All concerned state and central government departments, including the defence, central and state pollution control boards, Mumbai metropolitan region development authority (MMRDA), and electric (BEST) and water supply agencies, which are not only distancing from the project but also questioning the very legal validity of various clearance certificates now, had strong vested interest to see the high profile residential skyscraper project through.

The project has been in existence for a decade with full support and cooperation from all those government departments. Now all the blame for irregularities in the project is being singularly put on the shoulders of Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan. This is unfortunate and unfair, to say the least, and certainly not without a very mischievous motive. Obviously, other culprits are trying to take shelter under the CM's alleged wrong doing, giving an impression that it is due to his corrupt and criminal intent that they did what they did. If Chavan goes, these culprits must also face equally tough consequences and go unceremoniously without delay. Logically speaking, if Ashok Chavan is the lone or even main guilty in this high value land grab case, then the prime minister of the country, who heads the union cabinet, may also be considered guilty of overseeing the alleged mega-financial corruption in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games and spectrum allocation which all required cabinet clearances. To many, this is as true as it is absurd. Such propositions undermine the very purpose of collective responsibility assigned to the government under the cabinet system.

Forget about the former army and navy chiefs and other services officers and a list of high profile powerful Congress politicians such as Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan, Narayan Rane, Shivajirao Nilangekar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ajit Pawar and R R Patil, there are as many as 30 bureaucrats who are direct or indirect beneficiaries of the project. The 31-storeyed sea-facing Adarsh co-operative housing society building has been there as a tall monument of governmental corruption. Why is it now, after the exposure, the bosses in the departments of environment, water supply, power (BEST), MMRDA etc are suddenly up in arms against the apartment owners threatening to cut electricity and water supply and even demolish the building itself? What are these departmental heads, including ministers, trying to prove now after so many years? Their innocence?

Army, navy and air force welfare associations, wives' associations of the three defence services, ex-servicemen's associations, war widows associations, war veterans' associations, etc - all promoted ostensibly to serve the cause of poor and ill-fated servicemen, killed or incapacitated in battles to defend the country, and their families - are constantly working with politicians and bureaucrats to secure rehabilitation largesse by way of priority allotment of land for housing at concessional rates, petrol pumps, transport permits, retail kiosks at prime roadside locations, cooking gas dealership, ration shops and government supply contracts to name a few. The benefits thus received from the government by armed forces personnel and their families are not always enjoyed by them. In most cases, they are used as middlemen for politicians, businessmen and families of bureaucrats who hijack these assets in their own inimitable style, arrange concessional loans from banks, float co-operatives and transfer assets at high premium at right opportunity.

Adarsh in English could mean ideal or exemplary in good sense. Ironically, Colaba's Adarsh housing cooperative society was probably the best and the most fruitful example of an 'ideal' nexus among politicians, bureaucrats, servicemen and businessmen, including its builders and architect, and what such an alliance is capable of achieving. However, it may be wrong to assume that Adarsh is the first or the last ideal land-grab deal struck by the nexus. Over the years, thousands of acres of prime properties have been cheaply acquired by the nexus to form co-operative societies in all metro-cities, mini-metros and large district towns such as Meerut, Pune, Coimbatore, Mysore, Kochi, Allahabad, Patna, Jaipur and Bhopal for the benefit of families of both serving and retired jawans, officers and generals. In fact, the National Capital Region (NCR) or Greater Delhi boasts the largest number of such housing cooperatives for services personnel and bureaucrats. The latter are already campaigning for preferential allotment of newly built Commonwealth Games Village apartments. Many will change hands later for hefty sums as it has been the practice everywhere. For instance, there are few defence personnel and their kin who live today at South Delhi's posh Defence Colony, which flourished after the Sino-Indian war.

Whatever be the fate of Ashok Chavan & Co, there is no immediate reason to hope that the exposure of Adarsh case will ever weaken the nexus. The possibilities are that the experience of the Adarsh case will make the nexus even stronger and more thick-skinned. It may induce the nexus to be even more `pragmatic' and adventurous to grab more potential prime real estates in new urban settlements across the country. After all, politicians, bureaucrats and army brass, who spend their life to the service of the nation, too need pricey private accommodation and opportunity to invest in real estate to make gains in time.

If an Anglo-Dutch multinational company, the biggest stock exchange listed foreign firm in India, could convert its prime corporate asset in Mumbai into a private housing complex, mostly for its top executives, and if India's business barons can covert high value corporate assets into their private properties, few should complain about our hard working politicians, bureaucrats and services brass using their good offices to organise among themselves for a fare share of the public property. The Adarsh housing society scam is not any bigger than the Kargil coffin procurement scam and it is certainly smaller than more recent thrifty CWG scandal and corrupt spectrum allotment deals in which the government has lost thousands of crores of rupees of public fund for the benefit of some chosen private bidders, contractors and wheeler-dealers. It would be rather uncharacteristic on the part of the government to come to any hasty conclusion against the patrons, promoters and supporters of Colaba's land mark housing complex, Adarsh.(IPA Service)