'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark'.Shakespeare in Hamlet (1.4.90)
In the news and centre stage is the whodunit of some
government officials in cahoots with top industrial firms and caught in the act of
sharing or selling proprietary/classified information. An open secret suddenly
has gripped the uninformed public’s imagination of colossal wrongs or that is
how some elements of the conscientious media would have us believe.
Anyone who has ever worked in a government department would
know that there is an information supply chain receiving benefits from
spin-offs, established gift distribution systems or more direct sharing of the
bribes.(strangely, some do receive unsuspectingly and without prior knowledge,
too). This labyrinthine chain begins and includes among others the Receptionist(
who receives and answers calls),the Registry ,where all incoming and outgoing mail
is recorded, the members of the Procurement/Tender Protocol ,the user, the
administrator, the independent specialist coupled with the overarching presence
of the CEO or the Boss. This entire
gravy train is oiled and nurtured by minions of the Corporations agencies or Companies,
(mostly at the behest of superiors and the Company owners) that are likely to
win contracts or deals.
Therefore, when Mr. Bora the then Chairman and Managing
Director of ONGC amusedly remarked at the suspected penetration by Reliance
Industries and the Cairn Energy firms into the bidding process and access to
privileged information was a smart in-house job sounds a trifle naïve and at worse farcical. This was
in 1999 when the countries for the first time had thrown open the hydro carbon
reserves to private exploration. That ONGC and Oil India are fighting a losing battle
(if not already lost) subsequently with the Reliance and other big fat private
majors is the stuff of another episode in this deep, dark, murky tale. The recent
cases of coal allotments, telecom spectrum and defense deals have all at
different levels been thus compromised. The cost, distribution of the bribes or
benefits would obviously have been graded. That the media too is actively a
participant in this illegitimate and dastardly act is only underlined by the
revelation of the Radia Tapes and Ms Barkha Dutt episode. That this kind of
insidious penetration is a systematic case of planned industrial espionage to
make the public sector and PSU’s defunct and facilitate a private takeover is
larger part of the truth, indeed. Therefore, the nexus of the well placed bureaucrat,
politicians, ministers, Company heads and directors, professional liaison
agents (read thugs) and their funding agencies cannot be ever overstated. Nothing
or no one is sacrosanct or an untouchable.
So why does suddenly Mr. Ajit Dhoval, country’s head of
Intelligence rushes into this melting pot fuming and feather’s flying? Is he really
concerned with the compromise of national security? Are the big names of Messrs
Cairns Energy, Reliance Industries, ADAG, ESSAR group being highlighted to show
their similar concerns or distract and deflect the real players by catching up
with small time offenders? Or will the big players use their power and
connections to be protect through due constructs and legalese like the unsolved
case of Balasubramaniam and Reliance of 1988. These and such other questions
would need to be asked, if not already done and be answered. And in their
seriousness and integrity of effort shall lie the truth of sordid stories and
their intriguing connections that soars northwards as always.
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