By Jagdish Bhagwati
more at projectsyndicate
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday held a meeting with senior Cabinet colleagues ahead of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee submitting its report on Telangana. The panel's term ends on Friday.
The meeting, attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, discussed the options available and the political fall-out in case the demand for a separate State was accepted, official sources said.
It also discussed the security arrangements for Andhra Pradesh to meet any law and order situation. The Centre has sent 5,000 security personnel to the State to deal with any emergency.
more at thehindu
One is numbed to a stupor — the magnitude and the brazenness of it all. And not to speak of the convoluted logic belted out to defend the indefensible and stonewall: well, nothing exceptional, for like day following night, after the crime comes the belligerence!
The CWG scam, the Adarshgate scam, the 2G Spectrum scam, the Karnataka land scam — the litany goes on and on; every bit surreal and growing. Each is as unconscionable as the other and something that modern India had never ever had seen before and, hopefully, never will, in future.
Lest anyone has any qualms and reservations about a humble unelected and unelectable individual like me making bold to write about these touch-me-nots and question-me-nots that bristle everywhere and riddle everything, let me make it clear upfront that I write this as a lay citizen of this country and that I have an inalienable right and a bounden duty to do so.
more at expressbuzz
For scams, whose total size runs into 13-digit numbers, the names they are known by are short -- 2G, CWG and IPL.
Going by the estimated size of these scams, the total for the year 2010 could be well beyond Rs 2,00,000 crore -- a 13-digit figure -- although much of the loss is presumptive in nature.
The scam with the shortest name -- 2G -- alone, according to various accounts, deprived the government coffers of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in potential revenue.
2G is the acronym for second generation mobile telephony and it ran into a scam cloud over allocation of spectrum, or radio waves, at prices that were not market-determined.
more at rediff
In 2005, when Niira Radia was trying to start an airline in India, she asked a senior aviation ministry official why a Person of Indian Origin was not allowed to do so when an NRI could. The rules, she was told. Her reply, neatly interspersed with names of ministers and tycoons, was sharp: "Don't worry, we will have the rules changed." Within five years, she changed more than one rule. Her advocacy skills matched with an acute realism altered whatever came in the way of her client, most often her friend and mentor Ratan Tata. By 2009, Radia, expertly exploiting a corrupt system and compliant minister, was manipulating Cabinet portfolios in the UPA Government. The expose of her multi-dextrous interventions has smashed a cosy establishment, weakened a seemingly impregnable Government and cast a long shadow on the turbulent politics of 2011.
more at indiatoday
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began interrogating a former telecoms minister A. Raja on Friday in the country's biggest corruption case, a move the government hopes will help ease a crippling political row with the opposition.
Here are details on four major scandals that have broken out recently:
TELECOMS LICENCE ROW
India may have lost up to $39 billion in revenue when the telecoms ministry gave out lucrative licences and radio spectrum in 2007/08 at below-market prices, the state auditor has said.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India's (CAG) report last month also said rules were flouted when the licences were given out which led to many ineligible firms getting licences.
more at deccanchronicle
The best possible solution is to treat the greed virus with available spiritual tools.
It is an irony that an ancient civilisation like India where highest human values like universal love, environment worship, Nara-Naryana (God in every human being), charity, kindness, bravery and forgiveness was taught; where a hungry child fondly shares a loaf of bread with a street dog, has produced a self-centred and greed infested society. The societal behaviour change to lead a lavish lifestyle contributes to the growth of scamstars like Harshad Mehta, Ramalinga Raju, Ketan Parekh, P S Subramanium of UTI scam, Bhansali, Sanjay Agrawal, Rastogi, Telgi, Dalmia and Goyal who plundered more than Rs 16,000 crore from Indian public. The 2 G scam of Rs 1.74 lakh crore size has paralysed the winter session of parliament. Scams are popping from time to time. Fodder scam, mining scam, Noida land scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam, LIC Housing finance scam, MFI scam and the list is getting longer. It seems there is something terribly wrong in our family, schools, educational institutions and organisational culture which have sown the seeds of greed and negligence in the minds of our youth. It is not the means but the ends to acquire wealth becomes the governing principle.
more at deccanherald
Transparency International’s latest corruption rankings which showed India as having slipped three ranks did nothing to move us. No body really understands these rankings. But when the outgoing Chief Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha said that almost one-third of Indians were “utterly corrupt “and half were “borderline”, we couldn’t but agree. His remarks came at a time when India was perhaps passing through the worst phase in its scandal-ridden history. The numbers – of scams and zeroes – continues to increase as we end this decade, forcing us to call 2010 the year of corruption.
