Various scams, scandals and stigmas that have surfaced in the recent years. These may not all be attributable to the antics and bungling of politicians, but they have been facilitated largely because of the vitiated atmosphere that the politicians and the political system have created in the country.
Scams and scandals have manifested themselves in large numbers over the past few years. The latest, the Petrol Pump Scam concerning 3,158 allotments of petrol pumps, LPG agencies and kerosene oil depots that were allegedly handed out on payment ranging from Rs 30 -50 lakh to Rs 2,500 crore. The Prime Minister took the bold and welcome step of canceling these allotments.
Most of the scams that have taken place keep featuring off and on in the media, but that doesn’t stop the next one from taking place since investigations and trials are excruciatingly prolonged. The Bofors scam, in which Rajiv Gandhi was also named, involved the purchase of important defence equipment from foreign markets causing embezzlement of Rs 65 crore. That was 15 years ago. Gandhi was assassinated, former Bofors agent Win Chaddha and former defence secretary S K Bhatnagar have died and we still haven’t managed to extradite the main accused, Ottavio Quattarocchi and Martin Abdo.
Likewise, the Rs 1,200-crore fodder scam, relating to the procurement of non-existent fodder on payments from the state exchequer, has been in the news for years. Investigations revealed that the former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav was alleged to have drawn Rs 1,000 crore from different government treasuries through Animal Husbandry Officers. The CBI filed 50 regular cases in courts connected with this scam, but a final decision is still awaited.
In Uttar Pradesh purchases, the purchase of ayurvedic medicines worth Rs 63 crore was found to be bogus. Then, there was the securities scam involving crores of rupees in broker Harshad Mehta secured huge amounts of loans from banks against