Not banking anymore

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has reportedly written to World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz asking whether they were keen on funding health and infrastructural programmes. Chidambaram’s missive is an upshot of the decision that Wolfowitz has taken to freeze funding to the reproductive child health (RCH) programme and Mumbai’s battered roads as he claimed corruption in both the projects. The total funding involved is $ 850 million. The finance minister’s letter is an attempt to ascertain whether the Indian government should go ahead with the programme on its own or wait for the WB to change its mind. The implications flowing from this letter are quite clear: the Indian government can do these programmes without WB money. Chidambaram has also castigated the Bank for going to the media on this issue and embarrassing the Indian government.

Wolfowitz, after he took over the job of WB President, had linked the funding on how it was spent. He had stopped funds to Congo, India and some other countries. Interestingly, the Indian government had referred the corruption in RCH program to the CBI even before it received the investigation report from WB’s integrity unit. There are suggestions that a CBI probe could hurt some of the BJP leaders who happened to head the ministry between 2001-2004 - the period during which these scams took place.