Cash, Lies and Videotape

Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2001 India's arms bribery scandal is still reverberating around the country. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's coalition government is looking shaky, though likely to survive the year, parliament has been immobilized, and the recent screening on national television of the full four-and-a-half hours of incriminating tapes has further jolted the weary public.

The so-called 'Tehelka tapes' have now been broadcast on primetime television. What did the nation see?
The sleaze and cynicism that thrives beyond the manicured lawns of official New Delhi. Not one politician or army officer or bureaucrat thought it fit to show the bribe-giving journalists the door.

What effect do you think the screening of the tapes will have on the man in the street? Are any more politicians or defense officials likely to resign as a result of renewed public pressure?
It's just going to confirm people's worst fears -- that this nation is governed by an unbelievably corrupt and politically bankrupt class. Not a single erring bureaucrat from the Defense Ministry has been suspended. Nor have anticorruption cases been filed against them or the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ex-president, Bangaru Laxman. Only the Indian Army has acted swiftly and hauled up bribe-taking officers before a court of inquiry.

The Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee pledged at a rally on Sunday that he would root out corruption. Can people trust him now?
Vajpayee has lost a great deal of his authority and credibility as a leader. People are going to be far more skeptical about what he says. But it would be a mistake to underestimate him. The Teflon coating hasn't been completely ripped off. As opinion polls show, people still rate him higher than other politicians.

Vajpayee also maintained at the rally that the tapes were part of a plot to undermine his government. Is he just looking for excuses?
If anyone's undermining the government, it's his own officials and political comrades.

Have there been any questions raised about the "independence" of the inquiry launched into the scandal? Does the Prime Minister have anything to worry about?
The inquiry by a retired judge has yet to begin, but already there are doubts being expressed about how fair and independent it will be. The Prime Minister would be worried that the sleaze might sweep away two of his close aides who are in the firing line.

How effective has the Opposition been during this scandal?
Hysterical and self-serving. The only focus of Sonia Gandhi and her opposition Congress Party seems to be to unseat the government and grab power.

More than a week has passed since the scandal broke. How damaging has it been to Vajpayee and his government?
It's a disaster. Vajpayee's peace initiative on Kashmir is in deep freeze, and all major economic reform initiatives will probably get postponed. The government's energies will now be focused on survival.

Can the Prime Minister recover from this?
His position has become pretty vulnerable now.