Commentary/ T V R Shenoy
True power rests, and always has, with the Congress president of the day
Things were simpler in the old days. When Indira Gandhi was the prime minister, there was no doubt about who ruled India. That
simply isn't true any longer.
Every sensible man knows I K Gujral is a puppet. So how does one find
out who is pulling the strings? A friend of mine, a foreigner
with a watching brief on India for business purposes, offered
a key.
"I look at the courts," he told me, "It is a fail-safe
test. All I have to do is to see which corruption case is being
followed up vigorously. Is it Bofors and the Indian Bank? Is it
urea and the JMM bribery? That immediately tells me who is in
charge -- Kesri or Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda or Gujral."
My immediate reaction was shame. On the eve of the golden jubilee
of Independence, foreigners fling it in our faces that
half our precious leaders stand accused of corruption.
More dispassionately, I must admit the justice of my friend's
remark. The brief history of the wretched United Front regime
offers all the proof one needs.
When Narasimha Rao was at the helm, the investigating agencies
took immense care to tread softly in his presence. I clearly recall
that one of the UF ministry's earliest decisions was
an attempt to shield him.
An exasperated Delhi high court had ordered the CBI to register
a case against Rao in the JMM case. The CBI promptly appealed
to the Supreme Court, a blatantly partisan decision. (Unsuccessful
too, as their Lordships turned it down just as promptly.)
Of course, it wasn't just the JMM case where the CBI dragged its
heels. Whether it was the Rs 1.33 billion urea scam or the Lakhubhai
Pathak case, investigators had to be prodded by the courts before
each step.
Yet it wasn't as if the CBI was totally inactive in the last days
of Narasimha Rao's primacy. Progress was made on the Bofors case
(squelching a potential source of dissidence). There was a certain
amount of initiative on the Indian Bank case, on the probes into
Kesri's assets, and, of course, into the fodder scam.
Then, within the space of a few months, Rao lost both the party
presidency and the Congress Parliamentary Party leadership.
This was followed by the Easter coup against Deve Gowda.
Suddenly, Bofors is again a dirty word, and the Gujral ministry
is content to sleep over the CBI's requests to file charges against
certain well-known names. As to Kesri's assets, no ambitious CBI
officer wants to touch the case today. In fact, the CBI is willing
to swallow the Congress president's tale that he makes do on a
mere Rs 1,000 every month!
Fortunately or otherwise -- depending on whether you are a Congressman
or a concerned Indian citizen -- the judiciary is more sceptical.
The court has noted that Kesri's son definitely seems to possess
wealth far beyond any known source of income, and has asked the
CBI to provide an explanation.
As to the fodder scam, yes, justice is finally being done. But
that too is thanks entirely to the judiciary. The Gujral group
has done everything it could to help the beleaguered Yadav family.
It isn't my intention to catalogue the various cases of corruption
against all those high and mighty souls who will presume to lecture
us on Independence day. I simply wish to point out that fighting
corruption has been reduced to a highly selective, highly partisan
political weapon.
If the Communists scream about a 'political vendetta' when the Congress rakes up the personal ledger scam, they are
sure to be correct. I doubt if any Congressman gives a damn about
corruption as such. It is just politics as usual.
But, and this is important, it doesn't mean that Rs 25 billion
haven't been siphoned off in mysterious circumstances by abusing
a complicated personal ledger system. If talking about that is
a 'vendetta' so was V P Singh's crusade on Bofors.
Sadly, we must accept that Indian investigating agencies are a
long way from enjoying any autonomy. The only way corruption cases
shall be pursued with any vigour is through the churning of the
political ocean (judicial intervention always excepted).
Let us also accept the UF 'government'
was a farce from beginning to end. True power rests, and always
has, with the Congress president of the day -- Rao or Kesri. If
the failure of the 'Third Front' experiment has taught
India the virtues of scepticism, well, that isn't a bad gift for
the golden jubilee!
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