Economic Highlights
New
Delhi, 19 November 2010
Private-Public Partnership
SLEAZE BYWORD FOR DEVELOPMENT
By Shivaji Sarkar
Scams and corrupt practices have
become a way of nation development. But 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 was not free
of it. However there was 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.
Pertinently, 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 Parliament was the precursor to 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 earlier, in 1956, Ramkrishna Dalmia was
jailed for defrauding the Life Insurance Corporation. 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 the 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 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 top-most business families had 22 MPs in Parliament. Why did
industrialists 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 “inefficient”
Government managers and restored back to the owners. All behaving as if the
Government were the hospital for sick units. Later, many such “inefficient”
Government officials were 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 Tata’s so
willingly handed over the control of Air India to the Government in 1950s.
How would they explain the methods of Satyam’s Ramalingam Raju or chartered
accountant firm Pricewaterhouse and the CR Bhansali Bank?
Importantly, don’t they know the
story of the rise of a family, now considered among the fabulous richest in the
world? The family had influenced almost all spheres of Indian economy ----
banking, crude oil, gas, textile, polymer, telecom etc. Their close nexus with
various Governments of all shades, Ministers and officials is an open secret.
This is not all. 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 out. Only recently, a whistle blower of the
Adarsh housing scandal was sent to a non-descript place as punishment.
Remember, how an NHAI engineer was murdered for not listening to the corporate
scamsters.
The 2G spectrum scandal only
signifies a malaise that is afflicting the nation in all its spheres. The
collapse of an illegally-constructed building, constructed by a builder who
started life as a mechanic for repairing kerosene stoves, in Capital Delhi’s
Lakshmi Nagar only reveals the wide nexus that is eroding the body fibre of the
nation. Almost 70 people lost their lives in the building, where about 400
lived in abysmal squalid conditions. Yet, 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. This could possibly be a four-digit
growth if we could fix our backyards of governance.
Sadly, corporate or semi-corporate
bribing at all levels has become the rule. How much goes into it is difficult
to fathom. A rough calculation would lead to thousands of crores of rupees
being laundered every day all over the country to keep the rulebook in
abeyance, police at bay and allow criminalised business --- illegal buildings
to arms and drugs down 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, 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 all were punished. But now be it the 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.
Thus, the ill-gotten money becomes
the biggest weapon to fight charges against our polity and administrators and
manipulate the procedure. They are helped in the process again by their
business partners. The corrupt remain the most united and flock together.
Clearly, the nation could boast of being the most corrupt in the world, thanks
to public-private partnership. ----- INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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