SCAMS and corrupt practices have become a way of nation development. There is a curious aspect. It grows with what is often euphemistically called public-private partnership. The 2G spectrum is not an exception. There has hardly been a financial scandal without involvement of the private sector. Partnership is the easiest way to siphon off public funds.
The first 40 years since Independence were not free of it. There still remains a silver lining. The four decades saw scams that could be counted on finger tips – Dalmia’s LIC scam, Mundhra scam, Bajra scandal, Nagarwala fraud and to cap it all Bofors. There were of course some more, which were in flood, drought relief or milk powder distribution.
But the number and volume of frauds of all sorts in all spheres of governance multiplied with the era of liberalisation. It was an unrestricted freedom for anyone who had the slightest ingenuity to strike a new scam.
What Haridas Mundhra did in 1958 that rocked the Parliament was the precursor for what Harshad Mehta did in 1992. Mundhra manipulated LIC to invest Rs 1.24 crore ($3.2million) in shares of his six troubled companies. Two years back, in 1956, Ramkrishna Dalmia was jailed for defrauding his life insurance company. Nagarwala was liquidated in the jail.
Since those days the public sector is being manipulated to benefit the private sector. The institution of licence-permit raj was not government invention. It was the suggestion of some of the top industrialists in those early days so that competition could be put at bay and they could control the Indian market in the name of “swadeshi”. A few business families produced low quality goods at high prices to defraud the Indian people.
They even forced the government of India to buy a car that was rejected by buyers in UK and had to fold up. Nobody really knows what had gone into striking of that deal that lasted almost 50 years. They did not make any design or engineering change till they found a competitor in the then government-owned Maruti. But for almost for the next 15 years the government itself was not purchasing the more efficient Maruti cars.
Even in those early days it was said that one of the topmost business families had 22 MPs in Parliament. Why did they need them?
In the late 1960s, the private sector textile mills played another fraud. They took advantage of the socialistic nationalisation drive and sent many sick mills to the government for nursing. Many were nursed, brought back to health by the “inefficient” government managers and restored back to the owners. The government as if were the hospital for sick units. Many such “inefficient” government officials were later hired by the same companies.
If Ratan Tata or Rahul Bajaj are lamenting the corrupt ways of some government officials or ministers, they also need to know who started corrupting them. Tata may be correct in his statement about the Tata-Singapore airlines but he also needs to explain why Tatas so willingly handed over the control of Air India to the government in 1950s. How would they explain the methods of Ramalingam Raju of Satyam or Enron or chartered accountant firm Pricewaterhouse or CR Bhansali Bank?
Don’t they know the story of the rise of some industrialists who are now considered among some of the richest in the world? They too have influenced almost all spheres of Indian economy – banking, crude oil, gas, textile, polymer, telecom and what not. Their close nexus with governments of all shades, ministers and officials is an open secret. Their method of lobbying includes so many kinds of allurements, facilities and influences. Millions, if not billions, is set apart by them for corporate liaison and lobbying.
It is considered a “legitimate” business exercise. But who gets corrupted in the process – the public servant. If he does not, he is shunted off as the nation has recently seen the way the whistleblower was sent to a nondescript place in the Adarsh housing scandal as punishment or how an NHAI engineer was murdered for not listening to the corporate scamsters.
The 2G only signifies a malaise that is afflicting the nation in all its spheres. The collapse of illegally-constructed building in Lakshminagar in the heart of Delhi by a builder who started as a mechanic for repairing kerosene stoves only reveals the wide nexus that is eroding the body fibre of the nation. Almost 70 lives have been lost in a house where about 400 lived in abysmal squalid conditions. The Delhi government, municipal corporation of Delhi, the local police -all were oblivious to the problem for over two decades! This symbolises the functioning of the real estate sector.
It is a shame that we call this governance. It is wrecking the country. The prime minister and finance minister are euphoric about double digit growth. It could possibly be a four-digit growth if we could fix up the backyards of governance.
Corporate or semi-corporate bribing at all levels has become the rule. How much goes into it is difficult to fathom. Any rough calculation would lead to thousands of crores of rupees being laundered every day all over the nation to keep the rule books in abeyance, police at bay and allow criminalised business – illegal buildings to arms and drugs to capturing of licences in an unauthorised manner-to thrive.
The corrupt have made inroads into all political parties, it is often averred. A better way to see it would be that those in business know how to corrupt anyone who matters either through allurements or blackmailing or threats. No one is free from it. Recently at least four high court judges have been found involved in one or the other scandal. If the Ghaziabad Provident fund scam is included the number might grow manifold.
In those early days whether it was Mundhra or Dalmia were given punishment. But now whether it is fodder scam in Bihar, disproportionate income in UP or Jharkhand, unapproved expenses in CWG, scams in stocks, the corrupt have the solace to evade all punishment by manipulating the investigation process, court procedures or developing the right political connection.
The ill-gotten money becomes the biggest weapon to fight charges against them and manipulate the process. They are helped in the process again by their business partners. The corrupt remain the most united and flock together. The nation could boast of being the most corrupt in the world thanks to public-private partnership.
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