Some readers mostly Diasporic, may not know that Bush (Mayabhushan Nagvenkar) is an old hand at sting operations.
He has worked stings at election time in Goa where the Herald was involved. At press conferences as The Bush has revealed, party candidates distribute press notes along with a 500 or 1000 rupee note. The gratuity was for the words "paid advertisement" to be omitted. Reminds me of a common practice with bus drivers in Goa after 1961. The last few buses to Cavelossim from Margao every evening would fill above capacity since people would like to hang out in Margao at bars, restaurants and shopping places until they could. Besides the bus passed through Hariya Baand, Benaulim, Varca, Orlim and Carmona to the end point Cavelossim, a well travelled route. At the Margao New Bazaar crossroad, there would always be a cop since this was a lucrative place for bribes. The bus drivers, hard working and work worn, knew they could not avoid paying but it didn't mean they liked it. So to show their disgust, as the bus approached the said point, a traffic cop would appear from nowhere and the bus driver would pretend to slow down. Just as the cop neared, the driver would speed up and instead of putting the 5 or 10 buck note in the cop's palm, he would fling it to the road and make the cop shamelessly bend to pick it up. Herald, inspire of previous stings, like that traffic cop, seems to have no qualms with dirty money. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.region.india.goa/132513 Roland Francis Toronto.
