Snooping scandal: Business friendliness of Gujarat govt in focus

The existence of a secret tunnel from business to politics and vice versa in India is a known fact. Over recent few years, some of the developments, like DLF-Robert Vadra scam, 2G scam, etc, have only given more credence to this fact.

Despite the high decibel speeches by its Chief Minister Narendra Modi on governance, Gujarat is no exception to this rule.

An expose in a report in the Business Standard today related to the snooping scandal involving Amit Shah is likely to unsettle Modi and his supporters further.

According to the report, the company owned by the Sonis, the family at the centre of the scandal for asking Modi to keep a watch on a woman, got the first big break from the Gujarat government to implement smartgrid project in Sachivalaya in 2010.

The company in question is Ecolibrium, a Bangalore-based smartgrid player. It is 96 percent owned by Harit P Soni and Chintan P Soni, sons of Pranlal Soni, the BS report said.

After Cobrapost exposed Amit Shah’s was snooping on a Bangalore woman for his ‘Saheb’, her father Pranlal Soni had claimed that it was he who sought help from Modi to keep a watch on his daughter.

It is difficult to assume that all these link-ups-Gujarat government awarding a project to Sonis’ company, Amit Shah seeking a watch on Pranlal Soni’s daughter and Pranlal Soni taking the blame for the snooping on himself-are merely coincidental. Moreover, this is not the first time that the Gujarat government’s relationship with businesses is kicking up a storm.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said in its report for year ended March 2012 that government-owned firms in Gujarat granted “undue benefit” to big industrial houses, which resulted in revenue losses worth crores of rupees to the state exchequer.

The report, which was tabled in the Gujarat assembly in April, had said that the government had extended favours to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Essar Steel and Adani Power Ltd (APL), PTI reported earlier.

It also said the state government tweaked rules to grant land to Ford India Pvt Ltd as well as Larson & Toubro Ltd.

“Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) was responsible for deviating from the agreed terms of recovery of gas transportation charges from the specified entry point of the company’s pipeline network and this led to passing of undue benefit of Rs 52.27 crore to RIL,” the CAG report said.

It doesn’t really matter who rules, the BJP or Congress. Business and politics in India thrive on crony capitalism.