POLITICS-INDIA: Jail for Ex-Premier No Help to Anti-Corruption Campaign

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 13 2000 (IPS) - The award of a three-year jail term to a former Indian prime minister will not deter wrongdoers in high places in the country, said media commentators, even as others alleged political vendetta behind the conviction.

The jail sentence Thursday for former premier P.V. Narasimha, who ushered in radical economic changes nine years ago, followed the conviction, earlier in the week, of a charismatic southern political leader, also on bribery charges.

Foes of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in opposition to Rao’s Congress party, saw in the two convictions an attempt to gain political advantage for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s alliance.

Rao and his former cabinet colleague Buta Singh were found guilty of bribing four lawmakers of a small regional party, to support Rao’s then minority Congress government, during a July 1993 parliament confidence vote.

” The best way to discourage corruption in public life is to award exemplary punishment to the high ranking public servants in order to send a message to the society that corruption is not a high-return, low- risk business, but it is really high-risk business,” observed Ajit Bharihoke, who awarded the punishment.

The former prime minister had “tried to purchase the right to remain in power and rule the country,” the judge said. “The act by its very nature amounts to cutting the roots of the democratic system provided by the Indian Constitution,” he added.

However, Rao and Singh were granted bail till Nov. 8, so they could appeal against the sentence in a higher court.

The Communist Party of India (CPI), which prides itself for having no hand in shady dealings, saw political victimisation at work. “Corruption is too entrenched in the system and what we are seeing may just be political vendetta at work,” said senior CPI leader, D. Raja.

Rao himself claimed, during his trial, that he was being victimised by the BJP-led government.

According to Vineet Narain, a leading social campaigner against corruption in high places, Rao was punished because he was not smart enough like other politicians.

“Surely, it it is not for subverting our parliamentary system of governance that Mr Rao faces a three-year jail term? The truth is that the hapless Mr Rao did not cover his tracks well enough,” said the daily, ‘The Times of India’.

“Political corruption did not begin with Mr Rao, nor is it likely to end with him. He is as much victim as exploiter of the web of corruption which involves us all,” the newspaper added in an editorial Friday.

CPI leader Raja alleged that the government had a hand in Rao’s conviction. “After all, the government is the final arbiter not only in the matter of enquiry and investigation but also in the case of prosecution and termination of trial in important cases,” he asserted.

Another top Indian political leader, Jayalalitha Jayaraman, former chief minister of southern Tamil Nadu state, was found guilty earlier this week, of using public office for personal gain.

The BJP’s rivals alleged that Jayalalitha was made to ‘pay’ the price for toppling Vajpayee’s former government two years ago. Jayalalitha’s regional group had pulled out of the BJP-led coalition, forcing a mid-term poll last year, which brought Vajpayee’s alliance back to office for a second term.

Jayalalitha’s party was expected to do well in state assembly elections due early next year in Tamil Nadu. However, her conviction may prevent her from contesting and is seen as a major setback for the party and its allies who are ranged against a key BJP regional partner.

The convicted former prime minister is also embroiled in a much older forgery case, where he is accused of having used false documents, when he was home minister, to implicate a former ministerial colleague in a foreign exchange regulation violation crime.

The charges against Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who was Rao’s cabinet colleague, too were believed linked to political vendetta. Singh’s dismissal as finance minister 13 years ago by then premier Rajiv Gandhi, was said to be linked to Singh’s crusade against corruption.

According to Arun Kumar, professor of economics at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and an expert on corruption, Singh’s was the first and last ever serious attempt to break the nexus between corrupt bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians.

The late Gandhi was himself involved in the country’s most famous corruption case involving multi-million dollar paybacks by Swedish arms maker Bofors, to clinch a deal to supply howitzers to the Indian Army.

The Bofors case swept Gandhi’s Congress party from office in the 1989 national election and brought Singh into office as prime minister at the head of a non-Congress government.

The Bofors case was put into cold storage by subsequent Congress governments. But early October, Indian investigators finally started criminal proceedings against the Britain-based Hinduja businessmen brothers, for having received commissions to expedite the Bofors gun deal.

According to Kumar, corruption is common in high places in India because political parties need large sums of money for contesting elections.

“Until a system of legally funding political parties is put in place, politicians cannot be expected to take apart a system which assures them enormous sums of freely spendable cash,” he said.