Weaponising Corruptionrelated Laws

The arrest of Telugu Desam Party Chandrababu Naidu for his alleged complicity in the Rs. 371 crore scam in the AP Skills Development Corporation between 2014 and 2016, when he was the CM of AP underscores the fact that criminal cases are pursued with political motivation.

The arrest of Aam Aadmi Party Dy. CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia, DMK minister Senthil Balaji and K. Ponmudy also fall in the same genre. Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA in Maharashtra Nawab Asim Malik faced similar cases pertaining to corruption.

While Raut secured a bail, Nawab Malik is still under detention. Former Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan too has suffered disqualification, several cases, jail and denial of bail in similar cases.

Corruption in the ranks of politicians who have held important offices is well known. No party is free from such blemished individuals.

Countless criminal cases are pending against them in the courts all across the nation. But not all of them are arrested and jailed. Latest data by Association for Democratic Reforms shows that 43 per cent of MPs and 44 per cent of MLAs have criminal cases pending against them.

But given the snail-paced litigation, they are allowed to continue in office and engage in legislative chores. But it is only a few, and currently all from the parties opposed to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who are being arrested.

Motive is clear: to harass the rivals, tarnish their image, put the parties under pressure, curb dissent, buy silence of potential rabble-rousers, and more recently to encourage defection, break the parties and if possible to dislodge them from power.

Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the sequence of political events in Maharashtra offer the best evidence, if any is required. It is same with Mayawati whose silence has been bought under threat of prosecution for hoarding wealth beyond her known sources of income.

This brings to question the role of the investigative agencies who have to toe the line of the ruling dispensation. The game has been going on for the last nine years relentlessly.

It is not that all the politicians and ministers in the BJP ruled states or at the Centre carry no blemish or stains. But none among them have ever been arrested or faced scrutiny as did the ones from parties ruling the states such as Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu.

The larger question that arises is: cannot the officers in the agencies refuse to follow dictates of the rulers and follow the course of the law independently?

There are no straight answers to such queries in an establishment where officers are verbally ordered to carry out the wishes of the political executive and any hint of following the conscience results in transfer, inconvenient postings, stoppage of perks, promotions and even discontinuance of privileges and possibly implications in cases that may spoil their career.

Evidently, the Modi administration is following a path where vendetta is unleashed against all those opposed to the party or those who express dissent against the dispensation.

The cases are shifted to cold storage once the victims join the ruling party. Former TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari’s loyalty was bought off only after he got ensnared in corruption cases.

Now that he is in the BJP, there is no hint of punitive action. It begs no explanation that corruption-related cases are being weaponised to target the opposition parties and curb dissent.