Why Scandals termed as Gate in media ?

Why Scandals termed as Gate in media ?

Under the second regime of UPA 2,  many scandals have surfaced and gripped the media and the public with dismay and some disgust and many with a disillusion. The continuous flow of scams, the CWG, 2G, defense minister being offered a bribe, cash for questions, paid news, Coal block allotment scame, Helicopter scam, and the latest is Rail bribary scandels. Arun Jetley termed it the Cash and Carry government….

I was however thinking for few days, while looking at the newspaper and TV news channels as to how the word ‘gate’’ is being linked with the scandals of late. Earlier they used to be called in terms like the 2G scam, CWG scandal, etc. It was never linked to the gates. I found It turns out that the word gate has an etymology which derives itself from the supposedly famous “ Water gate scandal”. Apparently the word ‘Gate’ is used to “suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal, particularly in politics and government”. In other words, Gate is used to “suggest unethical behaviour and a cover-up”. Now thus unravels the gate and the scandal connection.

Watergate was the first muth-uh of all scandals,that took down President Nixon.it's called Watergate because the Democratic Party offices that "the three stooges" broke into were located in the Watergate Office Complex in Washington D.C., thus,"Watergate".

On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. By the time it was all over and the dust had settled, Then-United States President Richard Nixon had resigned his office on August 9, 1974.

The Watergate Scandal was the biggest political scandal to hit the United States in recent memory. As a result virtually every political scandal that has happened since has had the suffix "-gate" applied to its name. Even scandals that aren't political in nature can have the "-gate" suffix appended to it.  

The scandal was named after theWatergate complex in Washington, D.C.; the complex itself was named after the "Water Gate" area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.

This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names in scholarly sources include a "-gate" suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal. This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a "-gate" suffix (such as New Orleans Saints bounty scandal), but may be referred to by "-gate"-less names in scholarly sources.

The recent scams in India seem to be addressed with a tag “Gate” of late.It all started with the famous “Memogate scandal”-- and thus the gate of scandals seemed to have opened from then on.

There was a famous scandal of the legislators in Karnataka watching porn in the assembly called the “Porn Gate scandal”. – The porngate scandal and the legislators watching porn while the assembly was going on and incidentally the discussion was about the drought situation in Karnataka. Thus comes the porngate scandal. The others too aren’t any less despicable.

The gates have shaken us sufficiently under the current UPA 2 regime. It was a despicable incident

The coal gate scandal is very much similar to the 2G scam which is the proud owner of the blame of selling out the licenses too cheap. The coal gate is apparently guilty of selling the coal assets way too cheap.

As for the memo gate, it revolves around the memo ostensibly seeking the US help to avert a military take over of the civilian govt in Pakistan.

We have been rocked by a few gates that were supposed to keep a few things at bay and supposed to maintain the pristine conditions of governance in the country. Sadly enough the gates still continue to rattle and provide us stories to talk about and make news about. It is not a pride to write about certain affairs but it is hard to take in any of these affairs in a light banter. The gates seem slim and the scandals bigger but the situation is nowhere away from being grim..

-vss.