The UPA coalition’s ninth anniversary on May 22, already shadowed by serial scams, has come under further cloud as an error in the nomination papers filed by the Prime Minister for a fifth Rajya Sabha term from Assam on May 15, are scrutinized on May 21, 2013. Manmohan Singh had disappointed critics who hoped he would be axed after Congress president Sonia Gandhi forced the exit of his loyalists Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar from the Union cabinet.
Though Singh crossed that hiccup with equanimity, he could now be felled over a small mistake over his age in his personal affidavit. This could be karmic comeback for the scandalous and insensitive manner in which the entire establishment handled the controversy over the age of former Army Chief VK Singh, who was born in 1951 as per records of the military hospital where he was born; was erroneously recorded as being born in 1952 by an Army branch that should have corrected the mistake once it was discovered; but was humiliated and ousted because the regime had no use for honest men. The Supreme Court sided with Attorney General GE Vahanvati’s judgment that the ‘line of succession’ should not be disturbed and made the General withdraw his petition. Yet even after Vahanvati’s proven complicity in tampering the CBI report in the Coal Scam, the Apex Court has not suggested that the officer should step down.
Now, the ‘age controversy’ is back to haunt India’s most silent Prime Minister. According to his official website, Singh was born on September 26, 1932; a date maintained by him in all records so far, and which makes him around 80 years 7 months old.
However, in the affidavit filed along with his papers as a Rajya Sabha candidate from Assam on Wednesday, the Prime Minister mentioned his age as 82 years. Now, as the nomination papers come up for scrutiny on May 21, it remains to be seen if the Assembly secretary accepts them, or the Prime Minister has to bow out of office on June 14, the day his current term in the House expires.
While former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta feels this is just carelessness on the part of the Prime Minister or the person who drafted the affidavit, some lawyers feel that age mismatch violates the spirit of the People’s Representation Act and that the Election Commission could have a different view.
With an inadvertent frisson of excitement thus added to the ninth anniversary, it may be in order to revisit some promises made by the Prime Minister in the light of the scams littering his long tenure in office.
A year ago (May 29, 2012), returning from a trip to Myanmar, Singh told newsmen: “I will give up my public career” and face any punishment “if there’s even an element of truth in Team Anna’s charges. It is unfortunate that irresponsible allegations are being made without confirming the facts.” He was referring to a press conference by Team Anna a few days previously, where a charge-sheet was produced against 15 Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister, with specific reference to the coal mine allocation scam.
Singh even read out a prepared statement on the subject (surprising, as this was supposed to be an informal conversation with journalists on board his aircraft): “First of all the charges that have been levied against me in my capacity as a Coal Minister for sometime, I believe that the Coal Minister has given out a statement. The Coal Ministry’s case is on the website of the ministry. And I can be therefore very brief. There have been reports about the allocation of coal blocks based on leaked portions of a draft CAG report on the issue. We have also received a letter on the same subject. The Coal Minister has given factual details in response to these allegations and the Coal Ministry has put up all the information on its website. We have not yet received the CAG report. When we do, the government will submit its detailed factual response before the Public Accounts Committee as per constitutional procedure. Uninformed allegations and discussions based on leaked drafts are unfortunate.
“As regards to other 14 colleagues of mine, I will only say that it is unfortunate that irresponsible allegations are being made without confirming the facts”.
Since then, much water has flown under the Coalgate bridge, and it has been conclusively established in open court that the UPA Government (then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Attorney-General Goolam Vahanvati and others) actively interfered with a criminal investigation to obstruct the course of justice.
As everyone knows by now, the Prime Minister himself held the Coal portfolio between 2006 and 2009, the period when the impugned allocations of coal blocks were made, about which the Comptroller & Auditor General claims the exchequer suffered a loss of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore.
The Internet is ablaze with lists of scams that broke out at various times since independence. Some notable scandals pertaining to the UPA include the Rs. 1.76 lakh crore 2G Spectrum scam where communication bandwidth was auctioned at far lower prices than prevailing market value; the IGI airport scam where the Central Government lost Rs. 1.66 lakh crore due to undue favours to a private consortium; the Jobs for Sale scam in the Railway Board (for which Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had to quit); and the Italian chopper deal scam involving ex Air Chief SP Tyagi.
Previous major UPA scams include in 2012, the Service Tax and Central Excise Duty fraud (Rs. 19,159 cr); the Highway scam (Rs. 70 cr); the MSTC gold export scam (Rs 464 cr). The year 2011 saw the scrapped ISRO-Devas S-band scam (Rs. 200,000 cr); the NTRO scam (Rs 800 cr); KG Basin oil scam.
In 2010 we had the Commonwealth Games scam and the Indian Premier League scam; in 2008 there was the famous Cash for Vote scandal and the Hasan Ali black money in tax havens scam; proceeded by the Navy war room leak and the Oil for Food scam in 2005.
The UPA has thus had a truly memorable scam-tainted tenure, and we have not yet accounted for disappearing monies under the farmers loan waivers, direct subsidy transfers, MNREGA misuse, tax not collected from crony capitalists, bank loans written off as bad debt, etc. The list is virtually endless.
NitiCentral.com, 18 May 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/05/18/has-manmohan-singh-scored-a-self-goal-79152.html
