B.RAMAN
Shri Nitin Gadkari, President of the BJP, and Shri
Naveen Jindal, Member of the Lok Sabha belonging to the Congress, are
businessmen who have entered politics and have continued to be associated with
decision-making relating to their business companies even while playing their
political role.
2. Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, President of the Congress,
which is in power in the Government of India, is the mother-in-law of Shri
Robert Vadra, who has prospered in business after marrying Ms.Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Mrs.
Sonia Gandhi.
3.Mr. Mitt Romney is a member of the US Republican
Party belonging to a well-known business family of Massachusetts. He entered
politics to become the Governor of his State. He is now contesting the US
Presidential elections against President Barack Obama.
4. Shri Gadkari has got involved in a huge
controversy because of his continued association with his business companies
when he was the PWD Minister in the Maharashtra Cabinet in the 1990s and now as
the President of the BJP.
5. Shri Jindal has got involved in an embarrassing
controversy because of his continued association with his steel business even
while serving as a Member of the Parliament belonging to the Congress. He has
allegedly benefitted from a coal mining block allotted to him by the Government
of India.
6. There is nothing wrong in businessmen entering
politics provided they do not profit in their businesses as a result of their
political position and they do not allow their political role to influence
their business decision-making. How to enforce political and business rectitude
when businessmen take to politics?
7.It would be useful to make a case study of
Mr.Romney in the US. He was associated with some business companies of his
State investing in and trading with China. One of the companies was allegedly
even dealing with telecommunications which is a sensitive area from the
national security point of view.
8.Before Mr.Romney decided to enter politics and
contest as Governor of his State, he made a public statement of all his
business interests and holdings, formed a public trust in respect of each of
his companies and dissociated himself from all decision-making in respect of
these companies.
9. Those who had watched the second Presidential
debate between Mr.Romney and Mr.Obama, would have noticed that Mr.Obama
questioned Mr.Romney’s association with business companies investing in and
trading with China. Mr.Romney replied that the affairs of these companies are managed by a
public trust and that he is not associated with their decision-making. Mr.Obama was satisfied with his reply and did
not pursue the matter.
10.In India, huge controversies have arisen
relating to the business background of Sri Gadkari and Shri Jindal because they
did not dissociate themselves from decision-making relating to their business
companies while functioning as political leaders holding key positions. The
public perception is and will be that they have benefitted in their businesses
as a result of their political role and influence.
11.Shri Gadkari was a public servant when he was
the PWD Minister. He is not a public servant now as the President of the BJP. Shri
Jindal is a public servant as a member of the Parliament and is subject to the
jurisdiction of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Had he been a member of the
US Congress and had he been allotted a coal mining block, the legal and public assumption
in the US would have been that he did not get the block on merits, but by
virtue of his being in the Congress. To avoid such perceptions, all public
servants in the US form public trusts of their businesses and dissociate
themselves from decision-making.
12. In the case of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, the
wrong-doing was of a different kind. When the Congress was elected to power in
2004, political rectitude demanded that she should inform all Government
departments of the Government of India and all State Governments where the
Congress is in power, that her son-in-law is a real estate businessman and he
should not be shown any favours because of his being her son-in-law. She did
not do so.
13. When the controversy regarding the real estate
wheeling and dealing of Shri Vadra recently broke out, she should have
immediately written to the Prime Minister to look into all his real estate
dealings in which departments of the Government of India and State Governments
were involved and satisfy himself that there was no wrong-doing.
14. She did not do that either. Instead, allegedly
at her prodding, a number of senior Ministers of the Cabinet of Dr.Manmohan
Singh holding sensitive portfolios embarked on a cover-up and damage control
exercise to prevent any political embarrassment to her and to deny any criminal
liability of Shri Vadra.
15. The controversies relating to Shri Gadkari, Shri Jindal and Mrs.Sonia Gandhi call for
follow-up action at two levels. An enquiry into all allegations made to rule
out civil or criminal wrong-doing and introduction of conflict of interest
provisions in our laws to enforce rectitude when businessmen want to enter
public life. ( 26-10-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
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