Mr Jogi Goes Shopping

Mr Jogi Goes Shopping
Instant Karma, hoist by own petard, tit for tat and other such are the phrases that roll off the lips once the utter shock and dismay over the recent Ajit Jogi taped revelations register. But what they do underline is the crying need to have a re-look at the anti-defection law.More Coverage.

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Also See: OnThe Jogi Trail

Ajit Jogi: I sent you a message

Virender Pandey: Yes, I received your offer, but some things need clarification...

Ajit Jogi: Let's hear them

Virender Pandey: First, the numbers...you say you have 37...

Ajit Jogi: Take it as 39. Two BSP MLAs are also with us. [He doesn't talk about the 1 NCP MLA]

Virender Pandey: So we need to arrange seven more to achieve the figure of 17 [reference to the anti-defection law under whichone-third or a minimum of 17 are needed to 'split' BJP with 50 MLAs]

Ajit Jogi: The speaker is our man. He will not disqualify them.

Virender Pandey: But a guarantee is required, that the government will survive for five years. How will we get thatguarantee?

Ajit Jogi: It is a matter of trust.

Virender Pandey: Yes, but I would like the AICC president to announce publicly, once the government is formed that the Congresshas extended support to them [this breakaway group] to fight communal forces and at no point would support bewithdrawn.

Ajit Jogi: Ok, fine

[Excerpts from the conversation between Ajit Jogi, the outgoing chief minister of Chhatisgarh andVirender Pandey, Chhatisgarh state BJP vice-president. Watch out for the extended excerpts to be put uplater.]

Instant Karma, hoist by own petard, tit for tat and other such are the phrases that roll off the lips oncethe utter shock and dismay over the recent Ajit Jogi taped revelations register.

Persistent and predictable denials from the ex-chief minister of Chhatisgarh that it is not his voiceappear so thin that no one wants to wait till he is proven guilty, despite all of Jogi's plaintive pleas thatan "audio tape is not admissible evidence" and that unlike the Judeo and Tehelka cases, there is noclinching video evidence.

His appearance tells the tale. As does all the corroborative and circumstantial evidence available so far.Trial by media? No, verdict by the people, more like it.

The fact that senior-most BJP leaders were willing to go on record about their involvement in thissting operation seems conclusive enough for most, and no one is really waiting for the "voicespectrum tests" and confirmatory and corroboratory telephone and other records. So the CBI enquiryordered by the Chief Minister Raman Singh seems to be more of a formality. No surprise then that the mattertook precedence over everything else in Parliament today.

Meanwhile, law minister Jaitley had offered the following reasons as enough to nail Jogi even in a court oflaw

• The taped conversation (with expert evidence proving it was not doctored) and telephone records
• Two lots of money (one lot of Rs 25 lakhs even had the bank's stamp) handed over to Pandey by Khunte andJogi in two instalments.
• Jogi’s hand-written note promising the Congress' support to Kashyap to head an alternative government.
• Evidence of the drivers of the cars

When Arun Jaitley gloatingly presented the audio tape late Saturday night in which Jogi's voicewas heard offering money to buy MLAs to put up an alternative government supported by the Congress, theobvious conclusion was that the BJP was taking revenge for the Judeo sting operation. And justifiably so, itwould seem, for their list of grievances against Jogi date back to 2000 when he had split the BJP, andengineered the defection of 12 of its MLAs.

That was not all. In between had come all the controversies surrounding the disinvestment of BALCO and thenfinally the CBI charge-sheet pending against Jogi in a Delhi court accusing him of ‘‘dishonestly andfraudulently’’ using a forged IB document to tarnish the agency’s image.

After the swearing-in ceremony today, the new chief minister told a press conference that the stateAnti-Corruption Bureau had already registered an FIR against the three accused -- Ajit Jogi, his sonAmit Jogi and Lok Sabha MP P.R. Khunte. "Since the issue related to defection and involves state’scaretaker chief minister, we have taken a decision to hand over investigations to the CBI," he declared.

Singh said the documentary and material evidence, which include cash, audio cassette and a letter writtenby Jogi, will be forwarded to the CBI for thorough inquiry so that the accused are brought to book. Askedabout the chances of immediate arrests, Singh said: "Now it’s up to the CBI"

On Saturday evening, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley had charged that Jogi had offered Rs 20 lakh to stateBJP vice-president Virender Pandey for BJP MLAs to defect and stake their claim to form an alternativegovernment with Congress support. Baliram Kashyap, a sitting BJP MP from Bastar, was proposed to be projectedas chief minister.

Jaitley had also released Jogi’s “handwritten letter” addressed to the Governor, which said the37-member Congress Legislature Party (CLP) would extend outside support to a government that was to be headedby senior BJP leader Baliram Kashyap.

Pandey, who was present at the press conference displayed the cash, said the money was paid to him in twoinstallments — one of which was personally delivered by Jogi and son Amit Jogi.

He said it was BJP MP P.R.Khunte, who had defected to the Congress before the polls, who contacted him onbehalf of Jogi (conversation also also on tape).

Meanwhile, Jogi had admitted that Pandey did meet him and he wrote a letter addressed to the Governorexpressing support to the formation of a government headed by Kashyap. He, however, has been vehementlydenying that the voice on the tape is his as well as the bribery charges.

Engineering defections is an old Jogi speciality. Immediately after becoming CM in 2000, Jogi had caused 12BJP MLAs to defect, three of whom were later made ministers. Before the Assembly elections, the former CM alsoengineered the defection of P.R.Khunte -- a Dalit BJP MP who used to earlier wear a black scarf as a symbol ofhis pledge to remove Jogi from the Chief Minister’s post. The charges of money exchanging hands had beenmade even then, but the BJP hadn't wised up to the advantages of taped evidence then, something which therecent Judeo episode must have underlined.

Pause for a minute to reflect on how old Narasimha Rao, implicated in the JMM case, would be cackling, notto mention all the other smooth operators who have purchased MLAs and MPs with impunity in the past.

The Congress did well to suspend Jogi immediately - but that was more in self-interest more than anythingelse - and the party would do well to reflect on what its own reactionwould have been had it been an ousted BJP chief-minister caught trying to purchase MLAs. Or what its owndemands were in the wake of the Tehelka and Judeo revelations.

While it is inexplicable as to why the Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi rejected several notices of opposition-sponsored adjournment motions, including those on the allegations of 'milking' of PSUs byunion ministers, the bribery allegations against Dilip Singh Judeo and muzzling of the media by the Tamil Nadugovernment, and the BJP obviously ought not to be allowed to brush all the inconvenient cases under thecarpet, it is equally disingenuous on part of the Congress to try and deflect criticism by bringing in how the BJP's 'sting operation' was within the knowledge ofDPM Advani and that law minister Arun Jaitley was a 'a party to it'.

It smacks of the same shameful "defence" that the BJP had mounted in the wake of Tehelka andJudeo exposures. This latest shamefulepisode, apart from underlining the moral bankruptcy of our politicians also emphasises the need to have afresh critical look at the anti-defection law.