BELLARY BROTHERS: CONVERGENCE OF CRIME, BUSINESS AND POLITICS
*Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
A Brief Background
The author has made a revealing documentary film on iron ore mining in Bellary Karnataka) and Ananthapur (Andhra Pradesh). The film, titled “Blood & Iron: A Story of the Convergence of Crime, Business and Politics in Southern India”, documents how iron ore mining in these districts has influenced politics in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and devastated the ecology of the region. Common Cause is happy to have extended financial support to this venture. The following article presents the insights gained by Paronjay Guha Thakurta into the operations of the crime –business-politics nexus, which tends to thrive in regions richly endowed with natural resources.
-Editor
By the middle of 2011, the ground seemed to be slipping under the feet of the notorious Gali Reddy brothers of Bellary who are allegedly the principal protagonists responsible for large-scale illegal mining of iron ore in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which is largely exported to China. Their mentors were deserting them. Senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj had, in an interview to Outlook weekly on June 6, sought to distance herself from the brothers and claimed that their rise was on account of their proximity to former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and the support given to them by Arun Jaitley, Ms Swaraj’s counterpart in the Rajya Sabha.
On July 27, 2011, a few days before he retired, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, the then Lokayukta (or people’s ombudsman) of Karnataka, presented his final report on illegal mining in Bellary which raised a political storm, not just in the state but in the entire country. The detailed document indicted the mastermind among the brothers, Gali Janardhana Reddy, refuted his contention that he was not involved in illegal mining in the state and alleged that he had laundered money through international tax havens. The Supreme Court of India then clamped down on Bellary’s private mine-owners. More importantly, Justice Hegde’s report sharply indicted the then Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and claimed that his family members had directly benefited from funds provided by iron ore miners.
Kicking and screaming, Yeddyurappa reluctantly resigned from his position on July 31. On August 4, his successor, D.V. Sadananda Gowda was sworn in as the 26th Chief Minister of Karnataka. When the new Cabinet was constituted, there were three important omissions: Gali Janardhana Reddy was dropped from the post of Minister for Tourism, Youth Affairs and Infrastructure Development; his brother Gali Karunakara Reddy was also dropped from the position of Revenue Minister while the “fourth” brother who belongs to the backward Valimiki community and is a close associate, B. Sreeramulu, no longer remained Health Minister. (The least controversial of the three brothers, Gali Somasekhara Reddy, however, continued as President of the Karnataka Milk Federation.)
There is a striking similarity between former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and the Gali Reddy brothers in that all of them came from a humble background and then became fabulously rich. The father of the three Gali Reddy brothers served as a police constable in Cowl Bazar in Bellary. The brothers had started a chit fund business which went under. As for Yeddyurappa, in 1965, he was appointed as a first-division clerk in the state government’s social welfare department but instead chose to work as a clerk in a rice mill whose owner’s daughter he married. He then set up a hardware store in Shimoga district.
Whereas Justice Hegde’s successor, Justice Shivraj Patil, the current Lokayukta of Karnataka, has registered a first information report against Yeddyurappa, at the time of writing this article (on August 16) no criminal proceedings had commenced against the Gali Reddy brothers who have been at the epicentre of what is arguably the most brazen scandal of its kind in independent India — a scandal which, in certain respects, is even more brazen than the second-generation (2G) telecommunications spectrum scandal.
There’s a notable difference between what is popularly called the 2G scam and the scandal relating to iron ore mining in Bellary. In the case of the latter, a non-renewable resource belonging to the people of the country has gone for ever. Much of the ore has been exported to China where it has been converted into finished steel products, rods and bars that are part of buildings and stadia in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the 2G scam resulted in a ‘notional’ or a ‘potential’ loss to the exchequer that could be as much as Rs 1,76,645 crore. Even if this figure is disputed, the amount represents funds that could have been obtained, money which could have accrued to the government, but did not. In the case of the iron ore export scandal, the amount involved is much lower. Justice Hegde’s report has quantified the loss on account of illegal exports of iron ore from Karnataka between April 2006 and December 2010 and arrived at the figure of Rs 12,228 crore.