While Indians know that their politicians can’t keep their laundary clean, what really hit us bad was that even the game of cricket, the country’s Army as well as journalists were not spared the blot. While the ownership patterns of the Indian Premier League’s teams was questioned and cost Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor their powerful posts, real estate scams in Maharashtra and Chandigarh seems to have sullied the image of the Army or at least those associated with it. The Nira Radia tapes have left many top journalists and business honchos red-faced for exposing an allegedly sinister nexus between politicians-businesses-media. This inturn is part of the mega 2G spectrum allocation scam attributed to former Telecom Minister A Raja, which has even raised questions on the PM’s authority as also his silence. Another fall out of the 2G juggernaut is that perhaps for the first time in our history, the credibility of the CVC too is under scanner.
more at zeenews
India's main opposition alliance is due to hold a major demonstration against alleged corruption involving the ruling Congress-party led government.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led group plans to hold anti-sleaze protests in Delhi and across the country.
India has been rocked by a slew of high-profile corruption cases.
Among them is an alleged telecoms scandal in which phone licences were sold for a fraction of their value.
Ex-telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja, who resigned over the scandal, is expected to be questioned soon by India's top investigation agency, the CBI.
Mr Raja, who denies any wrongdoing, is a member of the DMK party, a member of the Congress-led ruling coalition.
Parliament has been deadlocked over opposition demands for a major inquiry.
more at bbc
If there's nothing to hide...
Magnanimous though it may seem to Congress partisans, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to answer questions relating to the allocation of 2G spectrum the question of why his government is so keen to avoid the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee. Dr. Singh said that, like Caesar's wife, the Prime Minister should be above suspicion and hence his willingness to be questioned by a committee whose chairman is the formidable Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart, Murli Manohar Joshi. Sticking with Roman references, however, many will say that having crossed the inquisitorial Rubicon, the Prime Minister ought to have no reservations about appearing before a JPC either. This newspaper has argued before that the scale and dimensions of the spectrum scam give rise to questions that are well beyond the remit of a PAC whose job, normally, is confined to examining audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and that a comprehensive enquiry by a JPC was a political imperative. There has been some talk in government circles of expanding the mandate of the PAC in the 2G spectrum matter but the onus really is on the Prime Minister and his advisers to sit down with the Opposition to ensure an agreement that will allow the spectrum scam to be probed and the Budget session of Parliament to take place unhindered.
more at thehindu
Do Wikileaks and Radiagate spell the end of privacy as we know it? Or did they just usher in a brave, new world of hyper-transparency? Is WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange a hero or a villain? Are you smiling or hiding as contents of a certain Ms Radia’s telephone conversations tumble out bit by explosive bit? Whatever be one’s views on these questions, one thing is crystal clear. Like it or not, the age of leaks is here.
In the world that looms ahead, “superempowered individuals who can expose conversations far beyond their borders — or create posses of ‘cyber hactivists’ who can melt down the computers of people they don’t like — are a reality”, as Thomas L. Friedman noted in a recent column in the New York Times. Governments and corporations typically crave secrecy and will double their efforts to safeguard their secrets. But in today’s globalised, internetworked world, when increasing numbers of people can access the most powerful tool ever for finding out what’s really going on and inform others at the flick of their fingers, such determination will be matched, and often surpassed, by the zeal of those bent upon ferreting out that privileged information.
more at asianage
It is the time of the year when pundits look for a theme that unites the year and, as far as India is concerned, 2010 was, more than anything else, a year of scams (with the caveat that the word has been overused, sometimes entirely out of context, by India’s hyperactive 24x7 media).
