Exposure is a risk that comes with secrecy. As suspicions about his possible involvement with a steel major refuse to die down, former Union Minister of Steel and Himachal Pradesh Congress leader Virbhadra Singh can have no choice but face up to a full-fledged inquiry into his financial dealings over the past few years. Protests and denials will no longer do. While he may choose to continue to ridicule opposition politicians and rebuke journalists, Mr. Singh will also have to answer some tough queries relating to the phenomenal increase of Rs.6.57 crore in his agricultural income declared through a revised filing of Income Tax returns for three years. Even as the Income Tax authorities scrutinise his claimed agricultural income, documents already in the public realm necessitate a thorough investigation into the possibility of corrupt quid pro quo deals between him and the steel company. The Opposition alleges that the revised filing of returns for three assessment years beginning 2009-10, on March 2, 2012, could be linked not to earnings from Mr. Singh’s apple orchard but to cash payments made by the Ispat group to one ‘VBS,’ according to documents seized by the tax authorities.
Given the sums involved, Mr. Singh surely has a lot of explaining to do. However, over the last few days, he has shown no willingness to come forward and clear his name. Instead of responding to the specific charges against him, Mr. Singh chose to behave as though all this was no more than an elaborate political ploy by the Opposition just before the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election. That leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party who highlighted the allegations are politically motivated is no doubt true, but how has this got anything to do with his own proclaimed innocence? The issue is not the political partisanship of his accusers, but the gaps in his own accounting. Secretive deals kept away from the columns of an accounting ledger have a way of cropping up at even more inconvenient places. If the allegations are false, as Mr. Singh insists they are, then the truth is his best defence. The Congress leader should show the courage to place all the relevant facts before the people and even ask for a thorough investigation into the management of his finances. At the same time, this is not a question of one former minister battling a corruption charge. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped Mr. Virbhadra Singh from his cabinet soon after the diary entries were discovered. Was his ouster a mere coincidence? Even if it was, the Prime Minister still needs to get the facts that have come to light since then properly investigated. Sadly, it has become something of a pattern with the government that graft charges are probed only after the courts or auditors or the media start pointing fingers, not before.
Keywords: Virbhadra Singh, Ispat Industries, unaccounted cash entries, Congress scams, Ispat payoff row, Pramod Mittal, off-book cash transactions
Mr. Vedagiri's comment above raises an important question in politics. Does the PM has to have control over his cabinet ministers? Do these cabinet ministers have a moral authority and individuality of their own? Though the PM is responsible for his cabinet decisions, what should the PM do when he knows that almost all the senior leaders in his own party are corrupt? He has no power to choose a honest leader from the party to become a minister. The PM himself was chosen in such a manner by the Congress President Ms. Sonia Gandhi. She knew that Mr. Singh will not do anything in his personal interest and has a high level of integrity and honesty. Rest all are selected by Ms.Gandhi to make sure congress remains in power. I am sure most of the money raised by individual ministers is overlooked as they also contribute to the Congress Party during election time. It also raises the question, with all its merits, whether the Party system is indeed indispensable in India.
When certain information about payments to VBS or Shri Virbhadra Singh
became public, Shri Arun Jaitley and other BJP leaders have
immediately demanded a special probe to find out the source of money
paid to Shri Virbhadra Singh.
Perhaps you will have to write another edit to demand a similar probe
about source of funds of investments by various companies in BJP
President Nitin Gadkari’s businesses. Enough evidence is in now in
public domain which call for detailed answers from those who made such
investments in these businesses. But Shri L K Advani is making a
feeble attempt to shield party president. Obviously, BJP is adopting
double standards, one for its own President and one for Virbhadra
Singh. BJP would fast lose its credibility if it continues to protect
its President.
More than Virbadhra Singh, our PM Mr Manmohan Singh has a lot to explain ! Earlier he was grumbling that due to coalition politics he has to make compromises. Now, his own congressmen are falling like nine pins. One minister is accused of swindling Rs.75 lakhs and another minister announces that 75 lakhs is too small for a Cabinet minster to swindle ! Virbadra Singh seems to have compensated !! The PM does not seem ot have any control over his own ministers, even those belonging to his own Party. What credibility will he enjoy with the common man !
Here in this country we have the Poverty Line being set to as low as around 32 Rupees per day while the income of the politicians in power keeps increasing by leaps and bounds by several crores. And when you ask these politicians any questions, you see direct or veiled threats being sent out as seen recently. Truly the situation in the nation is pathetic but the silver lining is that the issues are atleast being raised in a serious manner, but a sustained and sound campaign needs to continue till there is a powerful law that straightforwardly criminalises nexus between politicians and businessmen -- this law is commonsense and must have existed by now, it exists in all developed nations and democracies.
Sacking of VBS was the right action. But not initiating any probe in his amassment of wealth by the Prime Minister is trying the to sheild the guilty until proved innocent. While VBS needs to face the music, if the reports are true, the Mittal family, officals in steel and coal minsitry should not be spared either for abetting corruption.
Nobody cares about the common man.Politicians making daily scams and no case against them.This person filled 6.5 cr IT return that to from orchad profit. How is that possible?
Accounting is not a zero sum game that can be hidden.This editorial is
a good exposure on the traditional accounting systems where accounts
are secretly fixed by the powerful investor and bank loans taken from
the public pocket get converted to private loans.What this editorial
fails to address is that why there is a growing demand in many
countries of the world where the trusted CFO-Chief Financial officers
are found guilty in huge scams while engaged in protecting the
interest of the less then 1% owners/investors and to help them hide
the dirty money in safe havens.When Indian investors go to Africa they
again fix and twist the local laws to carry forward their plans.
The reference pertinently made to certain relevant factors and the candid views, based on them, conveyed through the editorial "Suspect, by all accounts" are more than adequate to convince that, to clear himself of the corrupt charges levelled against him, the lone fair option available to the former Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh, who also happens to tbe party chief in the state, is to subject himself to an impartial inquiry at the earliest. Shouting at the journalists and threatening to smash their cameras are obviously nothing but acts resulting from a feeling of utter frustration and anger. They are totally irrelevant. Being under a cloud, he as to get himself cleared.
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