When death erases accountability

 The death of former minister and sitting MLA H. Y. Meti has triggered a flood of tributes across political lines. Leaders who once maintained a studied silence when he was mired in controversy now sing paeans to his “humility” and “commitment to public service.” But behind these glowing obituaries lies a truth that Indian public life often prefers to forget — the ease with which moral lapses are buried beneath the sentimentalism of death.

H. Y. Meti’s resignation in 2016 as excise minister in the Siddaramaiah government did not come out of political whim or factional intrigue. It was the direct fallout of a sex scandal that embarrassed the state and his party. A video allegedly showing him in a compromising situation surfaced and, though Meti denied wrongdoing, public outrage compelled him to step down. The subsequent police closure report citing “lack of evidence” was hardly a clean chit; it was, at best, an act of bureaucratic convenience. The damage to his moral standing was irreversible.

Yet today, as the state mourns, that part of history is conveniently omitted. The same system that once demanded his resignation now glorifies him as a tireless servant of the people. There is a disturbing consistency in this — in India, death grants instant absolution. The moral ledger is wiped clean, and public memory becomes a selective narrative, stripped of discomfort.

This pattern exposes a deep hypocrisy in Indian politics and society alike. We demand ethical conduct only when the scandal is fresh, when television cameras amplify outrage. Once the person is gone, we revert to emotional ritualism, reducing history to hagiography. Accountability dies not with the person, but with our willingness to confront inconvenient truths.

There can be no fire without smoke, and in Meti’s case, the smoke was thick enough to suffocate a ministerial career. Remembering that truth does not dishonour the dead — it honours the public’s right to integrity. A democracy that forgets the lapses of its leaders soon learns to tolerate corruption and deceit as normal. In celebrating such figures without context, we do not heal our politics — we poison it with hypocrisy.