Whenever the NDA government faces a crisis, a new development is suddenly reported in investigations involving the BJP’s opponents or its critics.
Within hours of the BJP losing the Kairana Lok Sabha seat to the united opposition-backed Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate, news came that the Enforcement Directorate had attached properties of the Sterling Biotech Group worth Rs 4,701 crore as part of an alleged money laundering probe.
The main accused in the scam are allegedly the two promoters of the Gujarat-based company — Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara.
A day earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out multiple raids on known associates of Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar — the man who, many say, thwarted the BJP’s plan to ‘buy’ newly-elected Congress and JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka after the hung verdict.
This is part of a familiar pattern these days. Whenever the NDA government faces a crisis, a new development is suddenly reported in investigations involving the BJP’s opponents or its critics. With the help of some ever-obliging news channels, headline-management has been turned into an art by this government.
More importantly, the worrying fact is that the ED and the CBI as well as the Income Tax department are more than eager to do their bit to help shore up the Narendra Modi government’s dwindling image and support base. Much of this base came from his assertion ahead of the 2014 elections: “na kaoonga, na khaane doonga.”
The new, unwritten standard operating procedure (SOP) for the investigating agencies seems to be: conduct a raid or book somebody, mostly on charges that seem ridiculous even to those who don’t understand how these agencies function whenever the government wants to change the headline.
But, the public is smart and “yeh sab jaanti hai (knows everything),” to borrow a line from the famous song.
People are beginning to ask why Modi’s strong government allowed a case on which it clinched an entire election — 2G scam of presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore — to be lost in the special CBI court in such a spectacular manner.
You can’t fault the aam aadmi for asking, was there even a scam?
Or, maybe, the agencies are so busy fixing the government’s opponents or playing the part of caged parrots that they lost track of their real job: to take cases like this to their logical end.
Why hasn’t there been appropriate progress in the alleged loot of the nation by the ‘jamai raja’, Robert Vadra?
How many holders of black money, who allegedly deposited kaala dhan in the banks after the 8 November, 2016 demonetisation announcement by Modi, have actually landed in jail?
Are Mehul (Chowksi) bhai, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi being brought back to India from the cool climes of wherever in Europe to face the law?
These are questions that even the PM’s ardent supporters want answered.
But, here’s a twist. In the alleged Sterling Biotech scam, a diary has been recovered (even this has become routine now), containing details of payoffs to politicians and senior income tax and customs officers and, most importantly, a senior CBI functionary’s kin.
According to an FIR registered by the CBI on 30 August, 2017, the recovered documents show ‘certain cash transactions’ with ‘individuals’.
Among the named three accused in the FIR are three Commissioner-rank officers of Income Tax department. Following the CBI case, the ED followed suit and decided to join the party.
The ED arrested one of the alleged conduits, Gagan Dhawan, who was later bailed out by a Delhi court but not before the court pulled up the agency for going after ‘small fishes’ (SIC) while letting the big fish escape.
“The entire system is corrupt. You (ED) are only catching small fishes while I am surprised why till date no officials of the accused company (Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd), the chartered accountants and others are arrested? Don’t do pick and choose,” additional sessions judge Sidharth Sharma observed during the hearing.
He had reasons to be upset.
Nobody knows where the Sandesara brothers are. The three IT Commissioners are still enjoying the perks of their respective offices. In fact, there were indications that they had actually been promoted but the decision was withdrawn later.
And, what about CBI’s number 2 man, Rakesh Asthana, whose name also purportedly figures in the diary?
As for the 2G case, the Modi government’s strong response to the loss of face in watching each of the accused corporates get away in trial was to boot out the court-appointed special public prosecutor Anand Grover.
But, if the Congress and its leaders are at the receiving end of the CBI and ED, the blame lies solely with them. Who can forget the numerous times the CBI woke up to pursue with renewed vigour or reopen cases against opponents of the UPA? And on how many occasions did its allies required the caged parrot to do its bidding, as part of political compulsions?
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2 G Scam all matters happened during Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Congress led UPA Government only.A Union Minister and a POwerful M.P Cum Daughter of the then CM were in Jail for One Year.without Bail. NOw the Case is in Supreme Court. Chidambaram and his family;s Corruption NO win Courts with Documents. knew no bounds. He. is the Father of Indian Black Money. About Shahsi Tharoor the Less said the better. . All know about “The Print “