On The spot
Tavleen Singh
Ever since Arvind Kejriwal launched his attack on Robert Vadra I have found myself running into a lot of very nervous politicians in Delhi’s corridors of power. This nervousness crosses party lines and is caused by the fear that if someone as politically well connected as Mr. Vadra can get caught for shady business dealings with a company as powerful as DLF then what will happen to those who are not well connected. They are right to be scared because the ugly truth is that what Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law was doing was really no different to what most Indian politicians do all the time: use their political connections to make money.
As this column has pointed out often there is no easier way to become a millionaire in India than through politics. The possibilities are limitless and start to become available even before you, or a close relative, get elected. As someone who has covered more elections than I can count I have observed that no sooner does someone declare that he or she is standing for election than the moneymaking opportunities begin to become evident. Those who have rich friends consider it legitimate to approach them for ‘election funds’. The rich friends are usually happy to oblige. If the candidate wins a seat in the Lok Sabha or in a state legislature then he becomes useful to those who have invested in his campaign and if he is lucky enough to become a minister then his usefulness improves by leaps and bounds. An interesting detail that I have observed on election campaigns is that as soon as a candidate notices that he might be losing he stops spending the money he has collected so that one way or another he is richer simply from having entered the political arena. Everyone knows that moneymaking practices cross party lines.
Everyone also knows that it is the discretionary powers ministers, and especially chief ministers, have to distribute land to companies like DLF that is a source of great riches. So all that poor Mr. Vadra did was follow established practices. He used his powerful political connections to do business with DLF that apparently was beneficial to both him and DLF. So beneficial in Mr. Vadra’s case that in a very short time his business grew so phenomenally as to make him worth hundreds of crore rupees instead of a paltry Rs 50 lakhs. His problem is that he has not been able to explain where so much money came from. Nor have the battery of important ministers that have batted for him on television chat shows and absolved him of wrongdoing on the grounds that he was a ‘private citizen’.
They convinced nobody and the result is that Kejriwal has become a hero in urban, middle class India and this will certainly boost the prospects of his nascent political party. He has become a hero because he is seen to be asking the questions that established opposition parties should have been asking long ago but could not. If the Bharatiya Janata Party started questioning how Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law has become such a rich man in such a short time there would inevitably arise similar questions asked about the progeny of their own senior leaders. If BJP leaders start making too much noise about corruption there could arise uncomfortable questions about their own chief ministers. Many skeletons lie hidden in secret cupboards.
In the plethora of TV chat shows that Kejriwal’s revelations about Mr. Vadra inspired there were those who said that he was wrong to make a political campaign based on ‘insinuations and innuendo’. But, was he wrong? Personally, I am no fan of Kejriwal or his causes. I do not believe that a Lok Pal can solve India’s corruption problems and I do believe that his campaign to get people to stop paying their electricity bills has in it the seeds of anarchy. If Kejriwal’s party ever comes to power he may pay a heavy price for his methods but having said this I believe the questions he has raised about Mr. Vadra’s business dealings are valid.
It is not just about Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law that such questions should be asked but about the mysterious wealth that suddenly accrues to the relatives of nearly every important Indian political leader. Most political parties today are led by leaders who have brought their children and other relations into politics on the strength of their popular appeal. If questions are asked about how their wives, children and relations make so much money so quickly that even those of ‘humble background’ can afford to buy cars worth crores and houses worth even more we could start getting close to the real reasons for corruption in India. We could discover that the most important of these reasons is that ministers in governments across the country have discretionary powers that they should not have. Why should it be possible for a chief minister to decide changes in land use without a public debate on the subject? Why should it be possible for a minister in the Government of India to make huge purchases on behalf of his ministry without any transparency in the process?
If you examine the major scandals that have surfaced since the Sonia-Manmohan came to power for a second term you will find that they have been caused every time because of discretionary powers. Suresh Kalmadi would not have been able to play around with funds meant to build stadiums and other facilities for the Commonwealth Games had he not had the power to make private decisions. A. Raja would not have been able to hand out 2G licenses to his friends if he had not been allowed to make private decisions and the same is true of coal blocks that landed up in the wrong hands.
So what this latest scandal offers the Prime Minister is a chance to reduce the discretionary powers of his ministers and officials. There is no point in making speeches about ‘transparency’ in governance without doing this. The problem is that when it comes to Mr. Vadra there really is very little he can do because here he is dealing with a close relative of the most powerful political leader in India who also happens to be his boss. It could be time for Sonia Gandhi to come forward personally and accept responsibility. But, having seen how she dealt with Bofors there is not the slightest chance of this happening.
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