People's Democracy

The Xerox Corporation, one of the biggest American MNCs, which is faced with an accounting scandal in the USA, has now disclosed that its Indian subsidiary, the Xerox ModiCorp, made "improper payments" till 2000 to gain orders from government agencies. In simple language it means, bribes were paid to the tune of Rs 3 to 3.5 crore (600 thousand to 700 thousand dollars) in one single year to win government orders.

Xerox is already in trouble over having cooked up its accounts to show inflated revenue to the tune of 2 billion dollars in a year. It is after this latest fraud in a series of scandal affecting big business in the USA that Xerox has now come out with the admission of having paid bribes in India. The Xerox has declared that it will provide full information to the US Justice Department and the Indian government about the payments made. According to Xerox, it stopped such bribes being paid in 2000, after it came to light. What amounts were paid in previous years is yet to be known.

The Xerox episode once again highlights what is universally known -- MNCs resort to bribes, illegal practices, intimidation and even subversion in a country to advance their aims. It is ironical that the two companies – Enron and Xerox -- which are in trouble in the United States in the recent period have both an Indian connection as far as bribes are concerned.

As far as the notorious Enron project in Dabhol, Maharashtra is concerned, one of its executives, Linda Powers, had testified before a congressional committee in the US, some years ago that Enron had paid out 20 million dollars to educate Indian opinion-makers about the utility of the project. Everyone knows what has happened to the Enron Corp. in the US and we are saddled with that monument to MNC trickery, the Dabhol plant. There are a number of instances of how Coca Cola and Pepsi Co are cornering India’s precious water resources and utilising their muscle power to browbeat bottlers and Indian competitors.

Yet, the Vajpayee government continues to encourage such MNC subversion of India. The latest decision to allow the Rupert Murdochs and the Time-Warner group to enter into the Indian print media shows its callousness to India’s sovereign interests.

The Xerox revelation must be taken seriously. The Indian investigative and law enforcement agencies must prosecute not only the bribe takers but the bribe giving executives of the company.

It is time that Parliament sets up a high level enquiry committee to go into the cases of bribery and suborning of Indian officials by companies like Enron and Xerox. It is ironical that in such cases, more prompt and legal steps will be taken in the United States against the corporate offenders while in India they will still be given the red carpet treatment.