High octane scam

The BJP rejigged itself in 1998 as the perfect foil to the other parties, particularly the Congress, by calling itself 8216;a party with a ...

The BJP rejigged itself in 1998 as the perfect foil to the other parties, particularly the Congress, by calling itself 8216;a party with a difference8217;. Indeed, at that point of time, it seemed that the nation needed nothing less than a complete overhaul of its tainted political culture.

The 40-odd years of Congress rule were marked by a series of scams, from the Mundhra scandal of the late fifties to the Bofors blast of the mid-eighties to the activities of the Sukh Rams and Satish Sharmas in the nineties. Even the few Janata Dal-type experiments in government formation didn8217;t inspire much confidence.

Yes, a nation tired of this blatant and familiar looting of the public exchequer was, despite its general scepticism of the loud claims of political parties, ready for a party, any party, that could provide it with a clean government and genuinely alternative politics.

They had their chance, now give us a chance to prove ourselves, said the BJP. Take it, responded the voter. The bluff was soon called. The chance the party was asking for, it turned out, was to do what the others did over the decades but to do this more efficiently, more cleverly, more 8216;legitimately8217;, and within a shorter span of time. It is intriguing that the only wisdom the NDA government seems to have gleaned from the mauling the courts gave Congress minister Satish Sharma in the late nineties was that it should set up a 8216;transparent8217; system by which to dispense its favours.

Union Minister for Petroleum Ram Naik is an honourable man. He is, therefore, inordinately proud of his 60 Dealer Selection Boards all over India, headed by handpicked retired justices, who in turn allot petrol pumps and LPG outlets to meritorious applicants.

Remember the perfect murder always has the perfect alibi. Similarly, the perfect patronage racket must needs have perfect rules. What very few realised 8212; apart from the beneficiaries, that is 8212; was that 8216;merit8217; was not about helping the handicapped, not about compensating for tragedy, not about honouring our dead soldiers, it was not even about ability and entrepreneurial skills.

8216;Merit8217; boiled down to meritorious family connections. How else would over half of the 3,850 allotments made under Naik have gone to BJP workers, their relatives and the larger Parivar, as the Express 8216;Pump Scam8217; investigations reveal?

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And still they don8217;t learn. In their defence, the BJP8217;s chief spin doctors still cling to the past malpractices of the Congress to retrieve their lost honour.

Under fire in the House, what does Pramod Mahajan have to say in his party8217;s defence? No words of contrition, no words of shame. 8216;8216;Leaders of the Congress party owned a larger number of petrol pumps than those of any other party,8217;8217; he says. V.K. Malhotra virtuously cites the fact that no minister has benefitted from these quotas. They don8217;t get it, do they, these guardians of the BJP8217;s virtue? This stench of nepotism and petrol cannot, will not, be tolerated. The profiteers will have to be pumped out of the system.