Opinion - Editorials

MOMENT OF TRIUMPH

THE FORMER PRIME Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, must feel that the legal clouds that hung gloomily over him have finally lifted. With his acquittal in the Lakhubhai Pathak case, Mr. Rao has been cleared in the third and last corruption case in which he was an accused. The Lakhubhai Pathak case is a curious one in many respects, not least because it is a story of extraordinary delay. The case dates back to a complaint filed by the late London-based pickle manufacturer in 1987, in which he alleged that he was cheated of a hundred thousand dollars in 1983 by the self-styled godman, Chandraswami, and his associate, "Mamaji", on the promise of providing him with a paper pulp contract. The former Prime Minister's name was dragged into the case a decade after the original complaint was filed and after Pathak alleged in court that it was Mr. Rao who had promised to secure the contract against payment of money. If the trial dragged on for so many years, it was largely because of the absence of a witness for the defence. And if interest in the case declined, it was partly because of the death of Pathak and the growing belief that there was no corroborative evidence to back the businessman's allegations — the last being the very basis for the special court's acquittal of the accused.

For almost a decade, Mr. Rao's political career has been hamstrung by the corruption cases. Last year, the Delhi High Court acquitted him and the former Home Minister, Buta Singh, in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case, reversing a trial court judgment that sentenced the two to three years of rigorous imprisonment after finding them guilty of bribing four JMM MPs in order to shore up support during a July 1993 no-confidence motion. The High Court acquitted them after it was persuaded by the defence that a key approver in the case — the former JMM MP, Shailendra Mahato — was an unreliable witness. A couple of years earlier, the Supreme Court upheld his discharge in the St. Kitts case, in which the CBI had alleged that Mr. Rao and others, including Chandraswami, had forged documents to show that the former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh's son had an illegal bank account in St. Kitts and that Mr. V.P. Singh was a beneficiary.

Unfortunately for Mr. Rao, the hat-trick of legal victories is unlikely to have any impact on his political fortunes. His cryptic replies to questions posed by reporters about a possible return to politics (examples: "Who said I retired?" and "Politicians never retire.") have led to some speculation about his next moves. But the acquittals have come much too late in the life of Mr. Rao, who is now 82, not in the best of health, and seemingly reconciled to a contemplative and writerly life outside politics. Given this, it seems highly improbable that he will become a rallying point for those disaffected with the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, whose grip on the Congress is weaker after the party's disastrous showing in the recent Assembly elections. It is a discredit to the Congress leadership that it has not welcomed Mr. Rao's acquittal unequivocally, thereby giving the impression that the legal victory has no political significance. Although the possibility of the CBI preferring an appeal against the Lakhubhai Pathak case judgment cannot be ruled out, the former Prime Minister has every reason to believe that the legal problems he has been mired in over the last few years are well and truly over. It has taken much too long for him to be vindicated, but at least the former Prime Minister has been able to savour his moment of triumph.

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