Anyone trying to predict the outcome of our polity's life and death struggle with crony capitalism will have to make sense of two contradictory sets of images.
On the one hand is the obfuscation and prevarication that senior Ministers have served up when confronted with the reality of the 2G spectrum scam and other unprecedented instances of corporate and political robbery. The most recent display of this was by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, who needlessly played down the scale and significance of the revenue loss that the 2G scam had caused. But, on the other, are the pace and scope of the current investigation, which has also been unrivalled by anything India has witnessed so far. The same Prime Minister whose silence and ambivalence on 2G was seen by the Opposition and the public at large as weakness and even complicity has pushed the Central Bureau of Investigation into summoning and questioning top industrialists like Anil Ambani, raiding Kalaingar TV, the business arm of a key political ally, the DMK, and sending A. Raja, who was Telecom Minister till some time ago, to the unwholesome confines of Tihar Jail.
These are extraordinary developments by any yardstick and government managers have let it be known that there is further excitement in the offing. In the days and weeks ahead, more iconic businessmen are likely to be questioned for their involvement in the spectrum allocation scam. Nor will Shahid Balva be the only high net worth individual to be packed off to judicial remand.
When the leaked Radia tapes exposed a small part of the inner workings of the India establishment, our crony capitalists banded together to plead privacy and complain loudly about a “witch hunt.” Top corporate figures and even some politicians spoke about the danger of India becoming a “banana republic” and issued dark warnings in serial interviews about how the investment climate in the country was being adversely affected by the absurd suggestion that respectable businessmen might actually be involved in scams. The purpose of that fully scripted campaign was to ensure that the media, the investigating agencies and the courts all back off. Fortunately for our body politic, that has not happened. Public disaffection is so high that none of the estates of our system can afford to be seen as slackening. And that includes the executive too, notwithstanding the ‘zero loss' logic it foolishly put out. In his testimony to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the CBI director was at pains to distance himself from that arithmetic of denial. Though the agency was painfully slow in getting off the block, nobody can really fault its current approach. And the credit for that must be shared equally by the media, the courts but also, ironically, Dr. Singh.
Yes, the Supreme Court is monitoring the functioning of the CBI but there are scores of cases where similar monitoring has produced nothing even remotely so dramatic. The Mulayam Singh disproportionate assets case, for one. When you are in government service, individual acts of bravery without the requisite air cover can be risky. As the police officers who raided the offices of Reliance Industries in New Delhi 13 years ago when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister discovered, taking on the biggest captains of industry is not exactly a career advancing move. If today, the younger Ambani is answering questions about his role in Swan Telecom, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the agency has received pretty direct encouragement from the highest levels of the government.
The question, of course, is whether or not the CBI will persist in its endeavours. Are we being treated to an elaborate dog-and-pony show? Or does the agency's current activism represent a fundamental course correction for a system which has tolerated and thrived on corruption? If yes, does the Prime Minister have the political clout to see things through?
Rent seeking and money making have been fellow travellers of the Indian political system for more than four decades but this is arguably the first time that a Minister has been run out of office and sent to jail as part of a criminal investigation. Never before has the role of big business come under the scanner like this either. When the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre in 1998, it promised clean governance. What the country got instead was sweetheart deals in the form of privatisation of hotels and other public sector assets, the petrol pump scam, the coffin scam and other crooked ventures. As the Justice Shivraj Patil report has catalogued, the rot in telecom policy and spectrum allocation also started then. But nothing was ever probed.
The United Progressive Alliance inherited this corrupt system and presided over its unprecedented expansion. Thanks to whistleblowers, upright auditors, a vigilant media and a fair bit of corporate rivalry, however, the truth about 2G, the Commonwealth Games and other money-making enterprises has slowly come trickling out. There are, of course, scores of other fishy deals that need probing too, especially those involving land grants and mining concessions.
What explains the schizophrenic attitude of the United Progressive Alliance government towards the 2G scam? Why does the Prime Minister peddle the fiction that companies like Swan or Unitech did not resell their spectrum (for a profit) but only expanded their equity base, when the sale of equity for a company which has no assets other than spectrum amounts to the same thing? Why does he persist in comparing the loot of public money via the sale of cheap spectrum to the cost of providing food subsidies for the poor — even as the CBI is pounding on the doors of the companies that benefited from the 2G allocation?
As an economist and a man of unquestionable integrity, Dr. Singh knew full well the revenue consequences of forgoing an auction for the allocation of 2G spectrum and recorded his unhappiness with the decision. Even if he is right in saying that he could not have been expected to get into the minutiae of decisions in all Ministries, this can at best explain why he allowed the January 2008 spectrum allocation to take place. What it does not explain is the delay of 20 months in the registration of the first FIR by the CBI. In the intervening period, there was ample material in the press for the Prime Minister to realise something wrong had happened. His argument that the compulsions of coalition came in the way doesn't cut much ice. For one, the DMK, with which the Congress has an alliance in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, would have been bound by the same compulsions and would have been hard placed to rock the boat at the national level. For another, why wasn't safeguarding the public exchequer considered as good a reason for putting the fate of the government on the line as the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal? Finally, ‘coalition dharma' cannot explain the persistence of Congress politicians with questionable credentials in the Union Cabinet, men such as Vilasrao Deshmukh, for example, against whom the Supreme Court has passed embarrassing strictures.
