Can Vasundhara Raje’s New Ordinance Shield Corruption in Rajasthan?

There is a reason why suddenly the BJP government in Rajasthan led by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje issued an ordinance to muzzle the media from reporting on allegations of corruption against public servants including judges and magistrates. It is the relentless stream of allegations of corruption against the state government that spurred this desperate fire fighting. The thinking was that by gagging the press and activists through this ordinance, first one of its kind in the country, the allegations will somehow go away or be buried by the govt. The massive tide of protest against Raje’s black ordinance has however forced her to keep the ordinance in temporary abeyance.

Here is a look at some of the main corruption allegations against Rajasthan’s BJP govt., which, ironically, came to power in 2013 riding a wave of anti-corruption sentiment against the incumbent Congress State govt. These are collated from media reports.

In 2015, a massive mining scam came to light with an estimated Rs. 45,000 crore loss to the state exchequer. 653 mines from different regions in the state having a mineral value of Rs. 2 lakh crore were reportedly allocated by the BJP government to private firms on an arbitrary way "first come, first served" basis, violating central norms of the auction.

It has been reported that suspended IAS officer and former mining secretary Ashok Singhvi, who was arrested for allegedly running a massive bribery racket, was also involved in granting leases for over 2,828 hectares of gypsum mines across Rajasthan without following due procedure. Also reportedly, BJP minister Raj Kumar Rinwa approved Singhvi’s actions in granting a lease for mines to at least two companies.

In August 2017, an alleged Rs 600 crore rock phosphate mining scam involving Vedanta company was reported after which the Rajasthan High Court issued notices to the state government. As per the norms, as the mining lease of rock phosphate cannot be given to a private company, the case is still pending with the court.

With a spurt in large-scale mining projects in the state, local residents are forced to bear the cost at the expense of their traditional livelihoods. The Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) policy intends to benefit residents located in mining regions but it has only proved to be of nominal support to the hapless locals. An Indiaspend report suggested flaws in the implementation of the policy as shown by the case of Bhilwara district. Mineral-rich Bhilwara has seen massive investment by the likes of Hindustan Zinc and Jindal Saw. A District Mineral Fund (DMF) set up under the PMKKKY ostensibly for development work has collected Rs 400 crore by October 7, 2017. But the investigation by Indiaspend showed that it was not being used as intended by the concerned authorities.

Before the state Assembly election in 2013, CM Vasundhara Raje has accused the previous Congress government of favoring SPML Infra for awarding major irrigation projects and waiving off penalties to the company. But, after BJP came to power, SPML Infra not only got relaxations on previously agreed projects but also bagged new projects. It was alleged that investigations had shown complicity of BJP supporters also. This is why investigations have been reportedly put on the back burner.

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