Just questions

Can the stakes be any higher? Unprecedented fraud in Indias sunrise industry has taken place in the midst of a deepening financial crisis. And the potential political fallout is in Andhra Pradesh,a state preparing to go to assembly elections,and crucially a state expected to determine who holds the next Lok Sabha. The least that is required is a swift and transparent investigation.

Instead,we have the ugly spectacle of the Securities and Exchange Board of India being compelled to march all the way to the Supreme Court to petition for access to the Raju brothers,Satyams CFO,and the PWC auditors. The trial court denied SEBI access because it is not an investigative agency; the high court dismissed the petition on a technicality; and the matter now lies in the Supreme Court. But the big picture is bedevilling too: why did SEBI need to go to the courts at all? The intricate nature of the fraud and its political overtones demand expertise and credibility outside of the state CID. SEBI,with its financial expertise as well as relative institutional independence,would seem to fit both bills. After all,SEBIs questioning cannot in any way impact the state polices investigation,can it? And given that their political master at the Centre which must see the need for bringing transparency to the investigation and in the state,is the same Congress party,a turf war should have been unnecessary. But for a full three weeks,the one agency with the expertise to come to terms with the enormity of the scam has been kept away from those who know.

The governments measures to safeguard Satyams future credible directors appointed,Lamp;T upping its stakes,potential buyers sought out has earned as much approbation as the investigation into Satyams past has earned opprobrium: it took the CID a whole week after Ramalinga Rajus public confession to seize documents from Satyams auditors. The absurdity of Raju and his accomplices not being interrogated by SEBI for three weeks,the Andhra governments opposition to this,and the Centres deafening silence put together,could invite whispers of a cover-up. India needs to sort out the issues of corporate governance raised by the Satyam scandal. It can do without bureaucratic turf wars and the consequent whiff of political meddling.