Chors & Thugs in Indian Polity
Today media is abuzz with a combined yell of Modi’s opponents and adversaries…Why is the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI investigating only us? They have no shame of being the chors, frauds, scamsters, looters…BUT…they surely have a grudge as to why probe are taking place only them? It is a different matter that there are numerous chors/frauds/scamsters/looters politicians in India. Lalu Prasad Yadav the founder & head of RJD is known as Chara Chor, having already spent jail terms and is presently on bail. Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi of Congress have already been termed chors/thugs/frauds by the lower courts and are out on bail. Mamata Banerjee is heading the Syndicate of Bengali Chors of Narda/Sharda/Chit fund/Cow smuggle scams. Akhilesh Yadav the chief of Samajwadi party has qualified himself as Totee Chor. BSP supremo Mayawati has been alleged to have looted the dalit people and having earned the fame of ‘daulat ki beti’. Farooq Abdulla of National Conference is being investigated for J&K Sports Scam. Sharad Powar, chief of NCP was alleged to be corrupt to the core (by none other than Anna Hazare). Mahavikas Agadhi Govt of Udhav Thakre in alliance with NCP & Congress was famous as ‘mahavasooli Government’ of Extortion in Maharashtra (read ‘पप्पू की फिरौती सरकार’ https://articles.thecounterviews.com/articles/extortion-maharashtra-police-politician-aghadi/). Pinarayi Vijayan, chief of Kerala CPI is facing his links with multi-million-rupee Gold Smuggling. M Stalin the leader of DMK heading a party of alleged chors be it Ms Kanimozhi, A Raja or K Ponmudi. AIDMK leaders J Jaylalitha and Sasikala were even convicted for their corruption and scams in Tamilnadu. The list continues…BUT…the most unique is the scam allegedly committed by Manish Sisodia, DyCM of Delhi, at the behest of Aam Admi Party president Arvind Kejriwal (read “Inventing Corruptions thru’ IIT Brain”, https://articles.thecounterviews.com/articles/inventing-corruptions-thru-iit-brain/).
The unravelling of huge amount of ill-gotten money, benami properties and gold in the ED raids in recent years confirms the prevalent corruption esp among politicians. It only supports the views that there should be more such investigations and ED raids on politicians. Earlier, seldom a politician was caught and the few raided, invariably used to get away. In fact, there used to be an unwritten law that politicians cannot be jailed for their corruption. That jinx appears to have been broken in the recent 8-9 yrs of Modi govt, that more and more raids are happening, ill-gotten assets attached and they are booked and produced before the law. It is a matter of satisfaction that about 96% of the booked cases are being convicted. This is in sharp contrast to the earlier cases when they were able to manipulate the system to get away.
Corrupt politicians seem unnerved to have been raided, caught with disproportionate cash & assets, booked, convicted and jailed too. Recent conviction and jail of the corrupt politicians is praiseworthy; be it RJD’s Lalu Yadav; Congress’s Chidambaram and Sivakumar; NCP’s Anil Deshmukh, Nawab malik and Mushrif; Shiv Sena’s Chhagan Bhujbal and Sanjay Raut etc, etc. Whatever may be the stash cash collected, ED under Modi Govt has surely broken the myth that “politicians cannot be jailed”. The corrupt politicians finally seem to be heading to jail although many have managed to get bail from the courts on the strength of their money powers to hire high-profile lawyers who are experts in finding loopholes in the judicial system.
The cash haul made/uncovered by the ED in recent years are unprecedented. In fact, as per Modi govts’ clarification given on 27 Jun 22 in the Rajya Sabha, in the 10 yrs of the UPA govt from 2004-14, 112 ED raids were carried out to uncover Rs 5346 Cr. Under Modi govt, a total of 3010 raids have been conducted (nearly 27 times more) from 2014-22 uncovering approx Rs 99,356 Cr. This is unprecedented. In many ways. Corruption amongst politicians is extremely high with Congress, TMC, RJD and NCP at the top.
It is also believed that money/properties/assets uncovered in the many raids conducted in recent years may be only a tip of an iceberg called Corruption among politicians. It firmly shows the type of prevalent corruption. Congress, TMC, RJD and NCP seem to account for corrupt politicians although most if not all political parties seem to be corrupt to various levels. In the above list of money, Sonia Gandhi’s bank deposits of approx. $20 Bn is mostly unaccounted money that makes her the 4th richest women politician in the world, richer than Queen Elizabeth in 2013 divulge of NYT for which UPA chairperson had is understood to have asked Cong leader Manish Tiwari to deal. CBI/ED seems to have been considerate in not probing her huge assets.
However, it is some sort of record that Modi Govt and his union of ministers remain unscathed in 9 yrs of their rule despite the state-level corruption of all most all political parties. There is no doubt that most of the BJP leaders in the union govt, esp those with RSS backgrounds are believed to be clean to large extent BUT…what about those who were known to be corrupt before joining BJP? It is possible that with the apex leader (PM Modi) given a strict dictat to stay away from corruption, many of them may be lying low from fresh indulgence. However, what about their past cases? Here ED/CBI seem to have been soft. Even though no cases against them have been hushed up, they are not being pursued either. The washing machine type of opposition narrative seems to hold some ground. Modi govt may not be involved in the current Adani’s script losses BUT in the absence of any scam of the union govt in 9 yrs, opposition politicians will try to hold on to this floating straw of hope as long as possible, seeking JPC where they could be able to embarrass them by questioning to do the least. This is the least they will do to remain in the public eye or try to tarnish the clean image of Modi govt just before the 2023-24 elections.
Among the corruption being investigated in recent years, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP stands out on two accounts. Firstly, the party which was formed to weed out corruption among its ranks and files, seems to be marred deep in corruption. Secondly, corruption of Manish Sisodia/Kejriwal is very unique, invisible to the common eye. The sharp IIT and young AAP minds seem to be extremely innovative, in inventing the type of scams never seen/heard before in Indian history. Lalu Yadav’s job for land scam during his tenure as union Railway minister under the UPA was another innovative mode of corruption. In AAP’s ‘Liquorgate scam’, Public Bus scam, School classroom scam etc, they were able to bluff the ED and CBI for reasonably long time. The investigating agencies had a tough time in finding out the money / ill-gotten asset trails. However now with Satyendra Jain & Sisodia along with some of their accomplishes in jails, the threads of corruption seem to be joining ends. It is a fact that without a known source of income/funding, AAP has fought high-pitch elections in Goa, Punjab and recently in Gujarat. They are again preparing for a high stake Karnataka and MP/Rajasthan/Chhattisgarh. Without enough funds under their belt, they cannot be making It is hoped that the sleuths of ED will be able to hack or at least decode the innovative IIT-brained liquor scam. Who knows there could be some other modus operandii too in making or being unearthed.
ED & CBI has been doing an exemplary job of unearthing corruption and stash money. The dirty faces of the corrupt politicians are out in the open. Many political party chiefs marred in such corruption are battling for political survival and they may go to any length to settle the score with Modi govt having given a free hand to the investigating agencies. Hue and cry of the corrupts are unjustified but it seems obvious that cases against the few corrupt in the ruling parties are not being pursued effectively.