However, the actual losses are much higher especially if one considers that way in which the ecology of the region have been ravaged and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of families ruined. (During the making of a documentary film “Blood and Iron” – partly financed by Common Cause – this writer noticed the scale of the devastation caused by iron ore mining and the sharp contrast in the way in which the majority live and lifestyles of a privileged few.) The promoters of privately owned mining companies in Bellary in Karnataka and in the adjoining Ananthapur district in Andhra Pradesh, who used to fund the activities of political leaders in the past, became important politicians themselves. They got elected as members of the legislative assembly and served as ministers. What is often not highlighted is the fact that the Gali Reddy brothers not only bankrolled the BJP, they have been rather close to the important Congress leaders, notably Y. S. Jaganmohan (‘Jagan’) Reddy, Member of Parliament from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh, the richest MP according to his declared assets and son of the late Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Associates of Jagan Reddy and Janardhana Reddy also have business links. (Incidentally, Justice Hegde’s report has also implicated mine-owner Anil Lad who is a Congress MP from the Rajya Sabha.)
In November 2009, after Yeddyurappa decided to call for a ‘contribution’ of Rs 1,000 from the owners of each truck carrying iron ore out of Bellary for those affected by floods in the state, the Reddy brothers displayed their clout by precipitating a political crisis that threatened the continuance of the state government. The crisis was resolved only after the BJP leadership in New Delhi intervened and after the then Chief Minister removed one of his ministerial confidantes (Shobha Karandlaje, former Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) and transferred key government officials.
Bellary has not only been an important arena of state politics but of national-level politics as well. Important politicians who have chosen to contest Parliamentary elections from the constituency include Sushma Swaraj, one of the most significant leaders of the BJP who, as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, holds a Cabinet rank, and Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress, the party that leads the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition, and who also heads the UPA as its chairperson, arguably one of the most (if not, the most) powerful politician in the country at present. The two had contested elections to the Parliamentary constituency of Bellary in 1999, which was won by Sonia Gandhi. All subsequent (national and state) elections were won by BJP candidates as Bellary ceased to remain a “stronghold” of the Congress party which it earlier used to be.
The Gali Reddy brothers who controlled the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) based in Andhra Pradesh are believed to have provided considerable financial support for the BJP’s election victory in Karnataka in 2008, thereby enabling the right-wing Hindu nationalist political party to form a government in a state in southern India for the first time. The influence of the brothers did not diminish despite allegations – by the Supreme Court of India appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) besides the Lokayukta –to the effect that state boundaries had been trespassed and that forest laws had been violated during mining operations. The Reddy brothers and their associates still deny these allegations and claim that they do not control any mining leases in Karnataka, even though the brothers and their associates have significant business interests in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
It has been alleged that the Reddy brothers control mining operations in Karnataka through illegal third party links, including “raising contracts” through which their associates extract iron ore out of areas that have been officially leased to other individuals and firms. Reports prepared by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) under the Union government’s Ministry of Mines as well as by Justice Hegde have indicted the manner in which iron ore mining has taken place in the area in blatant violation of the laws of the land, thereby destroying the livelihood of local people, degrading the environment in which they live and quickly depleting mineral reserves in a rapacious and unscientific manner.
Soon after K. Rosaiah became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in September 2009 after Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s sudden and untimely death in a helicopter crash – after the Congress ‘high command’ led by Sonia Gandhi ignored the late Chief Minister’s son Jaganmohan Reddy’s aspirations to hold the position – Rosaiah announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier police investigating agency, would inquire into allegations of violations of laws by OMC. Even as legislators were preoccupied with the issue of the formation of a separate state of Telengana carved out of Andhra Pradesh in the second week of December 2009, the CBI conducted searchand- seizure raids on the homes of (and offices controlled by) the Gali Reddy brothers. Follow-up action after these raids is awaited.
The Gali Reddy brothers have also been accused of influencing the judiciary. In December 2009, a letter sent by the non-government organization, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform (CJAR), to representatives of major political parties seeking their support in impeaching controversial Justice P. D. Dinakaran, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka, CJAR convenor and advocate Prashant Bhushan claimed that the judge “has played a major role in helping the mining mafia of the Reddy brothers to continue with rampant illegal mining”.
