Monday, October 09, 2017

Crony capitalism again?

It used to be cynically said that parents are the enemies of children ("makkalukku chathru matha, pita"). It is more appropriate now to say that children are the enemies of parents. Indira Gandhi had Sanjay Gandhi, Morarji Desai had Kantilal Desai, Chidambaram has Karti Chidambaram and Jayalalithaa had Sudhakaran, an adopted son. Is Amit Shah's son, Jay Amitbhai Shah one such? (I should not go overboard on this theme; many politicians do not need their children to bring disrepute to them. They do it themselves.)

The Wire reports that a company and a few partnership firms owned by Jay Shah have recorded some transactions which are worth probing. These transactions include humongous increase in revenues in 2015-16, loan from IREDA, a public sector unit concerned with renewable energy, to a firm which was till then a stock-broking firm , a loan from a co-operative bank (any loan from a co-operative bank to any politician's associates prima-facie attracts adverse attention) and a loan from an NBFC  not reflected in the latter's Balance Sheet.

Would Amit Shah and Jay Shah come clean on this? Otherwise the needle of suspicion cannot be deflected.

No comments: