Gujarat whip crack rings hollow

* Oct 25: Chimanlal Patel, or Chiman Sathi, director of closed Charotar Nagrik Cooperative Bank, Anand, arrested

* Oct 26: House and business premises of C.R. Patil, director of Surat’s Diamond Cooperative Bank and prominent BJP leader, are raided. Patil goes missing.

The Gujarat government appears to have finally woken up to errant office-bearers who have defrauded cooperative banks of crores, leaving thousands of depositors in the lurch. The arrests, however, have come late in the day. Over the last year and a half, 11 cooperative banks have gone bust, affecting over 1,700,000 depositors.

And with polls round the corner, the delayed government action is perceived as a gimmick. The example of Bholabhai, a minister in the Chhabildas Mehta government with powerful friends in BJP, is an eye-opener.

A day before he surrendered at Ahmedabad’s Ghatlodia police station, he withdrew his anticipatory bail application from Gujarat High Court. BJP sources said Bholabhai, implicated in a Rs 250-crore fraud at Visnagar bank, was told to turn himself in. A day before he surrendered, depositors demonstrating in front of his bungalow on Drive-in Road were arrested.

Prakash Gujar, Cooperative Banks Depositors Association (CBDA) president, said: ‘‘This is a sort of fixing; a pre-planned attempt to salvage the government’s image with an eye on polls. If police were looking for Bholabhai, how could he indicate to everyone he was surrendering and walk into a police station.’’

Diamond Cooperative Bank director C.R. Patil’s is another instance. He had said he would surrender on Friday night, but still hasn’t. After the bank went bust in September, Patil was made convener for caretaker CM Narendra Modi’s Gaurav Yatra in south Gujarat. Patil is accused of defrauding the bank of Rs 61 crore.

CBDA organising-secretary Rajiv Singh Chaudhary said: ‘‘The case was registered two months ago. But he (Patil) was not arrested. Now suddenly his house has been raided. Why now?’’

Patil may be absconding but he is still chairman of Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd, Vadodara, a state undertaking. Depositors are trying desperately to get the BJP’s national leaders’ attention. When Deputy PM L.K. Advani was here on October 23 for IMAX theatre inauguration, depositors demanded to meet him. They were caned. Advani asked Modi, who was with him, about the reason for commotion.

With polls near, the BJP leadership has asked state leaders to act. At the BJP zonal meeting on September 27, party president M. Venkaiah Naidu received representations from depositors. He reportedly wanted to know why no action had been taken yet.

‘‘With elections around, and national leaders visiting Gujarat, the government and the party are facing embarrassing questions,’’ said Jayrambhai Patel, Gujarat State Cooperative Bank chairman. ‘‘This (arrests) is an attempt to show something is being done. Otherwise, I don’t think the government is bothered.’’

Ghanshyam Amin, Gujarat State Cooperative Union chairman said: ‘‘The BJP has realised the cooperative bank scam will be a big poll issue. First, they (govt) had blamed RBI, which pointed out there is a Cooperatives Department in the state with a minister. Depositors still think not enough has been done.’’ One reason is the government’s failure to implement effectively a legislation to control cooperative banks. Jayrambhai said: ‘‘The powers the state gives to bank managers for recovery, by attaching and auctioning defaulters’ property, are useless. This is because managers can’t attach property without foolproof documents. And these they often don’t have.’’

State Minister for Cooperation Vadibhai Patel did have an excuse ready. ‘‘Defaulting directors were arrested only after enough proof was found.”