Author: Arun Jaitley
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 7, 2009
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/COUNTERVIEW__Weak_PM_lived_in_denial/articleshow/4366629.cms
The track record of the UPA government on
the issue of corruption is dismal. When Prime minister Manmohan Singh first
formed his cabinet he was accused of having criminalised the council of ministers.
Ministers of the cabinet had criminal cases pending against them. The taint
was removed through a clean-up operation. Public prosecutors were changed
and the CBI actively cooperated with the accused. The taint was washed off
not through an honourable process but by misusing governmental authority.
The CBI has never been as misused ever before.
The cases against the BSP and the SP chiefs
were activated or covered up depending on whether the support of their parties
was required for the survival of the UPA government. In fact, the CBI is the
catalyst for possible electoral alliances in Uttar Pradesh. The motion of
confidence survived on the purchase of MPs. The UPA used its brutal parliamentary
majority to cover up the "cash for votes'' by disregarding documentary,
video and oral evidence.
The CBI was misused to get Mayawati's vote
for presidential elections but when it was over the noose tightened around
her. When Mulayam went with the UPA, his trail went cold according to the
CBI. When he moved away from the UPA, the CBI was back on his trail. The entire
Quattrocchi episode showed how the government lost the case by colluding with
the crown prosecution authorities in London to defreeze his account.
A weak prime minister was compelled to offer
infrastructural ministries like surface transport involving national highways
construction to tainted ministers. Infrastructure growth during the UPA government
suffered due to corruption. The development of special economic zones became
a major land scandal during the government's tenure. Manmohan Singh is a weak
leader. Too weak to be corrupt himself, he is weaker still when it comes to
stopping the corrupt. His attitude in office was to look the other way when
there was corruption and live in denial.
- The writer is a senior BJP leader.
