Stamp out the scam

Ingenious indeed are the ways of scamsters and crooks. Who would have thought that there could have been a flourishing scam in the stamp pap...

Ingenious indeed are the ways of scamsters and crooks. Who would have thought that there could have been a flourishing scam in the stamp paper with which we lesser mortals conduct our daily financial transactions? But then every passing day turns out to be an object lesson in corruption and skulduggery. Now, with the criminal ways of Abdul Karim Telgi and his boys 8212; in politics and the police force 8212; increasingly making it to the public space, we know that illegally printed stamp paper can indeed transmogrify into a multi-crore, multi-state scam. That the magical properties of false stamp paper can result in creating instant wealth for every guardian of the law who agreed to play ball. That a humble assistant police inspector, by the sheer dint of protecting criminals, could suddenly acquire property valued at Rs 100 crore.

But if you wondered whether the stamp of this shame on their sleeve would have the Maharashtra government cowering in shame, perish the thought. The Congress-NCP Democratic Front government, from all appearances, has decided to brazen it out. The deputy chief minister, and the state8217;s home minister to boot, gamely defends himself on primetime television. 8220;They knew about it. They did nothing,8221; he screams, pointing fingers at the earlier Shiv Sena-BJP regime, even as he overlooks his own indefensible role of presiding over this den of corruption. As for Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, not only does he blatantly protect his deputy by brushing aside the Opposition8217;s charges as routine, he has firmly resisted the idea of a CBI inquiry into the scam. Nowhere is there a hint of regret that the reputation of its once highly reputed police force has been dangerously eroded; a modicum of shame over a very public scandal that strikes at the very root of good governance and public accountability.

If those in power were allowed to have their way, the rest of us would not have got even a whiff of the scandal. As it happened, it surfaced in dribs and drabs, with a seizure here, an exposure there, until the high court had to step in and institute a Special Investigation Team. This is where the relevance of the demands raised by Maharashtra social activist Anna Hazare comes in. When he went on a hunger strike in August, he raised three issues, apart from others. He wanted the state to pass the right to information act with modifications, ensure that the transfer of government employees is conducted in a transparent manner and, finally, probes into the corruption charges against some of the state8217;s ministers. The Maharashtra government acceded to these demands in order to defuse the tension caused by Hazare8217;s hunger strike but there is little evidence that it is serious about setting its house in order. The latest scandal to emerge from India8217;s most prosperous state is evidence enough of this.