If the Prime Minister were anyone other than Dr. Singh, one might be justified in treating his belated intervention in the 2G matter as an indication of his own involvement. In reality, the delay was the product of both his individual political weakness and his party's failure to understand the political implications of the scam. Today, it is obvious that vigorously pursuing the case is in the best interest of the government, the ruling party and the coalition. Such is the level of public disenchantment that if the Congress fails to punish the officials, politicians and businessmen involved, it will take a beating at the next elections. But there is also a wider, systemic opportunity the 2G investigation provides for the Indian polity. Capitalism needs rules. In mature capitalist economies, those rules are designed to allow businessmen to make “normal” profit and to use (or loot) the resources of the state as a collective. The growth of monopoly power, and thus supernormal profit, is also a “natural” part of the process of accumulation. When individual corporate houses attempt a short-cut, however, they invariably corrupt the wider political edifice. Corrupt politicians come and go. But unless the crony capitalists who use them are punished, Indian democracy will continue to corrode.
Keywords: UPA government, 2G spectrum scam, Radia tapes, Kalaingar TV raid, Central Bureau of Investigation, Swan Telecom
But he has been planted for the following:- 1.Bankrupting the nation. 2.Transferring the national Wealth to private hands Indian and Foreign which include his masters.
Whilst I think that all parties would like the current focus on scams to dissipate, the internet is here to stay and as we all become more aware of our surroundings and more youngsters enter the economy, the more difficult it will be for people to hide their scams and the more we need to rely on the SC to be the one true ally of the people. I'm personally waiting for the day when the shareholdings of politicians in the major Indian business houses are revealed.
Thanks Siddharth and the Hindu for chronicling some of the big scams in India in the last ten years by politicians and corporates. If we look back scams after scams surfaced from early 1980s in big way- but the fate of logical conclusion of investigations and punishments to siphoning scoundrels are at least not known to the people of the country. And scams continued to rule. Notwithstanding the two-g scams appears to be biggest in the history of the country and currently under investigation, people of the country must have doubt wheather it will reach to the logical conclusion. Corruption and scams surfaced in big way with the advent of liberalisation of economy during the regime of Narsimha Rao government. And it flourished in Atal Behari regime like anything. All these spectrum scams are the result of faulty policy of Atal Vehari Vajpayee government, which gradually gave birth of scams and corruptions in deals after deals like privatisation of profitable hotels and other public sector undertakings besides loot of petrol pump allotments to big politicians and also to undeserving moneyed people on extraneous considerations as well as a big scam like coffin scam during his regime and also many dfence deals for minting money by NDA partners, particularly Bharatiya Janata Party. A cunning but silent politician Atal Behari Vajpayee had given long rope to bend the system and rules to allot spect to big corporates, reasons best known to him and his crony late Pramod Mahajan. But all these scams have become only to remember as nothing tangible was done to bring the culpirits to book. I feel that this two-g scam of big magnitute will also meet the same fate. There was no need to any parliamentary committee to probe these scams - the matter of serious proportion should have been directly and vigourously investigated and chargesheet filed against accused persons and also quick justice by constituting special courts for speedy trial and punishment. Mauni Baba Dr Manmohan Singh should have taken blame for such serious scams but his intriguing silence also cast million dollar question on his so called integrity and honesty. But politicians of all hues know how to complicate the matter and earn money even after scams are under investigation. Parliamentary committee will interrogate the involved accused and fleece money from them and ultimately submit confused reports to derail the entire process of police investigation and judicial procedure. This appears the way how politicians and big corporates loot the public exchequre and people remain silent spectators!
It is quite naive to say that Congress inherited a corrupt government from the BJP. As others have pointed out, history does not bear this fact. It's not that crony capitalism suddenly started in the new millennium. It's also naive to think that our PM is making the CBI act, if only belatedly. I suppose there were too many back-to-back scandals tumbling out of the government's cupboard, and that's the reason the govt. is forced to put on a semblance of action. If it were not for the persistence of a few individuals like Subramaniam Swamy, the govt. would have preferred to give the 2G scandal a quiet burial. They still can do that. Action against Raja and others are driven by cold political calculations. The Congress may be trying to drive a hard bargain during seat sharing talks, and use CBI as a bargaining chip. Or, they may be doing that to deflect public anger in the short term. Or, if they don't get the right no. of seats in the DMK alliance, they may want to go it alone, in which case these actions against Raja and others may prove beneficial, considering the public discontent. Even otherwise, considering the other statements made by MMS, Kapil Sibal, etc., it seems that they're trying to make sure that they'll do whatever it takes to bury this scandal. Because it looks like the Telecom scandal is not something that is orchestrated by a single man, there seems to be a whole cabal of politicians (including the pinnacle of Congress and DMK), businessmen and middlemen involved. That's why Siddharth Varadarajan's article is over-optimistic and naive.
