The Curious Case of Lalit 'IPL' Modi

Excerpts from Outlook - Feb 16 issue:

Allegations Against Modi

• He operated as a ‘Super Chief Minister’ from the opulent Rambagh Palace Hotel
  
• Used his proximity to then CM Vasundhararaje to control key civil servants who would take files to his hotel suite
  
• Facilitated entry of big builders in the state. Every big land deal had to have his clearance.
  
• Influenced change in the liquor policy which led to the proliferation of liquor outlets. Became an election issue.
  
• Had a finger in every pie, including mines
  
• Personally acquired havelis in Amer by bending the law
  
• Has an extravagant lifestyle, owns a private jet. Would stay for days in the luxury suite of the Rambagh Palace Hotel.
  
• Influenced the enactment of the Rajasthan Sports Act to gain control over the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA)
  
• Accused of forging signature to become a member of the RCA
  
• Rode roughshod over anyone who crossed his path, whether it was a constable or an IPS officer. A slapping incident sparked a near-revolt in the Jaipur police.
  
• Was named in an FIR for misappropriation of RCA funds. The money has subsequently been deposited with the RCA.
  
• Convicted in the United States for possession of drugs and kidnapping in 1985

The jetsetting industrialist, man about town and architect of the spectacularly successful Indian Premier League, whose reported fondness for the good life is matched only by his overweening ambition, didn’t just administer the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) from this charmed, Rs 90,000-a-night zone of luxury. He reportedly ran Rajasthan, courtesy his proximity to the former state chief minister, Vasundhararaje......

"It was a case of single window clearance," a fellow industrialist, cricket aficionado and politician told Outlook. "Modi simply summoned civil servants with their files to his suite at the Rambagh Palace and told them what to do. And if anyone demurred, he’d simply say, ‘I’ll have to talk to Vaasu (the name by which Vasundhara’s close friends address her) then’." Under the cover of the controversial Section 90 B of the Land Acquisition Act, acres of agricultural land has passed into the hands of big builders from Delhi. "Section 90 B," explains an IAS officer, "was intended to be a one-time welfare measure with a cut-off date to give relief to local farmers." They were allowed to convert their land into non-agricultural land. "The area was defined, the mechanism defined," adds the IAS officer. "But it was not meant to be an enabling clause for crass commercialisation which is what it became during the BJP era, when the provision about the cut-off date was given the go-by." The Jaipur Development Authority framed ad hoc rules to get around the original objective of Section 90 B. Presiding over this change in land use, many allege, was Lalit Modi. The land issue is now the subject of a probe by the government.