The number of scams being unearthed in India these days is growing so fast that one may be forced to call the largest democracy, the “Scamocracy!” The scam which shamed the whole country this year was the Commonwealth Games Scam. In fact, at one time the TV Channels were referring to these games as the “Commonwealth Corruption Games!” Then came the Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai. Next was the telecommunications scam. This is the most damaging one as the Prime Minster too has been dragged in! There has been recently talk about the Tata-Singapore Airlines plan blocking scam and so on. Unfortunately, corruption has seeped into every section of the society. It is taken to be a routine adjunct of any procedure for getting things done. The people who take a bribe these days demand it as a matter of right.

Similarly, the givers too do not feel any remorse in participating in this evil. It has become a necessary evil. At the lowest level corruption has become part of every bureaucratic procedure. However, at the highest level it has assumed colossal proportions. Crores do not count now! One is talking of hundreds or even thousands of crores! The worst scams have been in the defence and security establishments. These remain mostly hidden due to the “Holy Cow” nature of these organisations. But there have been some major scams which have broken out into public in spite of the lid of “National Interest”! The most talked about has been the Bofors gun scam involving the Swedish long range artillery guns for the Army. The scam which involved huge pay offs continued to plague the ruling congress party for a long time as late Rajiv Gandhi too was alleged to be a part of the deal.

There have been scams regarding submarines, refurbished MIG Aircraft engines, and supply of coffins during Kargil war and so on. Most of these scams relate to heavy pay offs for facilitating placing of orders with particular firms for supply of various defence equipments. In a number of cases the facilitation has been done by both the politicians and senior forces officers. One would not really put all the blame on the senior forces officers as the real culprits are the defence equipment manufacturers. It has been observed that most of the international companies dealing in defence related items set up local offices in India which are manned by retired senior forces officers. These companies appoint these retired officers as liaison officers giving them very good pay packets as well as commissions on sales. They are also given many other perks. These companies indulge in such mal-practices all over the world.

In fact, some of these companies are also alleged to start such conflicts in sensitive areas to promote their sales to the parties in conflict! The actions of the officers involved in such scams are not only corrupt practices but depict total lack of patriotism. These sales may even jeopardise the security of the country. There are also some other continuous scams. These mostly involve the Army Supply Corps. In Leh one can buy petrol in shops which is leakage from the Army. The dry fruit rations meant for soldiers in Siachen are sold in Nubra and Leh markets! However, the recent scam unearthed in Mumbai regarding usurping the rights and privileges of the widows of the war heroes is above everything else totally immoral. There can be nothing more demeaning for a General than clandestinely taking the property meant for the widows of soldiers who had given their lives while defending the integrity of their motherland!

The property or equipment scams may affect human lives especially of the people whose rights have been usurped indirectly but the worst scam is the trading of the human life itself. There have been a number of instances of disappearance without trace of persons from all over the valley in last couple of decades. A number of encounters have proved in reality to be fake. It has been established by the investigators that these heinous acts were indulged in by some members of the security forces for getting promotions, and monetary benefits. Allegedly there are many mass graves in the vicinity of the border where supposedly foreign militants killed in encounters with the security forces have been buried. There have been a number of senseless massacres of innocent people including the one during the visit of the former US President Bill Clinton. Quite a few of these wanton acts remain unsolved even though various militant organisations have been blamed for these.

In some cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation has even charge sheeted some forces officers but they are not getting central government sanction mandatory under AFSPA for trying the accused. The most disheartening aspect is the top Army and Air Force officers publicly defending the continuation of this notorious legislation which is simply meant to absolve the security forces of entire accountability for their actions taken in the interests of the so called “National Security”! AFSPA has truly become a scam hiding many heinous crimes in its bosom.

A senior columnist in an article recently observed, “If you were a Kashmiri stone thrower or a simple apple farmer living under an inevitably violent occupation by the Indian Army, you should look at the Adarsh scam with concern, even fear. If the highest ranking officers of the Indian Army could be involved in a corrupt transaction in Mumbai, short-changing the government and the Indian taxpayer under public glare, what havoc could the lower ranking soldiers be wreaking in Kashmir, where they enjoy unbridled immunities?”

Well, it may not be the lower ranking soldiers only! A number of senior officers too have been involved in these fake encounters. The most uncompromising and forceful defence of retaining AFSPA in Kashmir by some very senior Army and Air Force officers raises many doubts in this regard. There are many allegations that the whole security grid involving all sections of the defence and paramilitary has developed vested interests in the continuation of an uncertain situation. The funds advanced by the Union Home Ministry under the nomenclature of SRE or the Security Related Expenditure have reached the level of hundreds of crores.

Now that the Mumbai housing scam has given a jolt to one and all forcing the taking of immediate action at various levels, it is imperative that the AFSPA scam involving unbridled violations of Human Rights in Kashmir is also probed thoroughly. It needs to be ascertained as to why senior defence services officers are publicly and vociferously defending the retention of the said draconian legislation with the patronage of some political parties. This is more so in view of their own admission that the militancy in Kashmir has been virtually eliminated and the present movement has been universally acknowledged to be unarmed and peaceful.

There is urgent necessity of ascertaining the need to retain the massive security grid in the civilian areas with no accountability for various actions of the security forces deployed all over the valley. Unless this is done, and the harassment by the security forces is halted immediately, there is no chance of the extreme alienation ending soon regardless of the visits of parliamentary teams and interlocutors!