Very nicely written article! The current scenario in our country is such that one can't have a real faith in any institution whether it is a political system or corporate or media or judiciary system. But still the things are clearing up. Who would have ever thought that Mr. Karunanidhi and it's DMK will get its kith and kins under scrutiny or even landed in Tihar Jail. Would it really be a significant breakthrough towards cleaning our corrupted system? One can't say yet! As far as our prime Minister is concerned, would one can even think of having likes of Mr. Advani or Ms. Mayawati who were projected as possible candidates for the post of prime minister in the last parliamentary election instead? So, let's have a bit of faith in Dr. Singh and make sure that we get some real ground results against our corrupted and rotten system.
A biased article which blames BJP for the present corruption. Though I am not a BJP fan scams started from 1950
I agree with the concluding point of the story that system cannot be cleaned unless capitalists who funds corrupt politicians are punished. A good point drawn sir.
Any like minded individuals and patriotic citizens mind rallying for 'taking our country back" from these current day politicians aka Egyptian style? I am sick and tired of all the politicians who just use us to enrich them in a democratic society. What are we benefitting except paying our income, property and service taxes promptly. I do not get any benefit from our government for the money I pay and all I see in the papers is that every politician is rich enough to feed generations in his family. Anybody? Come on. Spare a day for your nation.
As I have argued here before, it is time to establish an Indian Ombudsman's Office under the constitution. It must be independent of all governing classes and their corruptive influences.
The author seems to be castigating the UPA but wants to balance it by blaming the BJP for starting it. What we need from journalists is unequivocal dumping of corruption - not to balance the corruption of one party with that of another. I guess the problem with many of the journalists is that they feel compelled not to castigate the UPA since they feel there is no better alternative. With this sort of approach, we will be doing our next generation a great dis-service. Mr. Varadarajan - call a spade a spade.
Author has rightly brought in a grave concern for discussion. Congratulations. Our experience had proved that free market economy, if used properly can create wealth and can address economic problems. But lessons from western economies must not be forgotten. Unrestraint fee-markets have proved to be unsustainable and destructive. We must have checks and balances of democratic institutions. Corporate conduct can't claim any overriding privilege over national interest. Anybody who breaks the laws must be taken to task irrespective of their stature. From the details available on the media on 2G spectrum and other cases, there were serious system failures in the decision making process. How was it possible, contracts involving billions of rupees of national revenue had been able to take at lower levels? One fact of governance is, individual ethics can't be relied for guaranteeing integrity in decision making. Systemic solution must be found out. Our bureaucracy and decision-making processes must be completely revamped and re-engineered to meet the changed times. Public conscious have awakened to these grave rots in our system of governance, which if not checked, will eventually undermine the very credibility of our democratic system. Irrespective of people's great respect for MMS, they are seriously concerned about the system rot, and the cronies and corrupt people utilizing system loopholes for their selfish ends. People of this country expect PMO to be more powerful and decisive. It is a shame that PM has to wait for his political masters to act to immediately and decisively in matters of national concern,
Why does Siddharth Varadarajan mention that Dr.Singh has pushed CBI to summon industrialists, raid Kalangir TV office etc?. Government itself says that CBI is an independent agency and it has also been said that in this particular matter probe is being monitored by the Supreme Court of India.
I agree with the views expressed in this article. But these views represent only a few dimensions of the issue at hand. The general perception that the so called 'Tata's and Birla's' do things always in public good and they are beyond any scrutiny has been blown away by the Radia tapes. This collusion of crony capitalists , politicians, media and bureaucrats resulting in loot can only be broken by strengthening the executive (officials of govt) and adequately paying them for resisting the pressure and the inducements. On the other hand they should be made accountable for moving files quickly. Complementing this should be strict laws with stringent punishments and fast track courts exclusively to check this menace. Lastly our larger society also needs to be educated that adopting the so called 'aggressive somehow get things done and don't care for others' approach is illegal,unethical and does more harm in the long run. Unless we put in a framework to achieve these things merely having a honest prime minister is not sufficient while the rest of the society breeds large amounts of dishonest and 'make a quick buck' type of people.
This article , by Mr. Varadarajan, was a classic case of making virtue out of necessity and disappointed me a lot. Also, it was a very strong opinion by him and appeared tilted towards one side - indeed a rare in the rarest from respected 'The Hindu'. First of all Dr. Singh is not doing us (people of India) any favour by expediting the investigations at this late stage. Second his uprightness and impeccable integrity is of no value to people of India if he is not able to prevent his ministers from organising such massive loots. And why he is still holding that honourable and powerful position when he is not aware of those scams of unprecedented level.Is it as if he wants only the position and not the responsibility and accountability that comes with it. Is it not the failure of command-chain responsibility? Is he not reinforcing the Mr. Advani's assertion of 'weak' prime minister about him. It seems that he chose to remain silent. This is not good.
I believe, at least this time, some concrete action is taken against the corrupt politicians / businessmen and the errant ones are sent to jail for considerable years to teach a lesson to others who have the opportunity to do so given a chance.
