NDA's hour of shame

VENALITY, WIDESPREAD AND massive, its reach extending from the low to the higher reaches of the NDA Government, stands exposed by Tehelka's sting operation that was made public on Tuesday. The story itself, the result of a painstaking investigation spread over several months, has all the elements of high drama, with some of the players boastful and even comical in their corrupt ways. The ethics of a sting operation using money to get a story is no doubt problematical, and waving bundles of currency notes before a person may not be the fairest way of testing his integrity. Also, what was involved here is a sham, rather than a real deal, and much of the information and innuendo about key political players comes by way of hearsay, from operators who can be expected to make boastful, exaggerated claims to connections in high office. Yet what stands exposed is a pervasive tendency towards corruption that is even more worrisome from the standpoint of good governance and the democratic polity than any specific instance of a corrupt deal. The fact that two intrepid reporters could gain access to key purchase decision makers with some money but mostly with the promise of huge kickbacks and the blatant manner in which money was demanded and taken show how permissive the administration has become under the NDA Government.

Defence purchases are shrouded in secrecy and governments typically invoke false security considerations and unstated foreign relations gains to evade public scrutiny; and they offer the widest scope for corruption. It is ironic that this scandal should surface when the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, in a grand show of cleansing his Ministry had asked the Chief Vigilance Commissioner to probe major deals of the past. It has now been demonstrated beyond doubt that a most unholy nexus exists between political party operatives, officials in the Defence Ministry, high ranking army officers connected with equipment and arms purchases and an assortment of businessmen and deal makers. The public's faith in the decision making process involved in the purchase of arms and equipment vital to the country's defence stands rudely shaken. Some of the officers involved in the scandal have been placed under suspension. However, that the Defence Ministry is so steeped in corruption, with so many officials in the Ministry and so many key decision makers in the army being found to be on the take, and that the president of the Samata Party was caught taking money in the Defence Minister's house cannot be explained away. Even if the charges of corruption do not stick personally, the moral and political responsibility for this state of affairs alone would make Mr. Fernandes' continuance in office untenable.

The political implications of the Tehelka expose are already being felt in Parliament and ought not to be underestimated. The heads of the two parties, the BJP and the Samata, now stand exposed. The NDA itself had carefully cultivated its image as a clean dispensation different from, say, the Congress(I) regimes of the past that were associated with corruption scandals. That sheen would seem to have vanished suddenly. The massive expose of corruption has also opened up a new front for the Opposition even as the NDA remains vulnerable on the communal issue as well. One lesson the NDA seems to have learnt from the past is that it is not sound political strategy to ignore charges of corruption or to stonewall and dismiss them with grand imperiousness, as Rajiv Gandhi learnt to his cost. An enquiry has been announced and efforts would be on to put a distance between those who have been exposed and key players in political office. Yet, political compulsions would dictate how thorough the cleansing process can be and how high it could reach, and in the face of such damning evidence caught on camera, damage control measures can help only to a limited extent. In the immediate aftermath, the BJP's NDA partners, particularly the Trinamool Congress and the DMK, who are facing elections to the State Assemblies are going to face embarrassing moments. It is going to be difficult for the NDA to live down this hour of shame.

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Section  : Opinion
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