Author: Balbir K. Punj
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: December 19, 2005
The recent question-scam, in which some MPs
were caught on camera accepting bribes to table questions in Parliament, has
underscored a number of realities of contemporary Indian public life. The
most striking one is that in dispensing justice, the electronic media has
emerged more powerful than even the official investigative agencies like the
CBI and the judiciary. Unearthing scams is a part of media's operation and
obligation; it's not always that government gives them some weight over its
own agencies. Did the Congress government abide by the Indian Express scoop
on Bofors case? No, rather Rajiv Gandhi, unable to stem the onslaught of Ram
Jethmalani's "Ten questions a day" stopped looking eye to eye.
It is true that six out of 11 MPs exposed
were from the BJP. But the party lost no time in suspending them unilaterally.
But let us refresh our memory about the Congress, the ruling dispensation
at the Centre. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expresses his shock over the
misconduct of the MPs, but had no qualms about taking Shibu Soren as his Cabinet
colleague. He and several other MPs from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, were caught
red-handed accepting a huge bribe of Rs 50 lakhs for expressing confidence
in the Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao. They were convicted but
escaped the last court of appeal on the technical ground that what happened
in Parliament could not be subject to legal action.
The same JMM MPs are now part of the UPA,
and Shibu Soren was also the coal minister in it until he was forced to quit
when a court issued a warrant against him on a murder case. It is ironic that
the Congress Party never uttered a word of disapproval of this method of vote
buying of MPs that saved its government. The amount of "gratification
money" was in the tune of half a crore there, compared to the thousands
in the cash-for-question scam.
Surely, the Congress Prime Minister at whose
behest the money was given, is no longer alive. But the man who was the home
minister and had lured the JMM MPs with bribery, is the governor of Bihar.
His scheming designs did not cease in Patna too. He unilaterally recommended
the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly just before the leader of the largest
political alliance could stake its claim for government formation; the Supreme
Court found it illegal. Its governor in Jharkhand, who swears in a minority
government (led by the same scam and murder-tainted Shibu Soren), overlooking
the valid claim of the largest alliance, leaving the Assembly exposed to horse-trading
and plunging the state into a constitutional crisis, is retained as it is.
Which probity in public life is the Congress speaking about?
The railway minister is another inexcusable
question mark on the Prime Minister. He has been prosecuted by a government
agency, the CBI, of corrupt practices like the "fodder scam" and
other charges. The money involved in the scam is Rs 950 crores. Several cross-references
to the appeals courts and apex court have not saved him. He is now charge-sheeted
in the court by the CBI. He is also facing trial for amassing disproportionate
assets. The Supreme Court has made critical observation about an attempt made
by the government to bail him out of the situation.
But what is most ludicrous in this whole drama
is the behaviour of the Left. They were so incensed at the disinvestment of
the ITDC hotels during the BJP-led regime's rule (where no private benefit
could be ascribed) that they made the Centre register a case against the then
disinvestment minister Arun Shourie. But the same Left swallowed a camel in
the form of the Mitrokhin Archive that exposed them of taking money from the
Soviet Union on a regular basis.
In that game the Congress has also been exposed
as a partner. But what is the reaction of the Left? What is the reaction of
the Congress? To abuse Mitrokhin and ignore the evidence he has produced from
the KGB's own original records examined and validated by one of the leading
historians of Britain. The Left is also silent on Lalu Prasad Yadav. Rather,
they had an alliance with him in the last Bihar elections.
Look at the Volcker report on the oil-for-food
scam. Despite it being a report of the United Nations, the Prime Minister
continued to shield Natwar Singh and even doubted the veracity of the Volcker
report. Only when it was established that Natwar Singh had carried a number
of other passengers close to his family with him to Baghdad in what was described
as the Congress delegation, and that these passengers included the people
who deposited money in the Jordan bank in the account maintained by Saddam
Hussein, that Natwar Singh's resignation was asked for. Even then, it was
only a shift of job as he was retained in the Cabinet as minister without
portfolio. He was even offered a low-profile ministry of tourism, but Natwar
contemptuously turned it down. Did the Prime Minister "express his shock"
while dealing with Natwar Singh?
Let us compare it with the reaction of the
BJP. Party president L.K. Advani suspended the stained MPs, denying them the
right to be heard. Nor was this a knee-jerk reaction to save the BJP's face.
He had applied those standards unto himself. Advani was the BJP president
in 1996, when his name figured in the diary of a hawala operator (Jain diary),
as a recipient of hawala funds. He at once resigned from Parliament and announced
that he would not accept public office till he was cleared in the scandal.
As a result, he was not in Parliament when the BJP-led government was formed
in 1998. Only after the Delhi High Court cleared him in the case did Advani
contest elections and accept public office.
It is worth recalling that the BJP had compelled
its then president Bangaru Laxman to resign as soon as his name got entangled
in the Tehelka scam, even though the leader from the Dalit group continued
to protest his innocence. In a similar incident, the Chhattisgarh BJP leader
Dilip Singh Judeo too was suspended even though he was crucial to the BJP's
election campaign at that time.
This is a strange political ethics. The person
accused and charge-sheeted and being tried for defalcation of public funds
and of cheating is the railway minister, and continues to be so. A party exposed
for taking money from a foreign country on a regular basis and playing as
its underling in the domestic affairs of this country, claims the moral high
ground. And another party whose Prime Minster 13 years ago paid huge bribes
to MPs to vote in a particular manner is displaying indignation at MPs taking
money to ask questions. Is it not a fit case of Orwellian doublespeak?
Balbir K. Punj is a Rajya Sabha MP and convener
of the BJP's Think Tank. He can be contacted at bpunj@email.com