On July 9, 2010, the Karnataka High Court issued an interim order directing the customs authorities to stop all exports of iron ore by ten private companies from the ports of Mangalore, Karwar and Belekeri in the state, till an investigation was completed into the disappearance of 500,000 tonnes of iron ore — out of the 700,000 tonnes of ore that were seized in March 2010 at the instance of the then Lokayukta Justice Hegde for having been transported to the Belekeri port in an allegedly unauthorized manner. Ministers in the Karnataka state government offered unconvincing reasons for the disappearance of the iron ore. Ten companies had filed a batch of writ petitions in the High Court in April 2010 seeking release of iron ore which had been seized during the raids conducted by government officials on the directions of the Lokayukta. The Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karwar,R Gokul, had appealed to the High Court in June 2010 to direct the Commissioner of Customs, Mangalore, not to allow export of iron ore from ports in the state. Subsequently, Gokul was sought to be suspended from his post by the Karnataka government’s Minister for Ports. This led to Justice Hegde resigning his position on June 23, 2010. He withdrew his resignation a fortnight later after the intervention of, among others, senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister of India Lal Krishna Advani.
On June 28, 2010, the Election Commission of India issued notices to Karnataka ministers Karunakara Reddy, Janardhana Reddy and Sreeramulu on a complaint by Congress legislator K. C. Kondaiah, seeking their disqualification for using “political positions to further their business interests”. Kondaiah sent the complaint to the Governor of Karnataka Hans Raj Bhardwaj. When the Governor summoned the ministers, they questioned his authority “to act like a court of law”. The Governor then forwarded the complaint to the Election Commission who asked the ministers to respond to the allegation that they are holding offices of profit. The BJP responded to Governor Bhardwaj’s public call for the resignations of the ministers by describing him as an “agent” of the Congress.
In July, 45 MLAs belonging to the opposition Congress party in Karnataka staged a protest inside the state legislative assembly and refused to vacate the assembly premises even at night, demanding a CBI probe into illegal iron ore mining in the state. The then Karnataka Chief Minister and two of the Reddy brothers came to Delhi on July 18, met important functionaries in the government and in the BJP. Thereafter, they stated that there was no evidence on record to indicate the involvement of the Reddy brothers in illegal mining, that they had not misused their public positions to earn personal profits and that they were completely innocent. Janardhana Reddy claimed he was as “pure as 24- carat gold”. He counter-alleged that the allegations against him, his brothers and their associates were motivated by their political opponents and business rivals. Yeddyurappa also ruled out a CBI inquiry into the allegations of illegal mining in the state while suggesting that exports of iron ore be banned.
Iron ore mining has immensely enriched a small section of people even as such there has not been any substantial improvement in the lives of the ordinary people who live in the area. The huge profits that have been legally and illegally earned through exports of iron ore (much of it to China) are also highlighted. In the first decade of the new millennium, extraction of iron ore in Bellary and Ananthapur became perhaps even more lucrative than mining for gold or diamonds anywhere in the world.
Bellary contributes roughly a fifth of the entire iron ore that is extracted in India. In recent years, there has been a tremendous surge in mining activities in the region on account of growing demand for iron ore from China and also from within Indian. Earlier only iron ore lumps were used but with the advancement of technology, the demand for iron ore “fines” from India grew exponentially. The prices of iron ore more than trebled between 2000 and 2008 in the world market before declining somewhat. Iron ore prices soared from around Rs 1,200 per tonne in 2002 to around Rs 6,000 per tonne in 2006- 07. India emerged as a large exporter of iron ore after the government opened the mining sector to private investment in 1993. The government subsequently allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment in mining of iron ore. At present, India is the third largest exporter of iron ore in the world, of which, one-fifth comes from the mines of Bellary.
The countdown to the August 2008 Beijing Olympics witnessed the commissioning of huge infrastructure projects in China. This led to a hunger for steel in China. The iron ore found in Bellary is of a superior quality, one of the finest in the world with an iron (Fe) content of 60-65 per cent, and is known as 64Fe. This ore is exported in its raw form to not only China but also to countries like Japan and South Korea where it is converted into pig iron and then finished steel.