The previous year, 2009, was overshadowed by the elections and 2008 by the terror attacks in Mumbai. But this year, which will end in two weeks, has been marked by disclosures of corruption in, among other things, the organizing of the Commonwealth Games; the allotment in Mumbai of flats in an apartment building meant for war heroes and war widows to politicians and senior defence officers; and the allotment of spectrum and licences to telcos (in 2008).
There have been other scams —indeed, Mint’s political bureau insists there is or has been one in every state in the country and a large one for almost every month of the year—as well, ensuring that newspapers, magazines, and television channels were never at a loss for a sensational subject through the year. Ironically, one of these, relating indirectly to the allotment of telecom licences, came back to bite the media late in the year, when it was revealed that several worthies from the profession had been indiscreet at best and dishonest at worst in conversations with a powerful lobbyist.
more at livemint
Corruption is hardly a new phenomenon in India, but in the past few months, we have seen corruption of a scale never witnessed before and involving institutions that seemed to have been beyond its clammy reach. Every week brings a new scandal, and each seems to involve a fresh set of players. Corruption seems to have moved beyond its permanent abode—politics and the bureaucracy—into sports, the military, media, the judiciary, religion and godmen and corporate India. Every segment seems steeped in corruption and every pillar of the society, economy and polity appear to have been compromised. It is clear that the problem does not relate to isolated individuals, but is of a systemic and institutional nature.
Of course, corruption is by no means unique to India, but we do manage a very impressive 9th rank in the world corruption charts with countries such as Cambodia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Senegal, Uganda and Liberia...
more at financialexpress
We have all known about corruption in Indian political and business life. Many of us have had to give bribes to municipal officers, electricity or water suppliers, for telephone connections in the old days or for getting a gas cylinder. Few of us get the chance to take bribes. This is the side of the bargain we only hear about. Recently, since Obama left Delhi and the Hindu New Year began, there has been an avalanche of corruption stories. Parliament has been disrupted for most part of the winter session and no resolution is in sight. While the battle for a JPC to investigate the 2G spectrum scam has been going on, we already have the newly-appointed CVC compromised. The CWG corruption is still being probed, but by the CBI, which is a guarantee that no one with any connections with the ruling coalition will be harmed.
more at financialexpress
The current corruption allegations being discussed in India are unprecedented. They have exposed a web of complicity between so many powerful actors on a scale that almost no one could imagine. These allegations bring to light three incontrovertible trends. First, that the scale of rents government can now extract from sectors it controls—infrastructure, land, and licensing granting powers—has increased with the growth in the economy. Second, capital is still totally dependent upon the state. Much of what we see as the lobbying of capital is not so much for special favours, as it is to make sure that entry barriers to particular sectors do not remain closed. But this is a game only big corporates can play. Indian capital is also extraordinarily timid; always at the beck and call of politics.
more at financialexpress
At the beginning of 2010, management guru CK Prahalad gave a figure of Rs 2,50,000 crore for the annual cost of corruption in India. He got to this number by adding up the costs of elections and assuming a 10X return on those risky investments. That sounds like a huge number, so let me reduce it by converting it to US dollars (after all, still the world’s reserve currency). That becomes about $55 billion. That still seems like a lot— an annual cost that exceeds Mukesh Ambani’s known wealth. But let’s put it into perspective. India’s GDP is about $1.2 trillion. So Prahalad’s estimate is only 5% of GDP. That does not sound too bad.
more at financialexpress
THE GOVT MUST NOT ONLY PUNISH CORRUPT OFFICIALS, BUT CORRUPT POLITICIANS TOO Accountability has to be ascertained at all levels of work, both in the public and private sectors, so that people are scared of indulging in corrupt activities. Unless radical steps are introduced, a solution to this menace seems difficult
CORRUPTION IN public life in India has to day attained such draconian proportions that almost all major government projects in various corners of the country are get ting delayed and suffering from massive costescalations.Wehave,unfortunately ,reachedsuch a sorry state today that people consider corruption awayof life.Eveningettingpettyroutinechoresdone in government offices, such as getting clearances for constructing a house or getting a driving licence, one has to pay bribes, which does not augur well at all for thedevelopmentandfutureof thecountry .
Therefore, when the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation started its journey, my primary focus was to ensure that my team of engineers and other professionals steered clear of this evil. I knew that if corrupt officials entered DMRC, they would erode the organisationfromwithin.