We still do not have a complete picture of what is going on behind the scenes. Just look at all the comments above and see the difference in opinion. The same goes on in various newspapers. No one provides the facts because it is concealed. Yes, often one hears voices of someone knowing everything that is going on, but without any solid proof. Without solid proof, educated people will not take any action or be united. It seems, the only way to conclude on what's going on seems to be to get some leaks. For example, the Radia tape educated people on how PR works. Yes, I used the word 'educate'. In India, people still do not know to what level the media manipulates the masses.
There is no scope for improvement here because Congress and BJP are beneficiaries of each other's policies. In fact, if BJP and its earlier avatars had not absorbed sufficient number of opposition votes away from the Third front, Congress will not be able to win significantly in the first-past-the-post electoral system. Congress sees benefits in keeping BJP functional for this purpose. BJP benefits from the urban economic policy effects of current Congress policies (ie: benefit without having to take responsibility for the related pain). Urban consolidation is expected to make BJP a more consistent winner in future. They know that Congress will fade away once the magnitude of scams, inept economic handling, overall rising cost/inflation/globalisation takes away whatever little the rural voters can make today. It will result in more fragmentation of votes and winner will move past with even reduced margins. Just see how many rural voters exist yet, they are unable to vote out those who always give benefits to well-to-do people all the time.
If the Government manages to throw certain businessmen in jail it is solely because of corporate rivalry. It has nothing to do with principles, winning next elections etc. Congress knows if they lose next elections, they will win the 2017 elections. Because those who win next elections will turn out to be even more corrupt than Congress now. Does anyone seriously doubt it? Younger Ambani may indeed go down, but that would be because the Elder one is even more powerful, even more thuggish than his sibling. It is difficult to imagine the elder brother suffering the threat of being sent to jail. He has definitely more influence in Government.
Our three national political parties are monarchist, stalinist or facist and the other parties are warlord parties with each warlord having an army of goons. How can democracy function in such a set-up. as far as crony capitalism is concerned it is part of the "corruption is a necessary evil" syndrome. 100% of businessmen are corrupt, 95% of policemen are corrupt, 101% of babus including IAS officers are corrupt, and other public servants in the judicial and educational military sector are less corrupt. and we the public are the ones who corrupt them and then blame everyone but ourselves.
I would say the article is fairly well-balanced, though I would tend to agree with the comments of some readers' comments, that Siddharth Varadarajan and almost all political commentators for major News Houses have a soft corner for Dr.MMS. Dr.MMS deserves no credit for triggering or maintaining the speed of CBI investigations currently underway; it is the Supreme Court and the vigorous media that deserves the kudos. In fact, MMS was maintaining all along that Raja had done nothing wrong and used the legal skills of the likes of Kapil Sibal to underplay the magnitude of loss to the nation. Like others, i thought , MMS was a man of integrity who would resign the moment, a finger is raised against him, but he too like the normal politician of this country, goes about his business as if nothing has happened. It is time Indians got on the streets and throw the entire political class out and try out some other form of government. Otherwise, this country has a bleak future to be in the company of highly successful economies , which it richly deserves.
We must all congratulate Mr V S Achtanandan , the CM of Kerala to take the fight against corruption till its logical end. It is a great coincidence that the day Raja went to the Tihar jail , the ex-minister of Kerala, Balakrishnan also went the Thiruvanathapuram central jail. It appears that the Indian democracy is growing into the next stage of development with fourth pillar of democracy (the media and Press)getting into its rightful place and the judiciary doing a better job. Long live our Republic.
Sounds like Varadarajan is over the moon that something has stirred in moribund India, and in a century or thereabouts we will have grown up to a serious country. In that period he and his tribe should also attain adulthood, and stop this nonsense about Singh's magical integrity being intact amidst the most marauding influential class in the history of the nation, now fairly effortlessly graduated to world's ugliest democracy.
The nexus between politicians,bureaucrats and businessmen (recently cine actors and cricketers added to the list)are taking the Indian democracy into a new dimension.Common man is nowhere in the game.People are slowly losing faith in the very democracy. Mere articles,discussion and forums will not solve the issues.Democracy is not a panacea. There is no difference bewteen a dictatorship and a democracy in India because the mistake committed by a single dictator is collectively done by a bunch of people(ministers and bureaucrats,the so called representative of people)in India.We can't blame uprising naxal movement or fundamentalists! It is only a natural course.
A very thoughtful analysis that goes to the root of the mess. If the benefit of the doubt is deserved by the PM due to his vaunted integrity, it has to be matched by iron will for sustained corrective action. As the author points out, political survival is a great motivator but will the Congress grab the opportunity to usher in rules and reforms? Do the PM and Congress really understand the threat to national security that the scams and spiriting away of nation's wealth in foreign bank vaults portend? His comparison of monetary loss due to scams to the expenses on food subsidy to the poor betrays an economist's fascination with numbers rather than the life and death issues affecting the people whom he is mandated to serve. Lastly, why is the top leadership of Congress not supporting the PM more vigorously in the quest for reforms, when he is handicapped in his perch by enormous pulls and pressures from very powerful forces with vested interest in the status quo? It leads me to the conclusion that things are going to get much worse before a seismic shift happens to the polity, which may be a good thing.
