Nirav Modi Fraud: Institutionalized and Entrenched Corruption is making India Restless
- In Current Affairs
- 12:01 AM, Feb 23, 2018
- Krishna Kant Sharma
The winter session of the 2010 Parliament session was one of the most unproductive sessions in the history of Indian democracy and was completely washed away due to the BJP led NDAs protests on the 2G Telecom Scam. The loss to the national exchequer was estimated to be upwards of 146 Crores. Mind you, this money belonged to the tax-paying citizens of India, who had voted the same MPs to represent them in the Parliament to aid and assist in Nation building and improving the lives of 1.2 billion Indians. The BJPs Parliamentary party spokesperson S.S.Ahluwalia roared “The Opposition was ready to cooperate but they (government) have to accept our demand for setting up a JPC to probe into the 2G scam worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore.” By the time the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-2014) ended its tenure, it had turned out to be the least productive Lok Sabha ever as 40 percent of its total time was lost due to numerous disruptions. The various ‘Scams’ i.e. 2G, CWG, Coal Allocation, Adarsh, Robert Vadra’s deals etc. had the NDA gunning for the beleaguered Manmohan Singh led UPA II government.
Somewhere in a different part of the world, activists and other common people took to the streets to voice their protest against corrupt and authoritarian rule. The Tunisian revolution of 2010 ignited a movement which later came to be named as ‘Arab Spring’ and engulfed areas in Middle East and North Africa. As violent and non-violent protests broke out in several countries including Morocco, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Algeria etc, there was a sense of hope and empowerment for common citizens who had been beset with official corruption all their lives. This hope spread over to the Indian sub-continent as well.
5th April 2011, saw the well known anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare commencing a fast at Delhi’s iconic Jantar Mantar demanding tough anti-corruption laws and introducing the Jan Lokpal bill in the Parliament. This caught the fancy of the Indian middle class who was beset with official apathy, corruption, inflation and which was straining the patience of his everyday life. As more and more people joined this movement across India, it was estimated that over 3.2 million Indians had joined the cause. Yoga Guru, Baba Ramdev too lent his support to the movement. However, the ruling UPA II government in a midnight raid, cracked down heavily on a protest at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, firing tear gas shells and lathi charging the people gathered over there. The then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi commented “It is one of the worst days of Indian history. The Prime Minister had said during the elections that he would bring back black money stashed in Swiss banks within 100 days of coming into power. But today, it is two years and nothing has happened.” The other opposition stalwarts like LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Nitish Kumar, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav etc too condemned the crackdown, calling it ‘undemocratic, deplorable, an assault on democracy’ etc. Prominent people from all walks of the life joined the movement, hoping for a new India, free of nepotism & corruption. While the Jan Lokpal bill didn’t take shape, another political entity in the shape of Aam Aadmi Party came into existence. In the 2015 Delhi assembly elections, the AAP pulled of an unheard of performance in Indian electoral history, winning 67 of the 70 assembly seats.
In the run-up to the election for the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014, Corruption took centre-stage as the BJP led NDA made it its main election plank. 2G, Jijaji (a reference to Robert Vadra), CWG, Adarsh, Coal Scam etc became the war cry of the NDA. BJPs Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi spoke eloquently about corruption and also vowed to bring back black money allegedly illegally stowed away in foreign banks, back to India. During an election rally, Modi promised the electorate ‘if all the black money stashed abroad is brought back, every poor man would get anywhere between 15 to 20 lakh rupees.’ A white-paper published by the BJP stated that Indians held more than Rs 16, 75,000 crores in black money, which it claimed it would bring back once in power. ‘Achhe din aane waale hain’ became a catch-phrase in Indian politics.
The BJP led NDA riding upon the anti-corruption plank stormed to power in the 2014 general elections, with BJP winning 282 seats on its own and the alliance winning 336 seats in all. The ruling Congress led UPA was decimated at the hustings and the grand old party was reduced to a mere 44 seats of its own. It was the first time since 1984, that a party had won enough seats on its own to form a government at the Centre. The general public thought it to be a dawn of corruption free governance and an end to his day to day woes.
Nearly 4 years later, in 2018, corruption has hit the headlines one more time. This time about crony businessmen swindling cash from public sector banks. The frustration with government not acting in time before they flee the country before committing the great heist is palpable.
In 2016, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley declared that approximately 65,250 Crores had been disclosed under its income declaration scheme. However, this figure was less than 4% of the government’s own estimates. In 2015 HSBC leaks, Indian Express released a list known as ‘swiss leaks’ of 1195 account holders and their account details in HSBC’s Geneva Branch. The HSBC whistleblower Herve Falciani claimed that “lot of information" on illicit funds is lying unused by Indian authorities.” He volunteered to help Indian agencies including the SIT set up to investigate black money. However, his offer was turned down / countered, by the Indian government.