Ialsobelievethatonlyregularmonitoringandtaking disciplinary action cannot eradicate corruption entirely . Therefore, I stress on value education for all employees. Whenever an employee joins the DMRC, he is given a copy of the Gita Makaranda, which contains a wonderful treatise on Bhagwad Gita teaching thesecretsof leadinganhonestlife.IstillreadtheGita regularlymyself.Alltheemployeesarealsotaughtyoga and meditation in the DMRC's training school at Shastri Park, because a healthy body is an index to a healthymind.
I am happy that the DMRC has at least been able to restoresomeof theconfidencethatthemasseshadlost inthepublicsector.However,itistheresponsibilityof theentirecountrytodaytoerasetheimageof Indiaasa corrupt nation. According to the global watchdog, TransparencyInternational,Indiaranksalowly87th among 178 nations in the world corruption index. Obviously , we have faltered badly , otherwise a great nation like ours with an illustrious history and civilisationwouldnothavereachedsuchanadir.
I am also presently heading an organisation under the name "Foundation for Restoration of National Values" (FRNV) as its president. The Foundation is dedicated to creating a more ethical and value-based leadershipinallwalksof life.Ourworkisdrivenbythe conviction that leadership with integrity creates the mostappropriateconditionsinourdemocracy ,forallroundnationaldevelopment,andthegoodof all.
more at financialexpress
The Radia recordings and WikiLeaks confirm two basic, related political insights—one global, the other more local—that have sharpened over the past decade.
The first is about the nature of power. Power in the modern world rests as much on information and its control as it does on weaponry or treasure: Besides the Seventh Fleet and Wall Street, it is the networked data server, buried deep in cyberspace, that is a repository of power. And it is the rogue memory stick, the renegade photographic image, or the on-screen financial rumour, that can acquire viral velocity and at once puncture the complacencies of markets as well as the strategies of states. In this crucial sense, what were believed to be the conventional markers of power—military might, financial muscle— remain premised for their effectiveness on legitimacy, on their sustained credibility in the realm of public opinion or of markets. If that dissipates, so too does effective power. It’s a lesson that the US has learned the hard way over the past decade; and it’s a lesson that any would-be aspirant powers need to grasp early.
more at livemint
We, in this world, are constantly striving to manage and prevent catastrophes from happening. For this, we are ready to employ great effort and technological sophistication to effectively communicate the size and scope of potential damages due to these catastrophes. However, this communication assumes that people understand what the large numbers in terms of deaths or potential harm convey and are ready to act upon them when presented with them. The question is whether people really understand large numbers.
Recent behavioural research shows that people have a very poor understanding of large numbers and often tend to underweigh the large number, especially when these numbers do not communicate any form of feeling to us. The result is that we often respond to help a single person in need on the street; however, we often fail to prevent catastrophes like mass genocides or to take appropriate measures to reduce potential damages from natural disasters like those of climate change.
more at mydigitalfc
To speak of a tsunami of scams in India today would be palpably wrong. However disastrous a tsunami’s long-term effects, it is essentially a brief phenomenon. By contrast, corruption has become an integral part of India’s life and permeates the entire bodypolitic. This term is, by no means, confined to politicians in power and their bureaucratic henchmen all too happy to collude with their venal bosses. It includes the judiciary, the media, private sector tycoons, power brokers and so on, as the Niira Radia tapes have established so eloquently. Santosh Hegde, Karnataka’s intrepid Lokayukta, has practically said so.
The corrosive menace, let us admit candidly, is not new but rather ancient. Over 2,500 years ago Kautilya could record “40 different ways in which the king’s minions would cheat him of his revenues”. Hyderabad’s charming euphemism for graft, mamool or customary, has its roots in the Mughal times, Mumbai’s substitute of it, hafta or weekly payment, in the British Raj. The trouble is that what in the past — including the earlier years of Independence — was only a trickle is now a relentless torrent. Having increased arithmetically first and then geometrically, corruption on a mammoth scale in this country is now taking a quantum jump. It has indeed become the country’s fastest growing and least-risk industry. How and why this has happened is best exemplified by the 2G spectrum scam — the mother of all scandals since the tryst with destiny.
more at deccanchronicle
The Prime Minister addressed several thorny issues this morning as he inaugurated a celebration of corporate India.
