For the sake of Kerala junta's sanity, will the ongoing Solar saga ever come to an end?

The way things seem to be moving, rather trudging along, a denouement of any sort would be acceptable at this stage.
For the sake of Kerala junta's sanity, will the ongoing Solar saga ever come to an end?
For the sake of Kerala junta's sanity, will the ongoing Solar saga ever come to an end?

Google Kerala solar scam and Wikipedia solemnly tells you that in 2013, a fraudulent solar energy company by the name of Team Solar in Kerala made use of two women –Saritha S Nair and Shalu Menon to be precise- to cultivate political contacts and dupe several influential people to the tune of 70 million rupees in the bargain.

Not bad for a beginner, especially now when Start-ups seem to be the keyword of our times!

And how did the apparently swindled lot fall for the bait? Well, the age-old Apsara marketing technique, you see.

Sell your stuff with a Urvashi or Rambha –well in this case a Saritha or Shalu- as the face of the company and what do you have in hand? A surefire way to rake in the moolah, sunny side up. No pun intended.

With news of the Chief Minister’s office too being involved, sleaze was not slow to follow.

So the masses were then presented with a heady combination of Saritha, Shalu, Biju, Joppan, Firoze with guest appearances by four cabinet ministers, three MLAs, a junior Union Minister not to mention a slew of government officials at regular intervals. Could easily give MTV’s Big F (with the forbidden fantasy tagline) a run for their money.

And if that wasn’t enough, we even have a graphic CD popping up which led almost all media houses on a wild goose chase for just a glimpse of our esteemed Chief Minister allegedly receiving sexual favours from Saritha. Now who wouldn’t want to see such a lurid sight, even though none of us would admit to being kinky in the least!

Everyday the public is being fed gory details with creepy sound bytes to boot. The latest important detail that we were repeatedly bombarded with was how someone on Oommen Chandy's team used to dirty chat with Saritha.

So here’s a long-running solar serial of over two years seemingly showing no signs of winding up with a climax of justice prevailing at the end. The way things seem to be moving, rather trudging along, a denouement of any sort would be acceptable at this stage.

Every day comes up with a seemingly fresh angle to the case. The breaking news usually involves another name of some public figure cropping up in the list of Saritha’s alleged conquests.

At the end of the day, one cannot be blamed for forgetting the solar aspect of the case what with Saritha now being projected as our very own Mata Hari!

The Commission entrusted with investigating the same apparently asked Saritha who was the father of her child born while in prison. Thankfully with Saritha going into hysterics, the Commission backed down. How establishing the paternity of Saritha’s child would contribute to furthering the solar investigation is a matter for deep contemplation. Maybe I’m the dumb one here.

The state government now finally seems to have woken up to the fact that the Justice Sivarajan Commission is yet to submit its final report.

But there are still some interested quarters which are even now egging on the Commission to take their own sweet time in completing the probe and instead make do with an interim order in the mean time.

And what is the media’s stance on this rigmarole now taking on frighteningly sordid proportions with assured media coverage of the slightest trivia connected with the solar scam?

The media seems to have long ago left trying to analyze whether any fresh proof which reportedly comes up with startling regularity on prime time actually has any bearing on the case.

But as a media person himself put it: “It’s just a demand-and-supply chain in action. There’s always demand for such sleaze and we are simply bound to supply it as long as there’s a market for it out there among the masses.”

Now, who’s to blame? Just asking.

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