Celebrating Anti-Corruption Day in India
By Justice Markandey Katju
9th December is celebrated every year as International Anti-Corruption Day
But it was celebrated in a unique way in India by a raid by income authorities on the houses and business premises of Congress party MP Dhiraj Sahu, where a huge amount of cash of almost 320 crore ( 3.2 billion ) rupees ( about $35 million ( was recovered, stashed in bundles in dozens of almirahs.
The Congress party ruled India almost continuously since Indian independence in 1947, except for short spells when it was out of power, and since 2014 when BJP has been ruling.
A long time back I asked a Congressman what was the ideology or principles of his party. He replied ''to serve the poor''.
The truth is that Congress never had any principles, unless seeking power and pelf can itself be regarded as an ideology and principle. Its professed 'secularism' was only with an eye on the Muslim vote bank, not for any genuine concern for Muslims.
The extent of Congress corruption can be realised from the fact that under UPA ( United Progressive Alliance, a coalition led by Congress ) rule, from 2004 to 2014, scam followed scam, not of crores but often of lacs of crores of rupees, e.g. 2G scam, CWG scam, Adarsh Housing scam, etc
Since Sonia Gandhi was head of the UPA and Congress President, one can reasonably infer where the bulk of this money went--to foreign secret havens or her Swiss banks accounts.
And as for other Congressmen, like Dhiraj Sahu, as long as they were loyal to the ruling dynasty of India, the Nehru-Gandhi family, authorities would turn a Nelson's eye on their wrongdoings.
After the BJP came to power in 2014, if some action was taken against a Congressman by some authority, the latter would say it was politically motivated. But what can be said about this mountain of cash recovered ? Even the counting machines have broken down. There are must be hundreds, if not thousands, of Dhiraj Sahus in India.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
