Benefits of Scam



Who says scams are the worst thing to happen? Are not there any advantages or positive meanings drawn from the multitude of scams, gigantic upon that, that plagues our country? Am sure you are ready with the answer. You will say it has made the scamsters richer. Well that is a very obvious fact. But what good has it done to the public at large, to the ‘aam aadmi’? Well let us find out.

The section of crowd which is benefited with the number game of scams is our school going children. That too especially in the lower classes (though am sure for some until matriculation too!). Scams have now widened the horizon, err the number game too, to learn large numbers. A simple question which is sure to make a 5th grade kid annoyed at you is how many zeroes do you think is there in 1.73 lakh crores? Until Raja kids were fine with five zeroes in lakh, seven in crores, but lakh and crore together! With a decimal point thrown in. Huh! Seriously?

The next group benefiting out of the scams are a little older students. When you are already familiar with large sums of money next you might be asked a question: if ‘x’ crores of rupees is stacked in Swiss banks, how much would it be in dollars? Ah, sure to get you thinking. For that you need to know the present dollar rate (with recession part II in offing, it is changing at the rate of any Bollywood actress changes clothes in one single song). It can still be made better with a multiple choice question where you choose the politician or businessman and calculate his or her worth in dollars.

Rising little above in classes, the next arithmetic benefit of scams goes to students of commerce. Now they could be asked questions which will have to do all of the above plus calculation of tax if that amount of money was here in India. And that how much would it help decrease the fiscal deficit on the whole. And of course one has to calculate it considering the rate of inflation (which has been rising steadily in the recent past). See, quite a tough question. A real challenge to students which will sharpen their skill.

The beneficiaries of scams directly is the media. No we aren’t talking about media scams (yet). Tentacles of Rupert Murdoch is sure to cause ripples in Indian media too but we will deal with it in a separate essay. But yes the scams have provided enough fodder to Messrs Arnab Goswami to steal away TRP’s from talent shows and Ekta Kapoor’s. Scams have generated employment opportunities for journalists and marketing professionals who on prime time have to sell all possible aspects of scams starting from what Kanimozhi had to eat in Tihar to the laptop Yeddyurappa threw in rage. Employment opportunities sure are signs of benefits.

There are a host of other people who are benefited by scams like your chai wala at the nukkad. Its for you to think how! Anyway, you see with crores becoming the new thousand (they don’t talk about any scam in lakhs) you have to get your numbers right. Additional zeroes for kids to count, dollar to rupees and vice versa conversion, ad space by News channels, these are all but a few examples of benefits derived from gargantuan scams our country is facing. And they say scams have no benefit?

P.S – the article is not to be read when seething in anger over scams in India.