India, the ancient seat of learning, the breeding-ground of people with morals
as lofty as the sky itself, the nation which was once a proud claimant vis-a-vis
truth and follower of the paths of sages like Mahavira and Gautam Buddha, has
perhaps forgotten its ethical roots. Now, all our country is left with is a
bagful of scams.
We have a total of twenty-five major and minor scams that
saw daylight. There might be some other as well, which we never came face to
face with. We have the following list, naming a few major ones, perhaps the
biggest scams in the world as well: Jeep, Serajuddin, Mundhra, Kairon, Bofors,
Securities, Hawala, Telecom, Big Bull's Stock Scam, Fodder, Jayalalitha, Urea,
ISRO, Tehelka. We will discuss
According to one estimate, if this money is spent on infrastructure, then Indian
infrastructure will be equivalent to the one in developed countries. Your
efforts will be appreciated to make public aware of effects of such scams on
their life.....
| No. |
Project Name |
Amount (in Rs) |
| 1 |
Share scam |
1000 crores |
| 2 |
Sugar scam |
650 crores |
| 3 |
Bofors scam |
65 crores |
| 4 |
Hawala case |
65 crores |
| 5 |
Housing scam |
18 crores |
| 6 |
M.P. trading |
32 crores |
| 7 |
Fertilizer scam |
133 crores |
| 8 |
Medicine Equipment scam |
5000 crores |
| 9 |
Telecom case |
1200 crores |
| 10 |
Newsprint case |
20 crores |
| 11 |
Indian bank scam |
1336 crores |
| 12 |
Fodder scam (Bihar) |
1000 crores |
| 13 |
Land scam (Bihar) |
400 crores |
| 14 |
Bitumen scam (Bihar) |
100 crores |
| 15 |
Medicine scam (Bihar) |
100 crores |
| 16 |
Forest case (Meghalaya) |
300 crores |
| 17 |
Ayurveda scam (UP) |
32 crores |
| 18 |
Dhoti-Saree scam (Tamil) |
11 crores |
| 19 |
Coal scam (Tamilnadu) |
750 crores |
| 20 |
Forest reserve scam (Meghalaya) |
75 crores |
| 21 |
Wakof Scam (West Bengal) |
1600 crores |
| 22 |
Dental College Case (Karnataka) |
50 lakhs |
| Total of Rs. 13,93,70,00,00,000/- Can you read out this figure?. I CANNOT! Its even than India's Annual Budget. |
This is just
the tip of the iceberg of an immense range of possibilities, which you can
take advantage of. For example, there have been scams like Treasury scams,
Panchayat Scam, Fishery Scam, Cooperative scam, Dairy scam,Food Ministry scam,
Lottery scam, and hospital scams. Now see how many jewels this system has
produced:
| No. |
Name of person |
Amount (in Rs) |
| 1 |
Motilal Vohra |
11.0 lakhs |
| 2 |
P. Shivshankar |
26.0 lakhs |
| 3 |
Ajit Panja |
3.5 lakhs |
| 4 |
Balaram Jhakar |
61.0 lakhs |
| 5 |
N.D. Tiwari |
25.0 lakhs |
| 6 |
B.D.Thakne |
10.0 lakhs |
| 7 |
Kalpnath Rai |
54.0 lakhs |
| 8 |
C.K. Jaffar Sharif |
10.0 lakhs |
| 9 |
Buta Singh |
7.0 lakhs |
| 10 |
V.C. Shukla |
65.0 lakhs |
| 11 |
P.L.Shahi |
11.3 lakhs |
| 12 |
R.K.Dhawan |
50.0 lakhs |
| 13 |
Madhav rao Scindia |
75.0 lakhs |
| 14 |
Kamal Nath |
17.0 lakhs |
| 15 |
Arjun Singh |
10.0 lakhs |
| 16 |
S.L. Khurana |
3.0 lakhs |
| 17 |
Arif Mohd. Khan |
756.0 lakhs |
| 18 |
Asoke Sen |
20.0 lakhs |
| 19 |
Yashwant Sinha |
21.0 lakhs |
| 20 |
Devilal |
50.0 lakhs |
| 21 |
K. Natwar Singh |
21.0 lakhs |
| 22 |
Arjun Singh |
10.0 lakhs |
| 23 |
Chandram |
1.0 lakhs |
(Figures are
according to CBI charge sheet) And of course, we have not mentioned the greats
like Jayalalitha and Laloo Prasad Yadav who have attained pinnacles of
performance in this Venture. And all these great men and women have emerged in
the past 5 or 6 years and is only a miniscule fraction of the amount of wealth
that has been generated by these exceptional strategies and their predecessors
over the past 50 years.
