What's the New Corruption News from India?

Here the beareindia site administration team wish to inform the visitors on latest press reports from Indian news papers and media on new epidsodes of corruption that are reported from the length and breadth of India. Please watch out for new stories and our comments on the same.

1. Mr. Madhu Koda (Ex-Chief Minister of the Indian State of Jharkhand),  is alleged to have amassed illegal wealth worth at least Rupees 2,000 crore (Rupees 20 billion / 425 million dollars).

[ Click the links below to read to news related to this recent corruption episode of India :

 " The IT department has been probing a disproportionate assets allegation against Koda and his associates and Saturday conducted raids at 70 places in eight cities and discovered documents related to illegal transactions worth Rs.2,000 crore (Rs.20 billion). "  Ranchi, Nov 3, 2009.  [read more.... http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-142954.html   ]

" Nearly two decades after the Jain Hawala diary sullied the reputation and careers of several national politicians, another set of diary entries are threatening to do the same.

Investigators probing the Rs4,000-crore corruption case involving former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda have recovered a set of scribbled pages containing code names of several political leaders who helped Madhu Koda and his associates in carrying out the massive scam.

Eight of those crucial pages, in possession of DNA, contain names that investigators believe represent at least one union minister, a former Bihar chief minister, a former union minister, a senior Maharashtra politician, and at least one former journalist turned Member of Parliament.

The pages also contain details of money received by the Koda gang from various industrial houses, and the crores of rupees that were funnelled out of India through hawala channels.

The pages detail payments received and disbursed, under credit and debit, in coded entries during the days when Koda was the chief minister of Jharkhand. Investigators from the income tax department and Enforcement Directorate have spent the past several weeks deciphering the entries."

[read more....  http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_the-koda-diaries_1311781 ]

" Former Jharkhand chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Madhu Koda, who faces allegations of largescale corruption, is the son of a labourer whose family was once steeped in dire poverty.

Born in Patahatu village in West Singhbhum district, Koda, now 38, also worked as a labourer for a while in Jharkhand's rural parts before he decided to embrace politics.

He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1994, when the Congress was seen as a declining force. He got the ticket to contest assembly elections in 2000 and quickly became a minister after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in the same year."

[read more.. http://sify.com/news/Koda-A-labourer-039-s-son-now-caught-in-corruption-scam-news-National-jlbrEciigdd.html ]

16-Aug-2011

Nothing happened to Madhu Koda. Though he is reportedly in Jail in Ranchi he has been recently given permission to attend the Parliament in New Delhi as he is still a member of the highest law making body of the country. What a malady ?

Many things much more serious have been unearthed in this country and corruption is showing its ugly face everywhere. People who are in it have become very daring. Fortunately the people of India, especially the educated middle class are slowly realizing the dangers of this evil. That is why anticorruption crusaders like Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi and the like are able to get peoples' support fro all walks of life.

Those in the government are getting scared. Otherwise why should they order the entire police force in the capital to prevent Anna Hazare to lead a peaceful protest?

Yes, this day August 16th 2011 has indeed become the inaugural day for another independence struggle in India. Independence of the people from Corruption and Corrupt Leaders!

All the news media in India are supporting this cause except the government controlled 'Doordershan' [this word actually means something looking far away instead of looking near to see the truth!]

I would like to give a link to the MSN news which published an interesting reading on their website today:

 http://news.in.msn.com/specials/gandhiandnewindia/Features_article.aspx?cp-documentid=5353885

Let us hope that the Indian public would whole heartedly support Anna Hazare and those like him to do some thing to eliminate such evils which have been making those not in it live in perpetual shame! 

 [Er Rajan C Mathew ]

Corruption Episode Analysis (CEA)

[with comments , probable suggestions and solutions ]

1. The Madhu Koda Episode.

Let us understand this first. This case is still under investigation. The media publicity and the preliminary news released by the investigation agencies may thin out or prove unsubstantiated after some time . Because that is the way it has been happening in India!

Persons in high political authority get caught mainly under political compulsions or personal score settling!

That does not mean that Mr Madhu Koda is innocent, because under the present circumstances an innocent well meaning person cannot be in politcal power, unless he or she has some powerful mentor who for some interests of his or hers wants a 'good person' to be in the front seat and be seen by all.

Now who is this Madhu Koda? He is a 38 year old man hailing from a manual labour class family from the newly formed mineral rich Indian state of Jharkhand. Obviously he had some oratory skills to attract the ordinary folks to him ang get their support and votes and was a potential candidate for any political party to win an assembly or parliament seat for them.