The district of Bellary accounts for around 80 per cent of the total iron ore reserves in Karnataka. According to official records, the district has 99 iron ore mines, of which 58 are functioning. However, the ground reality is quite different – there have been as many as 12,000 cases of alleged illegal mining since 2000. According to the Union Ministry of Mines in New Delhi, of the 95 iron ore mines in the Bellary-Hospet area, the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) inspected 93 mines (there are legal disputes relating to two mines) and found that there were violations of rules in as many as 89 mines. The Bureau – with the assistance of multi-disciplinary teams from the Indian Space Research Organization, the National Remote Sensing agency and the Geological Survey of India — recommended that mining be suspended in 30 mines while show-cause notices were served on the other 63 mines.
According to data available for the year 2005 and 2006, the government earned a relatively small sum of Rs 80 crore as royalty from the sale of the iron ore in those two years. While the state government earned a measly sum of royalty to the tune of Rs 27 for each metric tonne of iron ore mined, mining leaseholders made huge profits by exporting the same tonne of ore at prices upwards of Rs 6,000 per tonne.
On 16 July 2010, Yeddyurappa acknowledged in the state assembly that over 30 million tonnes of iron ore had been illegally exported from Karnataka over a seven-year period between April 2003 and March 2010. The total worth of this huge quantity of iron ore is at least $1.5 billion or Rs 7,500 crore (assuming very conservatively that each tonne of iron ore is worth $ 50 in the international market). The then Chief Minister contended that out of the 30 million tonnes illegally exported, only around 10.5 million tonnes of iron ore had been illegally exported out of the state during the first two years of his term.
As per the calculations of the Lokayukta, the cost of excavating a tonne of iron ore is about Rs150 per tonne. Transporting it to a seaport costs another Rs 150 per tonne at the most. These two components are legitimate expenses which add up to around Rs 300 a tonne. While transporting iron ore to a port, trucks are invariably overloaded. A single rear-axle truck with a loadable capacity of 15 tonnes often carries a load of up to 25 tonnes, while a double rear-axle vehicle with a loadable capacity of 25 tonnes is often overloaded and carries twice as much. Trips from the mines to the ports are made rapidly to transfer as much of the ore as possible in as little time as possible. While making several trips to the port and back to the mines, each truck traverses a distance of around 600 kilometres in less than 24 hours.
In order to bypass laws and rules, it is estimated that around Rs 200 is paid as bribe per truck to officials of the state government (from the Transport Department) and the customs department (of the Union or federal government). Thus, according to the Lokayuktha’s calculations, the total expenses incurred on each carrying a single truckload of iron ore varies between Rs 500 and Rs 600 a tonne. Thus, on an investment of Rs 500-600 for extracting and transporting one metric tonne of iron ore, mine-owners have been earning windfall profits between Rs 5,500 and Rs 6,500 a tonne. Keeping these calculations in mind, it has been estimated that with more than 10,000 trucks making the rounds every day, mine-owners in Bellary legally and illegally had been raking in an amount varying between Rs 12 crore and Rs 20 crore each day!
Iron ore mined from Bellary and Ananthapur is exported not only through ports like Mangalore, Karwar and Belekeri (in Karnataka), but also through Krishnapatnam, Visakhapatnam and Kakinada (in Andhra Pradesh), Chennai (in Tamil Nadu) and Mormugao (in Goa). Even as India intends increasing its domestic steel production substantially, many apprehend that much of the country’s good quality iron ore has already been sent out of the country. For years now, there have heated debates in India on whether exports of iron ore should be banned or whether a stiff duty should be levied on iron ore exports. In early- and mid-July, as the Opposition in the Karnataka assembly mounted demands for the resignation of the Reddy brothers from their ministerial positions, the state government banned all exports of iron ore.
According to the Lokayukta, had proper norms and procedures related to iron ore mining been followed and the guidelines laid down by the IBM been adhered to in letter and spirit, iron ore reserves in the region would have lasted between 25 years and 30 years. However, since private mine-owners have violated all norms while extracting iron ore with the help of modern excavation equipment, geologists have claimed in 2010 that the entire iron ore reserves of the Bellary-Ananthapur region would get exhausted over the coming five to eight years.
