Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of people, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. Even in that line by john maynard keynes lies the basis of the sevenly deadly sins. Greed and gluttony is the nature of big business. When that spills into power circles, warren buffet warns us of crony capitalism. It may be exhibited, he says, by favouritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks. It arises he says, when political cronyism spills over into business, when self serving friendships and family ties influence the economy and society to the extent it corrupts public serving ideals. That's in america. Trump appointed andrew wheeler as the new chief of the u.s environment protection agency. Wheeler is a former oil & gas lobbyist. He has a long history of working for the coal industry. The wolf being asked to gaurd the sheep. In india, the old boys club of crony capitalism is something we don't openly talk about. Money talks and everything runs of money, sifarish and ious. Today, in a country used to hearing about scams of thousands and lakhs of crores, we are here to talk about a piddly sum. 1 crore rupees. That's what former finance minister chidambaram's son karti stands accused of getting in kickbacks for getting dad to approve a 3600 aircel maxis deal. But that 1 crore is something over which the enforcement directorate and the cbi feel that they have a case to finally nail upa era crony capitalism. A no arrest order from the courts runs out on december 18. Sanction for prosecution has now been received by the cbi. It's not about the amount. It's about exposing the racket that only the naive, blind or those in denial would think doesn't run into unimaginable amounts. How bureaucrats, politicians and big business get together to grease each others hands and wheels. How none are brought to book. Govt servants promptly upon retirement get cushy jobs in the private sector. How, for example, did one former finance ministry official involved in this case end up as the chairman of a major bank and the national stock exchange. How many former bureaucrats or ministers are held to account for anything they do. It's not about the 1 crore, i'm pretty sure big lawyers like chidambaram can earn that legitimately in a few days of work. It's about the system we need to talk about. So let's talk about it, before the politics sucks us into vendetta versus i'm holier wars.