republic’.  

Indians take tremendous pride in being a Republic – the biggest constitutional democratic republic – a rule of people, for the people, by the people.  The Constitution of India embodies certain basic principles, one of the most important one of which is popular sovereignty – the commitment  to hold regular free and fair elections.

Banana republic is a pejorative term which describes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited agriculture – which could be banana plantation itself, to go with the name.    The land would be ruled by a small, self-elected, wealthy, corrupt politico-economic plutocracy.  The term would connote a servile dictatorship that abets kickbacks, exploiting the large scale plantation and its cultivators.   It is a state of collusion between the State and favoured enterprises whereby profits derived from private exploitation of public wealth – the public increasing their debts and turning poorer when the select elite turn richer and richer.  Such States could enjoy the support of External countries but manipulates its own people and remains unaccountable to the Nation.  A wily set fleecing the system allowing the trunk of the national tree to rot and eventually crash……………

Understand that in New Zealand, the Electoral Commission is a governmental body responsible for administering certain aspects of the country's electoral system. It is an independent Crown entity, not part of any larger department or Ministry, and was established under the Electoral Act 1993.    It primarily registers political parties, allocates broadcasting funds, supervises financial declarations and ensures public education on how elections work.

Political Parties are given state funding for any broadcasting they conduct in an election campaign.  The Commission is responsible for dividing money between various parties taking into account party’s membership, current no. of MPs, previous election performance and current polling etc.,

That way somebody closer to the President of the Party ruling the country ridiculing the Nation as ‘banana republic’ and calling its law abiding citizens ‘mango people’ – does not augur well and should be condemned.  It is the ‘aam admi’ who have been law abiding, paying taxes, taking all the burden of power cuts, spiralling inflation and doing everything to keep the Govt machinery running – which primarily the Netas are expected to deliver..

Sadly, these are the people, who will never know how much a mango or a litre of petrol or a gas cylinder costs – because there are so  big companies willing to offer them soft advances, provide the money, give them property at lower rates, inflate the prices only to  buy back at higher rates, thereby providing more wealth at every transaction………. And you have scores of Ministers rushing to defend that every transaction was clean !!  Is there not a primary contradiction in Chidambaram giving Vadra a clean chit?  As beautifully put by First Post, if Chidambaram has gone through Robert Vadra‘s tax returns, in order to make a statement that all the transactions referred to by Kejriwal had already been declared by Vadra;  it runs contrary to the Congress defence that the transactions outlined were deals made by a “private individual”.

If Vadra is a private citizen in the way that Chidambaram himself, and others, claim, under what authority did the Finance Minister make a statement on his tax returns? That authority, if anything, vests with income tax department officials, and although as Finance Minister, Chidambaram has oversight , it appears to be a disquieting exercise of his authority – if that’s what he has done.” 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.