The article has served the purpose.'In reality, the delay was the product of both his individual political weakness and his party's failure to understand the political implications of the scam" has concluded jest of topic. I think India needs a revolution and first step of revolution would be through Congress out of the power. The honest youngsters need to step up and have to take political responsibility. How long India will be run by Janpath residence only. We need to setup right examples against corruption and corrupt people irrespective of their field and title. I was surprise to Barkha Dutt still on air for her show. We are sleeping and have gotten used to organized or unorganized corruption.
Raids, putting people under scrutiny behind bars, grilling top business magnets may seem like a revolution!All this is just another scam and eye wash ahead of the elections in a few states. It does not improve the situation or account for the losses to our exchequer!! The money stashed away must be brought back to the economy which is the only way to make amends!! Its too early to put any one on a pedestal!
All these bravado is thanks to SC supervision.For the fist time CBI is acting on its own (read:SC direction). Earlier they were also acting on their own (read: centre/ ruling party's direction).After a long time CBI has got the courage to show it's real potential.But one has to be guarded as to whether they will have the same courage when the they deal with other pending political cases or will they go back to seeking direction from immidiate bosses,as usual.
The courage of Manmohan Sngh to break his silence before electronic media is praise worthy.It high time for him to take a bold decision to quit the chair.
This article was over due. Manmohan Singh is known to look other way when he came across corruption during his long career as bureaucrat and minsister. That worked because there was always some one above him. Now he has learned that whereever he looks he cannot avoid his responsibility; being prime minister, he is at the top. Thanks to our democracy , he cannot say that nothing is happening. He is still the best bet as PM. He has actually contributed significantly to bring India to this Promising state. India is at very important point in history. Nobody in his right mind thinks that the "Brittle Lohpurush Mr. Advani" can deliver anything worthwhile. So Let us concentrate more on External, serious dangers in our neighbourhood and ensure that Mr.Singh is allowed to act against corruption.
The article is a good one, but I am afraid the degree of optimism the author has presented is magnified. Just the few interrogations and easy-to-bail remands by CBI, that too under the supervision of Supreme Court, are not sufficient to assume there will be concrete output and the culprit will be punished as per law. Moreover, The view that 'Government has seen huge scams but also action against crony capitalism' isn't very exciting and a reason to assign Congress a good grade for performance. It doesn't matter much to clean a little bit when you have spread a vast amount of dirt. Also, to give the credit to prime minister for this is the last thing which one can think of in India at present. He is the one who didn't leave a stone unturned to make the path for Indo-US nuclear deal in spite of extreme resistance from opposition and on the recent scams, was observed claiming that one has to compromise a great deal in coalition. But anyway, let's hope something good comes out by all these increased activities of CBI and this time we be made to believe that limits exist for the corruption-crisis.
At first it is surprising to see such a 'praise' for Dr. Manmohan Singh appear in the Hindu which has been quite critical about his inaction in terms of the various scams being unearthed in his government. But it is nevertheless pleasant to see that Mr. Varadarajan, like the prime minister, has avoided any rhetorics. It is rightly pointed out that Dr. Singh's own integrity and suitability of the position he holds, is proven. Also his government seems to be taking enough decisive actions against anyone alleged to be involved in corruption. There might be some rotten apples in the UPA-II baskets, but the prime minister reinforces the faith that he will take care that the rot is controlled well.
The central theme of the article comes as a surprise revelation of the 'sell off' of independence by the Hindu and by Siddharth V in particular. This nation is sick of utterances such as '...an economist and a man of unquestionable integrity, Dr. Singh....'. Manmohan Singh is a failure as an economist and this has been amply proven repeatedly in last 2 decades. His failures in last seven years in pushing forward reforms agenda and bringing in corporate and political governance is a clear case in point. His failure in controlling inflation all-round is now legendary. He has made attempts at 'playing down' inflation last six to eight quarters with the result that inflation has only surged leaps and bound. And above all he has indisputably proven to be a master corrupt and communal politician. In his tenure as a highest leader of this country, we have witnessed the systematic corruption of the whole system like not seen even in the days of Emergency. A corrupt President, a corrupt CJI, a corrupt CVC, corrupt CMs, corrupt governors... the list is endless. The fact that Singh has protected criminals very well is now on the public domain.
It's time we have a true 'leader' as our Prime Minister. The less we talk about the leadership skills of Dr. Singh, the better. I wonder what else Dr. Singh sacrificed for the sake of 'Coalition Dharma' or how much loss is acceptable to him, 2 lakh crores, 5 lakh crores? And all this time we were thinking that he is a 'Man of unquestionable integrity'.
Name any politician convicted since 1947. Hence it is just a political stunt.Everyone know CBI's director is always handpicked by ruling party. Hence CBI works to favour it's political masters. Remember recent appointment of CVC director P.J Thomas.... "har shakh pe ullu baitha ho, hal-e- gulstan kya hoga"?
It seems Siddharth Vardarajan is hugely apologetic about criticizing MMS but he can't help it, otherwise his cronyism will be too apparent. MMS does deserve absolutely no credit for CBI investigating the 2G scam. CBI' behavior in the other huge scam of 2010 i.e. the CWG scam creates enough doubt in the mind of the aam aadmi not to be fooled by the likes of Vardarajan.
