On August 27, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while inaugurating a conference of the state anti-corruption bureau and the CBI: "A strong link has developed between economic offences and anti-social and terrorist organisations." Did the PM just wake up? Anyway, better late than never!
Even since the Jain hawala case in the mid-'90s, this columnist has been drumming on this theme. On how Hizbul Mujahideen boss Salahuddin and India's leading politicians received hawala money via the same conduits. On how a TADA case without precedence became a corruption case once political names surfaced. On how two TADA accused were convicted, but for the rest the case was quietly buried. On how politicians were let off after mismanaged investigations monitored by the SC. On how the SC's own conduct was questionable.... But forget it. It's history now.
Let's focus instead on the Rs 30,000-crore-plus Telgi scam. The Telgi scam arose from the fake currency scam. The same technique characterised both scams. Machines were procured which facilitated printing of counterfeit notes and stamps indistinguishable from the genuine article. In December 2003, the police seized new currency notes of six countries, not stamp papers, from a government employee accused in the Telgi case. This fact, and the common strategy in both scams, establishes the link. For terrorists, fake money renders drug money superfluous.
The law and the CBI will take their own course. But consider what the PM can do. The fake stamp papers were traced to the illegal sale of dyes and plates when the printing press was auctioned at Nashik by the government. Former law minister Ram Jethmalani wrote a letter to former finance minister Yashwant Sinha recommending the promotion of the officer responsible for this illegal sale. The officer was duly promoted.
The purchase of inferior printing machines that facilitated fake currency notes was undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India even though it was fully aware of the risks involved. Court records of the RBI's deposition in a PIL filed by this columnist in Maharashtra bear this out. Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, did nothing despite knowing the risks involved. Opposition MPs Somnath Chatterji, Tarit Barun Topdar and Chetan Chauhan had written to him about the dangers arising from these inferior machines.
So, Mr Prime Minister, why not a government white paper on fake currency and fake stamp papers followed by a debate in Parliament? A debate would allow the PM, Yashwant Sinha and Ram Jethmalani to explain their roles. Shouldn't Speaker Somnath Chatterji welcome this debate?
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)
