Season of corruption scandals
B S Arun
Graft is a bipartisan issue as both Congress party and opposition BJP
face charges
The Congress party has never been as nervous after the Bofors scandal
hit the nation in the late 1980s. The Rs 64-crore payoff that brought
the dirt at the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s doorsteps, handed
over an electoral defeat to the Congress in the 1989 elections.
Over 20 years later, the Congress finds itself in a near-similar shaky
situation. There may be no threat of Congress losing its government but
in the season of scams, the image of the party and that of the United
Progressive Alliance government that it heads, has taken a severe beating.
The Commonwealth Games scam - not to speak of the tardy preparation
bringing to question the very efficiency of the UPA government and the
Congress-ruled Delhi state government - followed by the scam of the
Adarsh Housing Society, supposedly meant for families of the Kargil war
victims, and the telecom scam have unnerved the government, to put it
mildly.
True, the party and the government have taken some action. Two heads
have already rolled – A Raja and Ashok Chavan were made to step down as
telecom minister and Maharashtra chief minister respectively, for
presiding over the scandals.
But then such is the fate of the party that even after these two
actions, the crescendo by the Opposition against the government, holding
it responsible, has never stopped. Worse, the government seems clueless
over what it should do and how to get out of the mess.
SC blow
Even while the Congress was undecided how to face the growing call by
the Opposition for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the scams,
came some observations by the country’s top court.
The Supreme Court delivered perhaps the worst blow by passing adverse
remarks against prime minister Manmohan Singh for his silence in not
responding to a letter by former MP Subramanian Swamy seeking
prosecution of the tainted Raja.
The apex court passing comments on the working of the PM has never
happened in recent memory. This has come as a shocker for an already
bruised Congress, not knowing where to hide.
The blow was particularly nasty because it has hit the very person that
Congress presents to the nation as its cleanest. Here’s what the 2009
Congress manifesto said about Singh: “In Manmohan Singh, we have a prime
minister with unique qualifications, unparalleled experience, impeccable
reputation and unquestionable integrity. His wisdom, knowledge and
expertise is needed now more than ever, as the country faces challenges”.
Not that after Bofors there were no scams – the initial years of the
minority Congress government of P V Narasimha Rao saw quite a few of
them – stocks scam, sugar scam, hawala scam and telecom scam, which were
followed by the Tehelka and coffin scams during the BJP regime. But both
the governments weathered the storm although they did not come out
unscathed.
The telecom scam – allocation of 2G spectrum which supposedly cost the
government a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore – is not just about the delay
in Raja’s resignation but about the collective failure of the government
to take action, to prevent the scandal.
The buck is stopping at the prime minister because the PMO, like the
finance and law ministries and the cabinet secretariat, was aware of
what was going on. Yet, they did little to stop Raja. The act of
omission is proving to be too costly for the UPA government.
As the 2G scam threatens to become as potent a weapon to the Opposition
as Bofors was, the inaction by the government has surprised many. Under
Transaction of Business Rules set by the Cabinet Secretariat, any
project worth over Rs 500 crore should go to the cabinet, more so if it
involves more than one ministry.
The very fact that the PMO and other ministries kept sending letters to
Raja points out that despite being in the know of things, these various
bodies did not stop the telecom minister.
When Congress came back to power in 2009, Singh did not want Raja in the
cabinet. However, the compulsion of coalition politics forced him not
only to induct him but give him telecom ministry. The inflated
importance that Congress gave to DMK has hurt the UPA badly.
Contrast ‘avatar’
The UPA II is suddenly proving to be a complete contrast to UPA I
avatar. Despite all the trouble created by the Left parties, the UPA I
provided a relatively scam-free government and its pro-people programmes
saw it coming back to power.
The UPA II is not dependent on the support of the Left or the demanding
regional satraps like Mulayam Singh Yadav or Lalu Prasad. Still, this
dispensation is finding the going tough.
The initial euphoria of the UPA II after it returned to power in 2009,
and the coalition’s promise of delivering a “people’s government” by
fast tracking development and expanding the social security net, is
slowing evaporating as scam clouds loom dark and large.
There may not be any threat to the UPA II dispensation at the moment but
Congress as an individual party will have little solace from some of the
regional elections.
Of the five states facing Assembly elections – with polls already
underway in Bihar – the Congress is likely to do well in two of the
smaller states of Kerala and Assam.
It is likely to only very marginally improve on its tally of nine out of
243 seats in Bihar where the ruling JD (U)-BJP combine is expected to
come back to power.
In West Bengal, the Congress will have to be satisfied with playing
second fiddle to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, while in Tamil
Nadu, the party scion wants to go it alone and not tie up with DMK
(Congress provides the crucial support to the regional party in TN).
Thus, the Congress cannot expect any major boost from its individual
show in these states (which send a total of 155 MPs to Lok Sabha).
