Adarsh Impunity

Something rotten in the state of Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government’s role in the Adarsh Housing Society scandal which first became public in 2010 has consisted of desperate attempts at a cover-up, hypocritical gestures to appease public indignation and now a blatant shielding of the powerful politicians and bureaucrats indicted by a judicial commission. Four former chief ministers (including one who is now the union home minister), 12 senior bureaucrats and two ministers currently in the state cabinet have been held responsible by the commission for “blatant violations” that showed “greed, nepotism and favouritism”. One of those indicted, Ashok Chavan, was the chief minister when the scandal broke and was forced to resign. The entire saga has exposed yet again the lengths to which the Indian politician-bureaucrat nexus can go to corner housing and plots in prime locations for themselves and their privileged circles. More importantly, the state government’s rejection of the commission’s report illustrates how the power elite will go to any length to protect its own.

The Adarsh scam is not an isolated example. A similar scandal is the allocation of land at throwaway prices to the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajeev Shukla. In early December 2013, the media reported that an education society headed by Shukla’s wife was allotted a large plot of land in 2008 at a prime location in Mumbai for just under Rs 1 lakh. The plot’s market value runs into crores of rupees and it had been earlier reserved for a municipal school and playground. Shukla reportedly urged the present state government to “reclaim” the land following  the adverse media reports, saying he had been unable to use it. The Bombay High Court is currently hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) about allegations that in many cases the same person or his/her relatives have been allotted flats under the chief minister’s discretionary quota. These flats are sold way below the market rates and are meant for deserving persons from various categories who would otherwise not be able to afford housing at the commercial rates. The PIL names a number of prominent politicians from the ruling coalition as beneficiaries of such multiple allotments.

Given the stranglehold that the builder lobby has over Mumbai’s real estate and the growing evidence, as also public belief, that the political nexus with this lobby has priced affordable housing in Mumbai out of the reach of most working people, the Adarsh scandal led to a massive public outcry. The building, in south Mumbai, was reportedly planned as a six-storey structure meant for war heroes of the Kargil war and their families. However, in its present avatar it has 31 floors with 25 of the society’s 103 members ineligible according to the original guidelines and 22 cases of benamipurchases. These include a former speaker of the assembly, a former Shiv Sena parliamentarian and minister and the Indian diplomat in the United States, Devyani Khobragade, who has been charged with underpaying her domestic help.

Before the judicial commission’s report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had tabled its report on the scandal in the Lok Sabha pointing out that at every level rules had been bent. Incidentally, the PAC took the army and navy authorities along with the state government to task on this issue. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests too had ordered the building demolished for violation of the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) rules. The state government had to be fought at every step through right to information (RTI) applications, and public and political campaigns before it yielded.

Despite all the censures, it sat on the judicial commission’s report that was submitted in June 2012. Finally, the Bombay High Court’s intervention led to the tabling of the report. In the action taken report, the chief minister stated without any sense of irony, that the second part of the report (indicting the high and mighty) was being rejected “in the public interest”! No explanation was given. Earlier the governor had refused to sanction prosecution of Ashok Chavan by the Central Bureau of Investigation, though the legal grounds on which this decision was made remain doubtful.

The state government’s intractability is not surprising. Exceptions are always made to accommodate the powerful. Yet, the rhetoric is always about the interests of the poor. If the hypocrisy of the latter needs illustration, one only has to look at Mumbai’s development, where every concession has been made to meet the needs of those who already have enough while the numbers of people without secure housing continues to burgeon.