Joginder Singh
Former Director- CBI

There are a lot of Hindi Sayings, which are applicable to a number of cases, handled by the CBI. One is also the title of the Hindi Movie, Choor Machieye Shoor, and not only the Choor Machieya Shor, but also our Chhors indulging in Pehley Chori, and Phir Seena Zoori. One of the lessons of Gita, the Best Hindu Scripture, that the greatest wonder, of the wonder, is that people should see others dying, but somehow believe, that they would be spared and death will either bye pass or forget or spare them. This is what exactly, all scamsters feel, that they would be able to get away, literally with the murder, or their misdeeds forgotten or would never come to light.. One after the frauds have been hitting our polity. The only difference is that the earlier ones look like pea nuts in front of the later ones. The Telecommunication Case involving the then Communication Minister, in 1996, looks like an apology, in front of the 2 G Scam. Gone are the days of single or two digit corruption and malpractices of thousands. This is the age of thousands of Crores. Credit should go to CBI for doing an excellent job in unravelling the present case. Leadership counts, but any major case is team work. It is a hard reality, that left to itself, the Government would have ended the matter , by setting up a Committee or a Commission, but for the Supreme Court directly monitoring the case.

The media was crying hoarse, for nearly 2 years, before, the then Communication Minister, was packed off, case investigated, chargesheeted and the fountain of the entire misdeed sent first to CBI custody and later on to Judicial Custody. Despite various Statements made from time to time, there is a strong ring of protection, put in 2004, during the tenure of NDA Government, where in, as per the CVC Act, even before starting an inquiry against officers of the level of Joint Secretary and above, the permission of the Central Government is needed. This is apart from the sanction for prosecution, which is required after the investigation of a case is over. A friend jocularly remarked, on this, that in other words, CBI is independent, only in taking action against peons, clerks and Assistants. The CBI’s strength has remained static at about 6000 with 30% vacancies. Nobody wants to strengthen CBI, either by giving independence under the law or making it a Constitutional Body like the Election Commission or Constitutional Court. A new concept has been introduced in the governance, that is Coalition Dharma. Broadly speaking, it means inaction against any Minister of the coalition partners, on whose support government is ruling. This approach, so far has meant giving a blank licence to any partner to look the National Treasury, ostensible for its or his own pockets.

It is amazing how a two dozen supporters can corner a party 9 times their strength. However, when the Government wanted nuclear deal through, it went ahead and defied nearly 50 left MP’s who wanted to pull it down. This story of telecommunication scams is an evolving and many corporates names have either come up or are being raised. Now in continuation of this, another Maran Story is developing. Maran was also a communication Minister. As no formal CBI case or cases have been registering, the part relating to the DAYANIDHI MARAN IS BASED on media reports. Investigation is a painstaking task, with wheels within the wheels, which have to be untangled. Besides, looking into high profile cases, with powerful politicians involved, first the effort of the Government would be to support its cronies. In the event of any Constitutional Courts taking cognisance of it, is to play it down. Both visible and invisible, and undetectable pressures come to play. The position of the CBI Boss, and this is at least what I felt becomes unenviable. I cannot say anything about the present Boss, nor it refers to him in this context. What I am saying is that based on my own experience. It could not have become better now, since it was 15 years back, It is nothing unique with the present Government, as all Governments irrespective of the party in power, have been trying to put corruption under the wraps, both in the State and Centre. However, credit goes to media, which by and large has stood for intolerance to any malfeasance and corruption and has not shied from doing its duty. This is despite the fact, that there are no special rights against defamation, unlike the United States, where their Congress ( Parliament ) in USA has been prohibited under the Constitution, not to make any laws abridging the freedom of the press. The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff, as Telecommunication Minister’s Communications to Prime Minister Showed. The Government must bear in mind that honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence. There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty. The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and he who attempts to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in one domain and sometimes in the other. Politicians should be beware of the half truth. They may have gottten hold of the wrong half. Honesty pays, but it does not seem to pay enough to suit some people. Our leaders must remember that one of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

India has become a land of Scams. An analysis of the Scams committed since 1992 reveal that these scams involved huge money. Let us evaluate in monetary terms the magnitude of these Scams. Since the Government has not made any assessment of the money involved in the scams officially, the following is the rough estimate. No claim is made that it is absolutely accurate to the last Paisa. It probably leans on lighter side. In any case, the list is only illustrative, not exhaustive.

The monetary value ( Approximate and not exact figures)of the Scams committed since 1992 are as follows:-
1992 — Harshad Mehta Scam was worth Rs 5000 Crores.
1994 — Sugar Import Scam was worth Rs 650 Crores.
1995 — Preferential Allotment Scam was worth Rs 5000 Crores.
1995 — Yugoslav Dinar scam was worth Rs 400 Crores.
1995 — Meghalay Forest Scam was worth Rs 300Crores.
1996 — Fertilisers Import Scam was worth 1300 Crores.
1997 — Sukhram telecom Scam was worth Rs 400 Crores.
1997 — Lavalin Power project Scam was worth Rs 374 Crores.
1997 — Bihar Land Scam was worth 1200 Crores
1997 — C R Bhansali stock scam was worth Rs 1200 Crores.
1998 — Teak Plantation Scam was worth rs 8000 Crores.
2001 — UTI Scam was Rs 4800 Crores.
2001 — Dinesh Dalmia Stock Scam was worth Rs 596 Crores.
2001 — Ketan Parekh security scam was worth Rs 1250 Crores.
2002 — Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade Scam was worth Rs 600 Crores.
2003 — Telgi Stamp paper Scam was worth Rs 32000 Crores.
2005 — IPO Demat Scam was worth Rs 146 Crores.
2005 — Bihar food relief Scam was worth 17 crores.
2005 — Scorpene submarine Scam was worth Rs 18,978 crores.
2006 — Punjab’s city centre project scam
2006 — Taj Corridor Scam was worth 175 Crores.
2008 — Pune Billionaire Hasan Ali tax default scam was worth Rs 50,000 crores.
2008 – Satyam Scam was worth Rs 10.000 Crores.
2008 — Army Ration Pilferage Scam was worth Rs 5000 crores.
2G Spectrum Scam was worth Rs 60.000 Crores.
2008 — State Bank of Saurashtra Scam was worth Rs 95 crores.
2008 — Illegal money in Swiss Bank is worth Rs 71,00,000 Crores.
2009 — Jharkhand Medical equipment scam was worth Rs 130 Crores.
2009 — Rice export scam was worth Rs 2500 crores.
2009 — Orissa Mine scam was worth Rs 7000 crores.
2009 — Madhu Koda scam was worth Rs 4000 crores.
2010 – IPL fraud involving swine called Lalit Modi option was worth?
2010 — Commonwealth Games loot is worth? ( Estimated to be a loot of Rs, 70000 crores, though it must be admitted that some part of the money was spent on the games, which were held between 3rd to 14th October, 2010.)

If we go by the integrity score of India, that is 33 out of 100, by the transparency international then the calculation shows that 67% of 70000 crores was siphoned off. 2G Spectrum Scam was worth Rs 1,75.000 Crores, according to the CAG.

The total monetary worth of the Scam committed since 1992 in India is worth more than around Rs 2,00,00,000 crores (Two Lakhs Crores).

If you analyze, these scams, using your commonsense, you would come to the conclusion that the real thieves robbing our Country are essentially to a major degree , politicians, industrialists and stock broking, dalals of dalal street.

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