Rs 11,412 crore of public funds misappropriated by the rulers of Bihar – the subject of tragicomedy drama played out in Bihar assembly on Wednesday -- is no longer even a teeny-weeny prick on our consciousness.

The entire matter is just another televised show of “unruly behavior” of the legislators inside and outside a state assembly. Or, going by the predictable newspaper comment, it's the opposition’s search for a scandal to pin onto the shoulders of the ruling coalition ahead of the assembly elections.

Nothing will come out of another scam in a country of scams. The next government of Bihar will have its own scam. That’s the certainty that we the citizens of India have come to attach to the way this country governs itself.

What happened to Rs 950 crore fodder scam in which Lalu Prasad Yadav, the current accuser, was involved? Here’s a small excerpt from what the Wikipedia says about the fodder scam that involved loot of public funds over many years and by multiple state governments.

“In February 1985, the then comptroller and auditor general (CAG) took notice of delayed monthly account submissions by the Bihar state treasury and departments and wrote to the then Bihar chief minister, Chandrashekhar Singh, warning him that this could be indicative of temporary embezzlement.  This initiated a continuous chain of closer scrutiny and warnings by principal accountant generals (PAGs) and CAGs to the Bihar government across the tenures of multiple chief ministers (cutting across party affiliations), but the warnings were ignored in a manner that was suggestive of a pattern…”

Another excerpt: “As the investigation proceeded, the CBI unearthed linkages to the serving chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav and, on May 10, 1997, made a formal request to the governor to prosecute Lalu….”

Even as he continues to be an accused in fodder scam, Lalu is now the sanctimonious accuser, defending public interest, in the latest scam. He will remain so until he wins power again and then another scam…. you know the cycle.

This cycle, in fact, characterizes the way the Indian brand of ‘representative democracy’ plays itself, not just in Bihar, but in every state and the centre. Members of every ruling party or coalition siphon off huge amounts of public funds to recoup the eye-popping investments that are needed today to win elections. And to strengthen the hold of their faction or party on power, in a system that’s now primarily run on money power.

It’s a system that’s become so institutionalized that only the very naïve among Indian citizens find it difficult to understand.

In fact, the thousands of crores of rupees of public funds that Indian citizens now pay routinely for keeping this system going should no longer be described by such naïve expressions as “scam”, “scandal”, “embezzlement of public funds”, etc.
It’s actually the 'political fee' that we must pay every day of our life to keep the way our system of governance works.

Changing this system is up to us, the citizens. It will require attacking the stupendously growing black market for power and thinking through democratic, political and electoral reforms – in fact a fundamental change in the way this country is currently run.

It’s a long haul. Let’s look through the tragicomedy in Bihar to the larger pattern behind it and focus on our options for a more fundamental change.