With so much of facts and figures in public domain relating to Agusta Chopper scam, I need not to repeat multi million Euro money trail. Common sense traces the money trail up to the doorsteps of the first family of Congress. However, many times common sense judgments are not true. It is matter of investigation to take the case upto logical conclusion. With reputation of Indian investigating agencies and efficiency of judiciary, Agusta is in all probability going the Bofors way unless extreme political willpower is shown at the highest level.
Agusta scam is just the tip of iceberg of deeper pathology that is of cronyism. Till businessman-politician-bureaucrat nexus is broken such scams will keep on flourishing, with few getting exposed (thanks to foreign media/investigating agencies). The question arises, how to break this nexus? All claims of various recruitment agencies of having examination system to select officers with courage, integrity and honesty have proved to be hollow, with recent example of an officer of IAS with 800 Cr Rs assets. Further rigid political system requiring multi crore Rs to survive, it is mirage in recent future to expect truly honest politician. Businessmen exploiting these weaknesses in our system promoting cronyism. This pathetic state of affairs has been made worse by partisan and corrupt media.
Various solutions have been proposed but there has been execution lag. The root cause of flourishing cronyism is expensive elections. Though EC has capping on expenditure for various elections, but these norms are rarely complied with. Such account details are not scrutinised. A written declaration by concerned candidate is regarded final in this regard. This is high time election expenditure is scrutinised strictly. We can have panel of independent accountants and auditors to do this job. Few random constituencies can be chosen on pilot basis to start with. State funding of elections is good idea in this regard but citing large number of candidates, this is not feasible citing our fiscal health.
Further there should be complete moratorium on cash transactions beyond reasonable limits especially during election time. Poor infrastructure in rural areas is the common excuse to delay implementation. Atleast in cities where we have sufficient electricity and network coverage, cashless transactions should be implemented.
There should be complete transparency in government tendering processes. Specifications should be finalized before tendering process and once such process has started, government requirements should freeze. Agusta scam is prototype example where government specifications were manipulated to shortlist one specific company.
There are many more proposals in reports of various commissions and committees, but basic problem remains the same, that of political will power.