The mining town of Bellary, which has a population of around two million, boasts of a per capita income which is in excess of Rs 47,000 and is well above the average per capita income of Karnataka (around Rs 41,000). However, the literacy rate of the town at 57 per cent stands well below the average literacy rate of Karnataka (around 67 per cent). Large-scale illegal iron ore mining has resulted in a sharp economic polarisation by concentrating wealth in the hands of a few while pauperising and impoverishing a large section of the local population, depriving them even of their basic human rights and contributing to the widespread pollution of their air and water.
Iron ore mining has resulted in the creation of a nouveau riche class in the region – this can be gauged from the fact that luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz sold at least 25 vehicles to mining tycoons in Bellary over 2008 and 2009. Its rival company BMW has plans of setting up a satellite dealership in the nearby town of Hospet while Honda Siel Cars India Ltd has expressed its intention to set up a showroom in Bellary. According to one estimate, prior to 2007, Bellary was the emerging private aircraft capital of India because it accounted for almost ten per cent of the all-India market for private flying machines. Of the 50-70 private jets in India, as many as eight private aircraft, including two Bell helicopters, are owned bhg residents of Bellary. Two more private aircraft and two choppers joined the fleet in 2007-08. Mine owners like the Lad brothers, the Reddy brothers, the Baldota family of MSPL and firms like Bellary Iron Ores and Hothur Iron Ore are some of the prized owners of private aircraft in Bellary.
Large sections of the people of the district, on the other hand, continue to live in abject poverty. According to the Karnataka Human Development Report of 2005, Bellary ranked 18th among 27 districts in the state. The report added that Bellary was placed the lowest among all the districts in the state in terms of social indicators such as literacy, health and access to drinking water. It pointed out that even though the district is 9th in terms of income among all the districts of Karnataka, “higher income does not automatically translate into an improved literacy and health status for the people if that income is not equally distributed”.
Mining has also had its impact on employment patterns. Earlier, agriculture used to be the primary occupation for the people, but many farmers have leased out their lands for mining of iron ore. Karnataka is among the states in India that engages women in large numbers in mining. Women are mainly involved in activities like loading, unloading and stone crushing. Women work for long hours in pitiable conditions (sometimes even when they are in advanced stages of pregnancy) and for wages that are far lower than those paid to men. Children as young as three years of age are engaged in activities like hammering, crushing and filling boxes with iron ore, again at abysmally low wages, in clear violation of the laws of the land. Far from getting decent education and health facilities, these children are exposed to serious health hazards from inhaling air with high proportions of suspended particulate matter and are also prone to accidents.
Mining in Bellary has adversely affected the environment in the region. A study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) found that suspended air particles at many locations in the district were far above the national health standards. According to NEERI’s report, the dust hanging in the air of Bellary due to rampant mining is a serious health hazard. The area has high incidence of lung infections, heart ailments and cancer. However, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has been tardy in issuing notices to mine-owners under existing laws (including the Air Act, 1981 and the Water Act, 1974).
Mining has had adversely impacted the forest areas, including the ‘reserved’ forest areas, in Bellary and Vyasankere. Dumping of waste material has caused erosion of the topsoil of the region. Species of wildlife such as the as the Egyptian vulture, yellow throated bulbul, white backed vulture and four-horned antelopes have vanished due to depletion in the forest cover on account of mining. Rainwater that used to earlier flow down hillocks and replenish underground aquifers now picks dust along the way contaminating water and degrading soil, making farming difficult. Studies point towards a fast rate of siltation in the Tungabhadra reservoir due to the deposition of waste material generated from mining.
A 2005 study by the Jagratha Nayaka Balaga, an NGO based in Bellary, the total capacity of the reservoir has come down from about 133 thousand million cubic metre (tmc) to 99 tmc in recent years. This depletion in the water level in the reservoir has threatened aquatic life and constrained irrigation for agriculture. The fact that some 7,500 trucks carrying heavy loads of iron ore (often far above the permissible limit of 15 tonnes per truck) move out of Bellary every day has damaged long stretches of roads and added to atmospheric pollution.
