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21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Holy Contracts

The Kumbh Mela is supposed to be a celebration of faith. But in Maharashtra, it is beginning to look rather too much like an opportunity for fraudsters. For the BJP-led Mahayuti, the alleged Kumbh Mela scam is a potentially damaging test of political credibility and an unwelcome headache for Minister Girish Mahajan. The arrest of Tanay Mahajan, described as a distant relative of the Minister, in an alleged racket involving fake Kumbh work orders has handed the Opposition an opportunity it...

Holy Contracts

The Kumbh Mela is supposed to be a celebration of faith. But in Maharashtra, it is beginning to look rather too much like an opportunity for fraudsters. For the BJP-led Mahayuti, the alleged Kumbh Mela scam is a potentially damaging test of political credibility and an unwelcome headache for Minister Girish Mahajan. The arrest of Tanay Mahajan, described as a distant relative of the Minister, in an alleged racket involving fake Kumbh work orders has handed the Opposition an opportunity it will be eager to exploit. The scale of the alleged fraud makes the matter particularly serious. Police say fake work orders were shown for projects worth around Rs. 591 crore and that those who came forward were allegedly cheated of Rs. 305 crore. One complainant alone is said to have lost Rs. 2.17 crore. The documents allegedly bore the Government of India emblem and the name of the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority. Mahajan has sought to distance himself from the accused, calling him a “gone case” and saying criminal cases had previously been registered against him. He has also urged strict action against everyone involved. But politically, the Minister’s proximity to one of the accused makes the episode difficult to quarantine as an ordinary fraud case. The Fadnavis government’s larger problem is one of perception. The Kumbh Mela is one of Maharashtra’s biggest public undertakings, involving enormous expenditure, infrastructure contracts and administrative machinery. If fake work orders worth hundreds of crores could circulate convincingly enough to extract money from contractors, questions will inevitably be asked about the safeguards surrounding the real tendering process. Mahajan’s clarification that Kumbh tenders are processed online, and that genuine work orders are not issued in the names of individual officials or accompanied by unauthorised QR codes, raises the obvious question: why did the alleged racket find enough room to operate in the first place? The timing makes the political challenge sharper. The Kumbh controversy comes on the heels of allegations surrounding the recent theft of Ram Mandir donations in a BJP-ruled state. A succession of controversies can create a narrative about institutional laxity on part of the ruling party at the Centre and in Maharashtra. The answer must be radical transparency. The police must follow the money, identify everyone who prepared or circulated the forged documents and establish whether anyone inside the system enabled the racket. The government should simultaneously publish a clear account of Kumbh tenders, safeguards and authorisations. The Kumbh should be an exercise in public administration, not an invitation to private profiteering. If the Mahayuti wants to prevent this alleged scam from snowballing into a larger political embarrassment, it must demonstrate that the state and not its middlemen, is in charge.

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Mamata is seeing a ghost of Bangladesh behind the massive outrage and waves of protest over rape and murder of the trainee doctor. And the reasons are many.

It’s been over a fortnight. Yet with each passing day the voice of protest is getting louder and stronger. From the streets of Kolkata it’s pouring into roads of hinterland. The cry for justice for a rape victim has consolidated into a wail of demands to set a lot of wrongdoings right. Here in lies the fear and trepidation. Wasn’t the issue that brought the youth of Bangladesh out on the thoroughfares a simple, innocent one of quota reform?

The chief minister of Bengal, known for understanding the pulse of people better than many, was quick to read the signages floating in the political horizon.

The most obvious reason for her to be tensed is that both the regime change in Bangladesh and the mass protest in Bengal, were student-driven to begin with. The two incidents---end of 15 year old Sheikh Hasina government and turbulence in West Bengal, over the heinous crime, falling back to back, the first on August 5th and the latter from August 9th onwards, give natural scope for comparisons. More so, because in both the cases the movement strayed beyond an affected constituency to include aggrieved people at large, cutting across socio-economic demography. If the quota reform protest started by students in Bangladesh became a mass uprising against an autocratic regime, the campaign demanding justice for the rape victim and overall safety and security of women in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal soon snowballed into a movement of no-confidence against the government. Slogans--”Mamata must resign” also got floated in social media much in line with the call for ouster of Sheikh Hasina. In fact “Resignation of Hasina” became the single point agenda into which all other fringe demands coalesced.

Incidentally, even before people started drawing parallels, that there could be a thread of commonality in the way the upheaval in Bangladesh and Bengal played out, Mamata was quick to point out that the Opposition were trying to pull off a Bangladesh by politicizing the tragic incident: “A coordinated approach has been executed by the BJP and the CPIM with support from the Centre to defame Bengal and exploit the situation....They want to make a Bangladesh here. They are taking cues from student unrest in Bangladesh and are attempting to capture similarly. I have no longing for the chair. I came here to serve people.”

Not only Mamata, her political lieutenants are consistently equating the turmoil in Bengal with the mayhem in Bangladesh. Cabinet minister for North Bengal development Udayan Guha threatened to take stern action against those, who would be trying to exploit the situation by emulating a Bangladesh like movement. “ Even after the hospital was vandalised, the police did not open fire on anyone. The police will not allow a Bangladesh type situation. We will not allow Bengal to turn into Bangladesh, Guha thundered.

Is the government’s fear unfounded?

Apart from the similarities on ground zero, as to how and where the future course of events are heading to, there are ample reasons for Bengal to mull on-- as to what led to a Bangladesh like boiling point. To begin with, it’ll be appropriate to talk of Bangladesh and the prevailing situation, that made the students’ protest become big in magnitude. The students were out on the streets because of a high reservation in public jobs. Unemployment and stagnant job market in private sector coupled with a high rate of inflation drove the educated youth to rebel against the government.

But soon the students found enormous number of sympathisers, who were equally at the receiving end. According to Bangladesh citizens, the last two terms of the Sheikh Hasina government were a mockery of democracy. Even elections would be compromised. As Hasina grew from strength to strength, she politicized institutions. The rank and file of police owed allegiance to the ruling dispensation. Extortion, harrassment and raids by police and people in power became rampant. An atmosphere of fear and repression reigned and people got restless to overthrow the government.

Politicization of institutions has been happening in Mamata government too. Allegations are quite strong that police in Bengal functions at the beck and call of political bosses. The lapses and alleged loopholes on the part of police in handling the rape and murder of the young doctor have yet again revealed a sense of confused or misplaced loyalty.

But above everything else both Hasina and Mamata governments allegedly seem to have twined in accepting corruption as a way of life. In Bangladesh jobs of primary and secondary teachers got sold at premium, Rs 10-12 lakh in the Hasina regime. Even police had to pay up for prized postings and transfers. In Bengal busting of the teacher’s recruitment scam has revealed how unsuccessful and ineligible candidates got government jobs in schools in exchange of bribes.

Similarities are multiple and inescapable. Mamata has good reasons to be apprehensive. It’s not only she, who can see and connect the dots. People, out on the streets, clamoring for justice, can see a providential pattern somewhere in the unfolding of future events in these two places-- Bangladesh and Bengal. True, they share more than 2,217 odd km of border. They share the same umbilical cord, other than language, culture, ethos, icons. Even emotions are the same. So she cannot take any risk.

(The writer is a senior jounalist based in Kolkata. Views personal)

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