Corruption Watch

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[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/296795/A-Rs-176-lakh-cr-question-for-PM.html"]A Rs 1.76 lakh cr question for PM[/url]

November 16, 2010 8:01:24 AM

A Surya Prakash



It’s laughable that the Congress should stake claim to probity in public life. Raja's 2G Spectrum scam exposes the true face of the party and the Prime Minister



Now that the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s opinion on the underselling of 2G Spectrum licences by former Telecom Minister A Raja is in the public domain, we have a better idea of the price Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made us pay just so that he may remain in office. Initially it was assumed that the fraudulent allotments had cheated the public exchequer of Rs 70,000 crore. The revised estimate is that the total loss caused by this Minister could be an unbelievable Rs 1.76 lakh crore.



This figure is truly mind-boggling because, as Ms J Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK leader, said the other day in a television interview, most citizens would find it difficult to imagine the number of zeroes that go to make this number. However, since this could well be the biggest scam indulged in by a Minister or Government official in the ‘history of humankind’, one must give it a shot. The number in question is Rs 1,7,60,00,00,00,000. That is why the continuance of Mr Raja in the Union Cabinet till last Sunday posed the most brazen challenge to the idea of accountability in our public life.

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Strangely, the Prime Minister allowed Mr Raja to remain in office even as Central investigators snooped around the Minister’s offices for clues and evidence to nail him. Yet, Mr Singh and the Congress would like us to believe that they are concerned about standards in public life.



The biggest joke of course is the belated attempt by the Congress to play the probity card by taking ‘action’ against the Maharastra Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, and the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman, Mr Suresh Kalmadi. The latter was forced to quit as secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party, an inconsequential office that burdens the incumbent with the ‘onerous’ task of posting invitations to party MPs to attend a few meetings of the CPP annually.

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It is said that the Prime Minister is a ‘clean’ politician whose personal conduct in financial matters is above reproach. However, this means nothing so long as he allows members of his Cabinet to merrily swindle the exchequer. Apologists for the Congress say that the compulsions of coalition politics prevented the Prime Minister from proceeding against Mr Raja.



If that be so, we are left with no option but to conclude that[size="6"] Mr Singh’s desire to survive in office far outweighs his concern for probity in public life. He seems to have just three priorities: Survival in office, protecting the Congress’s interests and ensuring that the United Progressive Alliance remains intact.[/size]



[size="6"]Mr Singh has already given us sufficient indication that national interest is not a priority for him [/size]when he took that untenable decision to appoint Mr Thomas as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner. That is why one must turn to the most credible of our institutions — the Supreme Court — to set matters rights. ...