Corruption quiz
1. Prince Bernhard was the
consort of the Dutch queen. Kakuei Tanaka was Prime Minister of Japan. They
were implicated in a multi-country bribery scandal involving which American
corporation in the 1970s?
2. Sanjeev Chawla owned a
garments and cheap fashion accessories store called Toro located on London’s
Oxford Street. What did an investigation into him lead to?
3. Kickbacks from foreign
companies go back a long way in Indian history. What was the incident of the
Red Treaty and the White Treaty?
4. In 1980, the Thal Vaishet
fertiliser facility was being set up in India. The government awarded the
contract to Snamprogetti, which had not been shortlisted because it didn’t meet
tender norms. K.V. Ramananthan, the chemicals and fertilisers secretary,
protested and was bypassed for the cabinet secretary’s job, falling victim to
Ottavio Quattrocchi. Which politician became Ramananthan’s son-in-law?
5. Why was Arvind Kejriwal’s
hometown in the news in 2011?
6. Which American vice-president
resigned after criminal charges of bribery and tax evasion?
7. When he left India following
the IPL scandal, there were reports that Lalit Modi would take up the
citizenship of another country, since his wife was a friend of the wife of that
country’s president. Which country is it?
8. It is an expansive country
manor in Normandy, France, and known as the “House of the White Queen”. Why is
it infamous?
9. What was the 1997 Paul
Greengrass film The Fix based on?
10. In 1957, industrialist
Haridas Mundhra got the government-owned LIC to invest `1.24 crore in the
shares of six troubled companies belonging to him. LIC lost most of the money.
Who raised this scandal in Parliament, causing embarrassment to the Jawaharlal
Nehru government?
11. Which sportsman returned to
competition at a World Cup after a two-year ban for match-fixing and ended the
tournament by winning the best player award?
12. How is Mark Felt better
known in history?
13. In Biblical lore, Judas
betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Who betrayed whom for 1,100 pieces of
silver?
14. She studied at the Sorbonne
in Paris. She was once arrested for beating up her first husband. Two prime
ministers attended her second wedding. Her employer saw her as an adopted
daughter. Who is she?
15. In showbiz, what sort of
underhand tactic is referred to as “papering the house”?
16. He once lived in Chicago,
where he worked in the family restaurant. He returned home when his brother
became president. He was accused of enriching himself by running a drug-smuggling
empire. In 2011, he was assassinated. Who are we talking about?
17. Malik Jiwan was a tribal
chieftain in Balochistan. Whom did he betray?
18. He is a former chairman of
Nasdaq and is scheduled to end his prison term on November 14, 2139, assuming
good behaviour. Who is he?
19. In December 2010, FIFA
awarded the 2018 and 2022 soccer World Cups to surprise-choice countries. In
2011, this led to bribery accusations and a corruption investigation. Which two
countries had won the rights so controversially?
20. In 1960, the US Congress
passed amendments to the Communications Act of 1934 after a furore about fixing
in which particular activity on live television?
ANSWERS
1. Lockheed Corporation, the
military aircraft manufacturer.
2. Cricket’s match-fixing scandal in April 2000. Chawla’s phone was tapped in an extortion case and, quite by chance, the Delhi police heard him doing deals with Hansie Cronje.
3. When Robert Clive was negotiating with Mir Jafar before the Battle of Plassey, the go-between was a Calcutta-based Punjabi fixer named Omichund (Amir Chand). He asked for five per cent of Bengal’s treasury as his kickback. Clive agreed and drew up two treaties between Omichund and the East India Company, one with the five per cent clause and one without. Omichund was given one, and cheated with the other.
4. Jairam Ramesh, now Union minister for rural development.
5. Hissar, Haryana, was the location of a parliamentary by-election and India Against Corruption’s controversial campaign against the Congress candidate.
6. Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice-president.
7. Iceland.
8. Initially registered in the name of Asif Zardari’s parents, it is supposed to be part of the property Benazir Bhutto and her husband invested in using bribes received abroad while she was Prime Minister of Pakistan in
the 1990s.
9. The British football betting scandal of 1964, in which eight footballers from top clubs, including Sheffield Wednesday, were jailed for betting against their own teams.
10. Feroze Gandhi.
11. Paolo Rossi of Italy, in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
12. As Deep Throat, the FBI official who was Washington Post’s secret source during the Watergate Scandal.
13. Delilah betrayed Samson to the Philistines.
14. Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, Rupert Murdoch’s key representative in the United Kingdom and a woman who lost her job due to the phone hacking scandal.
15. Giving away free tickets and packing the hall on the opening day of a play or film to make it appear a commercial success.
16. Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
17. Dara Shikoh, leading to the Mughal prince’s killing by his brother Aurangzeb.
18. Bernard Madoff, pronounced guilty of running a Ponzi scheme and defrauding thousands of investors in the United States.
19. Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022).
20. Quiz shows, after the scandal involving the show Twenty One. The film The Quiz Show was based on this episode.
