Long back in 1947, soon after Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his "Tryst with Destiny" speech, surfaced the famous jeep scandal involving V K Krishna Menon, then our High Commissioner to Britain. The case in brief was that he had ordered on a dubious company for 4603 jeeps in the wake of Pak aggression in Kashmir.The infamous jeeps of very low quality were delivered four years later in 1951.Krishna Menon, alleged to be a commie was a brilliant orator and confidante of Nehru. He later on went to become India's Defence Minister only to resign in the wake of Chinese aggression when it was revealed that the ordinace factories were making shoes in place of guns!
A few years later in 1957 came the Mundhra scandal involving Haridas Mundhra, a Kanpur businessman from whom the LIC bought bogus shares worth one crore plus.)n December 16, 1957 the parliament debated the issue and the matter was investigated by the celebrated Chief Justice of Bombay High Court and later India's Foreign Minister M C Chagla who in his report described Mundhra "not an industrialist at all" but "an adventurer" whose "passion" it was to "swallow as many firms as possible" by dubious means. It was found the then Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari was in i know of the Mundhra deals.The scandal took its toll.TTK resigned and passed into oblivion.
Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon, Punjab's Chief Minister had to resign in 1964 on charge of helping his relatives amass huge wealth.
An interesting case involving one Nagarwala, an ex-Army officer,came to light in 1971 He was charged of withdrawing Rs 60L from SBI allegedly "faking" Indira Gandhi's voice.He died under mysterious circumstance in jail and the matter just rested there.
A few years later in 1974 came the Tulmohan Ram scandal. The MP from Araraia parliamentary constituency forged a letter signed by 21 members of parliament recommending some Pondicherry merchants import licenses from the Ministry of Trade.L N Mishra, close to Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister was Minister of Trade then. Mishra later on become a powerful minister of her cabinet and died under dubious circumstances in Samastipur Bomb Blast in 1977.
In 1982 took place the Churhat Lottery scandal involving Arjun Singh, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.The amount involved was 5.4 Cr of the Churhat Children's Welfare Society.
Then came the HDW, Bofors (1987)involving Rajiv Gandhi,, Securities scam of 1992, Sugar scam of 1994,JMM bribery case in 1995,Urea scam in 1996,Telecom scandal in 1996,Howitzer in 1998, Indian Bank scam in which another Congress minister was alleged to have been involved, Adarsh scam and so on and so forth.
Much water has flown down the Yamuna since then. In the recent years we have had the 2G,Commonwealth games' scam involving a Congress member of parliament, helicopter deal involving an ex-air chief, Coalgate involving the Prime Minister himself and now Railgate.The difference from previous scams is that the amount involved has shown steep rise.A few crores is a m peanut now. It is in millions.The other difference is that unlike the olden days, resignations are hard to come by Manmohan Singh Government has indeed broken all previous records of scams and has consistently followed the politics of shamelessness which indeed deserves a Nobel Prize for him!
A few years later in 1957 came the Mundhra scandal involving Haridas Mundhra, a Kanpur businessman from whom the LIC bought bogus shares worth one crore plus.)n December 16, 1957 the parliament debated the issue and the matter was investigated by the celebrated Chief Justice of Bombay High Court and later India's Foreign Minister M C Chagla who in his report described Mundhra "not an industrialist at all" but "an adventurer" whose "passion" it was to "swallow as many firms as possible" by dubious means. It was found the then Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari was in i know of the Mundhra deals.The scandal took its toll.TTK resigned and passed into oblivion.
Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon, Punjab's Chief Minister had to resign in 1964 on charge of helping his relatives amass huge wealth.
An interesting case involving one Nagarwala, an ex-Army officer,came to light in 1971 He was charged of withdrawing Rs 60L from SBI allegedly "faking" Indira Gandhi's voice.He died under mysterious circumstance in jail and the matter just rested there.
A few years later in 1974 came the Tulmohan Ram scandal. The MP from Araraia parliamentary constituency forged a letter signed by 21 members of parliament recommending some Pondicherry merchants import licenses from the Ministry of Trade.L N Mishra, close to Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister was Minister of Trade then. Mishra later on become a powerful minister of her cabinet and died under dubious circumstances in Samastipur Bomb Blast in 1977.
In 1982 took place the Churhat Lottery scandal involving Arjun Singh, the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.The amount involved was 5.4 Cr of the Churhat Children's Welfare Society.
Then came the HDW, Bofors (1987)involving Rajiv Gandhi,, Securities scam of 1992, Sugar scam of 1994,JMM bribery case in 1995,Urea scam in 1996,Telecom scandal in 1996,Howitzer in 1998, Indian Bank scam in which another Congress minister was alleged to have been involved, Adarsh scam and so on and so forth.
Much water has flown down the Yamuna since then. In the recent years we have had the 2G,Commonwealth games' scam involving a Congress member of parliament, helicopter deal involving an ex-air chief, Coalgate involving the Prime Minister himself and now Railgate.The difference from previous scams is that the amount involved has shown steep rise.A few crores is a m peanut now. It is in millions.The other difference is that unlike the olden days, resignations are hard to come by Manmohan Singh Government has indeed broken all previous records of scams and has consistently followed the politics of shamelessness which indeed deserves a Nobel Prize for him!
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