Govt. Protects Pawan Bansal In Rly Bribery Case: All Norms Thrown To Winds

Strange are the ways of the UPA Government when it comes to shield its Ministers involved in corruption cases; it throws all norms to the winds. How a person charged with taking bribe through his nephew as Railway Minister who was removed from the government precisely for abusing his official position in appointment of senior officers in the Railways is being made a ‘witness’ by the investigating agency the CBI?

Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew Vijay Singla was caught red handed accepting huge cash as a bribe for the appointment of a general manager of the Railways as Member of the Railway Board has been left out in the charge-sheet filed by the CBI. Instead, he will be presented as a witness by the prosecution. How the prosecution expects Bansal to depose against his nephew when the deals and fixings of appointments at senior positions in the Railway Ministry took in the official residence of the Minister?

It is a well known fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tried his level best to protect Bansal along with Ashwani Kumar but had to yield under public pressure and remove the two from the Union Council of Ministers. If Bansal was not involved in the scandal why he was sacked as Railway Minister? The Government, apparently, has no answer to these questions.

On July 9, 2013, the defense counsel of three accused in the Railway bribery case came out with interesting argument before the special designate court of the CBI. The counsel said, “ …the day you ( the CBI) made Mr Bansal a witness in this case this court should have discharged all the accused”. Normally, an approver in the case is a person who is accused but agrees to depose against other accused or agrees to help the prosecution in the case by standing as a witness though an accomplice in the crime. Here, Bansal is not an approver since he has not been made an accused in the case. Yet, the CBI has picked him up to stand as a witness in the case in which the former Railway Minister is alleged to have played a role may be indirectly.

It is indeed a sad commentary on the Congress led UPA Government in running the country in a sordid manner taking the nation as its fiefdom. All appointments in the Railways right from the level of Divisional Railway Manager, Zonal Railway Manager, General Manager to Member Railway Board carry a price tag ranging from rupees 20 lakhs to a couple of crores. How else the government can explain the capacity of a manager to pay Rs. 50 lakhs or a crore to become a Member of the Railway Board. Apparently, the officer makes money out of contracts that runs into thousands of crores by compromising on safety and standard of the Indian Railways.

There are six Members and a Chairman of the Railway Board that takes all important decisions. After Bansal quit C P Joshi was given temporary charge for a brief period. Now Kharge is the new Railway Minister. What is holding the Railway Minister in filling up the vacant positions in the Railway Board?

Vacancy exists for the post of the Chairman, Railway Board and three Members. Are there no qualified and competent officers in the entire Indian Railways to fill up the posts? Or is the government and the Railway Minister are waiting for persons to pick up the price tag attached with the posts!

 ~R. K. Sinha