That is a basic requirement for the Indian political parties to give a membership and a ticket to fight the elections in their banner. So Madhu Koda some years ago got succeeded in to entry in to the local unit of the Bhartiya Janata Party or BJP.

He later quit BJP and fought the elections to become an independent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Jharkhand state. Clearly he might have realized the internal politics of BJP and also would have understood his independent potential to get elected.

At the elections he got elected as the lone independent MLA, there was a tie between the major political groups (one lead by the BJP and the other led by the Congress) and both groups needed the support and vote of one more MLA to get a majority to form the state governement. Normal practice in India under such circumstances-from previous incidences elsewhere- is that the concerned MLA or MLAs getting different kinds of offers or lures for joining a particular group. It could be money, or a ministers post or any thing like that. Obviously it is corruption but an accepted practice so long as no one get any obvious evidence. Even if there is evidence, it would be better for health to keep silence!

But Madhu Koda thought he is cleverer and had probably bargained with both groups. He would settle for nothing other than the Chief Minister's post! Means he wanted to be the 'leader' of both his opponents by taking advantage of the helpless situation for the political majors. He probably knew the immense potential of power that a Chief Minister's post carry in an Indian state.

So he became the chief minister of Jharkhand. Which polical group he commanded is of no importance here.

As CM he could decide on many policy matters which could be of benefit to many industrial houses who are in the look out for government sanctions and permissions for setting up various kinds of profitable businesses especially those using the mineral wealth of the state. A mining lease for some years could mean profit. The nature, the term, the type of mineral, the location, etc decide the extent of profit and that is within the hands of the CM to decide, even though there could be expert agencies down below to give their opinions and suggestions!

So Madhu Koda as CM had the opportunity to gain some thing from interested parties. Not only he, everybody in such decision making power has the potential for that . Some departments and ministerial portfolios are 'hot' and 'much sought after' due to the potential quantum of gains those power centres offer to the individual occupants of those positions.

But what is the price or the cut which a CM like Madhu Koda has to be offered? For normal Indian citizens even a few lakhs of rupees coming to their hands from sources beyond their means of income can be a great problem to handle and manage. The Indian law forbade transactions of money over Rs 20,000/- in hard cash. Even the banks do not accept money or cheques of deposits from persons who has not established their income source.

Then how individuals like Koda could probably handle and manage millions of rupees which can not be linked to a probable source?

For that he needs a network of proxies of powerful people with large money handling sources. Probably that is what he has done and that is what the economic investigation agencies are working out.

Now the moot question here is why a person like Mr Koda, coming from a relatively poor background needs all this money?

The answer to that lies with the Indian system of politics. It cannot be simply ruled out as greed alone.

Public offices are conventionally called a service- perhaps started as a selfless one initially, graduating to those with reasonable payment or renumeration when democracy came into prominence from the earlier systems of governments based on leadership by force or might.

If democratic people services has to function in true democratic priciples and not slipping back to the 'might is right' situation there should be built in safeguards in the system which prevent any individual to hold any power centre post for a longer term which could lead to a situation where in the incumbent individual turning his attitudes towards the 'Raja' or 'Kingship' style of functioning and the not so developed citizenry slipping into 'hero-worship' and electing the same person again and again.

The person becomes well known and that itself enhances his chances to gain votes from the public. He becomes a potential winner always and a life time ruler, with intermittent swings due to likes and dislikes of some minor percentage of voters.

The crucial issue is either there should be a limit to the term of office or the citizen voters should be matured ones capable of analysing the issues of the nation with responsibuility. In USA it is the former logic and it UK it is the latter logic that makes the democracy click success.

In India it is neither. A person who comes into power can be criticized and victimised for his actions if some one else comes into power and that can be nullified only if the first one maintains the potential to gain power later. So a vicious necessity is created. Any one coming into power should have the capacity to regain power later. To maintain that power, in a country where majority thinking class citizens are disillusioned of the system, there is only one choice. That is to have paid followers! For that the leader needs huge money power. So large sums of money to be parked in various locations of choice becomes a necessity to fight elections, win and retain power, even if it is cyclic in nature.

This is the root cause of high level political corruption in India. In the present situation, it not possible for Indians to correct the system for devising a fool-proof democracy.

Prediction: The system will continue like this for some more ages till majority Indians become emotionally and intellectually mature to run a democratic system of government!