Much has been written within India as well as outside about the ‘criminalization of that country’s politics. Financial corruption is ‘Only one aspect of the criminalization, And in that, almost all Parties and their top politicians have been found prima facie guilty. Allegations of corruption have been openly flung across about the involvement of prime minister Rao himself, But he is Not inclined to step down from the office even on moral grounds when as many as seven of his ministerial colleagues had to go out Of power to face criminal charges.
Besides, sensing Rao’s obviously partisan behavior towards some of the accused in the “hawala” cases, the Indian Supreme Court has ordered the C.B.I. not to report to the prime minister on the progress of the Hawala investigations nor seek any directions from him. This it was sufficient for Rao to tender his resignation but he did nothing of the sort. It is clear that the prime minister is not entirely clean on this matter, Not long ago, Harshad Mehta, a top Bombay based share broker, had publicly alleged that he had personally bribed Rao with Rs 1 crore. The broker was somehow silenced and the allegation went without any follow up action, however, the world public opinion is not much moved by charges of financial misdeeds of politicians and Officers in the developing world. But it reacts when there is sufficient material to prove charges of murder, rape etc. against those in authority because the criminality of that nature amounts of the denial of human rights of the victims. It is an open secret that India’s prime minister and his so-called “P.M. House” issues secret directions to police officers in states like Punjab and Kashmir about whom to kill and whom not to kill in mostly fake encounters. That kind of secret authority clearly explains why men like K.P.S. Gill could flagrantly violate instructions issued by their immediate superiors like a state’s governor or chief minister. This cozy arrangement between the police chief of a state like Punjab and “prime minister house” (it is called “house” because the prime minister does not directly issue kill orders but he routes his orders through officers working under the prime Minister) also does not prick the world’s conscience perhaps because the system of command does not get publicized and understood by the public. For that at least, Sikh leadership is partly to blame because it does not care to cultivate the local media and leaders of public opinion. But criminalization of the Indian state and its top leadership is not a compartmentalized Affair limited only to killing a few thousand Sikhs or Muslims or pocketing a few billion rupees. It appears from the latest media.
Reports from India that the skeletons in Indian leaders’ cupboards are about to fall out. ‘The reports are that the Indian investigating agency, C.B.L., is in possession of proof to show that Chandraswamy had links with criminals and leaders of the underworld such as Babloo Srivastava and Dand Khan also were engaged in smuggling of arms and narcotics on the one hand and contract killings on the other, A lot of questions have been put to Chandraswamy about his involvement in the Rajiy murder case in the course of proceedings before the Jain enquiry commission going into the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. It transpires that Swamy himself faced charges of fraud while he was operating in Andhra Pradesh a few decades ago, and had to go to jail at least once on criminal charges. This man now is prime minister Rao’s religious Guru, Not only that, He was earlier regarded quite close to Rajiv Gandhi and Chander Shekhar, Chandraswamy, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao were also involved at one stage to frame Y.P. Singh in trumped up charges of having maintained a secret bank account in St. Kitt’s island, The material in possession of the CBI links Chandraswamy with Babloo, a notorious contract killer, Not long ago, the then home minister, Rajesh Pilot had ordered the arrest of Chandraswamy but the CBI took no such action. In fact, Pilot had to go out of the home department as he fell afoul of Rao, If Chandraswamy is finally arrested, and it is hoped in India that the full dimensions of the relations between him and India’s three prime ministers as well as his activities will be out. Much light is thus likely to be shed on the nexus between India’s prime minister/ministers and the world of crime including murder.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1996
