MAHARASHTRA has a new Chief Minister. One Chavan has been replaced by another and most people won’t even notice the changeover. And by the time they do notice it, as they are bound to one day, it will be too late, for the new Chavan will then be replaced by a Patil or a Pawar, or even another Chavan, and the show will go on.
This time the reason for the changeover is a scandal in a building society. it was discovered that the Chief Minister and his family, including his in-laws, had suddenly become owners of four flats in the 30-storey skyscraper, each with a market value of Rs eight crore. Actually, the Chief Minister paid, or is said to have paid only Rs. 60 lakh per flat, which, for Mumbai, is peanuts. The family had its net worth suddenly hiked by Rs 30 crore with just a stroke of the ministerial pen.
In Maharashtra, this is a daily occurrence, for the state floats on money. But this time, for reasons of their own, the Congress party high-ups in Delhi, who have their own scandals to look after, decided to put their foot or feet down, may be because it was all done behind their backs. And the poor Chief Minister was booted out.
So many Congress chief ministers have been booted out of late, that the latest ouster does not make news anymore. In fact, there is so much money to be made in building and land deals that two years is about the maximum that a Chief Minister is allowed to stay in office. After that, it is somebody else’s turn. The Congress party is after all a Socialist Party, and everybody must have an equal share of the loot.
This is also what happened in the Commonwealth Games. Suresh Kalmadi’s fault is not that he purchased toilet paper for Rs 800 a roll, but that he forgot to share the loot-and the toilet paper – with his bosses higher up. After all, if you are spending Rs 70,000 crore on the jamboree, a lot of money must have found its way into the coffers of the big bosses, but apparently not as much as expected.
Where did the money go? What did Kalmadi do with it? How dare he keep it all for himself and his cronies? He was apparently given enough rope but the man is a hardened Congressman and knows all the tricks. But so do his bosses. Now the poor fellow will spend the rest of his life carrying Rahul baba’s shoes from one meeting to another, which is what Congressmen do when they are not making money.
Asif Zardari, now President of a country called Pakistan – try to find it on a map if you can – used to claim 10 per cent on every contract signed by his late wife. Zardari was actually known as Mr Ten per cent. In India, the Congress party operates on the same basis, though the percentage may vary from time to time and from deal to deal. Quattrocchi, may his tribe increase, is said to have received more than ten per cent, but that was a special case. Not everybody has the kind of pull he had, and, moreover, he spoke fluent Italian. For all you know, he may have had links with the mafia, as most Italians have. But he was an exception.
Indira Gandhi once described corruption as a global phenomenon. She should know; she started it. She stated collecting cash in bundles, the first Prime Minister to do so, and since she was a global person herself, the practice has continued. At one time, she became so bold as to ask money from foreigners and the Americans themselves gave her cash to fight the communists in Kerala, according to none other than Daniel Moynihan, US ambassador in India at the time, who has given details in his book. From taking money for fighting communists to taking cash for fighting the BJP is a small step and that is how it all began. Now every Congressman has become a Ten Percenter like Zardari and only people like Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi, who lose all sense of proportion, and insist on more than 10 per cent fall foul of the Congress high command and are shown the door.
Maharashtra is a wonderful place for Ten Percenters. As I said earlier, Mumbai, where they grow money, as some people grow brinjals and cucumbers, literally floats on money. I have always believed that there is more money in Mumbai than, say, in London or New York, Because the nation’s business is done in Mumbai, not Delhi or Kolkata or Chennai. Tens of crores change hands in the Taj Hotel every evening where you have businessmen rubbing shoulders with film producers from Bollywood and some strange characters from Texas and Mexico, and of course, the inevitable Arabs from Dubai, flaunting their diamonds and their newly acquired starlets from B-films. And, there are, of course. Congressmen at every step, collecting their Ten Per Cent on each deal.
Corruption is a wonderful thing. You don’t have to work at all. If you are a Congressman, you manage to get an election ticket – they are available for a price – and you are made for life. For the next ten years, may be for a lifetime, you just keep counting the loot. You may call it corruption but it is a way of life, and it is actually politics as it is practised in India. It is a business model perfected over the years, and one day it will be taught at Harvard Business School and may be even in Washington. As President Obama said in New Delhi when he was here, America has a lot to learn from India. Actually, America has a lot to learn from Congressmen here. India may not be the oldest democracy. But it is certainly the most profitable for some people.
How long will the new Chavan last? I give him two years, which is standard for chief ministers in Maharashtra. For the first six months, he will learn the ropes, or rather unlearn old ropes and acquire new ones.
Then he will slowly surround himself with the tycoons of Nariman Point and Cumbala Hill and get acquainted with their business models. That will take him maybe six months. He will soon gather a gang of builders around him, the same gang that made mincemeat of old chief ministers and sent them packing. Then he will do one or two building deals and start buying land in Karad, his home town. A plot here and a plot there, and he will own more land than Queen Elizabeth in England.
And that will be the beginning of his end – or maybe the end itself. And the poor fellow will go back to Delhi and start all over again!
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