India Scandal Threatens 'Pure' Premier

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2010-11-19 13:24
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A scandal over the government's allotment of telecom spectrum threatens to tarnish the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been publicly taken to task by India's Supreme Court for waiting 16 months to respond to a request for a probe into the matter.
Mr. Singh stands out among Indian politicians for his impeccable reputation for probity. And no-one is suggesting that he in any way benefited from the tainted 2008 second-generation spectrum allotment that has led to dramatic revelations in the past few weeks and forced the resignation last weekend of the telecommunications minister, Andimuthu Raja.
But the Supreme Court's direct criticism of the prime minister for failing to take quicker action over a request for a probe into the allotment process has brought a whiff of scandal to Mr. Singh's doorstep for the first time since he assumed power in 2004. Although he is a noted economist famous for introducing India's market-led reforms in 1991, much of Mr. Singh's political support rests on the perception that he is above reproach in administrative matters and abhors any suggestion of corruption in his ministerial ranks.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is heading for the most crucial time of his political career," said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the New Delhi-based South Asia Analysis Group. "His reputation and the integrity of the Congress party have been dented."
India's Comptroller and Auditor General earlier this week found that spectrum licenses had been issued on a first-come, first-served basis favoring a handful of bidders and that the process had deprived the Indian treasury of as much as $40 billion in fees. Mr. Raja denies any wrongdoing.
The scandal has given opposition parties ammunition to attack Mr. Singh's administration – and now his actions.
Mr. Raja is a senior politician from a Tamil Nadu-based political party which is a key partner in the United Progressive Alliance, the coalition led by Mr. Singh's Congress party.
In November 2008, Subramaniyan Swamy, a leading Indian opposition politician, wrote to Mr. Singh asking for the government to give the go-ahead for a legal case against Mr. Raja. Under Indian law, the prime minister must give his approval for criminal proceedings to begin against a sitting cabinet member. The government responded in March this year, declining the request. The Supreme Court said this week that, by law, the government should have responded within three months.
Mr. Swamy, who is president of the opposition Janata Party, later petitioned the courts to allow for the prosecution of Mr. Raja. After a lower court earlier this year dismissed his petition, the Supreme Court began hearing the case in September but has not yet reached a judgment.
"The three months time for grant of sanction laid by the Supreme Court is clear for fair and good governance," Justices G. S. Singhvi and A. K. Ganguly said at a hearing Tuesday. "We find it is now more than 16 months. The sanctioning authority [the prime minister] can say 'I am not inclined to give sanction.' But we find alleged inaction and silence troubling."
On Thursday, the court gave the Solicitor General, which represents the government in the Supreme Court, until Saturday to file an affidavit explaining why the government had been slow to respond.
A spokesman for Mr. Singh declined to comment on court matters beyond saying the Solicitor General is preparing a response as directed by the Supreme Court. Attempts to reach the Solicitor General's office were unsuccessful.
Barun Mitra, director of the New Delhi-based Liberty Institute, an independent think tank, said Mr. Singh may have been forced to overlook Mr. Raja's alleged role in the scandal due to the need to hold his coalition together.
Though the government ultimately accepted Mr. Raja's resignation, it was only after mounting pressure to address the alleged corruption from the press and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Mr. Raja was the third senior government official to resign in recent weeks.
The chairman of the committee which organized the scandal-plagued Commonwealth Games in October, Suresh Kalmadi, resigned last week from an important Congress party post in Parliament. And the chief minister of India's Maharashtra state, Ashok Chavan, stepped down after allegations of his involvement in the illegal allotment of apartments intended for war veterans and widows.
Both Mr. Kalmadi and Mr. Chavan deny any wrongdoing.
On Thursday, opposition politicians renewed calls for a parliamentary probe into the telecoms affair. The government rejected the demand. Debate in both houses of Parliament was adjourned as angry shouting matches broke out, stalling the government's legislative agenda for another day.
"Congress means corruption. I want the PM to answer to India," said Nitin Gadkari, president of the BJP.
The Wall Street Journal