The Lalitgate Scandal -Nexus Between Indian Crony Capitalism, Politics and Cricket
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
The recent news coverage in the multinational corporation controlled media houses has focused on Lalitgate scandal, which involves the infamous former IPL chief Lalit Modi and his nexus with the top honchos of Indian politics and bureaucracy. The controversy that started with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj assisting Lalit Modi to get a British travel document to visit his wife who was undergoing treatment outside the UK, where Lalit Modi has taken asylum since fleeing the nation in 2010. The British Labour Party MP, Keith Vaz, allegedly disclosed that he acted upon the insistence of the Indian minister Swaraj to recommend the case of Lalit Modi to the immigration office.
The controversy fuelled up nationwide agitation against the corrupt minister, Sushma Swaraj, who used "humanitarian" assistance as a shield to cover her alleged criminal act, and all opposition parties and the political forces of the country called for Swaraj to step down. During this turmoil the nexus between Lalit Modi and the Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje became public, especially how the former's son had received favours from Lalit Modi by selling shares of his venture at a high price.
The BJP-RSS threw all its weight behind Swaraj and fought the allegations against the tainted minister by counter allegations against the opposition forces, especially the beacon of corruption, nepotism and despotism in India, the ailing Congress party. During the same period, the BJP leaders reluctantly supported the case of Vasundhara Raje, following the antagonism between her and the BJP stalwarts like Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. The finance minister of India, Arun Jaitley, during his tour to the US to woo foreign monopoly capital investment to the nation, also tried to save the Raje's regime by attempting to give a clean chit to her son's dealings with Lalit Modi.
However, despite all these attempts, Lalit Modi, either out of any filthy motive to bargain a better deal from the Indian government and the political regime of the BJP, or out of frustration stemming out since his falling out of favour from the power lobby, resorted to a mudslinging exercise by revealing the contents of hidden in his closet, which shows the dirty nexus between Indian politicians, bureaucrats and the controversial scam masters like Lalit Modi.
Through his Twitter account, Mr. Modi published pictures of him with even the Interpol chief, news of his meetings with BJP and Congress leaders, the role played by Arun Jaitley in helping the Indian cricket board management get away with scams, and also his alleged meetings with Mr. Modi when the BJP was not in power. These allegations have shown that the Congress and the BJP are not better than each other; alike other right wing parties, these two are also immersed in utmost corrupt practices up to their neck.
The cricket and politics of India are very well connected with each other as the former is a very quick and hassle-free method to mint money in the country with the largest number of cricket lovers. Crony capitalism has used cricket to reach the power lobby as well as has earned money by milking the sentiments of the people. I've written an article on this nexus between crooked politicians, crony capitalists and cricket in People's Review. Please read it to get an in-depth analysis on the issue.
Though Lalit Modi has claimed that he is doing the activity with a motive to reveal the truth before the people, the critiques are doubting a desperate attempt to bargain with the establishment behind these actions. He was expecting faster relieves from the friendly regime led by a prime minister with whom he had the closest ties since years. However, as the news of his nexus with Swaraj got public and the political parties of India got into agitation mode against the minister who favoured him, Lalit Modi thought it to be the appropriate time to fire salvo against the political establishment.
This on one hand, will help Lalit Modi gain sympathy as an "innocent" businessman caught in the conspiracy waged by the political top brass and the cricket board managers, on the other hand, the black mail tactics will make the government of the BJP hasten up its steps to secure Lalit Modi's future in India and his stake on the business ventures including a return to the IPL through some back door negotiations with BCCI and the ICC.
The experiences of the past has taught us that the powerful people, the politicians, the foreign multinational corporations, their Indian agent capitalists, does not have to face any wrath of the law in this country as they can buy their way out by chalking out compromise plans with those responsible for maintaining law and order of the nation. The police commissioner of the Indian city of Mumbai was therefore sighted at London with Lalit Modi, and he was not found curbing the menace of illegal liquor, especially hooch, which is killing scores of poor people of the city. The kind of Lalit Modis know this well, and they are ready to spend a part of their fortune, earned by exploiting cheap labour and resources of the nation, to bribe their way out of any sort of punishment.
The true essence of Indian democracy is that it is the democracy of the rich, the haven of plunderers and an autocratic repressive system for the poor and the common people. Unless there is a drastic change to the system as a whole, more Lalit and Narendra Modis and their lackeys will be generated automatically by it. That will be real bad news for a country that loves its cricket and dreams about a corruption free reign.
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