What Justice Hegde’s final report has meticulously documented is how the Gali Reddy brothers have used their pelf and power to run the administration and subvert the rule of law. Honest officers have been transferred and any person who has dared criticize them has been sought to be ruthlessly suppressed. Despite charges of physical violence and a number of non-bailable criminal cases pending against them, the Gali Reddy brothers and their associates have operated with impunity. Among those who dared to defy their writ and were consequently brutalized were a former employee turned whistle-blower V. Anjaneya and rival mine-owner Tapal Ganesh.
A former deputy general manager with Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC) controlled by the Reddy brothers, V. Anjaneya, who had overseen the destruction of state boundary markers between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, allegedly at the insistence of his superiors in the company, became a whistle-blower and divulged crucial information to the CBI. Anajaneya’s makeshift office in the mines of Bellary was destroyed by goons in anticipation of a CBI raid. The Reddy brothers hounded Anjaneya, who, together with his family members, went into hiding in Bangalore. He claimed he had attempted suicide because of the torture that had been inflicted on him by certain officers and employees of OMC. Anjaneya lodged a complaint on December 30, 2009 to the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) of Karnataka against the management of OMC and against the police in Bellary. The SHRC recorded Anjaneya’s statement on oath on the last day of December at a hospital in Bangalore.
The SHRC passed an order the following day holding police officers in Bellary and particular employees of OMC guilty of having committed serious and heinous violations of the human rights of the complainant and his family members. The commission passed its order on the state government that the investigation of all criminal cases and counter criminal cases arising out of the episode were transferred from the Cowl Bazar police station to the state government’s criminal investigation department (CID). The SHRC also directed that the Superintendent of Police, Bellary, be transferred and that adequate security be provided to the complainant and his family members while the cases being investigated. The state government has, however, been tardy in initiating action.
On March 29, 2010, Tapal Ganesh of TNR Mining Company, a rival of OMC, was beated up by goons in Bellary when he was trying to assist a team from the Union government’s Survey of India to help determine the extent of encroachment upon reserved forest areas by OMC and to verify allegations that the boundaries between the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had been deliberately destroyed. Ganesh alleges that the goons attacked him at the instance of Janardhana Reddy. Ganesh is a petitioner against the Reddys in both the High Courts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as well as the Supreme Court of India. He was given police protection only after the personal intervention of H.D. Deve Gowda, Janata Dal (Secular) head and former Prime Minister of India, after Ganesh desperately called up Deve Gowda seeking his help.
In June 2009, the Gali Reddy brothers spent over Rs 40 crore on gifting a diamond-studded crown in the temple at Tirupathi. Members of the BJP are supposed to believe in Hindu nationalism. Yet, it has been contended that individuals close to BJP minister Janardhana Reddy were responsible for the destruction of the 200-year-old Sugalamma Devi temple located in the mining lease area of OMC – while mines were being exploded. In September 2006, a case against the Reddy brothers was dropped despite objections from the police and the law department in the state. Soon after the BJP government was sought to be de-stabilized by the Reddy brothers, in December 2009, the cabinet in the Yeddyurappa government decided to drop this specific criminal case against the Reddy brothers. Among the arguments made in support of the case being dropped, one was that the temple was not located on the Karnataka side of the border with Andhra Pradesh.
How did the Reddy brothers from Bellary, the sons of a police constable, become so wealthy and politically powerful? How did they successfully subvert the system of administration or governance and even the judiciary? Is the power of money so pervasive? How did the loot from Bellary and Ananthapur covertly fund two of the largest political parties in India? How long will the Gali Reddy brothers be able to brazen it out protesting their innocence? Will the allegations against them be proved in a court of law? Will they be punished for their alleged misdemeanours? Only time can provide detailed answers to these questions. But even as the infamous Reddy brothers remain free, the truth about their activities is slowly but surely coming out.
* Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an independent journalist and an educator, whose work experience, spanning 34 years, cuts across different media: print, radio, television and documentary cinema.
