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How to earn Rs 10 crores+ a month

by · November 9, 2009

More than two years ago, in a post dealing with politics and corruption, I wrote:

This is a subject with such rich pickings (pun unintended)…that I am seriously considering a series on “How to earn Rs XYZ crores in X years” focused on politicians (- feel free to write in with tips and information).

That post was about earning Rs 10 crores+ a year (give or take a few)…so my eyes naturally popped when I read this bit from Shantanu Guha Ray’s “The Rise and Fall of King Koda” in the lastest issue of Tehelka (emphasis mine):

How did Koda create an empire so huge? Where did the cash come from — and what triggered the collapse?

ED officials say Koda’s empire ran like a welloiled machine: cash — collected by the state’s all-powerful coal mafia — would be routinely deposited at unknown locations by Koda’s men. They would also hire youngsters, sometimes school students, to count this cash, which allegedly totalled Rs 35 to Rs 50 lakh a day from the coal belt alone. That’s because the coal mafia is said to collect Rs 2 lakh from each of the 20 coal rakes (collection units or wagons) announced by subsidiary companies of the state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) and also some private companies managing coal patches offered by CIL. This reportedly goes to the man who runs the state (read the CM) and is estimated to add up to around Rs 14 crore a month..

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Next post on the spectrum scam – which might be the mother of all scams to date.

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B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

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12 Responses

  1. B Shantanu says:
    November 9, 2009 at 1:48 am

    Swapan Dasgupta in Murky drama of national disrepute:

    The tales of a staggering sum of money, equal to nearly half the unfortunate State’s annual budget, being stashed away in instruments ranging from residential property in Delhi and Kolkata to mines in Liberia and two star hotels in Thailand, are the stuff of legends.

    If even remotely true, Koda should have a venerated place alongside the early ‘Nabobs’ of the East India Company. In time, once the irritating legal complications are out of the way — as they inevitably will because the law in India is never unduly harsh — Koda will have all the qualifications to become India’s first National Professor of Political Entrepreneurship.

  2. Kaffir says:
    November 9, 2009 at 10:12 am

    Forget NREGA – we should just make every poor citizen a minister and give him/her a portfolio. Within 15-20 years, everyone should get a turn and be rich enough. Unfortunately, doesn’t look like BJP is any different than its predecessors when it comes to such corruption among its ranks.

  3. Anon says:
    November 9, 2009 at 11:57 am

    “Next post on the spectrum scam – which might be the mother of all scams to date.”

    True indeed.

    Koda’s 4000 cr scam overshadows Raja’s 60,00 cr one in the media! not a word on Raja.

  4. Pushkar says:
    November 9, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    All this after Ramdevji is telling day in and day out about corruption in our country.So govt wanted to do some face saving. And of cource Raja is there to screw us all.

  5. Pushkar says:
    November 9, 2009 at 2:16 pm

    Check this out! Now govt is making some sort of deal with him?
    http://www.ptinews.com/news/368296_ED-delivers-sealed-envelope-to-Former-CM-Madhu-Koda

  6. Harsh says:
    November 12, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    What amazes me is the fact that all agencies, organizations, press, Watchdogs etc keep sleeping till the scam size crosses RS. 4,000-5,000 cr. I wonder why they do not pick up the case and nip it in the bud when it is Rs. 50-100 cr.

    I do not understand how come all these people and organizations suddenly become active when the scam size crosses the above threshold size. or is it that the threshold is even higher?

  7. B Shantanu says:
    November 18, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    Excerpts from Kanchan Gupta’s Still Waiting for Koda’s Arrest:

    Last Sunday (November 8th) officials of the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate were waiting to arrest Madhu Koda as soon as he was through with his ‘loose motion’. Newspapers and news channels breathlessly informed us that “Koda’s arrest is imminent”. Seven days later, Koda remains a free man, unrestrained by either the Income Tax Department or the Enforcement Directorate.

