One chapter in a sordid drama has ended with Mr Ashok Chavan’s departure on Tuesday as Maharashtra chief minister — over his alleged role in the grabbing of super premium flats in tony South Mumbai ostensibly intended for Kargil war heroes and widows. The Adarsh Housing Society scam was not just about the usurping of Army land on a false pretext and the grabbing of flats by politicians, bureaucrats, top military officers and their relatives and associates, it also involved flagrant bending of
development control rules and allotment of flats on a quid pro quo basis to officials, civil and military, who helped bend the rules. Mr Chavan, at the centre of the storm as head of the Maharashtra government, was astute enough to give his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi last week, and Mrs Gandhi swiftly accepted it Tuesday morning just after receiving a report from senior Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A.K. Antony, whom she had asked to examine the CM’s role. Mrs Gandhi also appears to have waited till US President Barack Obama’s departure from the country: one reason possibly could be that Mr Chavan had to play host to the American leader and his wife while they were in Mumbai over the weekend. The Congress president’s action showed the party was sensitive to public outrage on the issue, and also an attempt to cut the ground from beneath the Opposition’s feet hours before the Winter Session of Parliament began. How far this strategy succeeds will only be seen in the days ahead.
Interestingly, when Mr Mukherjee was asked by the media if he and Mr Antony had determined in their inquiry that Mr Chavan was guilty, the finance minister said the party’s asking the CM to go was not to determine his guilt — noting that the two-member committee was not after all a commission of inquiry — but only that such a step was advisable due to “perceptions” and certain facts. “Often political decisions are taken on perceptions,” Mr Mukherjee said. But if that is so, it might be fair to wonder if only Mr Ashok Chavan is being singled out for punishment — as the “perception” on some others in the state government, as well as certain members of the Union council of ministers, should also lead to their early exit. One can understand that the Congress is in a piquant situation regarding corruption allegations relating to ministers belonging to its coalition partners, but if no action is taken against these individuals, damage to the government’s image would be unavoidable.
Mr Suresh Kalmadi being asked to go as a secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party, while clearly indicating the party’s displeasure, does not even begin to tackle the outrageous extent of corruption he is alleged to be responsible for as head of the organising committee for last month’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. While the Prime Minister swiftly announced a high-level inquiry soon after the Games ended, till today no official investigation agency has even begun a preliminary examination of the ramifications of the scam. In the Adarsh scandal too, even a first information report is yet to be filed. Defence minister A.K. Antony on Tuesday directed the CBI to probe the role of armed forces officials in the scam, but no similar action was announced regarding the civilians allegedly involved. One only hopes that Mr Chavan’s successor in Maharashtra, whoever that is (Mr Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that the next CM should be “clean, impeccable and one who can deliver”), will make it his first priority to direct the country’s top investigation agency to dig deep into the part played by the state’s top politicians and bureaucrats in the Adarsh scam.