Balram Jakhar, the speaker of Lok Sabha is the kingpin in the ruling party’s machinations against the Opposition within Parliament where his power is all supreme. But he can wield his power over Congressmen as well, if it is to his advantage. This perception of Jakhar should be borne in mind when we talk about the expose by Indian Express that marks him as the Chief abettor in the fraud perpetrated on the Indian public to the extent of Rs4 crore and more all in the name of the Indian farmer!
Clearly, Jakhar has something to gain or has already gained, monetarily or otherwise, in associating himself with two dubious organizations with foreign links, namely Fometa India Machines Pvt Ltd and Sanjeevani Fodder Productions Pvt. Ltd. That these two are not really separate corporate entities was brought out clearly by Rajul Pathak of Express and this would have been apparent to anyone who visited room No 1243 of Sea rock Hotel, Bombay, from where they operated. Infect, visiting cards of some of the company personnel carry the names of both the firms.
The joint scheme of Jakhar, John Brady, a U.S. born Spanish businessman and proprietor of the Spanish company Fometa Overseas SA, and Radhika Nanda Gallardi who runs a garment business in Hong Kong and is the wife of Bruno Gallardi the financial adviser to Brady’s Spanish outfit had its origins in this room of the Bombay hotel in 1985. Brady had floated Fometa (India) as a joint venture with Fometa Overseas having 40 percent share in it, while Ms Gallardi promoted Sanjeeyani. Brady also became the technical adviser to Sanjeevani.
The scheme was to somehow get this “wonder” gadget of Brady, which is claimed to make fodder without soil, imported in large numbers into this country so as to enable this enormous fraud that involved cheating Indian financial institutions, evasion of customs duty, drain of foreign exchange and taking the country’s judiciary for a Tidetobe committed.
“Byidence of Jakhar exercising his influence as the speaker of Lok Sabhais clear from the fact that he had addressed letters on the Lok Sabha letterhead to Chief Ministers, irrespective of whether they belong to the Congress i or the Opposition.”
It all started with Fometa (India) Sanjeevani applying for an industrial license in April 1985 to manufacture fodder machines in the country based on the “technology” of Fometa Overseas. Getting an industrial licence, ever if it is to manufacture the moon, isso simple in our country that it is no big surprise that Fometa was granted this license. As a first step towards this “technology transfer” the firm sought to import 50 machines from Fometa Overseas. This application was, however, nightly rejected in fact more than once by the Ministry Of Finance because the machine is already being manufactured indigenously. But Brady, using Jakhar’s influence, falsely claimed that no such machines were available in the country and permission to import was granted through “special cases section” of the licensing authority.
* The grant of this import licence, gross violation of all import regulations aside, constitutes a unique case of licence being issued against a hotel address because at that time the outfit had nothing else let along any technology which would be used to manufacture. Once this licence was got, Fometa (India) Sanjeevani began scouting for funds to import these machines, Particularly from the Industrial Development Bank of India.
It was during this period that one of the Indian manufacturing companies, Chemical Process Equipments Pvt Ltd Deonar, Bombay, got scent of the goings ‘on in the finance ministry and made several representations in a bid to stop this irregular import before Fometa Sanjeevani could tap the financial sources in the country, But, as is to be expected, the Bombay firm could do little in the bureaucratic setup of North Block which was in the stranglehold of Jakhar. So it filed a writ, in the Delhi high court against the government’s decision allowing Brady to import these machines,
When Brady and his “fodder friends”, namely Jakhar the Indian collaborator and Ms Gallardi of Sanjeevani Fodder Productions Ltd saw that they were on infirm ground against the writ, they succeeded in buying off the Indian manufacturer under pressure of harassment. The Bombay manufacturer too, to avoid the constant shuttling between Bombay and Delhi to fight the case and to escape the harassment, succumbed to the deal by which he stood to gain much more than he would have earned by selling his fodder machines, four of which he barely managed to sell a year.
‘What are these “magic” machines which promise to produce fodder the year round and during all climatic conditions? If one looks at the working of these machines carefully these are patently fraudulent claims. As an equipment, the object is nothing more than an air-conditioned (22 feet by 9 feet by 12 feet) fibre glass chamber which can be used for various purposes, including camp offices during election because these can easily be converted into comfortable mobile living rooms. In fact, the offices in the Fometa (India) factory premises in Gummidipoondi, 40 kilometers off Madras, are made of the very same chambers that Brady proposes to make fodder in,
As fodder making machines how do they operate? The walls of the chamber are fitted with perforated pipes running all around at three levels. Just below each level of piping ranks can be fitted such that trays can be placed on them. In each tray large number of grass bearing seeds like barley are placed. Through the pipes water mixed with nutrients like diammonium phosphate and chlorine is pumped and, naturally when nutrients are being directly supplied in this form there is no need for soil. But this is no great shakes. Anyone who grows plants in a laboratory knows it. If it was a viable technology everybody you and I, will be manufacturing it! It doesn’t require a Jakhar Brady Gallardi combine for this.
But nobody follows this because you need enormous amount of power to keep the air conditioner which keeps the ambient temperature constant, running, and, second, to pump the water into the chamber. Since you cannot do without water it is a blatant lie to say that it will give fodder under all climate conditions. Where will you get water during drought? In addition, does the Indian farmer have the wherewithal to buy expensive nutrients and exotic seeds? And what about the maintenance problems and expenses for such machinery in the countryside?
Evidence of Jakhar exercising his influence as the speaker of Lok Sabha is clear from the fact that he had addressed letters on the Lok Sabha letterhead to chief ministers, irrespective of whether they belong to the Congress I or the Opposition, recommending Bradyware for the various farming cooperatives in the states and to others like PC Alexander Governor of Tamil Nadu to get around the legalities involved in securing subsides and land for setting up the factory in the industrial area in Gummidipoondi which SIPCOT of the Tamil Nadu government had refused initially.
What has not been brought out very well is the fact that Jakhar’sinfluencealso played a very prominent role in Sanjeevani Fodder Productions Fometa (India) securing loans from the IDBI. When under the speaker’s pressure the state financial institutions like the APIDC and the APSFC of Andra Pradesh, the RIICO of Rajasthan and PIICUP of Uttar Pradesh were willing to stand guarantee for various amounts against Brady’s claim of sale proceeds and profits the IDBI must have released these amounts of money in foreign exchange. This amounted to a total of Rs 3.74 crore which was released under orders from the ministry of commerce where again Jakhar seems to have played his role as speaker.
Jakhar’s hand seems to be everywhere. When the hurdle of finances was sorted out to his satisfaction he stepped in to influence the Ministry Of Finance in exempting the Bradyware from import duty of 95 percent, amounting to Rs 3.6 crore. When the ministry resisted, Jakhar came out with the most astounding argument of all, that the imported machines will be donated to Bharat Krishak Samaj (BKS) (whose founder is Jakhar himself) and, therefore, under the condition that the BKS would bear the customs duty and since BKS cannot afford to bear the duty levied, the machines should be exempt from duty.
This donation bit was altogether from the blue. There had been no mention of this in the original proposal for manufacture or application for import! From manufacturing the machines it had come to importing and donating, Why in the world would a foreigner take loans in foreign exchange to the tune of four crore to import goods and then simply donate them away. running the risk of prosecution by the financial institutions unless he is sure that he would be shielded under adverse circumstances? Also, it goes against all norms of institutions like the IDBI to give loans for import of goods, which is tantamount to the goods being hypothecated to them to be eventually given away as gifts.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 30, 1989
