Scandal Poses a Riddle: Will India Ever Be Able to Tackle Corruption?

[ant80]

NYTimes Article Not just International news, but front page news in NYTIMES! This time, our politicians have really outdone themselves...

NEW DELHI — His business rivals never fully understood how Manoj Jayaswal got so rich so fast, except that he often seemed joined at the hip with powerful politicians. He hosted them at lavish parties, entertained them at his daughter's opulent Thai wedding and stood among them at India's presidential palace, where a year ago he was praised as a leader in the India growth story.

But now Mr. Jayaswal is embroiled in a $34 billion coal mining scandal that has exposed the ugly underside of Indian politics and economic life: a brazen style of crony capitalism that has enabled politicians and their friends to reap huge profits by gaining control of vast swaths of the country's natural resources, often for nothing.

"Today in India, politicians are so powerful," said Santosh Hegde, a former Supreme Court justice who recently led a sweeping investigation of a different mining scandal in southern India. "All together, they are looting the country."

Coalgate, as the scandal is now known here, is centered on the opaque government allotment process that enabled well-connected businessmen and politicians to obtain rights to undeveloped coal fields. Investigators are now looking at whether Mr. Jayaswal and Vijay Darda, a member of Parliament, conspired to fraudulently obtain five lucrative coal allocations. Naveen Jindal, another lawmaker and one of India's richest industrialists, is also reportedly under investigation.

cont...

 

[mki]

Till these congis, mafias, criminals and uneducated people are seating in parliament, what can you accept more? We got black ink all over our face because of these corrupt govt. so far we was suffering in our houses now we are humiliated in front of world.

Congratulation and thanks to our beloved govt and politician for ruin name of India at world stage ..

 

[niharjhatn]

Taali bajao, taali bajao!! First page! Mubarak ho!