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BETWEEN THE LINES

Pressure is on to Speed up Scam Probe

Kuldip Nayar writes from New Delhi
AFTER Prime Minister Narasimha Rm's awuran cc that no ope will be •pared. the Congress party has been dragging it* feet on inquiry into the IrregularlUrs. covering aecurlttea and banking tranaactlona Involving a aum of nearly Ha 8.000 crore The government seems to have
The finance ministry a banking department haa not yet sent the relevant files to the Joint Parliamentary Com mlttee (JPC), which has been In the midst of Inquiry for the past eight weeks Nor has the Central Bureau of Investigation (CB1) complied with the JPC a request to pass on the papers, which it haa collected for its own probe. Instead, the CBI has sought the law ministry s advice on whether it can at all show the papers when the matter is pending before the court.
There Is a sudden coolness in the government's atUtude. In the beginning one got the impression that Narasimha Rao wanted the truth to come out.
But it turns out that be is afraid of the fallout, it appears that the purpose of the government was to have a perfunctory type of inquiry on the lines that an earlier JPC held on the Bofors gun scandal. But it was a wrong assumption because the opposition had boycotted the JPC then. Now it is very much there. Probably both the prime minister and his party were kept in the dark. As the ramifications of the Inquiry are assuming clear contours, the government is becoming circumspect. It Is afraid to face the truth.
The atmosphere at the JPC meetings shows ft. Now it Is they and we. The Congressmen aggressively oppose any move which may tell upon the government or their party. It
seems that the Congress members have been told not to concede even an inch to the opposition.
Ironically, it was Congress man. S S Ahluwalia. who had brought to the JPC notice a note as well as the briefing that the state finance minis ters. Rameshwar Thakur and Dalbir Singh, gave to the Congress members on how to evade answers to the questions on the scam. Those were initial meetings where the Congress had not drawn any line for Its members This was done after the JPC unanimously passed a resolution for the breach of privilege against Thakur and Dalbir Singh
When Naraslmha Rao was informed about the resolution at Jakarta, where he was al tending the NAM summit, he advised caution till his return That explains why the Congress party's spokesman did not comment on the privilege motion for three days. Nor did any minister come to the defence of either Thakur or Dalbir. They were left high and dry
Only on his return did Naraslmha Rao inform the party to stand by the two. The prime minister's decision to protect them was reportedly not because he had any love lost for them but because he could visualise that their exit would make Finance Minister Manmohan Singh's stay un tendable. At Naraslmha Rao s instance. Manmohan Singh fired his shot In defence of Thakur and Dalbir and then followed a cacophony of noises for support. Shivraj Patil, the Lok Sab ha Speaker, kept the privilege motion pending not knowing what to do with it. The JPC is under the Speaker and he Is fully competent to take action even against of Ra jya Sab ha member fThakur is from the Rajya Sabha) In consultation with the chairman of that House. But Patil did not want to be singled out for the decision He found a technical
way out by refereeing the matter of Thakur to the Rajya Sabha chairman.
Patil still has to decide on Dalbir. a Lok Sabha member The only difference now Is that the Speaker has the satis faction of putting on test the Rajya Sabha chairman, a Congress nominee who also has a good equation with the opposition. However, if both were to go by the law mln istry's advice, what Thakur and Dalbir did would not come within the purview of privilege
Delhi is agog with rumours why Naraslmha Rao changed his tracks. So many ministers and officers from the economic ministries have dipped their fingers Into the honey pot that Naraslmha Rao had no option except to back track on the Inquiry It was an Interest Ing hearing of the JPC the other day when two officers appeared before it to emphasise that they had acted on the order of the ministers. What probably made the government really nervous was the fact that some members were flushed with secret Information from Inside the government departments, banks and intelligence agencies.
If the effort to defeat the Inquiry reflects the thinking at the highest, no government
department or agency will part with any worthwhile information The 120 odd questions, which the three study groups of the JPC have prepared. may never be answered, at least not In full. As many aa 95 questions relate to the Reserve Bank of India alone, ranging from the role of its governor on transactions of securities to the policy of granting licences to foreign banks. The questions posed to the finance ministry are primarily directed against the finance minister and the RBI governor Venkitaraman
One dozen JPC members have also submitted separate questions. Rabi Ray. former Speaker, has demanded documents relating to what Is known as Coupon Rates scandal' in which the foreign banks are alleged "to have made huge profits at the cost of nation allied banks due to Inside in formation leakage.' Jaswant Sinha, former finance minister, wants a list of the shareholders of the Fairgrowth Financial Services Limited, which claimed the scalp of former commerce minister Chidambaram
Jaswant Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party member, has asked, among other things, how R L Malhotra, former RBI governor was retired prema turely and how the present governor was appointed Ge orge Fernandes, the Janata Dal member, has sought all reports and communications on the scam which the Reserve Bank, securities exchange board of India and other government agencies have sent to the finance ministry. T N Chaturvedi. former comptroller and auditor general. has made a tall order: copies of instructions, directives. circulars and guidances Issued In respect of security transactions during the last five years. (The auditing of nationalised banks Is done by private auditors, not by the government's auditing departments).
In addition, there is a list of some 1OO people, who are sought to be summoned as witnesses. They include Manmohan Singh. Pranab Mukherjee. deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. VP Singh. Madhu Dhandavate. former finance minister. K P Geetakrishnan. finance secretary. M S Ahluwalia, secretary of economic affairs. Rajagopal, cabinet secretary, the RBI governor, Bimal Jalan, former fi-
nance secretary. K Madhavan of the CBI and chief officers at ANZ Grindlays. Citibank. Bank of American and Standard Chartered Bank.
R N Mfrdha. who heads the JPC. will ultimately decide which questions should be forwarded to the government for reply and who from among the witnesses be called for ev idence. He cannot be arbitrary 1n his decisions Were he to apply blue pencil too liberally, he would invite the wrath of the opposition members 1n the JPC at a time when the impression going around Is that the Congress wants to hide certain things. On the other hand, the Congress which is afraid of disclosures, expects Ml rd ha to help the party He agreed with my observation when 1 told him the other day: "You are doomed both ways.'
The opposition members in the JPC are increasingly afraid that the government will not let them see the relevant documents and files. If Mirdha or the government comes in the way. the opposition members may first appeal to the Speaker and then to the nation. At present. they are disappointed because the pace of inquiry is slow and because they are not getting the papers. They were hoping to bring out an interim report for the winter session of parliament
However frustrated the op position members may feel, they should give a long rope to the government, the Speaker and Mirdha. The scam Is the biggest scandal India has faced since Independence, ft is not the failure of system, as the government says, it is a cumulation of crime, forgery, cheating and tax evasion The opposition members owe It to the nation to unravel the scam, patience, not petulance, will