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BJP was founded on 6th of April 1980 by the late Sri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sri. Lal Kishan Advani the two statesmen stalwarts with impeccable integrity and probity in public life.The party had a clean image and was known for its uncompromising stand on corruption and issues of morality in public life. The middle class looked up to the BJP to cleanse the corrupt political system and voted in its favour. Since then the party came a very long way from having just 2 seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 to a staggering 303 seats in 2019.
However, In its quest for more power the party has been compromising on its principles and encouraging defections from rival political parties using “Operation Lotus” to dethrone the elected governments. It is also using coercive methods through enforcement agencies like ED/CBI/IT to arm-twist the opposition party members to join the party. The recent mass exodus of politicians from various opposition parties who are under the lens of ED/CBI/IT on charges of corruption, money laundering and some even convicted for criminal cases, to BJP shows the muscle power employed by the party to subjugate the opposition leaders into submission by unleashing the enforcement agencies on them.
The very same people who were earlier described by the BJP as the most corrupt are welcomed into the party with open arms and used as stooges to bring down the elected governments or were given tickets to fight against their own parties as “ political mercenaries”. The ongoing investigations against these tainted politicians are either paused or their names have been conveniently dropped while filing the final charge sheet. Outrageous alliances are formed with once sworn enemies with an eye on elections and with a sole purpose of coming back to power.
To illustrate a few cases, many politicians like Ajit Pawar ( Prime accused in the irregular loans sanctioned by Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank , accused in the irrigation projects sanctioned as the Chairman of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation), Ashok Chavan ( Accused in the allotment of flats to himself and his family members meant for Kargil war heroes and war widows in the well known Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society Mumbai), Chagan Bhujbal (Convicted in 2016 in Money laundering and irregularities of Rs.100 crore in awarding contracts as PWD minister) , Baba Siddiqui Accused in Money Laundering and misuse of official position as chairman of MHADA) in Maharashtra, Digambar Kamath ( Bribery cases in as PWD minister) in Goa, Suvendru Adhikari ( Accused in Narada bribery scandal) in West Bengal etc, have quit their parent parties and joined hands with BJP to save themselves from the harassment by the enforcement agencies. The current CM of Andhra Pradesh Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy who was arrested and jailed in a disproportionate assets case is out on bail for many years. ED is not interested in pursuing the case because of his cordial relations with the BJP Government. The latest entrants to BJP from Congress being Naveen Jindal (accused in Coal Gate Scam) who was given a ticket to contest Lok Sabha elections from Kurukshetra Haryana and the mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy convicted in the Bellary illegal mining case, who merged his party KRPP with BJP.
With all these tainted leaders welcomed into BJP fold, its proclamation of a corruption-free Bharat remains a hollow claim.
While the Ganges remains pristine and continues to flow quietly despite millions of sinners taking dip in it, BJP will have all the sludge and muck stuck on it if it continues to embrace these tainted leaders with an eye solely on winning the elections.