Kejriwal vs Modi: Has CBI turned into a caged parrot once again?
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's now "viral tweet" calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "coward" and a "psycopath" (sic) might have earned him legitimate anger and ridicule from Tweeple's grammar nazi, but the CBI raid this morning on the Delhi secretariat premises, ostensibly directed at the CM's principal secretary Rajender Kumar against a charge from the Anti-Corruption Bureau, has once again stirred old muck in the political waters.
Modi is a coward and a psycopath
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015The question of CBI's ephemeral and ever elusive "autonomy", particularly after being branded a "caged parrot" by the Supreme Court in 2013, has returned with a bang, in the wake of a series of raids on the leaders of opposition parties, conducted by various affiliated branches of the central government, including the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.
CBI lying. My own office raided. Files of CM office are being looked into. Let Modi say which file he wants?
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015FM lied in Parliament. My own office files are being looked into to get some evidence against me. Rajender is an excuse
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015Even though the National Herald case against the Gandhis, the ED, I-T raids against Karti Chidambaram for alleged money laundering, tax evasion and foreign exchange violations in the Aircel-Maxis deal, among others, have mostly been welcomed by broad sections of the mainstream and social media, today's raid against the top bureaucrat working directly under the Delhi CM might end up stirring the hornet's nest, and recast the spotlight on CBI's fabled instrumentality in the hands of the Centre. Although Rahul Gandhi sounded a lone voice when he screamed "political vendetta" from the PMO, with Kejriwal playing victim and proclaiming Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's covert hand in the latest raid, support is going to be galvanised in the latter's favour.
Which file was CBI looking for in my office? DDCA files in which Arun Jaitley is in dock. I was about to order a commission of enquiry
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015Already, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has tweeted her "shock" at CM Kejriwal being locked out of his office during the raid.
Sealing of a Chief Minister's office is unprecedented. I am shocked @ArvindKejriwal
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 15, 2015While Kejriwal's shrill opposition has come under scanner from some quarters of the political spectrum as well as the media, why the CBI is going painfully slow in the slew of pending cases against members of BJP themselves is a question worth asking. Sample the following top "scams" that had rocked Indian national politics in the first half of 2015, but have gone off the radar now, buried under a growing heap of breaking news.
Vyapam scam
Mother of all recent corruption scandals, perhaps directly involving BJP chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, wherein massive rigging of precious seats in medical colleges and exam results by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board and the Medical Council of India, as well as many as 44 mysterious deaths of witnesses have occurred, Vyapam has become synonymous with all that is rotten within the BJP and its Hindi Heartland politics of money and gore. Although the CBI is supposed to take over the investigations into the murky goings-on which resulted in the Vyapam scam, reports have cited whistleblowers Paras Saklecha and Ajay Dubey saying that the CBI had been asked to take it easy with this one. Saklecha has categorically stated that CBI was directed to sit on the FIRs to avoid adversarial impact on the Bihar Assembly polls, while Yogesh Uprit, one of the chief accused, has been granted bail. Surely, a case involving 44 abnormal deaths and colossal corruption merits fast-track probe from the CBI, especially since it is being monitored by the Supreme Court?
NULM scam
Under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), in 2013-14, the Centre had granted Rs 1,028 crore for the construction of low cost residential setups for about 9 lakh urban homeless people. However, in April this year, the Supreme Court observed that barely 208 houses were constructed and branded the gross inadequacy as a "scam", coming down heavily on Maharashtra, to which Rs 170 crore was allotted. Why is the CBI not initiating an inquiry into these financial irregularities?
Lalit Modi scandal
It still remains a matter of public curiosity as to how the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj made special provision for former IPL czar and corruption accused Lalit Modi to fly back and forth from London, ostensibly to visit his ailing wife. Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje's role in facilitating Lalit Modi's travel, too, is under the scanner. Exactly how much progress has the CBI made into these investigations?
Pankaja Munde Chikki scam
Irregularities in purchases for the Integrated Child Development Scheme, a flagship programme launched in Maharashtra by the state's minister for Women and Child Development, Pankaja Munde, daughter of the late Gopinath Munde, have created much unwanted publicity for the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in the state. Contracts worth Rs 230 crore for ICDS child care centres were taken by Pankaja Munde in haste, with substandard food served to malnourished children causing a political slugfest between the BJP and opposition parties. However, the CBI has barely begun to start digging into the matter.
Arun Jaitley and DDCA
Finally, cries of desperation from Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that the CBI raid was basically carried out to obtain the files on Union finance minister Arun Jaitley's alleged involvement in the irregularities practised by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), are something worth paying heed to. Letters from former India cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi and BJP MP Kirti Azad, sent to Arun Jaitley, who was the president of DDCA until December 2014, detailing possible embezzlement, nepotism and tender violations worth Rs 150 crore, have gone unremarked. Letters have alleged that SP Bansal, DDCA's current president, Anil Khanna, general secretary, and Anil Jain, joint secretary, have been involved in fraud and money laundering in transactions involving the DDCA. A frustrated Azad had requested Delhi CM Kejriwal to order an inquiry, which the latter had begun looking into. If Kejriwal's allegations have a grain of truth in them, it would appear that the CBI is in fact doing the Centre's bidding!
Caged parrot, anyone?