The great tragedy for the BJP when it starts raising the volume on corruption is that it becomes a case of the pot calling the kettle black. For if there’s anything new about the BJP these days, it is the fact that the party that once claimed to be different is actually quite indifferent to corruption in its ranks. Forget those homilies about the party of the faithful being drawn from the ranks of RSS pracharaks who believe in simple living and high thinking (though many would describe their thinking also as very simple). The truth is, there is a clamour for pelf and petty little graft in a party and parivar that all too briefly tasted the fruits of power before being voted out at the Centre.
So we have the spectacle of the Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj patronising the Reddy brothers, the controversial mining overlords who have the clout to hold the Karnataka government to ransom. The Bellary brothers have also declared publicly and in advertisements that it is their mission to make Sushma the PM one day. The otherwise competent Sushma does not seem to have too many qualms about her association with Reddys. A BJP leader says: “We criticise Sonia Gandhi but she is at least mindful of the company she keeps.”
Similarly, there is the extraordinary clout of Sudhanshu Mittal in the party and larger Sangh parivar. A tentwallah and fixer nurtured by the late Pramod Mahajan, Mittal calls himself a politician and says all accusations against him are “politically motivated”. He had great clout during the tenure of former BJP president Rajnath Singh who did his utmost to get the man into the Rajya Sabha.
Gadkari too can’t escape taint shadow. (Photograph by Jitender Gupta)
Although Mittal never made it to the Rajya Sabha, he managed to spread his influence across party lines and was thus embroiled even in the Commonwealth Games scam. The I-T department searched his premises last month as part of its probe to unearth alleged tax evasion in CWG-related works. Mittal, his relatives and associates are said to have bagged contracts worth Rs 200 crore. Mittal again screamed “conspiracy” but was left bereft of support as the Nitin Gadkari-led BJP dispensation seemed disinclined to defend him. But then, a survivor in the cesspool of politics, Mittal was sighted last week in the front row of a Delhi RSS rally as part of the national campaign to defend the Sangh against the Hindu terror tag. It is said that Mittal has many good friends among the good men of the Sangh.
What’s more, Gadkari too has managed to get involved in a mini scam. A long-time Nagpur associate of his and now a member of the party’s national executive, Ajay Sancheti, was accused of having a benami flat in Adarsh Society in his driver’s name. Sancheti first told journalists that his driver did indeed own such a flat (and that he was only in politics because of Gadkari) but later became evasive. Gadkari, meanwhile, threatened defamation charges against Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari who has accused him of owning the benami flat. Gadkari had some days ago described UPA-II as “the most corrupt government in history”, but is now having to defend himself.
In the states, the BJP has an even more dismal record. In Karnataka, the party has surpassed all expectations of those who believed they’d never get the hang of being corrupt. In Jharkhand, the BJP is in for every deal and is ready to sell anything for a price. In Uttarakhand, the current BJP regime is said to be already reeking of financial improprieties. All is not lost: leaders like Shivraj Chauhan and Narendra Modi are still clean of the taint of corruption. But the rot’s certainly claimed the soul of the saffron force.
