States: Maharashtra; Graft and Garble

Key ministers face corruption charges severely denting the government's image in an election year. The Sena's efforts at damage limitation make little difference.

When the Shiv Sena-BJP Government wrested power from the Congress in March 1995, it owed much of its success to its pre-election agenda that promised a corruption-free state. Four years down the line, with barely nine months to go for the next elections, it comes as a grim reminder that the promise remains unfulfilled. Worse, key ministers of the Government are themselves facing serious charges of corruption. And efforts at damage-limitation, the alliance is discovering to its dismay, are proving ineffectual.

The Sena sees the Pune complex case as justification for its unseating Joshi

Only last week the Bombay High Court passed hard-hitting strictures against the Government for non-compliance with the law. The issue in question was a multi-crore rupee complex which Girish Vyas, son-in-law of former chief minister Manohar Joshi, was allowed to build on land meant for a primary school near Pune. While ordering that the building be demolished, the division bench comprising Justice B.N. Srikrishna and Justice S.S. Parkar said, "It was an abuse as well as an overreaching of power by the Pune municipal commissioner, of which then urban development minister (Joshi) was well aware." Besides an independent inquiry into the role played by Joshi, former Pune municipal commissioner Ramnath Jha and Minister of State for Urban Development Ravindra Mane, the bench also recommended the initiation of criminal proceedings against them if found guilty. While Joshi has approached the Supreme Court saying, "It is necessary for me to come out clean keeping in mind my image and the ideals that led me into public life", Mane has resigned "to uphold the morals and dignity of my party".

As far as the Sena is concerned, the charges against Joshi have lent further credence to party chief Bal Thackeray's decision to unseat Joshi two months ago. "Balasaheb's move was proper and was taken at the right time," says a senior Sainik. The Sena's inner circle likens Joshi's ouster to the uprooting of a weed, aimed at pre-empting the fallout of the adverse comments passed against the state Government. Following demands by Opposition leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and R.R. Patil, Chief Minister Narayan Rane said he was all for pursuing the case. "If I get a specific complaint, I will be duty-bound to conduct an inquiry into the allegations," he said.

Such smugness notwithstanding, the Sena is aware that Joshi's isn't the only case around. Arun Bhatia, who was the Pune municipal commissioner for just seven days, had ordered the demolition of other unauthorised structures in the city, embarrassing the Government (see box). Then there is the case of Babanrao Gholap. The Sainik social welfare minister in Rane's cabinet, who survived charges of corruption by social activist Anna Hazare in September last year, is in the dock again. A special court set up under the Prevention of Corruption Act has directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau to probe alleged corrupt practices by Gholap and his wife Shashikala. An fir filed under Section 154 of the Indian Penal Code on February 20 alleges that Gholap in his official capacity directed a high-ranking official of the Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation to invest Rs 3 crore in the Awami Mercantile Cooperative Bank. The official was also allegedly told to renew a Rs 1 crore deposit on maturation though the bank was under liquidation and the Government had warned against investment.

Worried that the charges could snowball into a major crisis for the ruling alliance, Rane has reportedly sought Thackeray's permission to drop Gholap from the council of ministers. A report being circulated in Mantralaya that the city police have sought the Home Department's clearance to arrest Gholap has already created a stir in political circles. Two aides of the social welfare minister have been rounded up and senior BJP leaders are mounting pressure on Rane to "handle the Gholap case suitably". Says a senior BJP minister: "Gholap may come out clean this time as well, but we cannot give him a chance as it may prove to be a costly affair." Another party leader even points to the case of Mahadev Sukaji Shivankar. The BJP planning and finance minister had resigned as irrigation minister following corruption charges in the transfer of officials in his department. He was reinstated in the Joshi cabinet only after the M.L. Dudhat Commission cleared him in November 1997.

If Gholap is asked to resign, he will be the fourth minister to lose his job on charges of corruption. The resignations of Shivankar and Mane apart, Shashikant Sutar, agriculture minister in the Joshi cabinet, was shown the door following Hazare's charges of corruption.

Desperate to control the damage, the ruling alliance has been harping on the Government's "good deeds" over the past four years. At a recent convention in Nashik too, Thackeray asked the Sainiks to go all out to highlight the gains of the ruling alliance. The jamboree was aimed at lifting the sagging morale of the Sainiks and preparing them for the next elections. But in spite of the clean-up and morale-boosting efforts, the issue of corruption, it appears, is stalking the Government like a sinister shadow.

TELLTALE TRANSFER

If there is one significant reason why the state Government's efforts at boosting its image are meeting with little success, it is the transfer games it has been playing. Any official embarrassing the Government is promptly transferred. The latest target is Arun Bhatia. Within seven days of taking charge as Pune municipal commissioner, Bhatia was transferred after he ordered the demolition of unauthorised structures, belonging to influential families, on Pune's arterial roads. They included the Shobham Restaurant owned by former chief minister Manohar Joshi's son-in-law Girish Vyas, the Pune Coffee House belonging to the family of Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi and the Holiday Inn hotel.

Though the Shiv Sena has additional ammunition now to justify Joshi's removal, there is no escaping the embarrassment the other cases have caused the Government. According to Chief Minister Narayan Rane, some of the structures Bhatia targeted were protected either by a court order or the Urban Development Department. The Government, he said, shunted Bhatia because he exceeded his brief. "The manner in which Bhatia functioned was highly objectionable and unacceptable to me," he argues.

But Bhatia, for whom the transfer was his 24th since 1967, contends he is being victimised. "It's utter nonsense," he thunders. "Having served with the IAS for 30 years, don't I know what the rules and regulations are?" He also claims that he wasn't given any brief.

Over 150 voluntary organisations and citizen fora which have sent more than one lakh letters to Rane protesting against the ouster of "an honest and sincere officer". Six public-interest petitions have also been filed with the Bombay High Court seeking Bhatia's reinstatement. Earlier, a popular uproar in Thane had foiled attempts to transfer Municipal Commissioner T. Chandrashekhar after he launched a demolition drive. The ghost of G.R. Khairnar, the original demolition man who was suspended as Mumbai deputy municipal commissioner in 1994, it appears, is still haunting the state's politicians.