So what’s new, or particularly scandalous, about a government using public resources to favour its own? In essence, when the Indian Express bared what came to be known as the Petrol Pump Scam, it was an act of faith. We were taking on this weariness and this cynicism. From August 2 to 24, 2002, this paper listed 417 allotments of petrol pumps and dealerships of LPG/kerosene agencies across the country by the government to relatives and friends of the then ruling BJP and its allies in the NDA. Two years later, as a two-judge committee appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the names in the Express list confirms that almost 70 per cent of the allotments were irregular and should be cancelled, it is a moment of affirmation and reassurance. Time to feel heartened by the expose that refused to painlessly fade away.It hasn’t been easy, after the expose. Even after the prime minister of India responded to the revelations by ordering the cancellation of all allotments of petrol pumps and dealerships made since January 2000, the prevarications continued. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s colleagues set about denying the implications of the order. No wrongdoing had been detected in the allotment process, they chorused, and the PM’s order did not amount to an admission of guilt. It was just the noise kicked up by the media and the Opposition. Petroleum Minister Ram Naik tried a different tack — the judiciary did it all, he said; the 59 Dealer Selection Boards (DSBs) that selected the candidates were chaired by retired high court judges, after all. Amid all the evasion, it soon began to appear that even the prime minister’s order was no more than a spectacular gesture, it would not be the first step in the hoped for course correction. The Supreme Court confirmed these fears when it quashed the government’s order in December 2002, sharply rebuking it for using the mass cancellations to shield the politically motivated allotments exposed by this paper from scrutiny. It was then that the apex court constituted the two member committee that has now reiterated the corruption reported by the Express.Two years later, the larger challenge remains as urgent. It is to make the criteria and processes of selections and appointments more transparent. To put in place a fairer system that genuinely does away with political discretion. To reduce, even to end, the politics of patronage in which ministers can treat public sector undertakings as their private fiefs. To stand up and point out that the emperor wears no clothes, each and every time it happens.
