There is an old saying that those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad! If there is any truth in that are we witnessing the last days of the Congress Party?
The manner in which its government is handling the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the 2G scam certainly suggests a touch of insanity. Partisanship is not new. But such brazen partisanship as displayed by the draft report of the JPC on the 2G scam is unprecedented. The government’s brazen conduct is nothing less than an invitation for revolt by the opposition and nationwide protest by the public. The fireworks should start in Parliament later this week.
From the start of the JPC’s handling of the 2G scam, chaired by Congress stalwart P Chacko, its bizarre approach became evident. Consider just the broad facts. Former Telecom Minister A Raja was indicted for corruption by the Supreme Court in the 2G scam and is presently in jail. He remains the main accused. He wants to depose before the JPC. The JPC refuses to grant him a hearing although he is the main accused. He is repeatedly asserting that the Prime Minister and Chidambaram were privy to all decisions he took on issuing 2G licenses and given opportunity he will convince the JPC of this fact. What kind of inquiry is it that conducts a probe without even once questioning the main accused in the case?
Members of the JPC have demanded that the Prime Minister be summoned to depose before the JPC. JPC Chairman Chacko refuses to oblige. On the other hand he wanted former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee presently ailing and incapacitated to depose before the JPC. Brazenly, Congress leaders started blaming ministers of the previous government for creating the 2G scam for which the Supreme Court had already convicted their own Telecom minister!
The farcical nature of this huge charade becomes more glaring from the fact that enough evidence has surfaced to indict Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Chidambaram of abetting corruption in the 2G scam thereby making them open to prosecution. As iterated in these columns a note and letter by Mukherjee made public through a Right To Information application makes amply clear that the ministries of Law, Finance and Telecom, as well as the cabinet secretariat and the PMO were all fully informed about Raja’s decisions. It was also pointed out in these columns how this fact made all these ministers guilty of abetting corruption on the basis of the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Despite this the draft report of the JPC blandly asserts that that the Prime Minister and Chidambaram were blameless in the 2G scam. The government may succeed in bulldozing its decision through Parliament. Can it sell such blatant lies to the people of India? The government may not be deliberately perverse. It may be helpless. It may simply be fulfilling the prophecy about the wish of Gods regarding those they wish to destroy. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to dissolve the Congress on January 30, 1948. Is it taking over sixty years for the Congress to fulfill that wish?
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