LEFT parties have estimated that former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his ministers are involved in scams of more than Rs 50,000 crore. The CPI and CPI (M) said today that they were determined to bring Rao and the criminal nexus behind the scams to book. The CPI (M) has pre pared a document listing the major scams of the Rao regime. If all the scandal were to be put together, the amount siphoned off by this criminal nexus would amount to many times more than the loans taken from foreign banks and institutions, “CPI (M) Politburo member Prakash Karat re marked.” Rao and Sukh Ram are only the latest in a line of 17 former Congress ministers who stand indicted in corruption cases involving a total of more than Rs 50,000 crore, according to the CPI. As many as 15 of them had to resign most of them reluctantly after their involvement became to public to be brushed under the carpet.

The first sign of trouble came with the attempt to interfere with the Bofors investigations, Madhavsinh Solanki (then foreign minister, who was later accommodated as Congress general secretary) was forced to resign. Even before the hue cry over the issue died down, the Rs 10,000 crore bank scam exploded. The government was forced to appoint a Joint Parliamentary Committee JB which indicted, among others, four cabinet ministers, one former governor, two deputy governors of the Reserve Bank of India and several other banks and stockbrokers. The foreign banks involved were let off with token fines and the authorities indicated that they did not want to prosecute them lest the country’s free market image was affected. The LEFT parties have estimated that disinvestment of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s) conducted in a question able manner, has resulted in a loss of Rs 15,000 crore. “The railway scam was another case that involved several crore rupees. The then railway minister, Jaffer Sharief, who had come under a cloud for many deals continued in office until he finally resigned for political reasons. The sugar scam, which ultimately led to the resignation of Kalpnath Rai, resulted thousands of crores being siphon off through price manipulations which affected the consumer directly. Also deserving of special mention are the Enron deal, the Bailadjla mines scam and the sale of proven oil wells to private par ties. The telecom scam was one which saw the Left parties and the Janata Dal point accusing fingers at the Rao government. Rao had then staunchly defended the telecom policy and Sukh Ram in Parliament. Now, several crores of rupee have been discovered at the various houses owned by Sukh Ram. The urea deal, which was finalized in the last year of Rao’s five year rule, is so far the last scam to come to light But worst was the Hawala sca through which unaccounted money was converted into foreign currency and used for payroll and further illegal deals. The discovery of only one diary of business man S. K. Jain (in which hawala transactions were recorded) led to the resignations of no less than six high profile ministers, including Balram Jhakar, Kamal Nath, Rao Scindia. The CPI (M) has also demanded speedy investigation in the St Kitts Affair (in which Rao has been accused of forgery) and the JMM bribery case.

Article extracted from this publication >>  September 25, 1996