‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.’
This historical statement of Karl Marx keeps knocking on my mind these days. Reason? In the last 66 years, we are cursed to see the periodic repetition of some farces in Indian politics. The ongoing controversy over Adani and its political relations, the leading industrial conglomerate of the country and the world, is the next episode of this endless farce series.
When son-in-law Firoz accused Nehru’s party.
To explain my point, I have to take you from the ideological darkness of 1957 to the troubled days. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru used to be the Prime Minister of the country and Feroze Gandhi was his only son-in-law. Feroze, through a powerful speech in the Lok Sabha, had alleged that the state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) had invested more than Rs. Feroze Gandhi said that Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari and Finance Secretary HM Patel put pressure on LIC for this investment. Nehru formed a committee under the chairmanship of MC Chagla, former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, to investigate the matter. Chagla heard and reported in a record 24 days and Krishnamachari had to resign on February 18, 1958. Mundra was later arrested and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Needless to say that Jawaharlal Nehru was impeccable, but his clean image was definitely eclipsed for a few days. Even after six and a half decades, we are once again witnessing almost identical allegations on LIC. LIC neither drowned then, nor will it drown now, but its trust has been hurt once again. If you like, you can call it the never ending tragedy of Indian politics.
Indira Gandhi had to be arrested.
I am saying this because all the Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi have faced similar allegations. Indira Gandhi was even arrested in Delhi on October 3, 1977. He was accused of pressuring two companies to get 104 jeeps for election campaign. In addition, he misused his position to award a major oil drilling contract to a French company, bypassing competing companies with lower bids. The next day he was produced before the magistrate, but the CBI could not present sufficient evidence before the court. As a result, he had to be released within just 16 hours.
The wind changed from the episode of Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan.
Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi was also not left untouched by this disease. In the early days of 1985, he reached the ruling house by getting the figure of 414 seats in the election results declared as ‘Bhuto na Bhavishyati’. Till now his life was beyond controversies, but a news from Stockholm surrounded his entire image with dust. On March 24, 1986, a deal worth Rs 1,437 crore was signed between the Government of India and the Swedish arms company AB Bofors for the supply of 400 howitzers of 155 mm. On April 16, 1987, Swedish Radio claimed that bribes were paid to Defense Department officials and some senior politicians in the deal. On April 20, Rajiv Gandhi clarified in Parliament that no middleman had any role in this, nor was brokerage given, but the controversy did not stop. Being fed up, the government formed the Joint Parliamentary Committee in August 1987. B. Shankaranand was its head. The committee gave its report in favor of the government despite the disagreement of one member. However, the CBI’s investigation went on for a long time. Later, on February 5, 2004, the Delhi High Court quashed the bribery charges against Rajiv Gandhi and Defense Secretary SK Bhatnagar. In April 2012, the Swedish police also said that no evidence was found against Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan.
Vajpayee and Manmohan also came under wraps.
Narasimha Rao, who succeeded Rajiv Gandhi, was accused of personal corruption and had to fight a long legal battle after being removed from office. During the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the so-called coffin scam echoed and Manmohan Singh’s associates had to go to jail. The only consolation is that Vajpayee or Singh were not personally accused of corruption.
And now the Modi term continues.
Now on to the current controversy. In the third week of January, a report of Hindenburg, an American short seller company, comes against Adani and various allegations start floating in the air. In no time, the Adani group has to bear a loss of lakhs of crores of rupees. Although the group now seems to have recovered from that crisis, politics has taken a turn. Rahul Gandhi raised several pointed questions in the Lok Sabha on the alleged nexus between Adani and the Modi government. It is a different matter that some parts of the long speech have been expunged from the proceedings for want of proof of the allegations. This action has given rise to a new debate on the rights and responsibilities of Hon’ble Members of Parliament. The Congress is calling it the murder of democracy, while the ruling party is promoting it as a ban on the irresponsible attitude of the MPs.
Opposition busy in its work.
Surely, Rahul Gandhi is trying his best to corner Prime Minister Modi through this whole matter. He has done this before as well. Before the last elections, he raised the issue of corruption in the Rafale deal. Slogans used to be raised in his meetings – ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’. It is a different matter that in the second election fought in the face of Prime Minister Modi, by winning more seats than before, the BJP has proved that the voters’ trust in them has not diminished, but has increased. Now, when only a year and a quarter is left for the next general election. During this time the leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will try to beat this drum as much as possible. Will they be able to achieve success this time?
As far as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concerned, he seems unmoved like a batsman who has the ability to play the toughest ball of every discipline with ease. That is why he did not even mention these allegations even once in his speeches in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He has faith in himself and the faith of 140 crore people of the country.
If the opposition, which is trying to surround Modi with corruption charges, fails to achieve success as expected this time too, then Marx’s statement will once again be seen to be fulfilling itself.
HT editorial interview with Shashi ji.