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Buta Singh’s great defence
‘I am not
a great moralist’
WSN Bureau
 Congress
leader and the man India put in charge of its premier commission to
take care of concerns of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes,
Buta Singh, is currently a very beleaguered man. His son was caught
with Rs one crore as bribe that he had taken from a builder to get
him off the hook in a case in which the builder had taken loans of
Rs 10 crore in the name of 100 scheduled caste employees.
But after the
arrest, Buta Singh has made a very interesting statement. “I am not
a great moralist,” he said in a sort of his defence. Such an
admission in the context of the CBI’s charges against his son sums
up the story of his life. Although he rose from humble beginnings to
be India’s
home minister, Buta Singh will be remembered more for his lapses
than achievements. Whether it was his involvement in the JMM bribery
case in Parliament in 1993 or the recommendation as the Bihar
governor for the dissolution of the state assembly in 2005, Buta
Singh showed that morality — political or personal —was not one of
the driving forces of his life. The Sikh community remembers him too
well for his role in finding a Nihang Singh for Indira Gandhi to
raise the Akal Takht building against the wishes of the Sikh sangat
in 1984.
Few would be
surprised, therefore, that the CBI probe in a bribery case involving
his son should find him ignoring the compulsions of propriety and
decorum. As the chairman of what he takes pride in describing as a
‘constitutional position’, he would have been expected to show
greater restraint in his utterances even if he was convinced that
the matter was a ‘conspiracy’ against his political future.
Considering, however, that his future has already become clouded
following his expulsion from the Congress and defeat in the recent
parliamentary polls, his intemperance seems to be due to a sense of
paranoia.
 Even
if he is justified in not resigning as the chairman of the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes because of the transgressions of his
son, his clean chit to the latter and criticism of the CBI are bound
to cast doubts on his ability to continue in such a responsible
position.
It is possible
that the sudden decline in his political fortunes after the long
period of service to the Congress, which included not a few dubious
acts, has made him bitter.
Hence his
reference to the unnamed ‘political forces’ behind his son’s legal
hassles. “Such attacks have happened on me in the past as well”, he
has said although no one remembers him referring to them earlier.
His charges against the CBI, therefore, are unlikely to be taken
seriously although the investigating agency has not always been
known for its impartiality.
The overall
impression of the episode will be the usual one of an amoral
politician caught in a case concerning his son, seemingly reared in
an atmosphere of intrigue, where bending the law was probably the
norm. The incident may involve one ordinary politician, but it still
tends to confirm the generally unflattering perception of the entire
profession.
CBI may even go
ahead and question Buta Singh after his son, having first admitted
his father’s role, has claimed that he was made to say those things
under pressure. The CBI officers feel they have enough material
evidence and witnesses to prove their case against Sweety Singh in
the court.
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Buta Singh’s
life has never been much to write home about, but the latest
twist leaves him a moral pauper |
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The agency is
now planning to question Sweety Singh’s father-inlaw, whose mobile
phone was used to make calls to hawala operators and other accused,
according to the investigators.
The corruption
case against Sweety Singh follows a complaint from the builder who
alleged that Sweety Singh demanded a bribe of Rs.3 crore to
facilitate the withdrawal of the case filed against him by a group
of conservancy workers.
The builder is a
garbage collection contractor with the Nashik Municipal Corporation.
Some 100 of his employees complained he was not paying their wages
and had also taken a bank loan of Rs.10 crore in their name. Now the
bank was asking them to cough up the money.
CBI
investigators had picked up Sarabjot Singh late on Thursday night
after intercepting his telephone conversations with several alleged
hawala operators for the past 12 days. He stands remanded in police
custody till August 5.
In the
intercepted calls, Sarabjot told builder Patil that he would get the
Commission to treat him favourably in the case, in which Patil was
alleged to have pocketed a loan amount of around Rs 10 crore taken
from a cooperative society on behalf of over 100 people belonging to
a Dalit community..
5
August 2009
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