File and forget

A year and a half ago, the hawala case marked a watershed in politics. It put paid to the notion that corruption was part and parcel of the...

A year and a half ago, the hawala case marked a watershed in politics. It put paid to the notion that corruption was part and parcel of the Indian political system, something that had to be fatalistically accepted. It indicated that even the highest executives in the land were very, very touchable, and the man in the street would no longer have to content himself with make-believe politician-bashing from Bollywood B-graders. There was much more edifying entertainment to be had in real life, courtesy the legal correspondents. Most important, the hawala case refocused national attention on what had become an increasingly unfashionable subject: probity in public life. If it were not for that precedent, Lakhubhai Pathak’s suit would never have been admitted, and Narasimha Rao would have been confident that the law would never take its own course. A whole Cabinet would not have been depopulated by resignations. Tihar Jail would never have played host to VIPs.

So it is a sad spectacle that all the accused in this landmark case are being let off one after another. There is enough evidence to establish that the scam had taken place. Neither the Jain diary nor the entries in it were fictional as the figures tallied with the total transactions. Sharad Yadav has admitted to accepting money from the Jains. Politicians have indicated that they, and their colleagues, may have taken money for campaign funds. As Chief Minister of Delhi, Khurana had done the Jains a good turn: he installed street lights on the road to their farmhouse, while their neighbours continued to languish in primeval darkness. But unfortunately, a few cryptic diary entries and a little circumstantial evidence are not enough to nail the culprits.

Obviously, the CBI has done less than the needful after rushing to file the chargesheets at the insistence of the courts. Not in a single case has it been able to establish clear fund flows. Most significantly, it has not been able to get its hands on Amir Bhai, the only man who knows exactly what channels the money took. The CBI’s failure is mystifying, because it takes no more commitment to extradite an Amir Bhai than a Babloo Srivastava. Very often, such business is transacted through slightly unofficial channels. The CBI seems to believe that its job is limited to filing chargesheets on the basis of preliminary evidence and following up on them with Press conferences and Press leaks. It must understand that the primary responsibility of an investigative agency is to go out and investigate. Filing charges is pointless unless it can collect enough evidence to secure a conviction. Today, the CBI is responsible for the rehabilitation of the politician, who had been firmly put in his place over the last year by the hawala scam. The man in the street does not bother with legal niceties. The accused in this case have been honourably discharged, but for him, the images of smiling, garland-bedecked politicians emerging from the courts will not look like an exoneration, but the victory of moral turpitude over the urge to reform. And fatalistic acceptance of a corrupt political system will again be the order of the day.