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Scam as scam can
Corruption prospers in the Northeast because it bothers so few
By Nitin A. Gokhale
The eight states of the Northeast may be unique in most respects but when it comes to big-time financial scams, the region is no different than the rest of India: Politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen gang up to rob the exchequer of big amounts in the Northeast as they do across the country. For scamsters in the region the colour of money is same as in any part of India. There is, however, one unique thing about scams in the Northeast - no one is unduly perturbed, no one gets punished and all is forgotten with time.
Being outside the radar screens of New Delhi, most corrupt practices and big-time scams in the Northeast
go unnoticed and unreported
Financial irregularities, running into hundreds of crores of rupees, have been uncovered in the region more frequently than anywhere else. The Rs 300-crore lottery scandal in Nagaland; the Rs 250-crore import of palmoline oil scandal; the Rs 197-crore power department scam or the latest Rs 100-crore fci supply scam, the list is endless. Those in the know have even coined a term for these scandals. They are called the 60:40 scandals.
This is how they work. The well-informed bureaucrat proposes a scheme, the politician endorses it and the ubiquitous businessman implements it - all on paper! Then the spoils are shared 60:40 - 30 percent each goes to the politician and the bureaucrat and the rest is pocketed by the trader.
All these swindles have been well documented and written about but none of the culprits has been taken to task. Many of them continue to be active and flourishing politicians or bureaucrats. Businessmen, under the patronage of the politician-bureaucrat nexus, carry on defrauding governments in the Northeast with impunity. If any of these scandals had taken place in the so-called mainland India, someone would have made a song and dance - the opposition, the media, civil society groups.
But India's Northeast appears immune to any of these reactions to big-time scams. Mainly because, like with most other aspects of governance, the region suffers from the 'out-of-sight-out-of-mind' syndrome. Being outside the radar screens of New Delhi, most corrupt practices that take place in the Northeast go unnoticed and unreported. In some cases, the watchdogs in Delhi get co-opted. The Opposition in the state does not raise a voice since its members have shared the loot during their time in power. The media, in most Northeast states is weak, dependent, with a few exceptions, upon government largesse and therefore subservient. Given the combination of these factors, no one should be surprised that big-ticket financial scams in the Northeast get a decent burial after creating a few ripples.
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