    …It’s almost as if a decision has been taken — and such decisions can be taken only at the ‘highest level’ — not to pursue investigations into the mind-boggling cash-and-carry plunder that kept Koda busy during the two years he was Chief Minister of Jharkhand — or, at least, to go easy with the inquiry. Nothing else explains the sudden dip in the enthusiasm with which officials were raiding various premises (76 establishments in eight cities were raided in a matter of days), following up on leads and briefing mediapersons.

    If there were popular expectations that Koda would be arrested (as is usually done with great fanfare in cases involving financial fraud and corruption of far lesser magnitude) they have been belied. Officials of the Enforcement Directorate have tamely handed over a ‘sealed’ brown paper envelope to Koda while repeating meaningless warnings to his two absconding associates, Binod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary, that they should behave like model citizens and turn up for a tete-a-tete.

    …There are various stories doing the rounds as to why the official agencies are now dragging their feet. One story has it that the Congress, which thought exposing corruption in high places would help varnish its tattered image in Jharkhand, which goes to the polls beginning later this month to elect a new Assembly, discovered to its horror that Koda was not the only one partaking of the tainted lolly. Ranchi is awash with rumours that brakes were applied after investigators stumbled upon evidence that suggests Koda shared his riches with certain senior Congress leaders of the State.

    …Rather than risk a blowback before the coming election, the Congress appears to have decided that discretion is the better part of valour. In a country of a million scams, people would soon forget about Jharkhand’s latest plunder.

    …Fed on relentless propaganda of the diku as the exploiter, Jharkhand’s moolvasis, the tribals whose interests Soren, Koda and their corrupt-to-the-core ilk claim to represent and protect, have become blind to the enemy within. Tribal loyalties invariably get precedence over better judgement and that explains why the tainted are elected time and again. Good governance and integrity are at a discount; if it’s caste preference in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it’s tribal kinship in Jharkhand that plays a significant role in elections. That is the tragic reality of this wondrous land of ours.

  8. B Shantanu says:
    November 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    From an ET report:

    …After three days of intense grilling by Income Tax
    officials which reduced him to meek explanations for the alleged multi-crore scam, former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda has turned aggressive, daring the agencies to prove the charges.

    …Further, Koda threatened to name the political “conspirators” who had framed him, “at the right time”.

  9. kk says:
    December 5, 2009 at 6:25 am

    Probably the most honest politician:
    Corruption is our right!!

    And I was thinking, why aren’t our politicians so forthright! Sad, yet so true. (Link courtsey, twitter feeds!).

  10. B Shantanu says:
    December 5, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    kk, Thanks for the link. will have a look

  11. B Shantanu says:
    April 19, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    From the fb page update: Is this the *fastest* increase in wealth of any politician on record – almost 5x in 2 years?
    “Former MP and president of newly-floated YSR Congress Party Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is perhaps one of the richest politicians in India, with declared assets of Rs 365 crore. In 2009, Jagan had declared assets of Rs 77 crore.” http://bit.ly/fqsLC1
    ***
    I was WRONG >
    ” In just five years of DMK rule, a state minister has…increase(d) his worth 780 times!…780 times in five years” http://on-msn.com/hh2GEx

  12. Malavika says:
    April 20, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    Jagan assets were mere 9.8 lakhs in 2004.

    YSR family was near bankrupt, and would have been wiped out had Congress lost in 2004.

    “The Congress’s candidate for the Kadapa seat, Ravindra Reddy, alleged that Jagan had made a false declaration before the Election Commission. He told the media that Jagan’s palatial bungalow on the outskirts of Bangalore itself cost Rs 400 crore.

    Built on 31 acres of land, the bungalow has ultra-modern facilities such as a helipad, fountains, and servant quarters. The building has the highest level of private security which works in three shifts of 200 armed guards each.

    Jagan is also said to be constructing a similar bungalow on a one-acre plot in the posh Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad.

    Ravindra has demanded that Jagan explain how his assets grew from Rs 9.18 lakh in 2004 to over Rs 365 crore in 2011”

    http://www.theindiadaily.com/assets-worth-rs-365-cr-ys-jagan-mohan-reddy-might-be-the-richest-mp/