Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was quick to hold out his “zero tolerance to corruption” placard, by making a huge deal of arresting his brother-in-law Dilip Malvankar, an officer in the much tainted GIDC for accepting a bribe to allot a plot to a Jaipur based industrialist who tipped off the Anti-Corruption Bureau and laid a trap.
We must however pause before letting the Chief Minister take the high moral ground. Information emerging from sources as well as a report on a website IndyaWire.com, suggests that the CM himself was trapped into “letting the law take its course” because the ACB led by the quicksilver SP Bosco George, acted on the tip off by the industrialist and laid a trap and arrested Dilip Malvankar, the Chief Minister’s brother-in-law (their wives are sisters), before any interference was possible. Therefore, what really happened was that the CM too was caught off guard by the alacrity of the ACB and with the case being registered and then going viral on social media, the CM could do little to make Malvankar run or hide. Bosco George and his team had well and truly got him.
According to the IndyaWire.com report, “for more than 24 hours, the Goa ACB did not breathe a word about the arrests and tried to keep the entire case away from the media glare. However, the news leaked on the social media – apparently the news was leaked by some upright and honest ACB officer. The news of Malvankar’s arrest broke first on social media on Wednesday evening almost 24 hours after Malvankar was arrested”.
The arrest of Malvankar brings to the fore a couple of issues which need quick answers. Since he has been caught red handed and is therefore corrupt, Goa needs to know how this man was appointed. Was it during the tenure of the BJP government and in what circumstances was the appointment made. Secondly was it done following normal protocols and rules of appointment of the GIDC? This is necessary to rule out a possibility of the man finding his way up the organisation, because of his powerful brother-in-law and then indulging in corruption.
Secondly, he has been arrested because he has been caught. A thorough probe needs to be done of all the files he has cleared during his tenure. They need to be examined for transparency and the following of procedure. It is very likely that a man who is ready to sell his morals for Rs 1 lakh has indulged in similar practices in the past. This needs to be investigated and if it’s found that he indeed has made money by clearing projects illegally, he should be booked for all those cases. This clearly doesn’t seem to be a one off “error of judgment”.
Most importantly, this incident highlights the need for all Chief Ministers and Ministers to make a disclosure of all their close relatives either by birth or through marriage, who hold government jobs and the nature of their jobs. This also calls for a bill to make it mandatory for elected politicians in power to make disclosures, coupled with the fact that relatives in sensitive decision making posts in government (if appointed prior to their political relative taking office) should be moved to non-sensitive posts.
As for the Zero Tolerance to corruption claim by the Chief Minister, that’s another long-long story. But he could seek some redemption by– at the very least- not claiming that his brother in law’s arrest was due to him playing Chief Minister and not brother-in-law.
