Political
Diary
New
Delhi, 2 August 2022
ED On Rampage
‘POWER’ OF CORRUPTION
By Poonam I Kaushish
When does money become dirt? When it begins to stick. As
the Parthagate corruption saga explodes on the political firmament, it has come
to haunt and taunt West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata’s TMC. Over 51 crores
cash, jewellery, documents of innumerable properties tumbled out from Minister
Partha Chatterjee and aide’s apartments in the school recruitment process. Big
deal! In a country where political morality is non-existent, what corruption
are we taking out?
Followed by Shiv Sena Sanjay Raut’s arrest by Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering
Act (PMLA) in a land scam case. Next three Jharkhand Congress MLAs
were caught by West Bengal police with large amounts of cash in their vehicle.
Earlier, Chief Minister Soren’s lawyer and aide were arrested by ED in a mining
lease case and AAP Minister Satinder Jain for laundering money through four
companies. Further besmirching the sleazy waters is Congress’s prima donna
Sonia and son Rahul in the National Herald case.
True these revelations are nothing new and just a tip of
the iceberg of the amount of unaccounted wealth that pervades the working of
our democracy. All Parties know this. Aren’t we accustomed to an immoral,
corrupt and unaccountable polity who could stoop to anything for paisa.
Loot, bribe and deals have become the bedrock of our system with none interested
in reforming it. Wherein a ghotala of a few thousands crores
is not worth feeding the chara of morality. Shrugged as one of
the “unlisted” perks of their job.
With the Supreme
Court giving its seal of approval to PMLA the ED which was dreaded
has now been further empowered. Over 3,555 cases (65%) are
registered since 2014 compared to just
112 in 2004. ED filed charge-sheets in 888 cases resulting in just
23 convictions and attached Rs 99,356 crores under PMLA
as crime proceeds compared to Rs 5,346 crores in 2004-05 and 2013-14
during UPA Government.
Predictably, Opposition accuses Government of painting them
black. They have a point. Recall, earlier this year before elections ED raided
then Punjab Congress Chief Minister Channi’s close relative and found Rs 8
crores as also Samajwadi Chief Akhilesh’s aides prior to UP Assembly elections,
in 2021 ditto in West Bengal wherein 14 Mamata associates were targeted and
again in Tamil Nadu when some DMK leaders were investigated pre-elections.
Asserted a senior Congress leaders, “The ED conveniently
suffers from a bad bout of amnesia and is highly selective. Remember, ED and
CBI interrogated TMC’s Suvendu Adhikari in Saradha scam in 2014-17 but after
joining BJP in 2020 he has not been interrogated, and is now Opposition Leader
in West Bengal.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Sarma was target by BJP in
Guwahati’s water supply scam but after joining the Party cases were put
in thanda baksa as also in Maharashtra ex-Chief Minister
Narayan Rane PMLA cases once he switched to BJP and anointed MP. Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan was cleared in Vyapam scam
2017. BJP’s Yediyurappa became Karnataka Chief Minister 2019 despite
graft and land scams.”
Perhaps ED is acting primarily against Opposition politicians,
but in whichever case it has started proceedings a lot of financial skulduggery
has been unearthed. Though its conviction is under 1% does it mean we should
let the corrupt go unchallenged? This raises disturbing questions: It does not
strike any chord among leaders who have reduced graft to a farcical political
pantomime. There is no sense of outrage or shame.
Can one compromise on corruption? Does politics force an
indulgence on issues of governance and probity? Is this part of political dharma? Whereby
politics has everything to do with acceptability, little with credibility and
public life is all compromises, not principles dripping morality sermons but
not practicing it.
In a milieu where graft and sleaze is India’s creepy-crawly
Osama bin Laden which permeates the very core of daily Government functioning
ensnaring the country in its vicious tentacles, the temptation to make money is
always great, indeed irresistible. In the political brothel of corruption, one
may not begrudge our netagan from making money, ostensibly for
Party funds or feathering his own nest. That is the prevailing culture.
Either which way, Parthagate exposes our leaders hypocrisy.
As long as a leader is part of the Establishment, all wink at his misdemeanors.
Bringing to the fore striking immoral aspects of governance whereby, an honest
person is perceived as one who does not get caught. Shockingly, 34 of 78
Central Ministers have declared corruption and criminal cases against them
according to Association of Democratic Reforms, notwithstanding, Prime Minister
Modi preening about ending corruption.
Besides, it underscores the inequity in our system. While
a petty thief languishes in jail for years and a junior babu caught
for accepting a princely bribe of Rs.1000 is immediately suspended, a leader
who ‘transacts’ crores invariably goes scot free. On the facetious
plea that there is “not sufficient evidence,” or is “innocent till proven
guilty,” “law will take its own course,” or hide behind the smokescreen of “electorate’s
verdict” to escape punishment by manipulating the system.
Accentuated by Supreme Court in 2018 whereby MPs and MLAs
income and assets grew over 500% to 1200% between two polls 2009-2014 as
reflected in their election affidavits, a sure sign of misuse of offices. That
too being unemployed! Indisputably nothing costs a nation more than a cheap
politician.
Not a few assert that the cost of corruption to the country
might exceed Rs. 350,000 crores. Leading even Supreme Court to lament and
express concern over growing corruption in Government machinery. Said an
anguished Bench recently, “nothing moves without money.”
Sadly, our polity fail to realise that corruption not only
perpetuates poverty but makes the poor poorer. Think. Sleaze erodes and
cripples the capacity of the State to provide the aam aadmi roti,
kapada aur makaan forget bijli, sadak aur paani. What
worries one is political malfeasance and assiduous cultivation of low morality
for a place in high political society.
As India aspires to sit at the high-table of nations, it
needs assertive corrective action that goes to the depth of deep-rooted
corruption followed by appropriate remedial measures like urgent reforms in
electoral and political financing to prevent an encore.
Importantly, Governments are custodians of public trust and
interest. The nation and people are first -- way above selfish and narrow
political interests. What the people ultimately want is transparency and
accountability. Alas, this has so far been only preached ad nauseum but seldom
practiced.
Clearly, Parthagate and Raut narrative should make
our netagan do a double-take. We must devise a
political mechanism instead of replacing one corrupt Tweedledum with another
corrupt Tweedledee. The challenge lies in overhauling our system of governance.
There should be no scope for any lingering doubt or suspicion that politics is
the last refuge of a scoundrel! ------ INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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