Triple Crisis Blogger CP Chandrasekhar originally published the following article in the Indian magazine Frontline, on the liberalization of India’s oil exploration and production policy.
The real problem facing the country is the neoliberal reform that seeks to attract private capital into a lucrative and sensitive area such as petroleum.
The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) performance audit of some production-sharing contracts (PSCs) instituted as part of the liberalisation of India’s oil exploration and production policy may turn out to be the next big scam, with more than a whiff of corruption. But, in this season of scams, danger lurks. The danger that much of society can for a considerable period of time miss the wood for the trees. Circumstances strengthen this tendency. In particular, the surprising coincidence of a host of revelations of lack of due diligence, bending of rules, outright manipulation or a combination of all of this that hugely enriches a few individuals and corporations in the private sector and a few functionaries of the state, most often at the expense of the exchequer. Not a day passes without evidence of some new scam.
Whatever may be the cause for this recent increase in scam-related revelations, the surge feeds the notion that corruption has reached unprecedented levels and constitutes the fundamental problem facing India today. The fact that corruption, besides being ethically wrong or morally abhorrent, can influence growth in ways that serve the interests of a few and can therefore be deeply inequalising cannot be denied. But the reason for these developments – which are seen as mere instances of corruption – multiplying in number could be systemic and reflect policy shifts that aim to use state resources to inflate private profit.