Inflation, corruption and scams – UPA govt. seems to be clouded and overburdened by words like these. The country has seen the biggest scams under the UPA government. From corrupt ministers in land allotment or spectrum issues to price rise or inflation – they have it all.
The drowning UPA govt.
Source: indiadaily.org
In a press conference in New Delhi, BJP President Nitin Gadkari strongly reacted on the price rise issue saying,
"Earlier, I used to say the economic policy of the government has failed, but now it seems that the UPA-2 (India's ruling coalition, United Progressive Alliance) has failed on all fronts. All the promises made by Sonia Gandhi (UPA Chief) on issues such as corruption have proven to be false and shallow.."
If we look at it closely, the country’s largest scams fall under the UPA govt.’s banner. Scams like the Common Wealth Games, 2G spectrum, Satyam Scam, Adarsh Land scam, Bofors scandal are some of the highlights under the UPA govt.
Common Wealth Games Scam: An estimated Rs 1899 crores game event landed up becoming a Rs 70,000 crore one. But how? This gigantic expenditure on the CWG is a direct outcome of the frauds by the Games Organizing Committee and various functionaries of the Central and State (Delhi) government. To look deeply into the matter, UPA government has set up an enquiry committee headed by a former CAG. This committee was set up not only to find out the money laundering techniques, but also the people involved in doing that.
Common WEALTH Games
Source: commonwealthdelhi.com
2 G Spectrum Scam: One of the country’s largest scam happens to be the 2G spectrum scam where rules were grossly violated and spectrum licenses were given to random companies on the first come first serve basis. Interestingly, Congress’s chief ally and former telecom minister A Raja is the main accused in this case. This scam has cost Rs 1,76,000 crore to the public exchequer. In simple language, this money was enough for a universal public distribution of 35kgs of rice at Rs 2/kg for the entire term remaining for the UPA govt. This public loot by the telecom minister of the country has left the whole nation spell-bound. In fact, even after so many revelations, the Prime Minister kept mum in spite of being regularly questioned by the opposition and the media. Finally, after the immense pressure created by the Opposition in the Parliament, PM has agreed for a JPC probe into the 2G scam.
Adarsh Society Scam: Adarsh Housing Society was set up for the widows of the martyrs in the Kargil war and for the families of war veterans, in the year 1999. In a shocking disclosure, it was known that none of those 103 apartments were allotted to either the widows or the war veterans. In fact, these flats were pocketed by top defense officials, top politicians and some bureaucrats. This scam is an example to show how the law makers of the nation turn into its law breakers, where the Chief Minister of the State can becomes the centre of corruption. With the exposure of this scam, the Chief Minister of Maharastra, Ashok Chavan, had to resign from his post.
Adarsh Society - the ideal scam
Source: ndtv.com
According to BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad, Congress under UPA II presides over corruption and constitutes for about 3 percent of the country’s GDP.
Recently, the Parliamentary sessions were boycotted by the Opposition in the demand of the formation of a JPC in scams like 2G spectrum, Adarsh and CWG. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the green signal to the 2G spectrum scam only. In fact, the bleakly cornered UPA finally woke up and decided to introduce measures to curb down corruption. It proposed a 90-day limit to decide upon prosecution sanction against corrupt bureaucrats and dismissal of officers if a court files criminal charges against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In the last two years, all these scams have largely scarred the UPA’s image and threatened its position. Thus, this decision of ending discretionary powers of the ministers is seen as small step to save their image. In fact, arrest of A Raja by the CBI, removal of P J Thomas as the CVC, JPC probe can be considered as strides towards the anti-corruption campaign.
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