Corruption cases reveal similar patterns of political abuse

From IRCTC to National Herald, India’s corruption template remains unchanged—power, privilege, and public loss endure.

- S MURLIDHARAN

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet, between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu Prasad Yadav was Union Railways Minister in the UPA government, two IRCTC hotels, BNR Ranchi and BNR Puri, were leased to a private company named Sujata Hotels for maintenance on mutual backscratching basis.

In return for a prime land in Patna transferred to a private company controlled by Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and their son Tejasvi Yaday for a throwaway price of ₹1.5 crore, the tender process for lease of the two IRCTC hotels were suitably tweaked to ensure Sujata Hotels bagged the contract.