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Press Note

The Prime Minister is misleading the whole nation by setting up Shunglu Committee to enquire into the

allegations of corruption in Commonwealth Games. And according to the reports appearing in the press,

the whole nation seems to be falling prey. It is important to understand what this committee would door can do.

Power to summon records and persons are the most basic powers that any agency needs if it wants to

conduct any enquiries. Shunglu committee has none of these powers. It has been set up through an

administrative order, not under any law.

Forget politicians, Shunglu committee does not even have the powers to call for records from an

ordinary clerk. Suppose it calls for records from a particular department and that department refuses to

comply. What powers does Shunglu committee have to enforce its directions? Does it have powers to

summon officers, politicians or contractors to question them or record their statements? Agencies like

CVC and CAG draw these powers under various laws. Despite that, even they find it difficult to get their

orders implemented from obdurate and corrupt government machinery. CVC has repeatedly said that

the government departments do not respond to its queries. How would the Shunglu Committee get its

orders implemented? It would be unrealistic to believe that the bureaucracy would oblige just because

the Shunglu Committee has been appointed by the Prime Minister.

It is extensively being reported in media that Shunglu committee’s terms of reference are very wide, but

how would that help? It is as absurd as setting up a committee to enquire into the corruption of say, all

past Presidents of United States and that committee not having any powers to either call for records or

summon any one or question any one. Making their terms of reference very wide without giving them

any powers only increases the absurdity.

Shunglu has been given the status of Supreme Court judge. That does not define his powers. It only

defines his perks. Now Mr Shunglu would be entitled to as big a house as a Supreme Court judge, he

would be entitled to as big a car, as many number of servants, as much salary and as big a pension as a

Supreme Court judge. How does it help the country?

In any case of corruption, there are various stages. First, a preliminary enquiry is held just to ensure that

a prima facie case is made out, that whether any such incident actually took place. Then an FIR is

registered. Then detailed investigations take place, which are done by any agency which has police

powers (in Delhi, only Delhi police and CBI have those powers). In detailed investigations, the police has

powers to raid any premises, seize records or any property etc. After investigations, chargesheet is filed

in a court and then the trial begins.

The biggest absurdity is that Shunglu committee is not supposed to nail down culprits. It is not supposed

to register cases of corruption. It is not supposed to initiate prosecution against the guilty. It is only

required to do a preliminary enquiry. Here, we need to understand the difference between an “enquiry”

and an “investigation”. Enquiry is done at preliminary stage before registration of an FIR, just to see

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whether any such incident took place, whether a prima facie case is made out. Investigation is done by

an agency, which has police powers, after registration of an FIR.

Shunglu committee is supposed to do only preliminary enquiries. It will then submit its report to the

Prime Minister, who would then decide in which cases to file an FIR. Then the real investigations would

start.

In any investigation, time is of essence. Else precious evidence is lost. By the time the Shunglu

committee submits its report, most of the evidence would have been wiped out.

Corruption is a crime under Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code. If there is preliminary

evidence that corruption has taken place, an FIR ought to be registered, alleged people ought to be

arrested and questioned and implicating documents ought to be seized. Shunglu committee's brief does

not include any of that.

Interestingly, all government agencies right now are doing preliminary enquiries only. CAG and CVC are

doing preliminary enquiries because none of these agencies have the police powers to register FIR anddo detailed investigations. As reported in media, CAG and CVC have already done enquiries into some of 

the contracts and have found several irregularities. Then what stops the Prime Minister to straightaway

register FIRs at least in these cases. What will Shunglu committee now do in these cases?

So, Shunglu committee is not merely an eyewash. It is a huge cover up operation. All the guilty have

been given three months time to set records straight, burn them, destroy them or do whatever. By the

time Shunglu committee submits its report and if any FIRs are filed thereafter, no evidence would be

available to any investigating agency to nail the guilty. Whatever cases would go to the court would

collapse in the absence of sufficient evidence.

Secondly, none of the investigating agencies are enquiring into the role of politicians. Based on the

information available to the public, the enquiries which are underway at the moment seem to be the

following:

1.  Central Vigilance Commission: The CVC is looking into just about 20 contracts or so, as against

thousands of contracts and much bigger ones that have not been touched so far.