He spoke on wire-tapping and called more than once on Indian corporations to step it up on ethics, which he said included both transparency in their dealings with government, and fairness in sharing profits with the communities affected by their businesses.
We noted and were glad to see these remarks:
– “Businesses, by their very definition, need to be profitable. But the manner in which they use natural resources and the extent to which they are sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the common man is also critical to their own long-term survival and growth.”
– “Ethical and responsible behavior needs to become the cornerstone of corporate behavior, as indeed our national outlook.”
– “It is the large companies that have to set the pace in this regard. The rest of the corporate sector will quickly follow as this becomes a national norm.”
more at wsj
You media people…” when a close friend began a sentence like that and assailed journalists for focusing on scam after scam, it gave me pause.
This was especially so because the speaker is a non-political industrialist, not given to analysis of the media. His irritation started with the Commonwealth Games muddle and continued through the 2G scam, the Radia tapes and so on. “Don’t you guys ever find anything good to report?”
more at dna
One person in four worldwide paid bribe during the past year while 54 per cent Indians say they greased the palms of authorities to get things done, says a study released today to mark International Anti-Corruption Day.
"Corruption has increased over the last three years, say six out of 10 people around the world, and one in four people report paying bribes in the last year," the Berlin-based non- governmental agency, Transparency International (TI), said.
more at economictimes
SONIA GANDHI, the head of the ruling Congress party, laments that India’s “moral universe” is shrinking, as newspapers fill with ever more galling cases of political corruption. Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, says he feels like a schoolboy facing a series of agonising tests as scandals break one after another. Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group, hints that the scourge is hurting the economy; officials’ expectations of bribes, he said, put him off launching a domestic airline.
It is tempting to hope this “season of scams” will concentrate the minds of India’s leaders. This month Congress sacked two prominent officials over graft. Suresh Kalmadi, who oversaw the Commonwealth games in Delhi in October, was sent running on November 9th as evidence of dubious contracts emerged. On the same day the party also toppled Ashok Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra state, over a housing scam. His relatives and associates had taken flats in a new tower block that was supposedly set aside for veterans and war widows.
more at economist
Corruption is again dominating the news in India. Long-standing issues, such as broad attempts to avoid taxes, have simmered back to the surface and been joined by new accusations against the wealthy, major companies, and the government. Scandals have crossed finance, property, and telecom.
Crimes have been committed and the guilty should face justice. The biggest culprit, however, faces no punishment and, indeed, is looking to further recent gains. That culprit is the Indian state.
Earlier this year, criticism began to be leveled in India at the underground or “black” economy. This includes illegal activities but also legal activities that are not declared.
more at reuters
The Supreme Court (SC) has been of late seized of cases relating to alleged corruption in the allocation of 2G spectrum and appointment of PJ Thomas as chief vigilance commissioner (CVC).
While the SC decision on the matters is anxiously awaited, it was surprising to see the Union government seeking to rubbish the challenge to the charge-sheeted Thomas.
The nonchalant government said “impeccable integrity”, which Thomas allegedly lacks, could not be the only criterion for making an appointment to the high constitutional position of CVC.
more at dnaindia
Image: PJ Thomas
Corruption has scaled unimaginable heights in the reforms era driven by private capital seeking to manipulate public policy.
NOVEMBER 2010 could well go down in the history of independent India as a watershed month in terms of corruption exposes and the social and political impact they made. Revelations about multiple corruption scandals took in their sweep politicians, governments, the administrative and defence services as also national and international corporate houses and generated a sense of disquiet across the country. In the process, political heavyweights such as Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan of the Congress and Union Minister for Telecommunications A. Raja of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were forced to resign, while Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party at the Centre, fought a fierce tactical battle to continue in office. The silence and inaction of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in responding to allegations of corruption in 2G spectrum allocation involving A. Raja was questioned by the Supreme Court itself. Both Houses of Parliament came to a standstill from day one of the winter session, with the Opposition demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the allegations on 2G spectrum allocation. more at frontline
