“THE INDIAN EXPRESS” today has quoted from the book authored by Dr. A.P. Mukherjee the former CBI Director. Dr. Mukherjee claims that the then Prime Minister Sh. Rajiv Gandhi told him that middlemen needed to be eliminated from the Defence deals. Instead the money collected from these deals should be used for politically funding. This would clean the lower level of politics and dispense with the need to collect funds through political cadres and local methods.
Curiously this is exactly what happened in the 1980’s. The kickbacks in Bofors, HDW, submarine deals, airbus purchases all surfaced during that period. Was it the then government’s intention that commercial middlemen be eliminated and substituted with political middleman. Those occupying the seats of power replaced the hanger on’s in the corridor of power as defence agents.
Corruption follows Newton’s gravitational principle. It flows from the top to the bottom. An unclean top can never clean up the mess at the bottom.