CBI

The conviction of Bangaru Laxman – one rare case

The saying in India is that there is no politician who is ever convicted of corruption. Of course, once in a while, this dictum is broken, but almost all of the time, there is no punishment for corruption that is lasting. Even if a lower court does provide some amount of corruption, the conviction is not upheld in a higher court (which may happen in this case as well). For the past many decades, there have many instances where corruption has been alleged, but the investigation has not led to a conviction, but everybody believes that there is large scale corruption that is happening.
The case that shook everybody up was the Bofors case. Before that case, corruption was prevalent, but it never really raised a stink except in some random movie. However, it was Bofors and the investigative journalism that went on which convinced people that there was something that stank, that Rajiv Gandhi was involved in some way. The case went on for years, was one of the reasons that caused Rajiv Gandhi to lose the 1989 elections after the huge win only 5 years back, and yet the case did not really lead to any conviction of any sort.
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2G scam continues to haunt the Government – SC asks why PM did not follow through

The 2G scam continues to haunt the Congress party. For quite some time, the Congress evaded that there was any issue with the 2G scam issue, claimed that this was a policy decision (with the honorable purpose of reducing the telecom rates), that the CAG was off its rocker, that the Supreme Court had no locus standi. Next, the Congress tried to separate itself from the scope of the scam by claiming that all this was the work of a rogue minister, A Raja; the PM was helpless since he had to depend on the minister, was bound by the challenges of coalitions politics, and besides the poor PM was a single man, how could he monitor everything that was happening (thankfully, the PM did not repeat this particular line, else the charge of being a useless and non-caring PM would have stuck to his plate).
For quite some time, the Congress believed that this will work, that eventually the case will lost its media attention, and the CBI will be persuaded to back off or make the case much weaker (which is what the CBI is already being accused of). However, when other people smell blood, then it is difficult to stop them. So, the media is forever on the case, and Subramaniam Swamy is dedicated to targeting some of the senior members of the Congress in the 2G scam rather than be satisfied with the scalp of A Raja.
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes before the press – I am not at fault, and everybody is out to get me!

The present Congress Government is almost in a majority, and has come in with a larger number of MP’s in the last election in 2009. As a result, the Government considers that all questions regarding their image and corruption problems have been answered by the people, and as a result, nobody has the legitimacy to question the Government. After all, the Congress now has the vote of the people; an analysis would show that actually, out of the total population, the Congress would have got only 25% of the vote (and of course, the BJP got much lesser).
In the last 1 year and so, the Government has been battered by corruption scandals, high inflation, and an image deficit. The scams related to the CWG, 2G, Adarsh Housing, and so on have fried the belief of the middle class in the integrity of the Government, and the media has gone along for the ride (after all, who would not like to have some controversy, especially involving the Government of the day). The courts have also been harsh on the Government, and even arms of the Government such as the CAG have also battered the policies of the Government, cost overruns, and so on. The Government has also been battered by worries about policy gridlock, a stoppage in any sort of reform measures, and the stoppage of new investment measures by the industry, which has lead to a slowdown in the economy.
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