India First | As PM Modi Moves to Clean Up the Rot, Expect the Corrupt to Gang Up

The issue is will Prime Minister Narendra Modi be able to set it right, the way Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore was able to do, by taking action against the high and the mighty?

The aspiration seems to be the same, which is to improve India’s ranking on the corruption index the way Lee did for Singapore, which was once rated as one of the most corrupt. But Modi’s task is gargantuan because of the size of the country and the complexities involved in parliamentary democracy.

He has to ensure that action must be taken against the corrupt to keep the hopes alive of those who want to work through the honest route. But he also has to ensure that the actions do not end up disrupting social harmony and leading to chaos. Most leaders of India’s political parties are caste leaders and would gang up if actions on corruption are taken against them.

One would wonder why nine leaders from eight political parties have written a letter to Prime Minister Modi alleging that the government was misusing Central agencies such as the CBI and the ED and also the office of the Governor to settle political scores. They have objected to the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and held that it “smacked of a political conspiracy as he (Sisodia) was recognised globally for transforming the capital’s school education”.

But they conveniently ignored that the investigation is into the liquor scam and not for his role in education. The truth will finally be established and everyone should cooperate with investigative agencies to enable them to reach the truth. Those who are in public authority need to be very careful while taking decisions that are smack of ulterior motives. Misuse of public authority to make private gains need to be punished.

Those who signed the letter included Arvind Kejriwal and BS Mann (Aam Aadmi Party), K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana Rashtra Samithi), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Tejashwi Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena), Dr Farooq Abdullah (National Conference) and Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party). All of them sail in the same boat and share ‘Modiphobia’ as the core of their ideology.

Surprisingly, the letter ignores corruption and the fact that the judiciary has prima facie believed that the version of the investigative agencies has some merit. All those leaders who went to jail after administrative actions had the concurrence of the judiciary. This includes Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Azam Khan (Samajwadi Party), Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh (Nationalist Congress Party), and Abhishek Banerjee (Trinamool Congress). Scams like Cash for Job in West Bengal and Land for Job in Bihar are likely to get some more people into the custody of investigative agencies.

The Congress has already witnessed its prominent leader P Chidambaram (former Union Minister of Home and Finance) going to Tihar Jail for 106 days and coming out on bail at a pre-trial stage in the INX Media case. The cases against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are serious but nobody is questioning them and Rahul has the guts to talk against corruption and make out a case against India in a foreign land.

We should not forget that both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are facing fraud charges (criminal proceedings) in the National Herald case and are out on personal bail bonds of Rs 50,000 each. This means that the court has taken prima facie cognisance of the charges against them. When the District Court issued summons against them, they moved the Delhi High Court in 2015 for quashing the summons but the court refused. The Supreme Court, too, refused to quash the summons saying “let there be a fair trial” but exempted them from personal appearance.

The much-talked-about decisive fight against corruption in India has already begun. This is a no holds barred fight that will not spare anyone and bring together past enemies in their bid to save their skins. Some sections of society were desperate that they were unable to see actions being taken against the high and the mighty. Earlier, the networking of Lutyens’ Delhi and the influence of power brokers ensured that people could escape punishment by paying a bribe. So, the principle was to make money while you are in authority and pay from that money if you are caught.

Not in Modi’s India anymore. Closer to 2024, we would see more politicians and power brokers facing the consequences of their acts of commissions and omissions. The Opposition chorus is likely to be louder with the charge of vendetta politics. They all know that next could be their turn since Modi has no holy cow and he has given free hands to the investigative agencies to act against the corrupt.

The writer is the convener of the media relations department of the BJP and represents the party as a spokesperson on TV debates. He has authored the book ‘Narendra Modi: The Game Changer’. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication