Congress president Sonia Gandhi has done well to summon Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, hear him out and tell him to announce that he had offered to submit his resignation, leaving it to her to take a final call. She has also appointed a two-member committee headed by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to investigate the allegations surrounding what has come to be known as the Adarsh building scam and report back. This was vitally necessary given the allegations that residential flats in Mumbai meant for the heroes of the 1999 Kargil War and the widows of those who laid down their lives for the country had largely gone — for a song — to politicians, bureaucrats, legislators and their relatives. Only three persons with any real connection to the Kargil war were among the housing society’s 103 members. The allegations may or may not be correct, and the chief minister may or may not be guilty of what is claimed by his opponents and the NGO which levelled the charges three years ago. It is yet to be authoritatively established if the land on which the 31-storey building has been built originally belonged to the military, as is being claimed, and whether it had been reserved for the use of Kargil War heroes and war widows. Only a serious investigation can unearth the truth, and that could take some time. And if the chief minister is eventually exonerated, as former state chief minister A.R. Antulay was in a different matter by the Supreme Court after around 15 years, he can then be suitably accommodated by the Congress leadership. But until then, in the interest of ensuring probity in public life and transparency in governance, it is only fair that he tender his resignation now and that it be accepted. Given that there is prima facie documentary evidence suggesting his involvement in the matter, and the fact that several of his relatives were accommodated in this housing society while he was state revenue minister, the grounds are more than sufficient for him to resign. If he continues to stay at his post, it would only provide substantial cannon fodder to the Opposition and the CM’s political rivals working behind the scenes to topple him. The ramifications are not just in Maharashtra, but at the national level — especially considering that Parliament’s Winter Session is just around the corner. The Congress high command is too well aware of these pros and cons, and how politically foolish it would be to let the CM continue in office much longer. This is not about being judgmental or pronouncing Mr Chavan guilty, just the best damage-control exercise for the Congress at this juncture.
For the country as a whole, what this scandal has highlighted, and not in too flattering a light, is the role of our elite — administrative, political, social, media — and how they forever appear to be on the lookout for greener pastures for themselves. Their first and most important priority while taking decisions, ostensibly for the public welfare, appears to be: “What’s in it for me?” The Adarsh scandal is just one out of thousands of such incidents across the country — the vast majority of which never see the light of day but are equally damaging in their impact on the victims, and also on the nation’s moral fabric. In nine and a half cases out of ten, the scamsters manage to get away unexposed. It is indeed a sorry state of affairs for a country whose aspirations are now higher than ever before. Is it this elite, with such a tattered morality and sense of governance, that will take India to the heights of glory that is its dharma in the 21st century?