THE TELECOMS minister has already resigned, implicated in the alleged extraordinary sale of second generation mobile phone licences to favoured companies at giveaway prices. It may have cost the state as much as $40 billion in forgone revenue. Another minister, responsible for roads, is accused of skimming 15 per cent off all projects and is now in the firing line. A reinvigorated opposition is demanding a parliamentary inquiry into a series of political/business scandals that has plunged the country into its worst political crisis in years. The talk is of crony capitalism and inadequate oversight.
Sound familiar? But this is all happening in India, the world’s second fastest growing economy, where parliament has been paralysed by the rows. It rose on Monday after a session which passed not a single piece of legislation as the opposition forced adjournment after adjournment for 22 business days in a row.
The telecoms licence story is bizarre. India is the world’s second-largest mobile phone market with 700 million subscribers and a $20 billion turnover. Profits depend on companies getting licences for parts of the spectrum. Mysteriously, on the final day of applications in 2008, the bid rules were changed without notice – spectrum would be allocated literally on a first-come-first-served basis to the companies which first reached the office counter with completed paperwork and a licence fee of a trifling $355 million. An undignified scramble ensued as businessmen raced, pushed and shoved to put down their stakes.
But did anyone get the nod in advance? A recent government audit described the process as “arbitrary, unfair and inequitable”. And two days before publication telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja resigned. Police have reportedly found interesting evidence in his home.
Scandals also exposed this year include allegations of widespread graft as India prepared to host the Commonwealth Games and revelations that politicians, officials and military bosses took units in a high-rise flat complex in central Mumbai meant for families of soldiers killed in battle. In April, two government ministers were accused of impropriety in a cricket tournament scandal.
The remorselessness of the revelations and ensuing political chaos have severely dented the reputation of the country and of prime minister Manmohan Singh, until now unblemished in a country notorious for cronyism and political corruption. The rows are expected to resume when parliament returns in February.