( December 18,
2012, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Once again a government official has blown
the whistle to lock the stable after the horse has bolted. Former CBI Director
Mr. US Mishra informed a TV channel that political pressure is indeed exerted
to influence the agency’s investigation. This is old hat for critics of course.
It has become
rather tiresome and irritating to see officials after retirement wake up to
blow the whistle. Such belated revelations naturally lead to the suspicion that
these might well be inspired by interested politicians to target one rival or
another. Asked to name the errant politicians Mr. Mishra demurred and coyly
advised the interviewer to await a book he would be writing about his memoirs.
Ah, the interview will surely make for good advance publicity for the book.
Readers might
recall that the Telgi case had been dealt at length several times in these
columns but alas, to no avail. Abdul Karim Telgi procured the original
government printing machines for stamp paper through an illegal auction to
replicate fake stamp papers as good as official. He and his backers made a huge
killing. What was more significant was that this stratagem was a repetition of
an even more sinister and significant earlier scandal related to the printing
of fake currency. Obviously the latter scam had international vested interests
involved in it. The same technique for printing fake currency indistinguishable
from official currency was used. In this case existing currency printing
machines were not procured. Instead well tested and renowned printing machines
used by ninety per cent of the world’s nations for printing currency that had
well served this nation for many decades were replaced by inferior printing
machines that had earlier failed to perform satisfactorily in Russia. The
original machines were owned by Giori of Switzerland. The new machines were
owned by Komori of Japan.
The currency
printing machines were switched in 1995. The new Komori machines had a
disastrous record in Russia. The earlier machines, Giori, were owned by Swiss,
German and British interests. These served ninety per cent of the world's
nations for printing currency. The government's decision to switch from Giori
to Komori was criticized by several MPs including Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, Mr.
Tarit Barun Topdar of the CPI (M), and Mr. Chetan Chauhan of the BJP who wrote
against the change to then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister
Dr. Manmohan Singh. Their protests were ignored. After Mr. US Mishra reportedly
apprised the Prime Minister regarding ministerial interference in the Telgi
probe one wonders if Dr. Manmohan Singh recalled the earlier cabinet decisions
related to the currency printing machines!
This writer
filed public interest litigation against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the
High Court of Judicature in Mumbai to prevent use of Komori machines for
printing currency notes. The petition alleged that hostile foreign powers could
flood the nation with fake currency notes because the new inferior printing
machines facilitated counterfeiting. The petitioner recalled that the
sub-committee of the RBI Board headed by Mr. SS Marathe had stated:
“The Gioris have
a proven technology. India has a long experience of using their machines and
our experience has been satisfactory. On the other hand, Giori have monopoly
power and there could be scope of their using such power for hiking prices.”
However RBI was
worried about a future threat related to printing monopoly acquired by a
foreign firm that sounded ridiculous. RBI was forced to admit to the court:
“The Committee
recognized that there could be teething troubles in adopting such a course and
it was not easy to quantify the extent of such teething troubles. The Board had
all along been aware that some of Komori's equipment was not fully proven.”
Despite this
admission the court astoundingly dismissed the petition.
The rest is
history. Fake currency subsequently became a major security hazard. It offered
huge support to terrorist funding.
Why, then,
should Mr. US Mishra's belated revelations about political pressure on the CBI
evoke sympathy? As President Kennedy had once stated, those who do not speak
when they should lose the right to speak altogether.
Related to the
Telgi case on August 23, 2006 it was pointed out in these columns:
“Investigators
were amazed at the sophistication of Mr. Telgi's operation. He had employed MBA
graduates to prepare his project report. Mr. Telgi's clientele included 52
builders, 48 banks, and 61 top companies. Did government audit the accounts of
these companies to find out whether Mr. Telgi sold them stamp paper at a
discount? Leading politicians whose names cropped up during the Telgi probe
included MLAs Mr. Anil Gote, Mr. Roshan Baig and Mr. Krishna Yadav. They were
all arrested. Other names that figured in police leaks to media included former
Karnataka CM and current Maharashtra Governor, Mr. SM Krishna, former
Maharashtra CM, Mr. Narayan Rane, former deputy CM, Mr. Chhagan Bhujbal, and
the current CM, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. From the BJP, apart from Mr. Jethmalani
and Mr. Yashwant Sinha, the name of Mr. Gopinath Munde figured. Apparently Mr.
Telgi's polygraph test revealed the biggest political names.”
When all this
was written, no official spoke. Why speak now?
Rajinder Puri is
a veteran columnist, cartoonist and political activist. He was on the staff of
The Hindustan Times and The Statesman as a cartoonist and writer. Earlier he
worked in London for a brief time drawing cartoons for The Guardian, and later
The Glasgow Herald. For over two decades he has been a freelance journalist and
his work has appeared on regular assignment in all the leading dailies and
weeklies of India. He has authored five books on Indian politics.
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