By M D Nalapat
Modi has examined the records of officials under suspicion of having links to the hawala-narcotics industry.
Although definitive numbers are difficult to
come by, estimates are that the hawala-narcotics industry in India has a
volume of Rs 186,000 crore annually, all of it unreported. Linked to
the ISI, which has the final say in the operations of both the hawala
trade as well as subcontinental commerce in narcotics, kingpins of the
industry are the biggest funders of politicians across the ideological
spectrum. An examination of the users of the chartered flights made
available by the hawala-narcotics industry to VVIPs would show that the
beneficiaries come from all sides of the political spectrum. Together
with their political backers, this secretive industry enjoys the
patronage of a large number of officials in agencies and departments,
covering most segments of administration, but principally in the
economic sphere. A particular target of their operations has been to
seek to undermine or to get recruits from the uniformed services. In
this context, the lapses in security that have enabled the entry of
terrorists into several defence and security-related facilities over the
past ten years, need to be examined by an independent authority, so as
to overcome the manner in which each administrative and uniformed
service seeks to cover up and protect those who (intentionally or
otherwise) make mistakes that create avenues for terrorists to exploit.
In the case of a post-2014 terror attack on a defence facility, basic
standard procedures for ensuring the safety of personnel were ignored.
Members of the service involved were, for example, found on the night of
the attack sleeping in tents close to a fuel dump, which caught fire
subsequently, leading to deaths through incineration, rather than
through terrorist bullets of those who had been camped out in the open
for reasons as yet unspecified. Ingress into the facility was made
possible through ignoring of security parameters, as well as by errors
that in other countries would call for a court martial, but in India
appear to have been condoned. In the civilian field as well, gaps in
procedures as well as errors in processes which facilitate the operation
of hawala dealers linked to the narcotics trade have been commonplace
till 2014, after which Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi began the
lengthy and difficult process of improving the security and efficiency
of systems and procedures in governance, especially in security-related
fields.
The GHQ Rawalpindi-controlled ISI has used the channels available to
it within the administration in India to periodically launch psy-war
operations designed to bring into disrepute India’s uniformed services.
An example was the report nearly five years ago of the commander of a
wing of the military attempting a coup. Exaggerated descriptions were
made of troop and vehicular movements, and these were portrayed as
having a sinister intent. Special operations units that had been set up
by the commander in question, and which were effective in identifying
moles and secret agents of an enemy power, were tarnished in media
reports. Interestingly, a senior minister in a previous government was
responsible for persuading some media entities to carry reports about
the fake coup, misleading them into carrying reports that in effect
portrayed those then at the head of the military in India as being of
the same cloth as their counterparts in Pakistan, who have made coups
and martial law a natural accompaniment of politics in that country. Two
decades ago, this same minister had, through his influence, ensured the
passing of orders that greatly facilitated an expansion of narcotics
production in India, ostensibly for medical reasons, but with almost no
check on whether or not production was going into lawful channels or
not.
Over the past two decades, as many as 37 civil servants have been the
recipient of favours channelled through the politician in question.
Several have been gifted properties, while others have been given funds
to pay for the education of their children, or for shopping expeditions
by family members in high cost locations in other countries. Any
individual who crossed the politician could expect to get the attention
of agencies tasked with ferreting out financial crimes in India. This
was done in connivance with identifiable bureaucrats, who were smoothly
herded through the promotion ladder because of the influence of the
politician in question. An example was the ensuring of directorships in
public sector banks to chosen individuals, who would then lobby for
loans to corporate groups. The records will show many such appointments,
especially from the period when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took
charge in 2004, each made with the connivance of officials close to the
minister in question. The umbrella of cash and protective services
provided by the hawala-narcotics industry to those who were, and remain,
the business, political and official associates of the politician in
question, ensured a smooth ride also for those secretly linked to the
ISI, usually through entities and individuals based in Dubai, Bangkok
and Kuala Lumpur.
Unlike the “live and let live” attitude of his predecessors, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has adopted a Zero Tolerance policy towards the
hawala-narcotics nexus that has infected so much of business, government
and politics in India. Those associated with government processes say
that Modi has carefully and methodically examined the records of
officials under suspicion of having links to the hawala-narcotics
industry, and specifically to the politician in question, who, together
with some of his family members, has been known for decades to be close
to such interests. It is likely that action will follow in the most
egregious of cases of favours shown to particular politicians, despite
the reality of some in the administrative services being overprotective
of those in their particular cadre. Officers relatively junior in age,
but untainted by linkage to anti-national groups, have been identified
by the PMO and marked for advancement, while care has been taken by the
PM to ensure that sensitive agencies come under the control of those
with a spotless record. It is regarded as certain that such attention to
personnel choices will ensure the cleaning up of the administrative
mechanism by 2019 that was promised by Modi during the last Lok Sabha
election cycle. As for the prominent politician, who played the ISI game
by smearing the leadership of the military as coup masters, neither his
access to money nor his friends in business, officialdom and politics
will come in the way of accountability being enforced.
Of course, the former minister’s contacts are even now working
overtime to ensure that he get off the hook, worried as they are that
their own links to him and by extension to the hawala-narcotics industry
will get exposed. However, it is clear that Prime Minister Modi will
not allow any interested person or combination of persons to intervene
in his drive to ensure that administration and politics in India get
cleansed of those who are or were high up in the official machinery, who
are associates of ISI-run narcotics-hawala syndicates in Dubai and
Bangkok especially.
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