"Corrupt politicians come and go. But unless the crony capitalists who use them are punished, Indian democracy will continue to corrode." Very true. There is no point in punishing the arrows alone.. where are the bows? break them.
I agree partially with the author's point. Dr. Singh is the most able candidate and just. But, this year has seen the worst of scams! Answering in a press meet and justifying dosen't bring any hope. Very unfortunate that he is just playing an orchestrated role. All it leads to is a loss of vision.
While it makes a good reading, I am afraid the defence of the PM is not convincing. I strongly feel delay in all corrective actions has been on a purpose. That is worrying! This ruling outfit is too subservient to guard a citizen's interests. It is guarding what it considers above the nation, above the people. The manner in which Indo-US nuclear deal was stage managed and why! I as a poor Indian citizen feel cheated and betrayed! Yes mention of public disaffection is the TRUTH! And Thank God for that!
The Prime Minister has badly let down India. Much was expected from Dr Singh when he was sworn in for the second term in 2009, but he has failed miserably. He has, by feigning ignorance and admitting his weakness due to coalition politics, given new hopes to the corrupt corporates and politicians. Why will the Government agree in the Supreme Court to delete the so called private conversations of the infamous Nira Radia tapes? Is the so called privacy of Individuals like Ratan Tata more scred than the cause of the country? It is time that the whole Nira Radia Tapes are made public. So should be the other Taped conversations which have been anti-national.
We are a working democracy and as such we the people of India have the power to make changes!!! Believe it. I think the problem lies in the fact that the majority of Indian population are not using their voting power to make the right changes. Many times we have seen candidates with clear criminal backgriund are getting elected for our assembly and parliament. Reason is that they can manipulate the sentiments of people on the basis of community politics. Based on caste, religion, language, state so on. Integrity of the person shall be considered first rather than these petty sentiments while voting. Our high illiteracy rate adds on to the problem by blocking information to a wider population. We, the people need a change in mindset and should act against corruption from the very low level itself. No more bribe, let it be for an electricity connection or for a vehicle registration or something like that. We shall have a helping mentality to have more NGOs advocating for better social standards like literacy. We shall start fighting from ourselves on getting rid of poverty. As the father of our nation, the great Mahatma said, 'WE MUST BE THE CHANGE WE NEED TO MAKE IN OUR NATION.'
An excellent article! This perhaps gives the right blend of the mixed feeling of our honest and helpless prime minister. Though the cleansing and strong actions seen these days may look like tip of iceberg of what lies below, as pointed by many, the unanimous wishful thinking of all noble countrymen has now become a great force and reason for cleansing the rotten system. Mr. Prime minister's true test lies ahead. The cleansing will be a test of his leadership and to show that the silence was not merely silence but a silence of resilience to overthrow such negative capitalism and the plague called corruption. Question of culpability, blame game and who was first in the rotten race among political parties comes second, what is more important is to take necessary steps at the grass root level to cleanse the mess. Let these actions be a strong reminder and sign of a 'new' India that is slowly losing its morale in the global arena. Let this also be a boost to all the countrymen who really care for India.
For a common man, all these reports about increasing numbers of scams involving politicians, Corporates, top bureaucrats would mean nothing unless he is aware of the impacts of these on the system of administration and policies. Media has the greater role in creating awareness, unfortunately they are now owned by some corporate power houses or Corporates have their lobbyists positioned well here. And the people are treated only as vote banks during the elections and all the parties are concerned only about the next term. Assembly polls for TN are due in May, lets wait and see how if these reports of involvement in scams affect the ruling party.
Sir,In his quest to find out the source of the scams in India,for the current and gone years,Mr.Siddharth Varadarajan has rightly descended on 'capitalism unlimited' as the corroding agent of the Indian polity, notwithstanding the supportive role played and being played by politicians of various hues. If the 'Augean Stables' of crony capitalism are cleaned,we will have nothing to fear even if politicians begin to dabble in business themselves and if corrupt politicians are beginning to be punished one by one,we will have nothing to fear from a capitalist economy.The issue is so intertwined that the good works begun now must be carried to its logical end by a vigilant press and a vigorous democracy.
India has seen 97 notable scams since 1948.The complete list is at: : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notable_Scams_in_India
Time has come to change the entire system - Political, Administrative, Judicial, Media. There is a fear among the people that this magnificent country will looted by these corrupted peoples. There is no hope among the people that they will get a fair deal and decent life from these people. I have great respect regards Dr. Manmohan Singh, facts shows that he is the one and only highly educated head of the country, but he answers the 100 billion people that he can't control all the things, this is highly regrettable.
In the wake of recent scams I have few questions for Mr Clean (so called!) PM: 1. Why you as a leader of ruling party did not oppose the appointment of Mr Raja as in the case of Mr Balu? 2. Are you aware when Mr Raja alloted licences without permission? If yes, than what stopped you to prevent this thing to happen? If Raja or his aides were blackmailing you? 3 Why you took months to remove Raja from his post when the clear evidences of wrong doing were there? 4 If you were not against forming JPC than who was? 5 Do you think running a corrupt govt is better than going to people again? 6 Do you endorse Mr Kapil Sibal when he said Zero Loss to exchequer has occurred? 7 In recent interview you said "I will continue in office as people have voted us". I ask Does that mean you have all the power to allow the loot of public money right under your nose and you are unable to open your mouth? Mr PM you are answerable to the people those have voted you to power. I hope you will listen to the "people" who have given mandate (strength ) to run the government. I think these question are in every Indian's mind.
