New Delhi: Scams and scandals, which usually refer to plundering of public money in connivance with the authorities who get their cut while the nation suffers, it may appear are an integral part of the world’s largest democracy — India.
Within a year of the country becoming independent from the colonial British rule in 1947, the first such scam came to light which then was termed as the Jeep scandal. The then Indian High Commissioner to London ignored protocol and signed a deal worth Rs8 million (Dh531,846) for supply of Jeeps to the army. The then Jawaharlal Nehru government brushed aside the scandal although only 155 Jeeps were supplied to the army at a cost of over Rs51,000 per vehicle, which was far above the then market price. Menon was inducted by Nehru as a minister in 1955 and subsequently, ironically though, was given charge of the defence ministry. This was seen as patronisation of corruption — a legacy which has continued since then by the powers that be in the country.
With the accused managing to get away by plundering the national exchequer, the malady has only spread and the scamsters getting bolder over the years. If only one corruption-related scandal was reported in the 1940s, the figure remained well under control over the next four decades with only three scandals per decade being reported in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. One is not sure if no more scandals took place or they were never reported. However, a sudden boom was seen starting 1990s which incidentally also witnessed beginning of a new era of coalition governments being in power and an end of the one arty rule norm, which continues to exist at the centre and in many states now.
A total of 17 scams were reported in the 1990s, which increased to 37 in the first decade of the new millennium. And the process seems have only picked up the pace with a total of 81 scams being reported in the first 20 months of the present decade including the much talked about Commonwealth Games scam, 2G spectrum allocation scam and now the coal block allocation scam, popularly referred to as Coalgate scam.
While different agencies involved are yet to estimate the quantum of public money siphoned off in organising the prestigious Commonwealth Games in 2010, the figures estimates by the autonomous constitutional institution Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the 2G and Coal-gate scams are simply mind boggling — Rs1.76 trillion and Rs1.86 trillion respectively — the money good enough to educated the entire illiterate lot of the nation or provide free healthcare facilities to all denizens of the country.
The common factor since the Jeep scam to Coalgate scam is the attitude of the respective governments to respond negatively, enough to strengthen suspicions of the commoners that the corruption is not only deep-rooted but institutionalised as well with the higher-ups getting their cuts.
The Coalgate scandal which is the rage of the nation currently is the mother of all scams as 142 coal blocks were allocated by the present Manmohan Singh government in its first tenure between 2004 and 2009 to several private and government sector companies at throwaway prices.
The logic behind allocation instead of auctioning the coal blocks was not questionable, the matter it was allocated is being questioned now. Several private and government sector companies involved in production of power, steel and cement — all basic ingredients for India’s infrastructural development — were facing shortage of coal since the government owned Coal India Limited, itself mired in allegations of corruption and ill-management, was unable to meet the growing demand for coal. So the decision was taken to allocated captive coal blocks to such companies.
CAG in its report has raised serious questions over the manner coal blocks were allocated to 58 companies which now is matter of open debate and investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since many beneficiaries under normal circumstances were ineligible for it.
Unlike the 2G spectrum allocation scam, in which many persons, including the then telecom minister A. Raja, were arrested for accepting bribe, corruption charges have not yet been established in the Coalgate scam, although CBI suspects money did play role as it recently raided premises of such five private firms who were given coal blocks.
The fact, however, is that many power generation companies are unable to achieve their optimum generation capacities due to shortage of coal and while the nation continues to faces long power outages hampering its industrial growth, not more than 30 out of the 195 allocations made over the past one decade have become fully operational. Various companies including some media houses got coal blocks allocated to raise their profile with the idea to transfer ownership at a much larger price at a later date.
Ever since the CAG report was tabled in parliament last month, the opposition resorted to stalling proceedings of the parliament demanding resignation of Prime Minister Singh who incidentally held charge of the coal ministry for the larger part while these allocations were made, and cancellation of all 142 allocations made.
With crucial assembly elections, which are seen as the run-up to the 2014 general elections, round the corner, the opposition has in coal-gate scam found a mouth watering issue to label the incumbent Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as the most corrupt government ever being confident that if they manage to keep the coal issue burning over the next 19 months, they will reap riches in elections.
Unlike the Commonwealth Games scam in which only the organising committee members including the Congress party lawmaker Suresh Kalmadi, were accused of corruption; and the 2G scam in which only members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which is a Congress party ally were accused of plundering, in coal-gate scam the opposition has got an issue in which it can directly hold the Congress party and its senior leaders responsible for the scam.
The monsoon session of the parliament was almost washed out with the opposition sticking to its stand and the government insisting that no wrong was done. An admission of guilt on part of the government would spell doom for the Congress party and the opposition is not demanding seriously for a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) since unearthing the scam is not paramount, keeping the issue alive for political gains is.
The BJP-led opposition has already started hitting the streets with their mission to paint the Congress party as corrupt. They intend to reach out to the last village and chances of their protests impacting even the upcoming winter session of parliament is not being ruled out.
The omens are definitely not good for the Congress party which was voted out of power within five years of its biggest-ever electoral victory in 1984, on corruption charges. The estimated Rs640 million kickbacks in the Bofors scam were comparatively small, but the consequences were big.
Unless the Congress party fights back, which it is trying to do by painting itself as clean and blaming opposition ruled states for being equally involved in the allocation process as many chief ministers had allegedly protested auction of coal blocks, it may have to pay dearly as Indian voters have often in the past shown their intolerance for corruption. And its desperation, the party leaders have started criticising and questioning a constitutional authority like CAG which has already led to public outrage.
