Corruption
FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 10 Halal Street
Ever since the birth of the Indian stock market–the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the oldest in Asia, has its roots in the 19th...
FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 9 Predators on the Prowl
IT started with a seemingly inconsequential policy to woo NRIs. In the 1982 Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allowed Indians settled abroad to...
From Raj to Rafale 8 : Conspiracy of complicity
AS we saw in the previous two pieces, Indira Gandhi dictated the new rules of corruption, which ensured that every single government deal,...
From Raj to Rafale 7 : A Mother’s Son & Son of God
FORTY-FIVE minutes after one of the largest branches of the State Bank of India at New Delhi’s Parliament Street opened on May 24,...
FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 6 : LICENCE TO LOOT
IT is often, but wrongly, assumed that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, was against the private sector. This wasn’t true, at...
From Raj to Rafale 5 : The Mundhra case
IT started with a follow-up question that politicians ask after a newspaper or news channel report. On September 4, 1957, a Lok Sabha...
From Raj to Rafale 4 : Mahatma and Millionaires
Today, a whiff of crony capitalism, i.e. a politician helping a businessman or vice versa, results in a scandal. But in the pre-Independence...
From Raj to Rafale 3 : Opium of India Inc
KARL Marx said that religion was the opium of the masses. What most people don’t know is that he delved into the moral...
From Raj to Rafale 2 : The Thug of Bombay
EVERY scandal needs a villain, rather a hero-turned-rogue. In fact, what a scintillating scam requires is an anti-hero, who combines the traits of...
FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 1 : Clive of Corruption
BY the third quarter of the 18th century, there was one word in Britain that was both loved and hated, and reviled and...