2.  Central Bureau of Investigation: CBI is also believed to be looking only at a handful of contracts

relating to Queen’s Baton controversy. With the range of politicians facing allegations, CBI can

be least entrusted to do an honest investigation, as it is directly under the government and

takes its orders from the same set of politicians.

3.  Enforcement Directorate: ED is looking into only foreign exchange related matters like

controversies surrounding Queen’s baton etc.

4.  Comptroller and Auditor General of India: One is not sure of the ambit of CAG’s enquiries but

both CAG and CVC do not have the jurisdiction and powers to peep into the role of politicians.

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From all this it appears that so far no one has the mandate and authority of investigating the politicians

involved, even though it is widely believed that corruption of this scale would not have been possible

without the knowledge and collusion of at least some politicians. All these agencies will merely be

concentrating on tenders and papers and questioning middle level officers who were at best merely

conduits and doing the bidding of their political masters.

Not a single effective anti-corruption agency in our country:

A look at all anti-corruption laws and agencies indicate that all of them suffer from internal

contradictions. There is not a single effective anti-corruption agency in our country. In the structure and

functioning of each of these agencies, there are critical loopholes so as to make it ineffective. For

instance, the CVC is an independent body but does not have powers to take any action. It is merely an

advisory body. Plus, it does not have jurisdiction over politicians. CBI has the powers but is not

independent. It is directly controlled by the government. Also, CBI needs government’s permission to

initiate investigations and to launch prosecution in any case. So, one agency has the powers but is not

independent. The other agency is independent but does not have the powers.

We, therefore, demand the following action from the government immediately:

Take immediate steps to protect the evidence:

1.  The first thing that any investigating agency would do is to prevent the accused from being able

to access critical evidence. Rather than doing that, Shri Kalmadi and his team have been asked

to continue for the next three months. Therefore, it is imperative that Shri Kalmadi and his

officers should be prevented from being able to access or in any way manipulate any of the files,

papers and other evidence connected with the contracts and other accusations. Mr Kalmadi and

his team should be asked to step down.

2.  Delhi Government is believed to have handled around Rs 19,000 crores against Rs 2000 crores

handled by Shri Kalmadi. Some central government ministries including urban development

ministry, sports ministry etc are believed to have dealt with roughly Rs 8000 crores. According to

preliminary enquiries done by CVC and CAG, each of the contracts enquired into suffers from

serious deficiencies of either straight defalcation or time over runs or highly inflated estimates

or shoddy work. Corruption of this scale could not have taken place without the criminal

culpability, if not active collusion, of the people at all levels right from top to bottom. Therefore,

to begin with, the ministers of all these ministries in Delhi Government and central government,

which dealt with commonwealth games money and are suspect, should be immediately asked to

step down. Key officials in these ministries should also be moved elsewhere and in any case

prevented from accessing the papers and evidence related to the accusations.

3.  Let all these people join back if they are proved innocent by the enquiries.

4.  Register FIRs in all cases which have come to light so far.

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5.  Let the government immediately seize all the relevant records, before they are tampered with

or get lost or misplaced.

Create effective machinery to do honest and effective investigations and hand over these cases to

them:

6.  A meeting of eminent people took place in August 2010. It was attended by some very senior

people who have been connected with administering anti-corruption systems in our country like

Justice Santosh Hegde (Lokayukta of Karnataka), Mr P Shankar (former CVC), Mr Pratyush Sinha

(former CVC) and Mr J M Lyngdoh (former Chief Election Commissioner). The meeting discussed

the deficiencies in our present anti-corruption set up and what needs to be done. They all

concurred that all the anti-corruption agencies should be merged into one agency, say Lokpal,

which should have the following ingredients:

a.  It should be completely independent of the government.

b.  It should have jurisdiction over both politicians and bureaucrats.

c.  It should have the power to initiate investigations and prosecution in any case without

needing any approvals or permissions.

d.  The appointments to Lokpal should be transparent and participatory.

e.  The functioning of Lokpal should be completely transparent and accountable to prevent

it from becoming a hub of corruption itself.

We demand that a Lokpal on the suggested lines should be immediately set up through an

ordinance and the investigations into Commonwealth Games should be handed over to them as

their first cases. Unless investigations were done by such an independent and empowered body,

all efforts of the government would be suspect.