Till Hindu kings’ rule India that is Bharat was known SONE KI CHIDIYA, Mughal invaders taking the advantage of personal Hindu rivalry—history is never written, it repeats itself, take the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, not only non-BJP but BJP itself is against him internally. Looters are looting the Bharat all the leaders have become Dhrishrashtra. In today’s leadership, it is one and only one Narendra Modi, who could dare to cross swords with all these looters. Learn from the history. It is the question of eye or no eye— not only ruled Bharat but looted it as much they could. Then Britishers came, they also looted, in 1947 when we got independence, India became A Land of Agriculture and now it is called A Country of Scams.
2010 has been a hectic year for the politicians, bureaucrats and Govt officials. Hectic not because they worked hard, but because one after another their scams surfaced.
Our endeavour with this is to provide the users with a central repository or database of all scams that have been conducted in India so far. we will try to show you the faces behind the scam and objectively, we will find the reason behind these scams. See, more scams are waiting their turn to roll from the sleeves.
Try to understand why it is so easy for a select few to loot India at their will and keep making a mockery of the judicial system. Why these scamsters can’t see that their ways are not affecting one or two individuals, but sometimes an entire village or an entire generation. Several of Indian villages don’t have roads or electricity yet, despite the fact that money for the same was released decades ago. Even 6 decades after Independence, we still have not been able to sort unemployment or poverty. We are still miles away from providing even the basic necessities to majority of our population. The reason behind this is simple – corruption and scams have killed the development plans across India. It’s high time that the faces of these enemies of the nation are shown to all and they be given stringiest of punishments. This is the season of scams and the biggest ever corruption cases in India have been unearthed more recently. So, we decided to dig deep to see which scams were the biggest and most damaging to the country and its citizens alike.
An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is the people in charge of the system (The Babu’s) or with whom the power lays, that act as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress and what all not. But, somewhere down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken for a ride by these people, aren’t we?
However, it is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually realizes the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and well-being of the nation. But, that’s what a scam, be it big or small, means – the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme or action.
Some Indian Scam Biggies:
India is known for its scams since 1948. It started with the Jeep scam in 1948 and the latest being the CWG, 2G scam and the UP Food scam in 2010. The loss in the 2G scam is a whopping Rs. 1, 70,000 crore while food scam is said to be closer to a mark of Rs. 200,000 crore! There were/are many other scams that have continuously drained India’s revenues and keep majority of its population unemployeed and devoid of basic neccessities.
In 2003, the fake stamp paper scam by Abdul Karim Telgi cost the nation Rs 30,000 crore. Since every one needs stamp paper to enter into a contract, he simply pushed the fake stamp papers into the system.
In 2008, faulty allocation of 2G spectrum cost the nation Rs. 68000 crore. There were discrepancies in allocating unified access service licenses. Apparently A. Raja, the Telecom minister then, was involved in the dubious 2G license awards in 2008. This was unearthed in 2010.
The Hawala Scandal
The Hawala case to the tune of $18 million bribery scandal, which came in the open in 1996, involved payments allegedly received by country’s leading politicians through hawala brokers. From the list of those accused also included Lal Krishna Advani who was then the Leader of Opposition.
Thus, for the first time in Indian politics, it gave a feeling of open loot all around the public, involving all the major political players being accused of having accepted bribes and also alleged connections about payments being channelled to Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Kashmir.
IPL Scam
Well, I am running out of time and space over here. The list of scandals in India is just not ending and becoming grave by every decade. Most of us are aware about the recent scam in IPL and embezzlement with respect to bidding for various franchisees. The scandal already claimed the portfolios of two big-wigs in the form of Shashi Tharoor and former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
Harshad Mehta & Ketan Parekh Stock Market Scam
Although not corruption scams, these have affected many people. There is no way that the investor community could forget the unfortunate Rs. 4000 crore Harshad Mehta scam and over Rs. 1000 crore Ketan Parekh scam which eroded the shareholders wealth in form of big market jolt.
Overall, scams and corruption of any sort can be detrimental to the country’s progress. Scams are sophisticated and not intuitive or easy for a lay man to understand. There is a large amount of money involved to create a situation where there is constant effort by smart/shrewd businessmen with the assistance of crooked politicians and bureaucrats to rig the system and get and a big chunk of public money. It has crippled the Indian economy, growth and progress of the nation. As a result of these scams, money is illegally amassed by a few restricting the equal distribution of wealth, hence depriving the common man of the benefits he should get. This money can be used for education, providing potable drinking water in remote villages, health/child care and also address other important issues. India still awaits a fair system and a strong Govt to tackle the scamsters.
BOFORS: India's Biggest Defense Scam
Defense is naturally given top priority by any country as it directly relates to nation's security. India too places a lot of importance on internal defense. However, this also makes India vulnerable to a lot of defense related scams as politicians and bureaucrats continue to commit scams in the name of national security. A common man can generally not question a defense deal as it involves national security. Only when some investigative journalists get to the root cause of a deal, a scam is unearthed.
