Spectrum scam certainly qualifies to be called as the Mother of all scams. What the various scamsters swindled in 17 years from 1992 to 2009 was only 1.32 lakh crores. A. Raja & Co have surpassed that. Though it may be claimed that the actual bribe money that went into their pockets was 60,000 crores, that was no small amount. It is only half of what all others swindled together in 17 years. This is what we make out from the data available on the net.
In my opinion this data is nowhere near the real picture.
Just think of the ill-gotten money of the Indians sleeping in Swiss banks. That amount is 71 lakh crores. There is an abysmal gap of nearly 70 lakh crores between the data we have in hand as swindled money and the Swiss money!
What do we infer from this?
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Here are some details on the past scam amounts:-
1992
- Harshad Mehta securities scam Rs 5,000 cr
1994
- Sugar import scam Rs 650 cr
1995
- Preferential allotment scam Rs 5,000 cr
- Yugoslav Dinar scam Rs 400 cr
- Meghalaya Forest scam Rs 300 cr
1996
- Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 cr
- Urea scam Rs 133 cr
- Bihar fodder scam Rs 950 cr
1997
- Sukh Ram telecom scam Rs 1,500 cr
- SNC Lavalin power project scam Rs 374 cr
- Bihar land scandal Rs 400 cr
- C.R. Bhansali stock scam Rs 1,200 cr
1998
- Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 cr
2001
- UTI scam Rs 4,800 cr
- Dinesh Dalmia stock scam Rs 595 cr
- Ketan Parekh securities scam Rs 1,250 cr
2002
- Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade scam Rs 600 cr
2003
- Telgi stamp paper scam Rs 172 cr
2005
- IPO-Demat scam Rs 146 cr
- Bihar flood relief scam Rs 17 cr
- Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 cr
2006
- Punjab's City Centre project scam Rs 1,500 cr,
- Taj Corridor scam Rs 175 cr
2008
- Pune billionaire Hassan Ali Khan tax default Rs 50,000 cr
- The Satyam scam Rs 10,000 cr
- Army ration pilferage scam Rs 5,000 cr
- State Bank of Saurashtra scam Rs 95 cr
2009
- The Jharkhand medical equipment scam Rs 130 cr
- Rice export scam Rs 2,500 cr
- Orissa mine scam Rs 7,000 cr
- Madhu Koda mining scam Rs 4,000 cr
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Since Independence until 1992
1, Jeep Purchase (1948) :- Free India's corruption graph begins. V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet.
2, Cycle Imports (1951) :- S.A. Venkataraman, then the secretary, ministry of commerce and industry, was jailed for accepting a bribe in lieu of granting a cycle import quota to a company.
3, BHU Funds (1956) :- In one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions, Benaras Hindu University officials were accused of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 50 lakh.
4, MUNDHRA SCANDAL (1957):- It was the media that first hinted there might be a scam involving the sale of shares to LIC, Feroz Gandhi sources the confidential correspondence between the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and his principal finance secretary, and raised a question in Parliament on the sale of 'fraudulent' shares to LIC by a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman named Haridas Mundhra. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up a one-man commission headed by Justice M.C.Chagla to investigate the matter when it becomes evident that there was a prima facie case. Chagla concluded that Mundhra had sold fictitious shares to LIC, thereby defrauding the insurance behemoth to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The scam also forced the resignation of T.T.Krishnamachari.
6, Teja Loans (1960):- Shipping magnate Jayant Dharma Teja took loans worth Rs 22 crore to establish the Jayanti Shipping Company. In 1960, the authorities discovered that he was actually siphoning off money to his own account, after which Teja fled the country.
7, Kairon Scam (1963):- Pratap Singh Kairon became the first Indian chief minister to be accused of abusing his power for his own benefit and that of his sons and relatives. He quit a year later.
8, Patnaik's Own Goal (1965) :- Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had favoured his privately-held company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract.
9, Maruti Scandal (1974) :- Well before the company was set up, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's name came up in the first Maruti scandal, where her son Sanjay Gandhi was favoured with a license to make passenger cars.
10, Solanki Exposé (1992) :- At the World Economic Forum, Madhavsinh Solanki, then the external affairs minister, slipped a letter to his Swiss counterpart asking their government to stop the probe into the Bofors kickbacks. Solanki resigned when India Today broke the story.
11, Kuo Oil Deal (1976):- The Indian Oil Corporation signed an Rs 2.2-crore oil contract with a non-existent firm in Hong Kong and a kickback was given. The petroleum and chemicals minister was directed to make the purchase.
12, Antulay Trust (1981) :- With the exposure of this scandal concerning A.R. Antulay, then the chief minister of Maharashtra, The Indian Express was reborn. Antulay had garnered Rs 30 crore from businesses dependent on state resources like cement and kept the money in a private trust.
13, HDW Commissions (1987) :- HDW, the German submarine maker, was blacklisted after allegations that commissions worth Rs 20 crore had been paid. In 2005, the case was finally closed, in HDW's favour.
14, Bofors Pay-Off (1987) :- A Swedish firm was accused of paying Rs 64 crore to Indian bigwigs, including Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister, to secure the purchase of the Bofors gun.
15, St Kitts Forgery (1989) :- An attempt was made to sully V.P. Singh's Mr Clean image by forging documents to allege that he was a beneficiary of his son Ajeya Singh's account in the First Trust Corp. at St Kitts, with a deposit of $21 million.
16, Airbus Scandal (1990) :- Indian Airlines's (IA) signing of the Rs 2,000-crore deal with Airbus instead of Boeing caused a furore following the crash of an A-320. New planes were grounded, causing IA a weekly loss of Rs 2.5 crore.
17, Indian Bank Rip-off (1992) :- Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.
17, Indian Bank Rip-off (1992) :- Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.
