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Monument and folly

OVER THE LAST few months, the Supreme Court has set the pace and the broad direction of the inquiry into the irregularities relating to the Taj Heritage corridor project. The most recent, and possibly the most dramatic, example of this is the apex court's directive relating to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, her erstwhile ministerial colleague and six senior bureaucrats including the State's former Chief Secretary. By asking the CBI to register an FIR against them for alleged irregularities and malpractices in the Taj heritage corridor case, the Court was obviously convinced that the investigating agency's final report contains sufficient incriminatory evidence, albeit of a prima facie nature, to warrant a full-fledged investigation into the scandal. The Court's directive is the final step towards bringing Ms. Mayawati into the ambit of the investigation, something that has been possible only because of its active and vigorous intervention.

When the scandal came to light, Ms. Mayawati declared her innocence and attempted to distance herself from the project by claiming she was kept in the dark about it by the bureaucracy. She also attempted to deflect attention by ordering a probe into the controversy and nominating her Chief Secretary to head it. How a project that had an estimated outlay of Rs. 175 crores and involved the construction of a string of shopping malls and entertainment parks behind the Taj Mahal could have been initiated without the Chief Minister's knowledge (leave alone her approval) is something that was never explained. The CBI's inquiry into the matter, which painted a completely different picture of the sequence of events that led to the commencement of work on the project, suggests that the file was sent to Ms. Mayawati for approval. Some of the details that emerged while the CBI was finalising its Taj corridor report were truly shocking. They point towards a complete disregard for rules and procedures while clearing the project, a shoddy attempt to doctor the files and a collaborative attempt to suppress the truth. The threat to the Taj Mahal and its environs may have receded after the project was halted a few months ago. However, the Supreme Court's attitude has made it clear that this is not enough and that it is vital to find out how the project was sanctioned without adherence to basic environmental regulations.

It was the Supreme Court that ordered the CBI to inquire into the scam and — following the submission of the investigating agency's interim report — it was the Court again that demanded the interrogation of "four or five mighty persons" in the Uttar Pradesh Government. The interrogation of Ms. Mayawati and her Environment Minister was unlikely to have taken place in the absence of such judicial pressure. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader has blamed her predicament on the Union Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Jagmohan — whose threats and tough-talking brought the issue into national focus — but it is really the Supreme Court that has been responsible for matters having reached such a stage. Illustrations of the relentless pressure that the Supreme Court has applied include its directive to the CBI to probe the financial assets of those involved in clearing the project and in demanding that the Uttar Pradesh Government hold departmental inquiries against the four bureaucrats. It is not often that one witnesses such judicial activism in the course of a high-profile corruption case. Whether the CBI will be able to establish a financial trail during its investigations of this murky project is unclear. However, it should have relatively little difficulty in unearthing how the project was sanctioned and in identifying which laws were violated in the process.

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