Your editorial says it all in a balanced way. The question is when is India going to get leadership that will take on the challenge of dealing with corruption that permeates almost every aspect of life in the country. Given the ordinariness of corruption and its wide acceptance in evryday life,it is hard to believe that "Ram Rajya" ever existed in our country. Did Gandhiji really live in India? It is hard to believe. You seem to be hopeful that the G2 scam may mark a new begining in our public and private lives in India. Strong, independent,caring and vigilant media is essential if we are ever to get rid of this self imposed curse.
Well framed article. Let be hopeful that all wrong doers are brought into justice forum. Hopefully this will be the first implecation of political power in modern India. Kudos to Manmohanji to make it happen !!
Very good article.In spite of all the criticism of Manmohan Singh he is the only ray of hope. Even now the CBI is proceeding confidantly on this enquiry only with the tacit support from prime minister's office. If he had been a politician he would have sabotaged the enquiry long back.
From 1997 we see articles about scams. In 2011, more details about the scams. But still public knows that no one is going to be implicated. And if Kapil or Raja stands in the election they will still get votes. Because every one cannot understand this scam. It will be a real shame if Congress chose to make Kapil or Raja stand in re-election. If the election commission accepts their candidacy in re-election, then the constituition is not protecting the interest of the people.
It would have been better to be objective rather than mentioning without proof that our PM is of impeccable integrity.Let Dr Singh be mentioned as PM at best honourable PM but whether he has impeccable integrity or nor not - that time would tell but present observations about his closeness to George BUSH led US administration and ISRO scam do not indicate any such qualification.
The peopel's dissent brought people of Egypt and Tunisia together. In India's case, If state of things continue, which I see no reason why it won't continue,I think Indian union will implode to state of early 1900's. all to ripe for foreign powers use it to their advantage. I think Britishers and other invaders were no worse than current ruling and business class. Imbicles. Time for change or time will change us.
How is Siddharth Varadarajan so sure that hauling A.Raja over the fires and Anil Ambani calling on CBI for a chat (CBI has not claimed that he was summoned) are indications of the Prime Minister coming heavily down on crony capitalism? Is this impression which has apparently suddenly dawned on Mr.Varadarajan in tune with Dr.Manmohan Singh's attempt to defend himself in his interaction with TV journalists and his government's and his party's efforts to pretend that there were after all no scams? Truth will prevail, they say; but it will do so only if it is allowed to do that!
Dr Manamohan Singh has been in politics now for a long time. He has come to realize that in the rough and tumble world of politics it is not always possible to take a moral high ground and take decisions as per his conscience and judgement.Having been schooled under P.V.N Rao, he is aware that politics, nay Indian politics at that, is the art of possible. He knows that just like in cricket he has to change his batting style as per emerging situation and keep the wicket intact if he has to save the game for his team;Further he also knows that if he takes four steps forward and under political pressure has to take two steps backward it still results in taking two steps forward.The alternative is just to renounce the post.He is aware of his shortcomings and feels that these will be adequately taken care of by shrewed political pundits in his party. We should remember that he is a reluctant politician and the post of Prime Minister has been thrust upon him.If, in spite of all round criticism has continued in the hot seat it is because he still feels that he has ideas and ability to bring vast improvement in governance.What is more important for all of us to is reflect on the fundamental flaws in the present system and think of surgery to remove the cancer so that a rishi like Dr Singh is enabled to deliver on his promises instead of heckling him for inaction.
The sincerity of the author should not be a cry in the wilderness; there is all round greed. Is this the price we pay for coalition dharma?
What has been discovered so far might be the tip of the iceberg. There is corruption in every field. If the Reliance group could corrupt the telecom sector, then it is quite natural that this group or its original incarnation must have corrupted every sector of the Indian industry where their presence is prominent - starting from the textile sector,the petroleum sector etc. It is an open secret that the erstwhile petroleum minister was a close chum of one of the R brothers. It was widely rumored that the founder of the R group had very good connections with the powers that be during the License Permit Raj
The article seems to suggest that the PM acted finally and hence the CBI has been allowed a free hand. This is completely untrue. The CBI began to act only when the case was directly taken over by the Supreme Court. The SC passed strictures on the govt on its inaction for so long, opined that the current CVC was not the right authority to monitor the case and thus took it upon itself the day to day monitoring of the case. And thus we see such actions. The CBI raided the DoT offices way back in 2009 when Karunanidhi was threatening an agitation on Mullai Periyar Dam issue. The CBI was capable of acting then too. But then the actions slowed down and no action was taken when the DMK cancelled the agitation against the central minister Jairam Ramesh. When Arun Shourie had provided some crucial information to the PM as well as te CBI on the loot, some investigations took place and then the investigating officer was transferred - so much for the probity of the PM and his govt. Now this cannot happen as the case is being monitored by the SC. That in itself is a slap in the face for the so called 'integrity and honesty' of the PM and his govt. Had it not been for Mr.Subramanian Swamy's perseverence in trying to get an answer from the PMO and the eventual intervention of the SC on this coupled with a PIL from Mr.Bhushan and media activism on this, the whole episode would have been swept under the carpet conveniently. As expected, no credit has been given in the article either to Mr.Swamy's efforts. And the usual dose of all-defect-attributions-to-the-NDA is expectedly seen as well. Let us for a moment accept that the previous NDA's policies were flawed. What compelled the UPA-I to follow NDA's policies ? Had not the people 'thrown' out the NDA for its policies and thus brough in the UPA-I ? Was the UPA so 'deprived' of telecom expertise that it had to follow the NDA's policies ? The current govt's ineptitude in tackling corruption and the lack of interest in following up on corruption has been the reason for such a poor show by the PM. Any talk of 'coalition dharma', 'honesty and integrity' and other imaginary stuff would only degrade the office that the PM holds.
