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.”
(...)
Even as the scandal has renewed public anger about rising official graft and the state of the economy, Coalgate has provided fresh ammunition for those who say India’s politicians have become so venal and feckless that they are no longer able or willing to address the country’s entrenched problems. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which was already on the defensive because it had been implicated in Mr. Hegde’s investigation, has been so eager to score political points with the latest scandal that it shut down Parliament for weeks with floor protests. It refused to allow any debate — even of Coalgate — or any voting unless the prime minister resigned over the scandal. Almost an entire session was lost. Full story...
Related posts:
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.”
(...)
Even as the scandal has renewed public anger about rising official graft and the state of the economy, Coalgate has provided fresh ammunition for those who say India’s politicians have become so venal and feckless that they are no longer able or willing to address the country’s entrenched problems. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which was already on the defensive because it had been implicated in Mr. Hegde’s investigation, has been so eager to score political points with the latest scandal that it shut down Parliament for weeks with floor protests. It refused to allow any debate — even of Coalgate — or any voting unless the prime minister resigned over the scandal. Almost an entire session was lost. Full story...
Related posts:
- Inside story: India's corruption exposed...
- Indian government accused of 'looting the country' over coal...
- Corrupt Indian officials blamed for murder of activist Arup Kalita...
- In corrupt India, asking "uncomfortable" questions can get you murdered...
- India's anti-corruption chief faces corruption charges, forced to resign!!!
- How India was plundered by the rich and the powerful...
- Corruption has cost India $462 billion...
- "30% Indians totally corrupt, 50% borderline ..."
- Who can cure India's corruption?
No comments:
Post a Comment