IF there is one thing for which the year 2010 would be remembered in India it is the spate of corruption scandals that shook the edifice of democracy and made us conscious of the fragility of our institutions.

Scams rocked the country even as a robust Indian economy with an impressive growth rate invited the attention of a world keen to do business with a resurgent India. There were straws in the wind with inflation in full cry but overall, the economy held up.

Logjam in parliament: An entire session was wiped out as the UPA and the Opposition crossed swords. Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

In early November, even as the leader of the world’s only superpower President Obama sang paeans in New Delhi and Mumbai about India having ‘arrived’ on the international stage, there was a sense of trepidation in informed circles of what lay in store nationally.

All hell broke loose later in the year as the lid that had been so assiduously put on the stinking core of the Indian political and administrative system began to give way, releasing a rotten stench of corruption that refused to go.

The annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India was the trigger for the unravelling of the 2G spectrum allocation scam in which the nation was defrauded to the extent of Rs 1.76 lakh crores, as per CAG’s estimates. With Telecom Minister A. Raja calling the shots, spectrum licences for mobile telephony were sold at ridiculously low prices causing a huge loss to the exchequer. The 2G scam sent shock waves throughout the country, bringing corruption centrestage and lowering public morale.

The Commonwealth Games (CWG) which were to be showcased as an effective symbol of India’s emerging strength saw swindling and misappropriation on a mind-boggling scale which neutralised the glory brought by our sportspersons. Action was long in coming and when it did, it was a case of too little too late. Under Suresh Kalmadi the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games shamed the nation first by the chaotic scramble to get the Games village ready on time and then by seemingly abetting the naked corruption that hit the country’s exchequer hard. Ironically, at the time of going to Press, while the minions of both Raja and Kalmadi were being intensively grilled, the two kingpins were getting away lightly so far.

Upping the ante: The demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam led to a stalemate. Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Then there was corporate lobbyist Niira Radia who stole the thunder in the last couple of months with the sensational tapes of her conversations revealing how she hobnobbed with the powers-that-be to ensure that the controversial Raja was not denied his ministerial berth in the UPA second term. Radia, whose conversations besmirched the reputations of some of the country’s most celebrated journalists, was one of the smartest of operators, with the likes of Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani having hired her services to liaise on her behalf in the corridors of power.

Two chief ministers too made waves in the later part of the year for the wrong reasons — Ashok Chavan had to quit as embarrassing revelations showed how he had subverted the system to favour close ones in granting prime land to Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai. The other was Karnataka’s Yeddyurappa who was caught changing the status of government land to favour his sons and stuck to the chair despite being exposed.

The year had the dubious distinction of seeing an entire session of Parliament being wiped out as the Opposition insisted that it wanted a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe 2G, CWG corruption and Adarsh scams while the ruling UPA was unrelenting that the Public Accounts Committee could do that job. Parliament as an institution suffered grievous damage and the BJP as the principal opposition party can hardly escape blame.

The judiciary too had its share of embarrassments during the year with corruption among judges becoming a major issue. Internally, the Kashmir Valley was in continuous turmoil with a cycle of violence and curfews.

It was this year that the long-awaited judgment in the title suit over Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid was delivered by the Allahabad High Court. The issue is still hot and could generate tension in the future again because the verdict was based not on empirical evidence but on the evidence of religious faiths as many jurists claimed.

All in all, 2010 was a year of turmoil and scandals for the country. If there were any silver linings, they were in the shape of the economy and in sports.

Momentous bills In May, the National Green Tribunals Bill was passed by Parliament to set up a special omnibus tribunal as the sole adjudicator on all “green laws.” In August, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Authority Bill was passed to regulate the utilisation of foreign contribution by individuals or associations. Work shirk MPs gave themselves a pay hike but were found to be working less and less. The 11th Lok Sabha saw 5.28 per cent loss of time, the 12th House 10.66 pc, while the 13th and 14th Lok Sabhas lost nearly 22 per cent time due to interruptions. House keeping The Parliament logjam over the 2G scam led to a wastage of as much as Rs 146 cr! The expenditure for each day lost was around Rs 7.8 cr.