Author: Gamini Weerakoon
Publication: Sunday Leader
Date: April 30, 2011
URL: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/05/01/massive-corruption-scams-rock-the-land-of-the-mahatma/
India, while emerging as a global power with
its economy spurting ahead is also being severely rocked by corruption scandals.
Yet there is still hope. Law and order still remains intact unlike in many
South Asian nations.
Last week the Chief Organiser of the New Delhi
Commonwealth Games, Suresh Kalmadi was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation
and is to be charged with corruption relating to contracts in the purchase
of equipment for the games.
Earlier two other officials of the Olympic
Committee were arrested over the Commonwealth Games scam and are to be charged.
The Indian government spent over US$ 6 billion dollars for the New Delhi games
- much above the original estimates.
Another scam under investigation is the diversion of houses meant for war
widows to civil servants.
The biggest of all scams
On Thursday last week , Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha (Upper House) member and daughter
of the legendary M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister was charged under Sections
7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. These sections deal with acceptance
of alleged gratification. Kanimozhi is being charged along with four others
in what has been described as 'by far the biggest Indian scam' - the 2G Telecommunications
Scam on licensing of Spectrum 2G (Second Generation) Services in 2008.
This scam is reported to have cost the Indian government US$ 40 billion. The
Minister of Telecommunications who was also a member of the DMK at that time,
Andimuttu Raja, was asked to resign and is now under arrest and has been charged
with cheating, forgery, abuse of his official position.
The Dravida Munnetran Khazagam (DMK) a partner of the United People's Alliance
(UPA) government of Sonia Gandhi being connected to the scandal is causing
much embarrassment to the Indian Congress Party which does not have a comfortable
majority in the Indian Lower House (Lok Sabha) but there is no threat of the
DMK pulling out because its leader Karunanidhi needs the Congress more than
the Congress needs him. A few months ago the Congress threatened to pull out
of the alliance over share of seats in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly in the
parliamentary elections that were concluded recently (results have not been
declared as yet) but that issue was settled in favour of the Congress.
Strongman's daughter
Karunanidhi's daughter being charged and even his aged wife Dayaluammal being
named (in a supplementary charge sheet) is a blow against the image of Tamil
Nadu's strong man and godfather but he has stomached it all, probably because
he has no other alternative. On Thursday he defended his daughter saying that
this was a political conspiracy against the DMK and media hype. His daughter
had been dragged in to mire the name of this party. He vowed that the DMK
would stage a legal fight back.
The Telecom minister
The scandal has its roots in the Minister of Telecommunications Andimuttu
Raja deciding on the sale of telecommunications licenses on a first-come-first-served
basis which benefited a few selected bidders whereas the auctions mechanism,
it has been pointed out, would have enabled licensing to be done with transparency
and more equity. Earlier there had been reports in the Indian media about
the alleged scam but it did not make much of an impact but reports of the
Government Comptroller and Auditor General pointing out that the Minister's
exercise has yielded only Rs. 12, 645 crores (US$ 2.8 billion) whereas according
to his estimates using several benchmarks its peak valuation would have been
Rs. 176, 645 crores (US$ 40 billion) blew the lid off the scandal.
The scandal even enmeshed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whose financial rectitude
is considered to be impeccable. The Supreme Court has asked him for an explanation
for the 11 month delay by him over a petition by Subramaniam Swamy, President
of the Janata Party, seeking permission to sue Raja, the minister concerned.
This resulted in the Opposition BJP seizing the opportunity to hurl mud at
the Prime Minister and Congress, demanding an inquiry while paralysing the
last sessions of parliament in its entirety.
Fallout
The fallout of the 2G scam was felt once again in parliament last week when
the Public Accounts Committee report of parliament was taken up. Congress
and DMK charged that the committee chairman, a respected and senior politician,
M.M. Joshi, had shown mala fide and mischievous intentions by giving completely
false information on witnesses that had deposed before the committee. The
report was rejected on Thursday with Congress and DMK along with members of
two other parties voting against it.
Rs. 30.9 crore conspiracy
The CBI in its first charge sheet said that that the former Telecommunications
Minister Raja conspired with top bureaucrats including an IAS officer and
corporate 'honchos' to cause a loss of Rs. 30,984 crore to the government
in allocation of 2G Spectrum licences. Eight others and three telecommunication
companies were named. It was alleged that they entered into a conspiracy for
manipulating the procedure for allocation of spectrum licences with the aim
of favouring specific companies like Swan Telecom and Unitech.
The charge sheet said that money from some of these companies had travelled
'circuitously' to Kalainagar TV in which Kanimozhi had shares amounting to
20 per cent while Karunanidhi's wife had 60 per cent and Shared Kumar, the
managing director had 20 per cent.
Scams and Gandhi
The 2G Scam is by itself grim irony in this land which still reveres the sage
Mahatma Gandhi, the frail old man who led an entire sub continent to independence
after being a colony of the mightiest empire at that time. Honesty and simplicity
and ahimsa were some of the virtues he propounded and they stand in stark
contrast today in the stench of the 2G scandal.
Corruption was there in Gandhi's time too but that was on a minor scale, the
corruption of the poor. Corruption was attributed to the poverty that prevailed
at that time. Today the cause for corruption is affluence.
Yearning for Gandhian times
Indians appear to be having a yearning for Gandhian simplicity. The demand
made by a 71-year-old activist, Anna Hazare for the appointment of a Lok Pal
- an institute to investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials - was
conceded to by the government of Manmohan Singh within three days of launching
a 'fast unto death.' The demand for the creation of such an independent body
had been made way back in the sixties but been successfully stalled by the
bureaucracy and politicians on nine occasions. This time too here had been
objections to inclusion of 'outsiders' in a body overseeing the conduct of
officials and politicians - people who were not a part of government.
Harare's response to this has been that bureaucrats and politicians are servants
of the 'outsiders' and not vice versa rang bells throughout the continent
and branches of an organisation India Against Corruption (IAC) sprang up throughout
the sub-continent. Some Indian commentators have said that the government's
unusual response to a citizens' organisation such as Harare's was the fear
of its rapid spread.
Still hope
Despite prevalent widespread corruption there
is hope for India. Law and order prevails still, unlike in many South Asian
countries. Its basic governing infrastructures still remain intact. The Indian
police despite the severe influence and intimidation by political parties
are still functional. A police force can move against the interests of the
ruling party as seen in the mother of all scams - the 2G scam. The Supreme
Court still retains its independence and is not subservient to the ruling
party and the media is vibrant, independent and powerful - not a lickspittle
of the powers that be.
Successes in exposing the 2G Scandal and the
Lok Pal taking off were possible mainly because of the fearless, independent
media. The Indian media could play a significant role pulling this country
out of the mire corrupt politicians and crooks have dragged it into.
