RAJA EXITS – BUT WHAT ABOUT THE “CORPORATE RAJ”

Cornered by the public outrage over Rs. 1.76 lakh crore loss to public exchequer because of sale of 2G Spectrum prices, a scarce natural resource , at throw away price to selected corporate / traders, the Communication Minister Raja has been forced to resign. But that should not be end but the beginning of bigger battle to hit at the root cause of the series of such unending mega scams since 1991 when the neoliberal economic policy was ushered in the name of free market leading to virtually a 'Corporate Raj' today.

A Corporate lobbyist’s taped conservation with Raja, a few corporate heads,, TV anchors, journalists, editors etc placed before the Supreme Court in connection with 2G scandal, exposes how the corporate and their lobbyists decide who should be the minister and allocation of portfolios. Then they decide what the policy should be and how to go about it. The ambit and ramifications of the spectrum scandal is therefore much wider and not limited to only Raja and his guilty officials. Who would believe that a policy decision involving to a loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to taxpayer’s money, could pass through without the knowledge of the then Finance Minister and the present Prime Minister? It has been made amply clear in para 4.4 and 4.5 in the CAG audit that both Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh were aware of the wrong doings of Raja & Company. One remembers the famous line of a poem by Tagore which says:

“Let your ire burn those that do wrong and also those that suffer wrong in silence”

It is for Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh to tell the people why they knowingly allowed the “Wrong” to happen. But more importantly people’s ire will have to be mobilized to bring back the country from wrong path of briberisation and corporatorisation of politics caused by the neoliberal economic regime of liberalisation and globalization which is bound to create many such scams. That is the real battle ahead for the WORKING CLASS in the national interest so that root of the scam along with the scam stars is frontally challenged by the people.

Source: www.citucentre.org/