By Ruma Dubey

It is five years since Ramalingam Raju of Satyam, in a bout of wanting to spill out the ‘satyam’, in a confession sort of a note, shocked the country with his admission to fraud.  He had said, “ It was like riding a tiger, without knowing when to get off”.

It was an open-and-shut case. With a self confession in hand about all the frauds committed, the question was only about how many years Raju could get incriminated for. Yet, five years on, Raju remains outside on bail. The Court, stated, “On the facts of the case and considering the totality of circumstances, including that the accused has undergone the actual sentence of two years and eight months, we deem it fit to release him on bail.” What the Court does not state is that of this period, Raju spent two years in a plush hospital after he complained of ‘chest pain’. And miraculously, a week before he was granted bail, he was hale and hearty.

Is that how it is for others? There are others in prison who would have committed much smaller crimes but are rotting in the jail with no light at the end of their tunnel. Raju and all the ten accused are out – if this is not crony capitalism, what is?  Well, Sanjay Dutt is out because his wife is sick while another aged and sick co-accused is not given the permission for her won sickness. Need we say more? Money and power, that’s all that matters in this world, crime or no crime be damned!

It is crony capitalism at its best – the Enforcement Directorate (ED)  filed a chargesheet , 3.6 years later. It stated that it’s chargesheet was ready but did not know which court to file it in and was waiting for clarification on the same from the Supreme Court.

The sick part about this whole thing is that Raju has turned around and denied his own self confessionary letter. In fact Raju went on to tell the Court in 2010 that he was not the author of that letter!

It is clear that this case will drag on and on, which is exactly what Raju and his cronies want. Forget postponing the court dates, it might not come up in the Court any time soon. Satyam is the best representation of crony capitalism in India and it is not the only one and will not be the only one too. As long as authorities bow down to money and power, many more such Raju’s will come and go. Unless there is fear of the law, crimes will happen with complete gumption.

Remember Bernard Madoff? He had run this ponzi scheme and was the mastermind of the largest financial fraud in USA. His scam came to light on 10^th Dec, 2008 and he was arrested on 11^th Dec, the next day. And on June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. Have we ever heard or seen such quick justice ever delivered in India?

Satyam means the truth. And Satyam Computers has defied the very name that it stood for. The way the Board of Directors and the promoters siphoned off funds under the pretext of providing capex for the other two group companies – Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties is nothing new and even today, is a very common occurrence. With no one getting punished or held culpable, the message being sent out is that Indian companies can openly flout rules of corporate governance and nothing will happen! Jai ho!

PS: the only good thing which happened is that Satyam Computers has got resurrected as Tech Mahindra and the new management is doing very well, with news doing the rounds today that it could soon get included in the Nifty Index. This is a tremendous achievement of the new management and if there is one Satyam to sully the name of India Inc, there is another Tech Mahindra to compliment.