SILENCE OVER SCAMS
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    • SILENCE OVER SCAMS
    When the AICC met recently, there were whispers that AICC President Sonia Gandhi will come down heavily on Ashok Chavan, Maharashtra CM embroiled in a land scam involving ex Generals, Public Servants who allegedly conspired to take possession of flats meant to be allotted to war heroes of Kargil. Ashok Chavan on his part offered to resign in a private audience but not before exposing the claimants to the chair of their complicity in the scam in yesteryears. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde   RR Patil of NCP, were all alleged to have bye passed established norms and conventions. worse some of them including the CM had allotted flats to their own kith and kin. AICC instead breathed fire at RSS, whose pracharak Inderkumar Singh was named by ATS, Rajasthan in the Ajmer blast case. None the less, A committee of two eminent congressmen AK Antony and Pranab have been asked to study the scam whereas all details are now available in Public domain. Probably Arnab Goswami will be having more details than AHQ. But the nonchalance with which the issue is treated has exposed the war cries of Sonia Gandhi. She has been wrongly advised to soft pedal an issue which will snow ball in to a major irritant in the not so distant future. Having a PM with an aura of impeccability, alone will not suffice Madam, you will have to act on charges of corruption with an iron hand.

    The Other scam which has been hogging media highlight is the 2G spectrum scam. It is alleged that CAG has made startling revelations about loss of more than a lakh of crores of Rupees to the Exchequer. Subramanian Swamy is seeking PM's permission to prosecute Telecom Minister Raja Supreme Court admonishes CBI for a shoddy trial while the media happily hunts for the Minister.

    If we turn back, it was during NDA regime, Telecom was opened up. Telecom Companies treaded mad in to this sector quoting licence fees of phenomenal amounts. After licences were issued, the industry cried foul having found revenue tickling in slowly below their expectations. The then Telecom Minister late Pramod Mahajan bartered a deal for change over to revenue sharing regime, for an obvious quid pro quo but that went almost unnoticed because it was claimed to be in the interests of a nascent Industry. So much for risk and risk taking.

    Arun Shourie had been a votary of fight against corruption at high places during his days with Indian Express. How can any one forget his daily columns on every PSU deal and the attendant corruption ? Bofors happened when he had lost much of his steam so that a conservative news paper like The Hindu took charge of investigating the scam. When Shourie became Divestment Minister, he sold a couple of Hotels of ITDC to Ajit Kekkar a man kicked out by Ratan Tata and Batra specialities. Shourie even recommended a bank loan to Kekkar. Both of them sold the hotels for a cool profit NO CAG no mention about robbing the exchequer.

    Raja claims that he sold spectrum in a manner not so transparent with specific knowledge and permission of the PM which the PM is either yet to confirm nor deny. He claims that the cartel of private sector Telecom companies are crying for his blood for he broke the cartel. PM is silent. Either he should have sacked Raja or should have come to his defence. He did neither but his image remains unsullied.

    The usurping of flats meant for War heroes by the powerful men is shameful and they should be given exemplary punishment. UPA should not divert the attention to other issues which may also be important but attempts to dilute the charges will be counter productive. 
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