Cobrapost stings again

Catches MPs on camera accepting money from fictitious firm

Eleven Members of Parliament (MPs) were caught on camera accepting money from a fictitious foreign oil exploration company in a sting operation by investigative website, Cobrapost. In return, these parliamentarians were willing to lobby and issue letters of recommendation to push for this company’s bid in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for a licence to explore oil in northeastern India.

Codenamed ‘Operation Falcon Claw’, the MPs were shown negotiating money, which ranged from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh, without questioning the antecedents of the company. One MP even demanded his fee be delivered through a hawala operator. Six MPs, the website claimed, gave letters of recommendation for Rs 50,000-Rs 75,000. These were |addressed to the joint secretary in the petroleum ministry.

“Writing letters to various government agencies to seek help for some public cause is understandable and our MPs are within their rights to do that. But lobbying for a foreign corporate entity is an entirely uncalled for exercise, as it might affect policy decisions, and when we have parliamentarians such as these, it is no surprise the corporate world now calls the shots when it comes to policy-making, as issues of public interest get a raw deal at the hands of both, Parliament and the government of the day,” said Anirudha Bahal, editor, Cobrapost.

The parliamentarians shown were K Sugumar and C Rajendran from the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; Lalu Bhai Patel, Ravindra Kumar Pandey and Hari Manjhi from the Bharatiya Janata Party; Vishwa Mohan Kumar, Maheshwar Hazari and Bhudeo Chaudhary from the Janata Dal (United); Khiladi Lal Bairwa and Vikrambhai Arjanbhai from the Congress; and Kaiser Jahan from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In a few cases, parliamentarians played it safe by keeping the deal as discrete as they could. They wouldn’t enter into direct negotiations with the party or talk money, and “raised their brows if the Cobrapost reporter talked money”.

Cobrapost said one of its reporters approached these parliamentarians and introduced himself as a consultant of the fake oil company. To remove doubts, a website of the company was designed and brochures were published. The MPs were told the project was for Rs 1,000 crore and their letters would help them in getting the project.