Chapter 11B: The real power of the Citi HDFC duo came from their power over the bureaucracy and the judiciary. And from the power exercised by their extremely powerful havala clients. Their exit statement makes interesting reading:
The thing about India is that you never know who is behind whom and why ? Crony capitalists are backed by powerful politicians. The politicians actually invest in and own these companies. Doesn’t matter in whose names these shares are. It is actually hilarious. But it works.
Let me start with an interesting tale. A man named Jagdish Salwan. Few would have heard of him. We will then go onto more juicy matters like Mrs Salwans pursuit of joining the judiciary and the supposedly morphed video that leaked. The two are not related even though they share a common surname.
Jagdish Salwan started life as a peon in the Jeevan Bharti branch of Citibank in Delhi. He gradually rose to being a front office cashier. And from there began his journey as a legal luminaire, unmatched in legal prowess. When I once visited the branch to meet Victor Menezes, he introduced Salwan as “the rising star of the Bank”. One who had crossed Rs 100 crores in FDs. This was in 1987. His bonus was a crore of rupees. An IIT IIM grad started life at Rs 3,000 in those days. I was amazed at this genius.
That was the day, I learned something from Victor that I will never forget. “Everyone in this branch is trained to collect money. In any currency. For any tenure. As long as you are taking it in. Even the guard from Group 4 had a target”. But when it came to lending “No one can lend money. We are not here to do the governments job. Lending is for idiots. Wise men take deposits.”
We will come back to the millionaire guard later. He too thrives to date. But let me start with Jagdish Salwan.
Jagdish Salwan was a genius like no other.
He fixed judges. And it took a good fifteen years from that meeting day to figure out how. It came out in the arrest of a Delhi High Court judge – Shamit Mukherjee.
Like many others, Justice Mukherjee had more cases then time. There was no ai. So a lawyer representing Citibank among others catered to his needs. Besides providing sexual gratification, she also wrote out his judgements. Her list of clients read like a who’s who of global banking. To help refresh the judges memory, a bevy of relatives appeared in court as lawyers. These were the legal team of the war room at Parliament Street. And Jagdish was the legal genius.
When you can write the judgements, you can decide the outcome. Citi never ever lost a case in the High Court. Jagdish Salwan rules to date.