Ashok Khemka, the 1991 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer who had shot to limelight in 2012 after he cancelled a land deal involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, fared no better under the new regime. In November 2017, he was transferred for the 51st time in his 23 year career. A resigned Khemka tweeted "So much work planned. News of another transfer. Crash landing again. Vested interests win. Déjà vu. But this is temporary. Will continue with renewed vigour and energy." Incidentally, in his home state in Haryana, it is the BJP that is in power. Meanwhile the probe into the alleged ‘illegal’ mutation deal of Robert Vadra, is still waiting to reach some logical conclusion.
Things were not very different for another bureaucrat in the government. Sanjiv Chaturvedi, the 2002 batch Indian Forest Officer was posted to the prestigious AIIMS as Deputy Secretary in 2012. Later he was given additional charge as the Chief Vigilance Officer. During his stint, he carried out an anti-corruption drive in AIIMS ruffling the feathers of many powerful and influential people. In a dramatic move, the Central Government gave him a zero in his appraisal in 2015-16. He was also stripped of all his responsibilities. Interestingly, in the same year Chaturvedi was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for battling corruption! After frequent run-ins with the Union Health Minister, Chaturvedi was sent to Uttarakhand as the Conservator of Forest in 2016.
But the real blow was yet to come.
In December 2017, a special CBI court acquitted all 18 accused including the alleged ‘masterminds’, former Telecom Minister A Raja and former MP K Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum allocation case. The Judge noted that "The CBI has miserably failed to prove all charges against all the accused persons. Therefore, all accused are acquitted of all the charges." As to the role of CBI, the prosecuting agency in the case, the Judge said “However, as the case progressed, it became highly cautious and guarded in its attitude making it difficult to find out as to what prosecution wanted to prove. However, by the end, the quality of prosecution totally deteriorated and it became directionless and diffident. Not much is required to be written as the things are apparent from the perusal of the evidence itself”. Post the judicial verdict, Congress said that “the 2G verdict will remain a black mark in the history of CAG”. It also demanded that the former CAG head Vinod Rai be prosecuted. The Government failed to inform the general public that this case had already been botched before Narendra Modi government took over. Court did not allow CBI to submit any fresh evidence post 2014. The failure of the government to effectively communicate this resulted in ballistic headlines which screamed “Setback to BJP, everyone acquitted in 2G scam”.
Again in December 2017, the Bombay High Court quashed and set aside Governor Ch.Vidyasagar Rao's sanction granted to the CBI in 2016 to prosecute the former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, a Congressman, in the Adarsh Housing scam. The bench in its order noted "However, the agency (CBI) failed to present any fresh material capable of being converted into evidence that can be substantiated at the time of trial. Therefore, in the absence of fresh material, the sanction cannot be sustained, and is quashed and set aside".
Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy, the BJP MP, who is pursuing a host of corruption cases against various senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi has often expressed dismay over the lack of intent by the various government agencies including the CBI in investigating these cases. In February 2017, Swamy addressed the media and noted "It is shocking that the CBI and the ED having been provided with the details of 21 undeclared foreign accounts of Karti Chidambaram and of the companies he controls have failed to proceed," . On October 2017, an anguished Swamy shot off a letter to the PM Narendra Modi asking him to expedite the process of prosecuting former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karthi Chidambaram for their alleged involvement in the Aircel-Maxis scam. Again on 11th December 2017 Swamy tweeted”‘Now Ten cases against Chidambaram family. What is CBI, ED, CBDT & Delhi Police doing? Time for PM to intervene”’.
All this while Vijay Mallya and Sanjay Bhandari quietly escaped the reach of Indian investigating agencies for safer pastures abroad.
10 years of corruption & scam ridden rule of the UPA government had disillusioned the Indian populace. The spontaneous outpouring of public grief and support for the Nirbhaya outrage and the Anna movement had captured this disillusionment. Riding on this wave of public anger, the BJP had vaulted to the power in 2014, amidst very high public expectations. However, nearly 4 years later, there is a perceptible fatigue in the general public, who rightly believe that no matter which political dispensation comes to power, they will be subjected to institutionalized and well entrenched corruption. And that the high and mighty will continue to get away with impunity. As the Narendra Modi government enters its last year in office, it has very little time left to repay the trust of millions of Indians, who voted for it with high hopes in 2014. The voting public is known to have a long memory and 2019 is not too far away.
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