Still, the elections in these states cannot be taken as some sort of
referendum on the issue of corruption as local issues dominate deciding
the preference of the electorate.
Without waiting for the election results, the Congress has to do some
major firefighting to undo the damage that the corruption charges have
wreaked on its image.
Fed up, will UPA decide to call for fresh elections to the Lok Sabha?
Highly unlikely. Not sure of future prospects, Congress may not take the
bite and allies may not favour it either.
JPC for joint partners in crime
Raja’s licence mela
Status quo for pain-drain or for stability?
vickynanjappa.blogspot.com/
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/114522/season-corruption-scandals.html
Other voices:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-buck-stops-with-you-mr-prime-minister/20101116.htm
AND JUST IN CASE YOU HAVE LOST TRACK OF THE PREVIOUS SCAMS, read
on...............
Scandals
Sixty Years On, More Sinned Against...
The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times, but
also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public power for
private gain. A trip down murky memory lane.
Smita Gupta
The great political scams of the last 60 years reflect their times, but
also fit a timeless definition of corruption: abuse of public power for
private gain. They rolled out decade after decade—the Mundhra scandal,
the Kairon embarrassment, the mysterious Nagarwala case; in the 1980s,
big defence scams kept pace with India's growing defence needs. In the
1990s, as the economy liberalised, stockmarket and hawala scams erupted.
Ironically, while political reputations were ruined and a government was
brought down—in 1989, on the Bofors issue—very few allegations have ever
been proved. The recent scandals, like the Taj Corridor case involving
Mayawati, and the Telgi fake stamp paper scam, are still fresh in the
public mind. Here, we take you on a trip down murky memory lane.
***
The Mundhra Scandal
The timing was disastrous. Less than a year after the government
nationalised life insurance in 1956—on the grounds that it was not being
managed well—the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) produced independent
India's first scam. Pressured by the Union finance ministry, LIC
bypassed its investment committee and purchased shares worth Rs 124 lakh
in six—mainly dud—companies belonging to Calcutta industrialist Haridas
Mundhra. Feroze Gandhi, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's son-in-law,
dramatically disclosed the deal in 1958, leading to a nationwide furore,
and an investigation. The guilty were punished, and Union finance
minister T.T. Krishnamachari had to resign.
Kairon and Sons
For independent India, this was a first-of-a-kind scandal. Later, of
course, it was to become almost a cliche in political life: a chief
minister accused of aggrandising himself and his family at public
expense. The S.R. Das Commission, tasked to investigate these charges
against Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon, exonerated him in
1964, saying a father could not be held legally responsible for the
actions of his grown-up children. But a caveat—that a chief minister
could not escape moral responsibility for his children's' actions—was
indictment enough. Kairon quit.
"Man from Bangladesh"
The case, straight out of a political thriller, captured public
imagination and continues to raise unanswered questions. On May 24,
1971, former intelligence agent R.S. Nagarwala, posing as a "man from
Bangladesh", withdrew Rs 60 lakh from the Parliament Street branch of
New Delhi's State Bank of India, following a purported call from then
prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to the chief cashier. Nagarwala
had apparently "mimicked" Indira Gandhi's voice. In the course of the
probe that followed, investigating officer D.K. Kashyap was killed in a
mysterious car accident and Nagarwala died in prison. The Janata Party,
alleging that the money belonged to Indira Gandhi, set up the Jaganmohan
Reddy commission in 1977, but found insufficient evidence to indict her.
"Rajiv Gandhi chor hai"
"Gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai!" As the scandal over
the Bofors gun deal became a symbol of corruption in high office, this
slogan was heard across the country. The alleged kickback involved was
Rs 60 crore, small change as such scandals go, but it helped V.P.
Singh's National Front trounce Rajiv's Congress in 1989. Since then, the
Delhi High Court has acquitted Rajiv Gandhi and the Hinduja brothers.
'Middleman' Ottavio Quattrocchi's name has not yet been cleared, but
investigators have not come up with anything conclusive either. Yet, 18
years later, the ghost of Bofors continues to haunt a forever tainted
Congress—and Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia.
St Kitts Forgery Scandal
Chandraswami, a godman with greasy locks and mighty political
connections, was the central figure in the 1989 tit-for-tat "scam"
intended to tarnish V. P. Singh. He, along with then external affairs
minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and another minister, K.K. Tewary,
reportedly organised forged documents to show that VP's son Ajeya Singh
had deposited $21 million in the First Trust Corporation Bank in the
Caribbean island of St Kitts, with his father as beneficiary. After
Rao's term as PM ended in 1996, the CBI formally charged him for the
crime. But later, the court acquitted Rao for lack of evidence. All the
other accused were also eventually let off. However, the scam punctured
Chandraswami's colourful career. Politicians kept clear of him from then
on.