In one estimate,
the total amount of wealth in foreign bank accounts of Politicians only are $110
billion US dollars. The Indian national budget is $65billion and the total
industrial infrastructure development needs for India to be at par with some of
the developed countries is at $150 billion. Also, note that this amount is the
cost of 366 nuclear reactors at the cost of $300 million dollar
each.
With this we
can create some awareness of the greatness of our country
Leaders!!
some of the important ones in the following report.
Bofors—‘the
Smoking Gun’
Introduction:
The Bofors scandal is a hallmark of Indian corruption. The list of
accused included not only some central ministers but also people at the very
top, including the former P.M. Mr Rajiv Gandhi. It also involved eminent
personalities from Indian politics and also a powerful NRI family named the
Hindujas.
The Chronology:
As the Bofors scandal has been dogging the
Indian political scene intermittently, people have either lost interest or got
lost following the lengthy proceedings. So let’s take a look at the chronology
of events.
1. Jan. 20, 1984: CCPA clears the purchase of 155mm guns. Army
submits preferences-- TR of Sofma, FH77B of Bofors and FH70 of IMS (OR)
2.
May 3, 1985: S.K. Bhatnagar (Defence Secretary) informs manufacturers that the
Government had not approved of appointment of Indian agents, acting foreign
suppliers, Bofors having agents for the deal in India.
3. Aug.-Nov. 1985:
Quattrochi contacts AE services which becomes Bofors Consultant and is promised
3% cut if the Indian deal is clinched before 1st April, 1986.
4.
Sept. 3, 1986: AE services opens account in Nordfinanz Bank, Zurich.
5.
Bofors remits $ 7.3 million to above account.
6. Sept. 16, 1986: AE services
transfer money ($7.12 million) to the account of Colbar Investments in Geneva,
controlled by Quattrochi.
7. April 16, 1987: Swedish radio claims that bribes
were paid by Bofors to secure contract.
8. June 1, 1987: Swedish national
audit bureau confirms money was paid by Bofors as "winding up" costs.
9. June
10, 1987: Minister of State for Defence Mr Arun Singh asks for cancellation of
the contract unless Bofors gives the names of those who received money.
10.
Jan. 22, 1990: CBI files FIR asking the Swiss to freeze bank accounts in which
any commission was paid. Consequently, some Swiss accounts were frozen. The
first set of documents arrives from Switzerland in Dec. 1990.
11. 1990 – ‘92:
Swiss inquires are stalled by litigation in India. The mess compounded by
External Affairs Minister M. S. Solanki, who passed an unsigned note to the
Swiss on Feb. 1, 1992, saying that no further steps should be taken in
Switzerland unless a final decision is taken in Indian courts.
12.June 23,
1993: Interpol informs the CBI of Quattrochi’s appeal in Switzerland against the
release of bank documents to India. Quattrochi flies from India to settle in
Malaysia.
13. Oct. 22, 1999: CBI files charge sheet: Q is
accused.
The Duty of the
CBI:
Having pursued the
matter so long and having caused much controversy over the matter it is the
CBI’s duty now to see to it that the real accused come to justice. It is its
duty to see the evidence collected by it is analyzed carefully (without
prejudices and desire for vengeance) and the facts are established solidly. It
could not have asked for a more favourable time than now, the Vajpayee Govt with
a majority on its hands backing up the CBI to fully investigate the case without
any fear or favour whatsoever.
The Hawala Scandal—‘the
All-ensnaring One’
Introduction:
The Hawala case, which came in the open in 1996 exploded
in the face of Indian politics, unsettling all the major political players. For
the first time in Indian politics, so many politicians were accused of having
accepted bribes and misused their power. The Hawala case presents a crystal
clear picture of the inefficient IT department. The Hawala web was woven in the
autarkic period in the Indian economy during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Explanation:
The
scandal, which came into light as a result of sporadic raids by the Directorate
of Investigations, income tax, on hawala operators in 1991. These resulted in
the seizure of certain diaries and files from S. K. Jain’s premises. S. K. Jain,
the managing director of Bhilai Engineering Corporation (BEC) possessed certain
documents that listed certain cash transactions made by him during 1988– 91. It
showed a receipt of nearly Rs 53.5 crores from secret sources and subsequent
disbursement of Rs 65 crs to bureaucrats, politicians, political parties and
companies. This was the 2nd time that the BEC group was under
scrutiny. The first time was when it was among those business houses suspected
of engineering the assassination of the social activist and Chattisgarh Mukti
Morcha leader Shanker Guha-Niyogi. Although details about the size of its
partner in money terms was not available, BEC has an aggregate capacity for
fabrication and assembly of 25,000 tones per annum of core equipment in the core
sectors of steel, cement etc. It had executed major turnkey projects for several
public and private sector companies with areas of 36 acres. No wonder then, such
a company should be a prime target for seekers of political funding.
