The folks here are not only a prying lot but also jealous of other people's indulgence in some favourite pastimes or the likes. Or else, they would not make the purchase of a select species of goat for Tk 1,500,000 (1.50 million) by a college student an issue. If someone's father has money, can't the dad spare this amount to meet his son's special fondness for procuring prized animals on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha? Don't fathers' hearts melt universally to meet their sons' capricious demands? In this case, the boy has developed a fancy for the gorgeous looking animals perhaps from an early age. Maybe, his father also encouraged the boy's extraordinary bent of mind. After all, here is one of the two greatest religious festivals!
His father might have thought that when there is a competition for raising bulls of enormous sizes and weight of matching names such as 'Kalapahar' (black hill), 'Dhalapahar' (white hill) and no one asks the purchasers a question when they part with Tk 3,000,000-6,000,000 (Tk3.0-6.0 million) for those animals, his son's expenditure is rather modest. Last year his son reportedly bought as many as six animals ---two oxen, two goats and two 'bhutties' (a short species of cow) --- from one cattle farm located in Mohammadpur costing Tk3.0 million.
The problem here, though, is that when a father can meet such a luxurious disposition of his son, he is supposed to be equally indulgent in meeting the boy's demands for routine expenditures. Reports published in different newspapers mostly confirm this. Digging deep has already started stinking. Here is the catch! The father is not an industrialist, nor the CEO of a multinational company. He is an official of the watchdog body Anti-corruption Commission (ACC). His known income can hardly be enough to fund the luxurious life-style of the boy and his extravagance.
This country has witnessed some cases of outrageous profligacy. The money has, sadly, not been earned in an honest way. A slew of banking and financial scandals has rocked the country. The money so misappropriated has been laundered to different countries. These were highly educated but crafty people who knew what they were doing but their conscience never stood in the way of their betrayal with this country and its people.
However, recently the obsessive acquisition of lands and other immoveable property by a former Inspector General of Police (IGP) and allegations of corruption against another retired high-ranking police officer have added a new dimension to abuse of power and malpractices resorted to by people who are supposed to uphold legal provisions at its optimal. Now this latest goaty affair seems to have more things goatly than what appears at first sight.
This is really concerning. Shouldn't there be any area dealing with public affairs clean? If there is virus in the antidote, how can the country run even in a modest way? Those who are supposed to preserve the highest standard of institution and make their moral and ethical standpoints sacrosanct and impervious to any weakness are showing they are not up to the task. Instead, their moral aberration cast a shadow of doubt and thus has a most adverse influence on the public. Those who want the country to have a prosperous journey ahead of them become disappointed and frustrated and the criminals feel encouraged to carry on their nefarious activities with renewed vigour.
What is even more concerning is that such indulgence in corrupt practices is impossible without surreptitious collaboration within the department where one works or is the boss. There is no alternative to cleaning the Augean stable.
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