[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E499-E500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              CORRUPTION SCANDAL ENGULFS INDIAN GOVERNMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2001

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, the world has been shocked by the 
recent news stories about a corruption scandal that has engulfed the 
Indian government. Already, the president of the ruling BJP and the 
Defense Minister have been forced to resign after they were caught 
taking bribes from two internet news reporters posing as arms dealers 
in regard to a fake defense contract. The opposition is calling for the 
government to resign.
  The resignation of Defense Minister George Fernandes is no loss for 
friends of democracy. Mr. Fernandes is the man who led a meeting in 
1999 with the Ambassadors from China, Cuba, Russia, Libya, Serbia, and 
Iraq aimed

[[Page E500]]

at putting together a security alliance ``to stop the U.S.'' This 
meeting was reported in the May 18, 1999 issue of the Indian Express.
  Those of us who have been following Indian and South Asian issues are 
not surprised. The Indian Government has demonstrated many times before 
how deeply it is infected with corruption. In India, people have come 
up with a new word for bribery. They call it ``fee for service.'' It 
has become necessary to pay a fee to get government workers of any kind 
to deliver the services that they are mandated to provide. In November 
1994, the newspaper Hitavada reported that the Indian government paid 
Surendra Nath, the late governor of Punjab, $1.5 billion to generate 
terrorist activity in Punjab, Khalistan, and in Kashmir as well. This 
is in a country where half the population lives below the international 
poverty line. Forty-two percent of the people live on less than a 
dollar a day and another forty-two percent live on less than $2 per 
day.
  In India, corruption is endemic as is tyranny against minorities. 
Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and others have been subjected to violence, 
tyranny, and massive human-rights violations for many years. Christian 
churches have been burned. Priests have been killed, nuns have been 
raped, and many other atrocities have been committed with impunity. 
Muslims have been killed in massive numbers and the ruling party has 
destroyed mosques. The Indian government has killed Sikhs. Religious 
pilgrims have been attacked with lathis and tear gas. This is just a 
recent sample of the atrocities against minorities in India.
  Mr. Speaker, India is a significant recipient of American aid. Why 
should the taxpayers of this country pay taxes to support the 
corruption and tyranny of the Indian Government? There is, however, 
something that America, as the world's only superpower, can do about 
it. America can stop sending aid to India and support self-
determination for the people of Khalistan, Kashmir, and Nagalim. Let us 
take these steps to free the people of the subcontinent from corruption 
and brutality.
  Mr. Speaker, I insert into the Record an article from the current 
issue of The Economist about the latest Indian Government bribery 
scandal. I commend it to all my congressional colleagues who care about 
spending our foreign aid dollars wisely.

                  [From The Economist, Mar. 24, 2001]

                        India's Corruption Blues


Though it may well survive the latest corruption scandal, the authority 
         of the leading party in the government is badly dented