Sukh Ram Telecom Scam
He came to be known by the epithet, minister of tele-'phony'. In 2002, a
CBI special court sentenced former Union communications minister Sukh
Ram to three years RI, and fined him Rs 1 lakh for purchasing poor
quality radio system equipment from a company in 1991, causing the
public exchequer to suffer losses totalling Rs 1.68 crore. The buzz was
that Sukh Ram, under whose bed dhobi bundles of cash were found, was
involved in several other deals, but nothing was proved. A senior
telecom official, Runu Ghosh, and Hyderabad-based businessman Pataru
Rama Rao, were also sentenced to two and three years imprisonment
respectively. A tortuous legal battle continues.
Stockmarket Scam, 1992
He was toasted and celebrated by investors and the media alike. But like
the stockmarket, he too crashed, leading to one of the biggest financial
scandals in independent India. 'Big Bull' Harshad Mehta, held to be
largely responsible for the stockmarket crash of '92, was arrested by
the CBI in November that year for "misappropriating" more than 27 lakh
shares—worth Rs 250 crore—of about 90 companies, including Sensex
heavyweights like ACC and Hindalco, through forged share transfer forms.
Blacklisted in the stockmarket, he reportedly caused a loss of more than
Rs 4,000 crore to various entities and eventually died in custody in
December 2001, before all the legal issues were sorted out. The stock
scam reverberated through the country, with several people committing
suicide after losing their life savings and going bankrupt overnight.
PV in a Pickle
Close on the heels of the stock scam came Harshad Mehta's sensational
allegation that he had paid Rs 1 crore in cash to the personal secretary
of then prime minister Narasimha Rao. He even displayed a suitcase,
offering a symbol for venality, but the allegation was never proved. Rao
was also embarrassed by the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating scandal. Pickle
king Pathak, a UK-based Indian businessman, alleged that he had paid
Chandraswami and his associate K.N. Aggarwal alias Mamaji (who were
close to Rao) $100,000 in return for a paper pulp supply contract in
India, a "promise" that was not kept. Rao and Chandraswami were
acquitted of the charges in 2003 due to lack of evidence. Despite this,
the case remained a blot on Rao.
Jain Hawala Scam
Some of the country's leading politicians were implicated in the Rs
64-crore hawala scandal, involving payments allegedly received by
politicians through the Jain brothers, who were hawala brokers. The
media went into overdrive over a diary, which apparently contained the
names of top politicians. These included the BJP's L.K. Advani and
Congressmen Balram Jakhar, Madhavrao Scindia and Arjun Singh. However,
they were all cleared. Advani was let off in 1997, while Jakhar and the
Jain brothers were also let off in 1999 for want of credible evidence.
The CBI was severely criticised for its inefficient investigation of the
scandal.
Fodder Scam
In 1996, Bihar CM Laloo Prasad Yadav became the focus of the Rs
950-crore fodder scam in the state's animal husbandry department,
notorious for financial irregularities involving powerful politicians
(across parties) and officials. In April 2000, Laloo was chargesheeted
in the case, with wife Rabri Devi as co-accused. In December '06, they
were acquitted, but the CBI and the Bihar government, now under the
JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar, opposed the decision in the Patna high court. Till
date, 250 persons have been convicted. But the scandal's severest toll
has been on Laloo's reputation.
Petrol Pump Scam
Shortly after the NDA came to power in '98, the BJP was quick to prove
it was not "a party with a difference". By '02, it was evident that most
petrol pump, LPG and kerosene allotments during the NDA regime had
favoured BJP functionaries, Sangh activists and selected governors and
bureaucrats. Then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee was forced to cancel all
3,158 allotments, with effect from January 2000. However, the SC quashed
the order. In 2005, an apex court-appointed panel recommended that 296
of the 409 allotments be cancelled.
Operation West End
Tehelka.com sent shockwaves throughout the country when it released
secret video footage of senior politicians, including then BJP president
Bangaru Laxman and Samata Party national president Jaya Jaitly,
bureaucrats and army officers accepting bribes for defence deals. This
was the first major sting operation in Indian journalism. From then on,
getting 'Bangarued' came to mean being caught with your hand in the
till. The scandal forced Bangaru and then defence minister George
Fernandes to resign. The CBI filed charges against Bangaru and two of
his aides in July '06 and against Jaitly in December '06. Chargesheets
were also filed in 2006 against some of the other accused in the Union
ministry of defence and the army. R.K. Jain, former treasurer of the
Samata Party, was finally arrested in 2006 on charges of receiving huge
payoffs in defence deals.
Bu Smita Gupta with Debarshi Dasgupta
http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?235369
- Forwarded by gaspar almeida, www.goa-world.com
http://www.tiatracademy.blogspot.com/
Pavs Trasant Ghalta Tednam...
AITARACHEO KATKUTLEO
http://aitaracheokaskuleo.blogspot.com/
