New scam reveals hidden truths of Vasundhara Raje government

The latest corruption scandal in Rajasthan has revealed a truth that the ruling BJP would never have wished to come out in public. A company accused of getting undue favours under the Gehlot government received continuous patronage in the Raje government as well.

The day before yesterday, the ACB arrested chief engineer R.K. Meena and additional chief engineer Subodh Jain for accepting Rs 15 lakh as bribe in lieu of undue favours to SPML Infra Limited. They allegedly changed conditions in the contracts, waived off penalties, extended project deadline and even overpaid the company.

Two months before the state Assembly election in 2013, chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who was then state president of the party, had released a 100-page “black paper”, listing 61 major cases of corruption under the Gehlot government. Some of these cases were related to SPML Infra, a subsidiary of Om Metals group, which according to the BJP belonged to Ashok Gehlot’s close business friends, the Kothari brothers.

“SPML was awarded contracts of major irrigation projects; costs of projects were increased and penalties waived off despite not completing the projects on time,” alleged BJP, claiming it to be a perfect case of quid pro quo as the CM’s son, Vaibhav Gehlot, was a legal advisor in this company.

Senior BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had declared that if voted to power in Rajasthan, his party would constitute a special investigation commission to look into the alleged scams during the Congress regime.

However, after coming to power, the BJP government’s views seem to have changed. As the ACB preliminary investigation has disclosed, the company not only continued to get relaxations in terms and conditions on previous projects, but also bagged fresh projects.

“The BJP had accused SPML of gross corruption in its black paper but in the last two years, all major projects have been given to this company,” alleged A.K. Jain, who is a lawyer in several of the graft cases filed against the Gehlot government.

But this is not an isolated case where the Raje government has changed its views.

Immediately after coming to power, the Raje government, in an affidavit filed before the high court, had justified granting lease to a Congress leader’s company and argued that it should not be cancelled in the black paper. It had alleged that the lease granted for mining minerals in the Aravalli hills was against the Supreme Court orders that cost the exchequer a loss of Rs 3.4 lakh crore.

The about turn by BJP government has raised questions about its seriousness to corruption.