       Fatalism is ever present in India, and the government in 
     Delhi seems to be hoping that a popular belief in the 
     inevitability of corruption will help it survive the biggest 
     scandal of recent times. That hope seems well founded. But 
     whether the government will regain the authority it needs to 
     pursue its two main initiatives--economic reform and peace in 
     Kashmir--is much more doubtful.
       The uproar over the release of videotapes last week showing 
     top politicians and officials taking bribes from two Internet 
     news reporters posing as arms dealers has reached a noisy 
     impasse. The defence minister, George Fernandes, has 
     resigned, though he remains ``covener'' of the 18-party 
     ruling National Democratic Alliance. The NDA has lost one 
     member, the Trinamul Congress party of West Bengal, but 
     remains sure enough of its majority to dare the opposition to 
     bring a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The opposition, 
     equally sure of its minority, has declined. Instead, it has 
     blocked parliamentary proceedings for a week, relenting long 
     enough only to allow money to be voted for the state to 
     continue functioning.
       Both sides have converted an occasion for shame into one 
     for self-righteousness. Sonia Gandhi, leader of a suddenly 
     alert Congress party, vowed at its plenary meeting in 
     Bangalore to ``wage every war'' to ``ensure that this country 
     is liberated from the shackles of this corrupt, shameful and 
     communal government''. But she herself was wounded when her 
     own personal assistant came under investigation in a separate 
     scandal. The prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has 
     blended penitence with defensiveness. He has promised a 
     judicial probe into the allegations, and a clean-up. But, in 
     a television address on March 16th, Mr. Vajpayee reserved the 
     word ``criminal'' to describe the hurling of allegations, not 
     the behaviour alleged.
       It is true that tehelka.com, the enterprising website that 
     armed its reporters with cash and spy cameras, used 
     surreptitious means to persuade a variety of officials, 
     generals and politicians to accept a total of 1.1m rupees 
     (about $24,000) in bribes and gifts. It is also true that 
     some of the most serious allegations made against Mr. 
     Fernandes and Brajesh Mishra, the prime minister's top aide, 
     among others, are unsubstantiated gossip. But they have 
     concentrated discussion on how many more heads will roll and 
     when.
       The real import of the tapes is the evidence they give that 
     corruption is the norm, not the exception, at every level of 
     public life. This does not surprise Indians, who are expected 
     to bribe everyone, starting with traffic policemen. India is 
     beset by what some call a crisis of governance, which 
     compromises nearly every public service, from defence to the 
     distribution of subsidised food to the generation of 
     electricity. Tehelka.com has simply rubbed Indians' faces in 
     it.
       Politicians, in honest moments, admit this, Kapil Sibal, a 
     prominent member of Congress, says ``the system is thoroughly 
     corrupt.'' Pramod Mahajan, the minister of information 
     technology and a member of Mr. Vajpayee's Bhraratiya Janata 
     Party (BJP), thinks the voters face a choice ``not between 
     good and bad. It is between bad and worse.''
       With turpitude so common, removing one group of parties 
     from power would not solve the problem. Given a chance to 
     fight political corruption, Parliament usually ducks it. It 
     now wants to shear the Central Vigilance Commission, the main 
     body implementing anti-corruption law, of its role overseeing 
     investigations of politicians.
       The problem begins, says N. Vittal, the central vigilance 
     commissioner, with the 40% of the economy that is unaccounted 
     for. Indian democracy runs on this murky money. The total 
     cost of a campaign for a parliamentary election has been 
     estimated at 20 billion rupees (around $430m), which is often 
     paid for by undeclared donations of the sort proffered by 
     tehelka.com. Reformers such as Mr. Vittal want such donations 
     to be declared and made tax deductible. Some also want the 
     Election Commission to give the voters information about 
     candidates' criminal backgrounds, as Delhi's High Court has 
     directed. But that reform may also be stopped: the government 
     has appealed against the decision. No one in power seems to 
     back the promised cleaning.
       Mr. Vajpayee's immediate concern is the fate of his closet 
     advisers, widely resented for accumulating power in the prime 
     minister's office at the expense of other ministries. On 
     March 19th, Mr. Mishra and N.K. Singh, his top economic 
     adviser, called a press conference to defend themselves 
     against claims that they had improperly influenced decisions 
     on deals in telecoms, power and, in Mr. Mishra's case, 
     defence equipment. Pressure for their dismissal, form some of 
     Mr. Vajpayee's best friends, is mounting. A fiercely right-
     wing ally of the BJP, the Shiv Sena, is calling for their 
     heads. And although the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 
     (Association of National Volunteers), ideological big brother 
     to the BJP, has withdrawn its calls for their removal, it has 
     done so only for fear of destablishing the government.
       The departure of Mr. Mishra and Mr. Singh would probably 
     blunt the government's drive for economic reform. Even if 
     they stay, Mr. Vajpayee will have trouble enacting the most 
     controversial but valuable elements of the reforms announced 
     along with the budget last month. These include privatisation 
     and making labour law more flexible. The labour reform 
     requires the approval of Parliament's upper house, where the 
     government lacks a majority. The crisis may also strengthen 
     the home ministry, thought to be more reluctant than the 
     prime minister's advisers to make gestures to separatists in 
     Kashmir. If Mr. Vajpayee survives the tehelka scandal, he may 
     begin to ask himself what, exactly, he is in power for.

     

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