The Stamp of Sin

Andhra Pradesh's longest serving chief minister has weathered many a political storm, but none have looked as threatening as the present multi-crore fake stamp paper scam. The controversy broke when C. Krishna Yadav, the former labour and animal husbandry minister in the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet, was arrested earlier this month for his alleged involvement in the scandal. It has thrown up many awkward questions for Naidu, tarnishing the Telugu Desam Party's image.

To add to his woes, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court last fortnight raised questions about housing minister P. Ramasubba Reddy continuing in the cabinet while facing a double murder charge. Naidu defended his minister, saying these were old charges, political in nature. He claimed the cases were framed against Reddy about twelve years ago by the Congress government when he wasn't even a state legislator. This, however, hasn't convinced many.

The stamp paper scam rocked the assembly the whole of last week. The Opposition Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen floor leader Asaduddin Owaisi has demanded a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge. Even the BJP, TDP's ally, has called for a cbi inquiry. The growing criminalisation in the ruling TDP has suddenly become the focus in the state. Over half a dozen senior TDP leaders, including Yadav and Reddy, face charges ranging from murder to corruption.

All along, the TDP's trumpcard was its clean image and Naidu never missed an opportunity to project the Congress as a party of corrupt, scam-tainted politicians. "Everybody now understands the scale of corruption within the TDP. Naidu is a wholesale swindler, his ministers are all retail thieves," says the leader of the Opposition, Congress' Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The Opposition is now accusing the government of pressuring the CID to go slow in its investigations into the case to try and protect senior party functionaries involved in the stamp scam.

The case first came to light in August 1999 when the Hyderabad police, acting on a tip-off from a local banker, busted a gang providing fake stamps to banks and others for a nominal service fee. The police made 40-odd arrests and took in Abdul Karim Telgi, alleged kingpin of the scam. Sources say although Telgi didn't reveal any links with Yadav then, the police eventually found some of the TDP leader's associates were close to Telgi's gang.

Yadav was dropped from the cabinet a few months ago but there was no wind of his involvement in the scandal till earlier this month when a police team from Maharashtra arrested him. The raiding team claims to have recovered an audio tape from Telgi's residence with recordings of an incriminating phone conversation between Yadav and Telgi—the minister allegedly demands Rs 2 crore for the release of some of Telgi's men in the tape.

Many in the TDP too are now wondering if Yadav's alleged involvement with Telgi was one of the reasons for his unceremonious ouster from the cabinet. The state government has now set up a special investigation team headed by an inspector general of police to probe the scam.

However, observers feel these damage-control exercises may be too little too late. The Opposition has threatened an all-out war with the government on the issue during the ongoing assembly session. But the real damage has already been done outside the House. "You may not see people taking to the streets in protest. But this scandal has done irreparable damage to the TDP's image less than a year before the next election," says a senior state BJP leader.

Surely, the Yadav controversy couldn't have come at a worse time for the TDP. It is already dogged by infighting and is yet to shake off allegations that several of its leaders have built up fortunes siphoning off rice meant for the Food For Work programmes.