Consequently, the hawala diaries named almost every prominent leader then who
had in some or the other way accepted large amounts of cash, which they termed
‘gifts’.
What is
Hawala?
Hawala or the
parallel markets for foreign exchange originated back in the virtually autarkic
period in the Indian economy in the 1950s and 1960s. Companies who made payments
abroad and had to pay for acquired land used the hawala route, which investors
also used to pelt their money in foreign assets. The converse was also true.
Indians received remittances from abroad through the hawala market.
Hawala transfers were
also used routinely by corporates to avoid both direct and indirect taxes.
Companies book notional losses against which they transfer money abroad through
hawala. With duties on imports remaining high, importers often under-invoiced
imports and paid the duty on the forged amount while the balance in the period
through the hawala route. Anticipations feared decline in the value of the
Rupee. This meant that those who could convert rupees to dollars and transfer
them abroad, with no convertibility on the capital account, the only route left
was the hawala one. On the inflow side, a lot of illegal money comes in through
illegal ways like drug trafficking, stock market and real estate.
The
Scam:
The amount involved in
the scam totaled Rs 65 crores. The lynchpin of S. K. Jain’s hawala network,
‘Amir Bhai’ had four a/cs in Geneva, Dubai, London and Antwerp from where he
provided S. K. Jain, the prime accused, among others, with the required amount.
He further distributed it to 32 bureaucrats, 30 politicians and NTPC officials.
Among the top politicians implicated in the case were M/s L. K. Advani, V.C.
Shukla, Madhavrao Scindia, Arjun Singh, Sharad Yadav, Yashwant Sinha and Balram
Jakhad. However, excepting Sharad Yadav, all of them were later acquitted of all
charges due to the lack of sustainable evidence, for which the CBI has attracted
some amount of flak.
The
Results:
When the Hawala
scandal surfaced 55 initials mentioned in the diary fill in the political
category. Of these 6 have died and of the held 115 names and initials which
appear at various places in the dairy only 20 have been linked up. Way back in
1996 when it was disclosed it provided a severe blow to the politicians and all
most every political party namely also congress and BJP.
The scandal, attracted
the attention of the whole nation to the degree of corruption our political and
economic structure has plunged in. The involvement of almost all party hands,
politicians and business men of all color show that inspite of our rich moral
and ethical patronage, all we are left with is the knowledge of a, ‘corrupt way
to be’.
The Telecom Scandal—‘Dial
M for Money’
Introduction:
Popularly known as the ‘Sukhram Scam’, this was a product
of the gradual liberalization of the Indian economy. Every sector during this
period was being thrown open to privatization. However, the country was not
fully prepared for the onslaught of the market. It had no infrastructure, no
guiding strategies and no crisis management regime. In such a situation, there
is a normal tendency in powerful persons, who know the whole scene, to
manipulate-- using their stature, post/s, power etc.-- things to their own
benefit. It is precisely this that happened in the Department of
Telecommunications in the early 90s.
The Chronology:
1. TEC floats a tender for 3000 MARR sets.
2. March ‘92– May ’93:
TEC evaluates 35 bids for MARR systems given part order to ARM @ Rs 3.54 lac per
system. Sets up Price Negotiation Team.
3. Sept. 1993: ARM asks Sukhram to
restore price cut and orders 450 crystal sets instead of 300. Committee members
object but are overruled.
4. Jan. 1994: New orders are placed on ARMS terms.
DOT losses around 1.68 cr.
5. Jan. 16, 1995: Tender floated for basic telecom
services.
6. March 1995: Bids to be closed, but postponed for unknown
reasons. Bids finally submitted on June 7, 1995.
7. Aug. 31, 1995: HFCL bids
highest in 9 circles at 85,000 crore rupees. Their bid is Rs 50,000 crore more
than their nearest rival. HFCL’s ability to raise funds in doubt.
Sukhram’s Modus
Operandi:
1. Get pliable
bureaucrats. 2. Overrule officials. 3. Transfer officials who object. 4. Wait
until the right moment in order to strike.
The Government was
stunned by the scandal. Doubts were raised in the minds of government officials
and ministers regarding the entire liberalization process. However, the
government could not stop it as it was too far ahead in its course to stop it.
The GOI would have to return over Rs 1900 crores which had been collected as
license fees, if the agreement was to be stopped or abrogated or renegotiated.
Also, the impact on foreign investment would have been extremely bad and India’s
credibility broken to pieces.
The Fodder Scam:
‘the Gawala Saga’
Introduction:
A
clique of graft and irregular politico-administrative patronage was exposed when
the CBI unraveled the Rs-700-crore fodder scam in Bihar in July ’96. The accused
included top officials in the Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) and their
political patrons/bosses. The AHD was being milked dry—almost literally—by their
unholy nexus!
