Columnists
Big crackdown
Karti’s arrest shows Government’s intent to fight corruption. Momentum must be sustained
There is an immediate need to de-hyphenate the inquiry into corruption cases from the slugfest of political one-upmanship that has emerged following the arrest of Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, for allegedly taking bribes and facilitating INX Media’s access to foreign investment in blatant violation of norms. The Congress has been crying that Karti’s arrest reeked of political vendetta and was a diversionary tactic by the BJP, which was itself splattered all over with muck relating to the embezzlement of a public bank by diamond merchant Nirav Modi. It also alleged that while there was no tail on Vijay Mallya and Modi, both of whom managed to flee the country in the nick of time, Karti was arrested to take the bite off the Congress attack on crony capitalism. True, the two cases grabbed headlines one after the other but it is grossly ridiculous to posit one as diluting the other or to pre-suppose that just because there has been actionable corrective in one, there wouldn’t be on the other. First, what needs to be understood is that cleaning up systemic corruption that has corroded institutional integrity and tarnished high offices has for long been compromised by every regime and party to protect their vested interests. This proximity can no longer be allowed to be a bargaining chip for an individual or a party’s sustenance and has to be investigated as per law. Autonomous agencies, independent of the ruling dispensation, have to be allowed to see through charges and violations to the very end rather than be reduced to the status of being a toothless tiger. There is already a move on to freeze Nirav Modi’s overseas accounts and assets. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is also planning to take over the boards of firms promoted by Modi and fellow jeweller Mehul Choksi in public interest. Second, investigation in Karti’s case has been ongoing since an FIR last year and didn’t come entirely as a surprise clampdown. Would it behove the CBI to not arrest an offender and let him travel abroad, when there is strong ground to suspect that overseas records of fund transfers could be tampered with, just because another errrant has managed to give the slip? Should we not plug the holes and bleed through a sieve just because it doesn’t suit us politically? Third, the arrest was made on the basis of statements by INX Media promoters Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who allegedly paid over five crore rupees to Karti at the instance of his father, who, as the then Finance Minister, was in charge of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Although Chidambaram himself has said it was the board’s collective decision to grant clearance to INX Media, thereby deflecting the attention to senior Ministry officials, fact is he is not beyond the shroud of doubt. Let us also not forget the alleged irregularities in FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006. Given the heft of the charges, that seem to have recurred one too often in the UPA regime, a logical closure and punitive action are needed to indicate we are beginning to clean up as a nation, even if it means going up to the top. Similarly, the Government or the CBI cannot be glib about cracking a high profile errant. The CBI better get its papers and linking documents in place than risk being rebuked for incompetency that led to the acquittal of the 2G scam accused in a trial court. The Government must restore faith and accountability in a public banking system, check abuse of gateways that dilutes the merit of digital operations and put a layered and stringent check and balance that discourages the banker-borrower nexus.
0
