By Indranil Banerjea
This is the season of scams and the biggest ever corruption cases in India have been unearthed more recently. So, we decided to dig deep to see which scams were the biggest and most damaging to the country and its citizens alike. In our daily life, most of us must have been a witness to or a victim of the corruption thriving in some or the other part of the country. It could be in the form of a taxi-driver manipulating the meter to jack-up the reading or a government officer taking bribery to promptly transfer your file to the next department or even yourself offering bribe to a traffic police on breaking a signal.
An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is the people in charge of the system — politicians and bureaucrats — or with whom the power lays, that act as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress and what all not. But, somewhere down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken for a ride by these people, aren’t we?
However, it is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually realises the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and well-being of the nation. But, that’s what a scam, be it big or small, means — the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme or action.
Real estate, mining, drugs, arms, civil aviation, are the big ticket items behind the proverbial rags- to- riches stories as paupers turn millionaires.
In the midst of this the Comptroller and Auditor General, one of the very few institutions in this country that still seem to be functioning, has come out with reports of corruption that should have shamed this government. Instead it has let loose its pet spokesperson Manish Tiwari to attack the CAG, with not a word from the UPA government worthies acknowledging complicity and suggesting a series of remedial measures so desperately needed to restore some level of probity in governance.
The ministry of civil aviation and the airports authority facilitated a private entity to acquire rights for the commercial exploitation of 240 acres of land for an equity contribution of Rs. 2450 crores. An additional 190 acres of land was leased out for a one- time payment of just over Rs. 6 crores. All these violations have come to light at different points in time but till date there has been no move by the government to reverse these biased decisions.
As the CPM noted in a statement, “the sordid story of crony capitalism has become a hallmark of the UPA- II government.” More so, as another CAG report has pointed to major post- bid violation by allowing Reliance Powers (RPL) to use excess coal from three coal blocks allocated to Sasan Ultra Mega Power Projects. The report maintains that Rs. 29,000 crores were lost to the exchequer in the process.
Governance has become a casualty under UPA- II with corruption skyrocketing, along with inflation and prices. The anger of the people is palpable, creating easy ground for exploitation by communal, casteist and sectarian forces. The Congress as a party has disappeared from the streets, with the party president and heir apparent reluctant to lead from the front.
Sonia Gandhi rarely leaves Delhi, with the result that the men and women in the council of ministers also prefer to stay in the capital. Most of them are Rajya Sabha MPs dependent on Sonia Gandhi for their seats, and not on the people for their vote.
The distance between these leaders and the masses has become almost unbridgeable with the Congress always more excited about a real or imagined slur against the Nehru- Gandhi family than about the exodus, for instance, of Northeasterns from the rest of India.
Parliament is predictably reflecting the decline in leadership and political responsiveness.
The level of debate and discussion has gone down dramatically, with petty allegations and responses replacing oratory based on facts and the reality on the ground. Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has not had a good beginning, in that he failed to impress even Sonia Gandhi in the first few days of Parliament.
As the Leader of the Lok Sabha he has not taken a lead, and after he failed to lead the charge against BJP leader L.K. Advani in the House he is supposed to have earned his party president’s wrath. However, one wonders what she expected Shinde to do, considering the fact that he has always been rather listless and apathetic to issues in the past as well. And despite this she appointed him as both the home minister and the Leader of the party in the House.
It has been several weeks since party managers let it be known through select leaks that Rahul Gandhi would join the government, or take a senior position in the party. He is still contemplating we are told, with the next reshuffle now being projected as one that will finally bring him in. First, the Family loyalists said, the Prince had still to make up his mind about playing a more important role.
Then, they said, he was going to take charge but was deciding between the party and the government. Now they say, he is deciding between portfolios in the government, Human Resource Development or Rural development. And meanwhile the nation waits with bated breath for Rahul Gandhi to make up his mind while India reels under the impact of non- governance at all levels.
No one in the government seems to be bothered about the levels of corruption that has become an integral part of politics.
Everyone is making money, and revelling in it. Real estate, mining, drugs, arms, civil aviation, are the big ticket items behind the proverbial rags- to- riches stories as paupers turn millionaires after a few years as the elected representatives of the people. All those named and identified as responsible for making money through the handling of natural resources remain at large as the people pay for their comforts with their lives and livelihood.
Scams like 2G Spectrum, Commonwealth Games, Telgi Scam, Satyam Scam, Bofors Scam, the Fodder Scam, the Hawala scandal, IPL scam, Harshad Mehta & Ketan Parekh Stock Market scam and the latest and the biggest being Coal-gate which is unfolding, and the UPA government doesn’t know how to get out of it. So, can we live a scam-free life in India for a while now? INAV