Scam Politics ; a Bizarre Episode Sees the Government Authorise a Raid On the Dot Only to Have the Prime Minister Rushing to Defend the Telecom Minister. The Volatile Cocktail of Politics and Corporate Rivalry has Embarrassed the Upa.

India Today › November 11, 2009

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Summary

Conventional wisdom has it that politics dictates the course of economics. The Congress-led UPA has turned the clich on its head. Economics, or pseudo economics of business, it would appear, is determining the course of coalition politics. Why else would a government allow the CBI file a case on a decision taken during its own tenure and then rush to defend the minister in question. It defies reason. The raid on the Department of Telecom (DoT) and search operations across India on 19 other entities is presumably backed by facts and legal logic.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and would ordinarily have got his sanction to proceed on a cabinet colleague. But a day after the October 22 raids on DoT, Manmohan said there was no scam. To the surprise of the Opposition baying for Telecom Minister A. Raja's scalp and calling it "the biggest-ever scam", Manmohan stood up for his colleague and told journalists in Thailand that "not everything that the Opposition says is true".

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Scam Politics ; a Bizarre Episode Sees the Government Authorise a Raid On the Dot Only to Have the Prime Minister Rushing to Defend the Telecom Minister. The Volatile Cocktail of Politics and Corporate Rivalry has Embarrassed the Upa.

Look at the optics. The BJP says it is a Rs 60,000-crore scam.The CBI says it is a Rs 22,000-crore fraud. The prime minister to whom the CBI reports says there is no scam. The DMK meanwhile wonders if this is a Congress scam. What is most curious is the timing of the case. DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi didn't hesitate to express his anger to both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister.

Indeed, the day after the raids, T.R. Baalu, who heads the DMK in Parliament, after a ...

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