Bofors scam was one of the most glaring examples, but there have been several other instances of scams involving either defense as an onjective, such as Kargil scam, or involving the defence personnels themselves, such as the 2010 Adarsh Society Scam.
In time, we will take a look at all the defense related scams that have been brought to light till date.
The Bofors scandal happened in 1980, where many were accused of receiving kickbacks from a company called Bofors AB. Large sums of money was given by Bofors AB to win a bid to supply India’s 155mm field howitzer for the armed forces. The scam was estimated to be Rs. 400 million and it rocked India as the value of the scam was large, the scam was concerned with national security and allegations were levelled even against the Prime Minister. The scam was brought out during Viswanath Pratap Singh’s tenure as defense minister. It was brought to light through investigative journalism by N Ram and Chitra Subramaniam in The Hindu and The Indian Express.
How BOFORS Happened
The Indian Army required Howitzer guns. A tender was floated in 1984. The French Sofma gun was evaluated and was found to be superior to the Bofors gun. The army needed a gun that could shoot at a range of 30km. The army chief Krishnaswamy Sundarji opted for the Sofma guns since the field trials showed that the Sofma could shoot at a range of 29.2 km as compared to the Bofors gun at a range of 21.5km. It was later on revealed that Bofors was illegally allowed to alter its bid without submitting a tender again. The Bofors scandal came to the forefront after an announcement in the Swedish radio in the year 1987. The firm AE Services was used in the scam. This company had a paid up capital of lira 100 and no employees. Chitra Subramaniam of The Hindu newspaper got hold of the private diary in which it was mentioned that “Q’s” involvement may be a problem due to the closeness with “R”. Q’s identity became clear when Chitra identified the Swiss Bank where the money from AE Services went into. It was later determined that the account was operated by Ottavio Quattrocchi. The CBI had also obtained documents but was ruled out since it was a photo copy. It was also proved that Ottavio Quattrocchi was paid 3% of the sale amount (USD 7 m) as commission through AE Services.
The key accused was Ottavio Quattrocchi. Ottavio Quattrocchi was wanted in India for criminal charges. He was a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal. Ottavio Quattrocchi was seen as the middleman by the CBI’s probe of the Bofors scandal, who was an Italian businessman, owned the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was also close to Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. This may have led to the downfall of the Congress in the 1989 elections. The case against Ottavio Quattrocchi was strengthened when the Interpol had revealed two bank accounts with the BSI Bank AG in the name of Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria. The bank accounts had funds of EUR 3m ad USD 1m. This seemed to be a substantial amount of money for a salaried person. In 1993, when the CBI attempted to interrogate Ottavio Quattrocchi, he was allowed to leave the country since Sonia Gandhi had a deal with the late ex-Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.
Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina in 2007, by orders from the Interpol. He was later released but his passport was impounded. Since India did not have an extradition treaty with Argentina, India lost the case in the Argentine Supreme Court due to the fact that the Indian government did not provide a key court order, a basis to arrest Ottavio Quattrocchi. Currently, the Italian businessman does not feature in the list of CBI’s wanted people and the red corner notice by the Interpol.
Ottavio Quattrocchi won 60 projects for Snamprofetti. These include:
-1981: The five Alibag (Thal Vaishnet), plants from RCF, four;Kribhco plants in Hazira, as well as the ONGC gas pipeline in Hazira.
-The National Fertilizers Limited plant in Una and two plants in Guna in 1983.
-IFFCO’s three plants in Aonla in 1984
-The Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited’s two plants in Kakinada in 1987.
Over a period of time Ottavio Quattrocchi became influential and was known as the man to approach for contracts with India.
What Happened To BOFORS Scam Accused:
Ottavio Quattrocchi, the prime accussed now lives a good life as CBI has withdrawn the red-corner notice against him. India's law ministry under the Congress regime also unfroze his bank accounts in 2006.Late Ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB. In 2004, he was posthumously cleared of the allegation.
SK Bhatnagar: Former defense secretary was accused of abusing his official authority. No actions taken. Died in 2001.
Win Chadha was the arms agent. He was accused of receiving part of the 64 crore kickback by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986. Died in 2001.
The Hinduja Brothers were also probed in the Bofors scam. The prosecution failed to prove their involvement in the Bofors scam. In 2005, the Delhi High Court also acquitted the Hinduja brothers Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja of all charges.
After almost 30 years when the Bofors scam was committed, no one has been punished yet. Despite glaring proofs of Quattrocchi's involvement, Congress Govt decided to unfreeze his bank accounts and remove the red-croner notice against him. Three other major accused, Rajiv Gandhi, S K Bhatnagar and Win Chadha, are already dead. Hinduja Brothers have been acquitted of all charges. All in all, no major accused are left to be caught in the scam. Despite glaring evidences of the scam being committed, CBI has failed to nail anyone. In all probability no one will ever be held guilty for one of the biggest Defense scams in Indian history.
So, can we live a scam-free life in India for a while now?
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