Bhubaneswar: Few are willing to believe it was a mere coincidence. Hours after the Union cabinet referred the five-volume report of the Justice MB Shah Commission of Inquiry on the Great Odisha Mining Scam to a committee of secretaries for 'examination', Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced in Bhubaneswar that his government would enact a Lokayukta Bill within the next one month.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI
If the connection between the two is still not clear, here it is. In its report, the Commission has severely indicted both the state and the central government for their various acts of omission and commission that made the loot possible, made a strong case for recovery of the nearly Rs 60, 000 crore loss due to the rampant illegal extraction of iron ore and manganese from the mining companies and - most crucially - recommended a CBI inquiry into the massive and sustained loot of minerals between 2000, when Naveen came to power and 2009, when the scam blew up in his face.
Even BJD leaders were taken completely aback by the suddenness of the announcement on Friday. There was nothing to suggest in the days leading up to the announcement that Naveen was in any great hurry to constitute a Lokayukta. Only last week, when reminded about his 28 December, 2011 announcement to enact a 'strong' Lokayukta Bill in 'three months' time', Naveen's minions had sought to explain it away saying what the Chief Minister had actually said was 'within three months of Parliament enacting the Lokpal Bill'.
The consensus among political observers is that the sudden announcement about the Lokayukta Bill was driven more by the fear of a CBI probe into the scam than any desire to ensure 'probity in public life' as he claimed. Naveen clearly believes that a Lokayukta, even one which has a mandate to probe allegations against the Chief Minister, would be easier to 'manage' than a CBI inquiry. In any case, with the exit of the UPA government after the 2014 elections now almost certain, he cannot expect his 'partner in crime' to bail him out of trouble like it has done so far.
Every step that the Naveen Patnaik government has taken since the proverbial tip of the iceberg called the mining scam became visible in July 2009, barely two months after he won a third straight term as Chief Minister, has been aimed at avoiding a CBI inquiry into what has become his Achilles heel despite a friendly government at the Centre.
In the time-honoured tradition of all governments accused of serious corruption, the Naveen Patnaik dispensation ordered a vigilance inquiry when the skeletons started tumbling out of the cupboard in quick succession of one another, knowing fully well that the vigilance is simply not equipped to handle an investigation of this scale, dimension and intricacy. In a rare moment of candour, Naveen's Man Friday of the time Pyari Mohan Mohapatra had quipped, "Do you want us to commit suicide?" when asked if the government would order a CBI inquiry into the scam sometime in 2010.
Just when the BJD boss thought he had successfully stonewalled the demand for a CBI inquiry came the announcement of the Justice MB Shah Commission by the Union government in November 2010. This new challenge called for a new strategy, which was dutifully devised by the minders of the Naveen government.
Even as the Commission was conducting the hearing, the state government slapped fines amounting to Rs 67, 900 crores on 103 mining companies for excess mining of ores in a desperate effort to show to the Commission that it was acting tough on the violators. But its bluff was called by one of its own, BJD MP and the lawyer for one of the mining companies in the dock Pinaki Mishra, who argued, validly, that the case would be thrown out by the court 'at the first hearing' and the government would not get a 'paisa' by way of fines since it had collected royalty for the excess mining that it charged the companies with.
Predictably enough, the mining companies promptly challenged the decision in the mining tribunal and obtained a stay. There the matter has rested without any further move by the state government to recover the amount more than a year after the notices went out.
During a hearing of the Shah Commission in Ahmedabad In April this year, the BJD government and the mining companies suddenly developed love for the people of Keonjhar and Sundargarh, who had borne the brunt of massive and illegal mining for nearly a decade, and proposed a Rs 100 crore corpus fund to take up 'developmental activities' in these two districts. That this was another exercise aimed at hoodwinking the Commission is proved by the fact that nothing has been heard about the proposal since then.
It is to the eternal credit of the Justice Shah Commission that it was not impressed by either of the two ploys and went ahead with its scathing criticism of both the state and the Central governments. "All modes of illegal mining are being carried out in the state and it appears that law has been made helpless because of its systematic non-implementation," the Commission has said in its report.
Given the fate of Commission reports in the past, the UPA government is under no obligation to act as per the advice of the Shah Commission and order a CBI inquiry into the Odisha mining scam, more so because it has itself been severely indicted in the report.
On its part, Naveen Patnaik would give his right arm to ensure that the CBI does not lay its hands on the case. Even if he is personally exonerated in the case, the mere institution of a CBI inquiry would take the sheen out of his carefully cultivated 'Mr Clean' image - not exactly a welcome prospect in an election year.
But the courts might yet throw a spanner in Naveen's plans by ordering a CBI probe. There are two PILs, one each in the Orissa High Court and the Supreme Court, demanding a probe by the premier central investigating agency. While the High Court has reserved the verdict for well over two years now after the completion of the hearing, the hearing is still on in the apex court. If either of the two courts does order a CBI inquiry, the shaky edifice built by the Naveen government with half truths, downright lies and obfuscation would come crashing down.
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