CWG, Karnataka, POSCO, Mumbai

Last week it was written in these columns:

Despite all the mismanagement, inadequacy of preparations and allegations of mega-size corruption that at one stage threatened the very holding of the XIX Commonwealth Games in the Capital, the Games have on the whole gone off well….

The Games have indeed been a success defying all the initial fears and misgivings. Now has begun the probe into all the charges of corruption. The government had promised to conduct, after the gala sports event, a detailed investigation into the allegations of wrongdoing and it has kept its word. The Shunglu panel has been instituted to carry out an official inquiry. As of now, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax (IT) authorities have all swung into action. Several of the errant companies have been identified and their premises raided; among these is the one of Sudhanshu Mittal, a long-time BJP associate, who has predictably claimed innocence and pleaded that he had been made a “political scapegoat”. The BJP, again predictably, has declined to back him and in fact distanced itself and dissociated from him, but not before hurling serious charges at the Prime Minister’s Office by saying that all cost escalations had the PMO’s approval. So alongside the actual probe the political mud-slinging match has started under the glare of publicity. However, it is learnt that the real big fish in the scam are not being spared and they would be interrogated in due course, even if few have faith in the official inquiry in progress; that is why there is talk of setting up an eminent citizens’ group to conduct genuine investigation into all the charges that have been levelled in the media.

Meanwhile the Karnataka drama is far from over even if the B.S. Yeddyurappa Government was able to prove, on October 14, its majority on the floor of the State Assembly beyond any shade of doubt and without the recurrence of the disgraceful scenes that marred the proceedings of the Karnataka Legislature on October 11. But this majority was made possible by the Speaker disqualifying 16 MLAs (five Independents and 11 BJP members). Currently the matter of the MLAs’ disqualification is with the Karnataka High Court. After a two-judge Bench of the HC came out with a split verdict, a single-judge Bench has been constituted to deliver the judgment after hearing both sides of the case. The hearings have been completed but the judge has reserved the order—but, according to knowledge sources, it can come anytime, even late tonight. However, as we go to press it has not yet come. Needless to say the people of the State as well as the country at large are eagerly awaiting the judgment.

Two noteworthy developments of the past few days merit special mention. First, three out of four members of the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF’s) POSCO review panel have recommended scrapping of the South Korean giant’s steel plant and captive port in Orissa. They have categorically stated: “Both POSCO and Vedanta are alike in the sense that in both instances there are gross violations of law.” Nevertheless, what the government would do in the circumstances is anybody’s guess since there are apprehensions to the effect that the dissenting note of the remaining member, who was the Environment Secretary in the MoEF when POSCO secured environmental clearance, may be used by the authorities at the State and Central levels to negate the majority opinion in the panel. It is in this context that the following write-up by the Chairperson of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) assumes considerable significance.

Second, the Shiv Sena pressure on the Mumbai University to withdraw an award-winning novel by a distinguished Indian author now residing in Canada—Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey—from its syllabus has succeeded with the Vice-Chancellor capitulating to the demand. The book was published in 1991 and has been on the University syllabus since 2007. What is more regrettable, the CM has apparently backed the step saying certain paragraphs in the publication were “highly objectio-nable”, adding: “We will not prescribe such a book for students.”

Interestingly, even the pro-BJP Pioneer daily has opposed this move, and observed:

Apparently, the Sena is incensed by what it believes to be offensive remarks against the organisation in the book and hence considers it unworthy of being included in the university syllabus... Will we now witness those who subscribe to creationism demanding that Darwinism not be taught? Or, will those opposed to Marxism insist that Karl Marx and all Marxist writers be banished from the groves of academy? Such thuggery is antithetical to not only freedom of thought and speech, but also strikes at the root of academic freedom. The Sena’s demand should have been resisted and the Sainiks should have been dared. Instead, a gutless Vice-Chancellor caved in and an opportunist Chief Minister, not wanting to be seen on the wrong side, has failed to take on the hoodlums. Worse, he has said those who cleared the book in the first place should be hauled up……

The authorities in Mumbai have once again succumbed to the Shiv Sena’s street politics thereby dealing a heavy blow to liberalism and freedom of thought. In effect it is yet another assault on democracy. We have been experiencing similar assaults for quite sometime in different parts of the country.

October 21 S.C.