The Maya behind the raids

What I like about Mayawati is her honesty. That may sound like a funny thing to say but I am being completely serious. I like her for never ...

What I like about Mayawati is her honesty. That may sound like a funny thing to say but I am being completely serious. I like her for never having made any attempt to hide her millions. Remember the diamonds she wore on her birthday party? Did she make any effort to hide them or the fact that someone who could afford to spend lakhs on diamonds must have at least a few crores stashed away? And, last week, when the CBI Central Bureau of Investigation raided her, instead of apologising for her enormous wealth or even trying to explain it, she went on national television to denounce all politicians.

How many politicians do you know who would dare admit publicly that everyone is naked in this hamam? Since she thought the Prime Minister was behind the raids, she singled his son-in-law out for personal attack. 8216;8216;What was he in the past and what has he become today?8217;8217; 8216;8216;Why doesn8217;t the CBI take action against him?8217;8217; Well, the answer to that one is easy. He has not tried, so far, to turn the Taj Mahal into a condominium. If he were trying as she was to do this or if, for instance, it caught his fancy to build a penthouse in the Qutab Minar, he would almost certainly attract attention. But Mayawati has a point that should not be ignored, if behind the public humiliation of a major political figure lies a serious effort to clean up public life.

If there is seriousness of purpose, CBI raids are not the solution as they tend to be selective and too often politically motivated. Having personally witnessed the horror of an Income Tax raid, may I add that raids of any kind are intrusive, barbaric and usually pointless because the only transfer of wealth that occurs is from the raided victim to the raiding officials. Then, if they do not share the booty, someone in the Income Tax Department snitches to the CBI and they conduct more selective raids and we read8212;like we did last week about Mayawati8212;that such and such official had crores in his many bank accounts and crores of rupees worth of properties that were beyond his means to buy. Then the matter goes to court and everyone lives happily ever after because the case goes on forever.

What happened to the cases against Narasimha Rao and Sukh Ram and what of the elusive Mr Quattarochi? It would be worth asking if any of the CBI8217;s cases against major public figures have ever resulted in convictions. So, instead of wasting time and taxpayers8217; money on raids and cases that will probably come to naught, the CBI needs to spend its energy and our resources on doing more important things like finding out, for instance, how much money the Mayawati government spent on public projects that remain unfinished.

While her personal wealth, as exposed by the CBI, amounts to less than Rs 10 crore, the public money she may have squandered on unfinished projects could go into thousands of crores. If the CBI is serious about its attempts to clean up public life, then it must extend its search beyond Uttar Pradesh and Mayawati.

It could discover that nearly every chief minister in the country is similarly guilty of squandering public money on dams that remain unfinished, canals that remain unlined, power plants that remain forever half-built and a thousand other utilities that nobody seems under pressure to complete. According to some estimates, there could be more than Rs 30,000 crore locked up in unfinished projects. This is a criminal waste of public money but nobody is held to account for it because no sooner does a government change than it comes up with its own list of grandiose projects because it is from these that big money can be made. This is why so many big public works get announced whenever elections draw near.

If we are serious about cleaning up public life, we must make chief ministers and ministers accountable for the money they waste. We also need to reduce their discretionary powers by introducing enough transparency for it to never be possible for the construction of a shopping mall without even the Prime Minister8217;s Office getting a whiff of what was happening.

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Transparency would serve a dual purpose as it would serve also to reduce the need for constant interference from the Central Vigilance Commission CVC and the CAG Comptroller and Auditor General. As things stand, the fear of these two watchdogs often becomes the reason why big public projects take so long to move forward. With the best of intentions, they have become more obstacles than watchdogs because officials prefer not to take a decision rather than take one that would come under CVC or CAG scrutiny. So in the case of one irrigation project, which is ready to bring water to an area of perpetual drought, the only thing blocking the way is an unlined canal which remains unlined because the state government cannot hand out a contract without going through a full tendering process.

What puzzles me is why the CVC and CAG spend so much time going through government accounts with a fine toothcomb and so little on holding governments to account for much more obvious waste of public money. All they need to do is order governments to submit an annual list of public projects and ask how many remain incomplete and why, and we could have the beginning of real transparency. CBI raids on public figures like Mayawati create excitement and headlines but, in the end, all they amount to are fun and games. It is serious change that never seems to happen.