by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
The 'corporate espionage' incident now rocking the capital is a classic instance of the 'anything for-a-price' culture that has vitiated the country for many decades. The expose this time began as a minor incident. A few months back, as a joint secretary in the petroleum and natural gas ministry entered his Shastri Bhavan office in the morning, his attention was drawn by his staff to a piece of paper lying under the cover of the office photocopier machine.
The paper, which was a letter written by the principal secretary to the PM to Petroleum Secretary from a file involving a private sector exploration and production contractor, had no apparent reason to travel to the photocopier. It rang alarm bells that were heard as far as the offices of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who, as a former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief, sensed its importance. After a long process of using decoys, an IB team, with Delhi Police, swooped down on a gang as it was leaving Shastri Bhavan long past midnight with a rich haul of official documents. The arrest of the two 'data thieves' led to further arrests, of more than a dozen so far, including middlemen Santanu Saikia (former journalist) and Prayas Jain, both owning energy portals (it could be an excuse to amass energy related official documents), and middle level executives of energy firms including Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited, Anil Ambani's Reliance ADA Group, Essar Oil, Cairns India, Jubilant Energy and others. The courage and integrity of Narendra Modi's government will be put to test if the investigation goes further up, to those devil-may-care 'crony capitalists' who could access every government document with carefree abandon. With such swashbucklers at the top of the country's leading companies, one need not strain one's imagination too much to assume that even official details concerning national security, or foreign affairs, are equally unprotected.
The corporate bodies' strategy is striking in its simplicity. Nearly 15-16 years ago, the Union Government, in its anxiety to reduce the number of staffers on its payroll, began outsourcing the jobs of Groups C and D employees to private agencies, who in their turn supplied armies of contractual workers, known as multi-tasking staff (MTS). Big energy firms had become careful not to handle government staff directly following a case under the Official Secrets Act in the 1990's involving RIL. They set up a protective wall of intermediaries such as Saikia who would engage with teams of present and former MTS to fish for the relevant documents, from rooms and desks they'd know like the back of their palm. The files then changed hands from the middleman to the company executives for a good price, especially for a out-of-work journalist like Saikia.
There are some closet apologists for the energy biggies who have been arguing that the Official Secrets Act, under which prosecution is likely to be framed, is a bad law, with the term "official secret" not clearly defined in the Act. While there is a suggestion to drop the law and have something better defined in its place, there will still be secrets that a government must guard. Like its legal strategy involving billions of dollars in the arbitration with RIL on KG basin gas price: the government holds that RIL has 'gold-plated' cost and has short-changed it on the quantum of profit gas. There were also minutes of board meetings of top oil PSUs like ONGC containing details of future strategy, be it for overseas exploration or domestic refining. Having prior knowledge of such matters obviously puts its possessor leagues ahead of competition. Besides, as it happened during the first NDA government, when three executives of a company were detained under the OS Act (the trial is still continuing), one of the documents seized from them reportedly contained a list of individuals who had made high disclosure of tax-evaded assets under a previous voluntary asset disclosure scheme. As prosecution could establish a connection between the impugned executive, and a local agent of fugitive racketeer Dawood Ibrahim, it seemed likely that the government A-list of rich Indians was being offered up as extortion targets, obviously for a price.
In pursuing the instant case, Modi and his team has shown extraordinary courage and grit. As the investigation widens, the investigators may have to confront some of India's most hardened corporate criminals who are in the habit of seeking protection by pretending to be 'friends' of the prime minister, or ruling party leader, of the day — be he or she Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi and now Modi. Over the years, their style has become even more sophisticated. It is simplistic to think that they have no interface with the government except through their platoon of nocturnal crooks. Delhi is now teeming with ‘think-tanks’ who proudly claim they are ‘independent’ whereas they’re fully funded by energy firms. These firms use bureaucrats to accomplish heavy-duty tasks, like policy change, and then encourage them to jack up their government jobs and join the ‘think-tank’. Delhi LG Najeeb Jung is one such bureaucrat. He was Joint Secretary in the Petroleum Ministry when the government agreed for the first time to accommodate the private sector as partner in production of oil at the Bombay High fields. The same think-tank is now led by another ex-Joint Secretary, P&NG, in whose tenure were awarded many new contracts under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, mostly in the KG basin area off the eastern sea coast. This bureaucrat resigned from the government in 2007. Once in the mother company’s payroll, however indirectly, the ex-bureaucrats can nudge or wink at any former colleague or put a slip in their coat pocket. Many academics are connected with the ‘think-tanks’, and so are much acclaimed journalists, including a recipient of national honour. Now they are diversifying into defence and strategic affairs, threatening that the evil network would soon engulf national security.
It began as a piece of paper suspiciously lying in the copier machine in a government house. But if the Prime Minister is serious about taking the probe forward, and unearthing the state within the state, he may have brushes with forces more sinister than he expected. Who will blink? Time will tell.
