The rot within: When will we act?

The bottom tip of Mumbai city is one of the most expensive tracts of real estate anywhere in the world. Much of it is not available at any price because it is military land. But in India there is often a way to get around every obstacle, no matter how formidable it might appear. This is what the promoters of the now infamous Adarsh Housing Society banked upon in their pursuit to own the apartment of their dreams in the heart of this super premium district.
They played a variation of an old trick through which government land is acquired cheaply or the existing usage of a property is altered by claiming it is for a worthy social cause. This is an old scam, but the Adarsh promoters took it to a new level by insinuating that the project was for Kargil war heroes and widows. The cause sounded noble enough to circumvent most bureaucratic hurdles.
The most repugnant part, however, was the way this pretext was misused by colluding Army officers to change the use of the land under their de facto possession. Not one but a whole hierarchy of officers gave their approval to the project which involved transferring the possession of a prime piece of property under military control to a group housing society. And all in the name of those who braved death at one of the country’s loneliest outposts.
The excuse proffered by some senior Army officers that they did not know what the whole project was about is patently untenable. The Army is a jealous housekeeper and does not easily part with any of its properties. It is also inconceivable that all those who permitted the transfer did not know the immense monetary value of their decision. There was collusion, deceit and treachery involved.
The project got the go-ahead of the former general under whose direct command it was located. Higher-ups did not object and some were invited to join the club. A preliminary probe has revealed that as many as 40 senior Army officers were involved, including two former Army chiefs, one former Army commander and a host of lesser but equally senior officers.
The entire enterprise was facilitated by co-opting the military and civil bureaucracy. Anybody who threatened to scuttle the project was allotted one of these priceless apartments. Media disclosures have shown that virtually every bureaucrat involved in the clearances got flats in the name of people close to them. As the club of privileged flatowners of the housing society expanded, so did the size of the building and the list of bigwigs involved. It has come as no surprise that politicians were beneficiaries, including the present chief minister of Maharashtra and a former Union minister.
The key word here is impunity. The executors of the dubious project clearly believed that they had carte blanche. For the scam involved virtually everybody who mattered — from Army chiefs to chief ministers. Caution was thrown to the winds: a modest six-storey project became a mega condominium 31 storeys high with more than a 100 super deluxe apartments for its privileged owners. Instead of Kargil war heroes and widows this building was now to house the new protagonists of the age of Indian corruption.
A complicated inquiry is under way and some of the persons involved claim the entire episode is a frame-up to tar the state’s political leadership. In short, nobody apparently is responsible. If the housing society promoters are to be believed, there is nothing illegal about the project and the scam is a media creation. In other words, they are daring the system to pin them down and prosecute them.
This speaks of a systemic breakdown. No system can endure when the custodians of institutional propriety themselves become the perpetrators of improprieties. The Indian armed forces today are tainted by the same malaise that has become so apparent in civil life.
Some Army officers openly complain that they are being singled out while the civilian looters get away scot-free. There is some merit to this view because in the end the Army does very publicly sort out its villains. It has a procedure of court martial and various kinds of punishments, including imprisonment. Those exposed in the military are punished whereas the country has not seen a single instance of any politician or senior bureaucrat being convicted of corruption.
One positive aspect of the Adarsh scandal is the stand taken by the current Army chief, Gen. V.K. Singh, who is clearly furious at the involvement of his predecessors. “I am extremely sad and as an institution we have taken a beating,” he admitted on national television. He is on record as having pledged to punish everybody involved no matter how high a position someone might have held.
In the case of the Adarsh scam, wrongdoing will be investigated by the Army and those found transgressing legal limits will be punished. But the Army has no jurisdiction over the civilian component of the scamsters. It is up to the highest levels of the country’s civilian leadership to restore public confidence by also punishing the civilian perpetrators of this national fraud. Just as in the Commonwealth Games scams, in this case too the country is waiting and watching.

Indranil Banerjie is a defence and security
analyst based in New Delhi