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“Almost everyone will agree that corruption in India is pervasive, omnipresent and multifarious,” says Mr. N Ram. The third edition of Mumbai Collective was held on March 10, 2019 and began with a session on Rafale deal by the Chairman of The Hindu Newspaper N Ram that was chaired by P Sainath. Highlights from Mr. Ram’s speech: “In 2014, the BJP came to power after pillorying the congress, painting it as corrupt, and offering Narendra Modi and BJP as the clean alternative. Now the compliment is being returned [by the Opposition]. “Almost everyone will agree that corruption in India is pervasive, omnipresent and multifarious. It is to be encountered especially in the nexus between politics and business. “Defence is a prime example… When we were doing the Bofors investigation, we were trying to understand if all these commissions being paid out were normal or not. “We got an informal tip from former President R. Venkataraman, who had earlier held the portfolios of Finance and Defence Ministries. I can share this now… “He said, ‘Don’t you know the standard rate of commission on major defence deals is 6%?'”

Text: https://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa…

Produced by: Vivek Sundara Camera & Edit: Satyen K. Bordoloi