Fodder for the Netas
and Babus:
The racket was
traced to have begun in 1983-4, when the AHD unwittingly overstepped their
budgetary allocation while carrying out a project. As always Govt had their eyes
shut. The officials smelt money and around 1985-6 the loot began. Local
politicians sensed the swindle, but shamelessly plunged into the action. With
their involvement, the daring of the AHD’s officials sore high, and another
racket under the patronage of our politicians was initiated.
It was well coordinated
between bureaucrats in various departments and officials of the AHD, in
connivance with district collectors and commissioners, made fake allotments and
withdrawal orders. Then with help from collaborators in the State Secretariat,
these were presented to the treasury along with forged supporting bills to show
supply of fodder and medicine from a network of dubious suppliers. The treasury
passed the bills and the banks, equally unsuspectingly, credited the amounts to
the suppliers’ account. The money was thus shared between some officials and
their political protectors. This loot of the treasury continued for a decade and
totaled to an amount around Rs 750 crore.
The Urea Scam—‘Nitrogen
Fixation’
Introduction:
The Urea scam has its
genesis in the P. V. Narsimha Rao regime. It is not only important because of
the amount involved which was Rs 133 crore but also because of the negatives it
generated. At the centre of controversy lay a dubious deal signed by the NFL
with a little known Turkish firm called Karsan Danismanlik Turigam Samayi
Ticarct Ltd for the supply of 200,000 tons of urea in Oct. ‘95. The CBI, which
was probing the scam, charged the NFL management with making a full advance
payment of $ 37.62 million to Karsan in complete violation of accepted business
norms. The agreement was made without any bank guarantee/s, a complete insurance
cover and even a letter of intent. Also, it would be naive to assume that the
NFL M.D. could authorize payment of $ 38 million to the Turkish firm without the
consent of scores of officials, going right upto the then Minister of
Fertilizer. Possibly, even higher powers were involved because the system of
fertilizer procurement does not permit such rash payments to be made.
The CBI found that a part
of the payment amounting to $ 200,000 found its way back into India via an ANZ
Grindlays Bank account in Hyderabad. The account belonged to Saikrishna Impex,
agents for Karsan in India. The CBI believed that the sum was brought into India
via Rea Brothers Ltd, a company with which Prakash Yadav was supposed to be
closely involved. Thus, a clear political angle could be
established.
All about
Karsan:
Karsan is listed as
a tourism firm in Turkey and is little known. The officials of the team sent to
Ankara by the Ministry found that it was a very small firm even in Turkey and
quite incapable of fulfilling the commitment it had made. Not only had NFL
failed to check Karson’s credentials, it also had not taken insurance cover
against the possibility of Karson not fulfilling its contractual
obligations.
The
Fallout:
NFL had planned to
expand the capacity of its Nangal plant by 215,000 tonnes and that of its
Panipat plant by 726,000 tonnes. Doubling the capacity of the Vijapin plant,
involving an outlay of Rs 1000 crore, is also pending clearance. It was planned
to get the money from the capital markets. An Euro-issue was also on the anvil.
While the public issue was stalled owing to tight monetary conditions, the
Euro-issue plan was scratched. The Ministry also instructed NFL to put a joint
venture project in Syria with Zuari Agro Ltd-- for constructing a urea plant--
on hold. Politically, the scandal brought a number of Congress leaders,
including Narsimha Rao, again into negative focus.
A Disgusted
Conclusion
The details of
the above-mentioned scams show how entrenched corruption is in our economic and
political structures. These scams, some of which date back to the infancy of the
Republic, show that prevention is the need of the hour. What we need is a
complete rethink on our socio-political ethos and the creation of a new
administrative paradigm that is in tune with the changing times. We should not
patch up the loopholes but try to rebuild the whole structure.
The Political
Dimensions:
Taking a
decision at the highest executive level of the govt to tackle the problem of
corruption is the sine qua non of effective action. Legislation should
endorse decision and commitment-- it will help to sustain political resolve. Our
leaders must set a personal example of prudence and insist on the same from
their colleagues. The political leadership must allow the anti–corruption
agencies full independence and autonomy of action. The executive should insist
on the cooperative participation of all government departments. It must be
ensured that means of mass communication are accessible to the anti–corruption
agencies so that they can convey their message to the larger community. More
positively, the active involvement of businessmen is needed to fight corruption
and encourage higher ethical standards and the adoption of codes of conduct to
demonstrate that clean business does generate profits. In a market economy the
cooperation between business and govt is the achievement of shared goals by
regulated limits of interest and the requirements of both parties. The crux of
the matter is to have proper guidelines and sufficiently strict vigilance while
implementing them properly.