An excellent article! This perhaps gives the right blend of the mixed feeling of our honest and helpless prime minister. Though the cleansing and strong actions seen these days may look like tip of iceberg of what lies below, as pointed by many, the unanimous wishful thinking of all noble countrymen has now become a great force and reason for cleansing the rotten system. Mr. Prime minister's true test lies ahead. The cleansing will be a test of his leadership and to show that the silence was not merely silence but a silence of resilience to overthrow such negative capitalism and the plague called corruption. Question of culpability, blame game and who was first in the rotten race among political parties comes second, what is more important is to take necessary steps at the grass root level to cleanse the mess. Let these actions be a strong reminder and sign of a 'new' India that is slowly losing its morale in the global arena. Let this also be a boost to all the countrymen who really care for India.
This practice of big business houses and groups been hand-in-glove with Politicians and Govt Bureacrats and bribing them to get their business deals is nothing new and only increased in scale. Our country is drowning in corruption which is only benefetting the rich and super rich and politicians and the middle class and poor are suffering silently.It is high time, the people of this country undertake a massive movement at every city,town and village- like the one that happened in Egypt and ask Govt to arrest all politicians and business men who have involved in various scams and looted the exchequer, abusing their Power.
The usage of English by Indian journalists often dismays me. Since when is an investigative agency's questioning of people as a part of its investigation called 'activism' as opposed to 'doing it's job'? (Just as CBI always 'grills' people even when, for all we know, they were having chai with the accused/witness/person of interest etc. If the smile on the faces of people leaving CBI offices after alleged grilling by CBI is any indication, it must be quite an enjoyable ritual, this grilling.) As for the current 'activism' by the CBI, let me assure you that it's strictly a dog and pony show. The business men need the politicians since they, as the watchdogs of the public property, are best equipped to let the loot happen. In turn, they routinely pay huge bribes to help buy votes. When the fact that the watchdogs are on the take becomes too obvious, the looters may let the watchdogs bark a little and even bite them ever-so-gently just so pictures can be taken of the teethmarks and used as some kind of merit certificates for the watchdogs.
The article is full of rhetorical questions and no solutions -- only wishful thinking.To be politically correct the author has included the coffin 'scam' -- if the GOI has enough proof why does it keep the case on George Fernandes in a limbo? Already George Fernandes is suffering from severe health issues - justice delayed is justice denied. Also, he claims that the UPA inherited corruption from the NDA regime. If he is honest in pinning the blame, he would find that the NDA inherited corruption from the Congress-Bofors era. They inherited it from the earlier dark ages of the Indira Gandhi regime. She inherited it from the frauds in the earlier 'socialist' governments of Nehru -- remember the Jeep scandal, defence factories producing Expresso coffee machines, the LIC-Mundhra scandal etc ?? Going back up to a convenient point in the past does not enhance this debate on corruption.
Another good post-mortem article! However, it is saddening that both the media and the PM are all but clueless or so lacking in urgency about the corrective actions needed. Besides putting the guilty behind bars, is anybody thinking about the structural changes vis-a-vis the laws and institutions that are desperately needed to put the country and governance on track?
Overall, I think this article doesn't say much which is unknown to people. However, I was surprised to see a statement like 'The United Progressive Alliance inherited this corrupt system and presided over its unprecedented expansion." Reading the para before this sentence, somehow, you seem to suggest that BJP was solely responsible for all the corruption which UPA inherited!! Do you mean to suggest that there were no scams before BJP came to power? Or do you mean to suggest that BJP was expected to do what was not done from 1947 to 1997? Having said that, I am not a BJP supporter either. Let us not make this a Congress versus BJP battle; as the saying goes "is hamam me sab nange hein". For the first time, politicians seem to be admitting that there is a systemic problem in governance, in investigative agencies, in judiciary and in the way people get elected to parliament by spending corers of rupees. Perhaps media should also focus on non-partisan approaches for cleanup rather than always projecting these issues as NDA vs UPA. I think only a non-partisan approach would succeed in cleaning up Indian polity.
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