Weeks after four Supreme Court judges addressed a presser in Delhi in January 2018, a visitor asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an afternoon interaction at his residence: “There is a sort of crisis building in the judiciary. Is there some way you can step in and resolve things?”
“If I do something, xxx (naming a prominent journalist) will tweet that Modi is interfering with the judiciary,” he said with a mirthful smile. “On a serious note, do you know how many families control India’s judiciary?… 60, only 60 families. You can count them on fingers…but the media won’t write about it,” said the PM. I was privy to that conversation.
His thoughts about the judiciary and its levers must have evolved in the past six years. Last week, he posted a letter written by 600 lawyers to the Chief Justice of India. It flagged concern about a vested interest group’s attempt to pressure the judiciary in political cases, “particularly those involving political figures accused of corruption”. The letter didn’t name any individual or party or cite any specific instance. PM Modi ostensibly knew the letter’s subtext. “To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture. Five decades ago, they had called for a ‘committed judiciary’…,” he posted on X.
The Congress is reduced to a 46-member-body in the Lok Sabha today. It has to be a wink-moment for Rahul Gandhi if the PM and so many eminent lawyers find the Congress capable of pressurising the highest court of the land today. Anyway, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra retorted to PM Modi’s post on Saturday. Behind that letter was an attempt to put pressure on the judiciary as scams are unravelling following the Supreme Court’s decision on electoral bonds, she suggested in a tweet. “The Prime Minister himself entering the fray to make negative comment on the judiciary shows daal mein kuchh jyada hi kaalaa hai (there is something more fishy). There is something because of which he himself (PM) is nervous,” Vadra wrote.
She has alleged that 41 corporate groups raided by the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Income Tax Department donated Rs 2,592 crore to the BJP. She has also alleged that 38 corporate groups donated Rs 2,004 crore to the BJP “in exchange for” contracts worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore from BJP-led governments, at the Centre and in states. The BJP chose to ignore Vadra’s specific allegations. She has now scaled it up, dragging the Prime Minister into it. The ruling party is looking the other way, strangely.
The least PM Modi could have expected from his party is to speak up because he himself can’t engage every opposition leader. The BJP we have known would have gone after her, especially when her husband, Robert Vadra, is embroiled in alleged land deal and money laundering cases. But it didn’t. The BJP’s refusal to engage Priyanka when she is attacking PM Modi is flabbergasting.
Incidentally, in the alleged Gurgaon land scam involving her husband Robert Vadra, the BJP-led Haryana government informed the high court in April 2023 that there was no violation of rules or regulations (in the transfer of land from Vadra’s firm to the DLF). As Vadra welcomed it, attacking the BJP for its ‘false accusations’, a red-faced Haryana government sought to play it down, claiming that it was not a clean chit and investigations were still on.
Between the lodging of the police case in Gurgaon land deal in 2018 and the purported clean chit, the realty major DLF bought electoral bonds worth Rs 170 crore in six tranches and all of them were redeemed by the BJP. Come to think of, the BJP had no compunction accepting donations from the realty giant when it was being probed in a land scam case. But PM Modi can’t be keeping track of every donation the party receives and every clean chit a party-led government gives.
Also read: Three-gen corporate rule in Indian politics—How dynasts conform & how they can break free
Too many coincidences
Look at another egregious case, as reported in detail by The Indian Express.
Aurobindo Pharma’s director Sharat Chandra Reddy was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam on 10 November 2022. Five days later, on 15 November, Aurobindo Pharma bought bonds worth Rs 5 crore. The BJP redeemed these bonds six days later—on 21 November. Reddy recorded his statement to the ED on 25 April 2023, which is cited by the agency as a crucial piece of evidence against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. In May, the ED did not oppose his bail plea. In June, a special court allowed him to turn approver and pardoned him. Four months later, on 8 November, Aurobindo Pharma purchased bonds worth Rs 25 crore. The BJP encashed them nine days later. Incidentally, the bonds purchased by Aurobindo Pharma before Reddy’s arrest were redeemed by many parties, including the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP. But after Reddy’s arrest, all bonds purchased by his company, went to the BJP.
If there are too many coincidences, only the BJP can make sense of them.
The Indian Express reported on 31 March that Hyderabad-headquartered Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited got contracts from the government and public sector undertakings “just before or immediately after” it purchased electoral bonds. The company bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore out of which Rs 584 crore went to the BJP. The BRS was the next big gainer with Rs 195 crore. Other parties virtually got peanuts.
There are many companies that bought electoral bonds, which were worth several times more than their profits. They can’t be real business operations. If a layperson can notice such glaring discrepancies in electoral bonds, imagine what a thorough investigation can reveal.
Also read: ‘Abki baar, 400 paar’ is no mere slogan. It’s crucial to Modi’s agenda if he gets third term
PM must speak up
It’s easier to blame PM Modi because it’s his government that introduced these bonds and defended them inside and outside the apex court. In hindsight, it also makes sense why the government vehemently defended donors’ right to privacy at the cost of transparency. The fact is that every ruling party loved it—from BJP to Trinamool Congress, DMK, BRS, you name it.
The BJP has countered the allegations with usual whataboutery. “It boils down to the BJP with 303 MPs getting Rs 6,000 crore and parties with a combined strength of 242 MPs cornering Rs 14,000 crore. What is this whole ruckus about?” Union home minister Amit Shah said at a media event.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at another event that bonds were encashed by all parties and so “what moral authority anyone has to speak?
So, is that it? Iss hammam mein sabhi nange hain (everybody is naked in this bathouse) and so nobody has the right to object! TMC, BRS, DMK and many other BJP rivals encashed electoral bonds worth hundreds of crores. But the BJP has raised no question about these transactions and possible quid pro quo in these cases. Understandably.
There appears to be a consensus among parties to bury the electoral bonds matter. The ruling BJP never wanted the donors’ details out in the first place. Except the Congress, no opposition party is keen on pursuing the matter. It was also evident from the silence of non-Congress INDIA bloc leaders at Delhi’s Ramlila Ground rally on Sunday. Their joint resolution, read out by Vadra, did demand an SC-monitored probe into bonds but leaders largely skipped its mention in their speeches.
That makes it all the more incumbent on PM Modi to distance himself from the omissions and commissions of others, be it his party colleagues, allies or adversaries. He also needs to ask tough questions to his BJP fund managers. Modi is the one credited with shutting down the hammam (bathhouse) where every politician and party was nanga (naked). He must now break the emerging political consensus to let bygones be bygones on electoral bonds.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Dear DK Singh, Please stop saving Modi. He himself is equally responsible for the stink of electoral bonds. Not only the BJP fund managers. BJP under Modi is completely anti-democratic whereas the same BJP under Atalji was fully democratic and liberal. The only difference between that BJP and this BJP is Modi. If the judiciary is lead by only 60 families, does it mean that these 60 families stop all remaining Indians to become judges? When Modi himself is PM for last 10 years and he dreams to remain so for next 5 years at least, is that not an issue? What skewed logic?