Subramanian Swamy is not the most reliable of persons, but he has made some allegations, which though unsubstantiated, are relevant to the state of the business environment in India.
In an article in The New Indian Express Op-ed, he writes,
"The truth is that India's corporate world's success stories are founded on undisclosed funding through black money held by corrupt politicians and notorious criminals."
He states that thanks to Participatory Notes and the Mauritius route, black money is returning to India and in the BSE, earns windfall returns to the corrupt people.
"With a thousand crore rupees as legal tender, much as Rupees Ten is for the middle class, politicians and criminals have entered to finance the Indian corporate world,"he writes.
He cites the instance when, in 2001, E.A.S. Sarma, the then secretary for economic affairs, had written to the ministry of company affairs and the SEBI about fraudulent activities of Satyam. The inquiry that was ordered is still in progress for eight years. No other action was taken except that Sarma was transferred out of the ministry.
And today, in Times of India, Page 14, is the report that far back in 1983, 25 years ago, Raju got 52 lakhs as loan from the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation for the Sri Satyam Spinning Mills he had set up. Raju sold the company and its assets in 1999. The loan amount was never repaid. Raju never bothered to reply to the letters from APIDC.
This raises a pertinent question- what were the media and the regulatory authorities doing about all this?
One has to ask with Subramanian Swamy, is it greed or cowardice?
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