By
Md. Zeyaul Haque, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, Aug 6 (IslamOnline) - The “ petrol pump allotment scam,”
the latest in an unending series of scandals involving official
corruption, rocked the two houses of the Indian parliament Tuesday,
August 6, 2002, forcing adjournment for the day.
The
Congress Party has termed it the largest-ever scam in India's history,
involving Rs 25 billion [US$ 520 million], a staggering amount for a
country which, despite its great potential, has a per capita GDP of a
paltry $500. That much money has changed hands in allotment of petrol
pumps to supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all
over the country.
The
Indian Express newspaper has been exposing this mind-boggling scam bit
by bit since last week. By now the exposure has covered only a few
states. The scam involves allotments of a total of 1144 petrol pumps,
1788 LPG outlets and 236 kerosene agencies across the country.
The
Congress Party, along with the rest of the Opposition, is determined
to stall Parliament’ s proceedings in coming days to confront the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which leads the
coalition government at Center, and whose members have almost
exclusively benefited from the scam. BJP called itself a "party
with difference". But now it seems it's no different from the
Congress Party whose scandals, like Bofors, it exploited to the hilt
to win voters.
The
scam has horrified many people otherwise desensitized by recurring
episodes of loot of public money by politicians and bureaucrats.
Retired
judges of the Supreme Court are a taciturn lot, but Justice Kuldip
Singh, who retired from the apex court last year, broke the convention
Sunday, August 4, when he declared that the nation should hang its
head in shame as the entire system has been subverted by the ruling
party in a “ deliberate attempt” to help its cadres.
Justice
Singh’ s reaction is particularly important as he had similarly
reacted to a similar (but far smaller) act of the Petroleum Minister
in a Congress ministry in his 1996 judgment. Justice Singh said, the
present scam was decidedly worse. He called it a “ dangerous
trend.”
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A petrol pump in India_ up for
grabs |
Stung
by public criticism, the Prime Minister Monday, August 5, canceled all
allotments of petrol pumps and allied dealerships issued since 2000,
when the present government came to power. However, this was not
enough to pacify the Opposition, which ferreted out details of a
dealership given to someone who had declared the Prime Minister’ s
Lucknow address as the one from where he operated.
The
Opposition feels that the cancellation may not amount to anything as
the beneficiaries of the scam would move courts to stay the executive
order. As has been government practice, its usual half-hearted
attitude in challenging the court cases would ensure that the
executive order is struck down by courts.
An
agitated Opposition has been baying for Central Petroleum Minister Ram
Naik’ s blood, but Naik looked unfazed. The reason is that,
according to latest revelations, he had been only carrying it out the
orders of powerful people in BJP like Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani.
Naik
has been found to be working as per rules in the earlier part of his
career as minister. However, top BJP leaders forced him to bend rules
in favor of party functionaries and their relatives.
The
country has not heard the last on the issue, which in its awesome
scope and scale of official corruption is seen as the mother of all
scams. The Congress Party has promised to come up with damaging proof
of involvement of the highest functionaries of BJP and central
government. Some of it will be placed before Parliament on Wednesday,
August 7
