Amidst the growing excitement over the Lok Sabha elections, the issue of corruption has once again come out of the genie’s bottle.
At present, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is lodged in Tihar Jail in a corruption case. He is being investigated in the Delhi liquor scam.
Corruption is an issue which every party claims to eliminate, but no one is untouched by it.
Media reports that 25 opposition leaders who were facing action from central agencies for alleged corruption since 2014 joined the BJP and miraculously 23 of them got relief. The investigation against him was either closed or put on hold.
The Indian Express reports that the prominent politicians being mentioned had joined BJP from opposition parties after 2014.
Of these, 10 politicians are from Congress, four each from NCP and Shiv Sena, three from TMC, two from TDP and one each from Samajwadi Party and YSRCP.
What happened to the investigation against them?
Media reports that the corruption investigation against 23 out of 25 politicians resulted in three cases being closed.
20 others are on hold or in cold storage. It is alleged that after joining BJP, the investigation agencies have become inactive. Six politicians included in this list joined BJP just weeks before the general elections this year.
Which leaders got relief as soon as they joined BJP?
When Congress was in power in Assam during the Tarun Gogoi government. The then cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was accused of chit fund scam.
CBI made him an accused in the case. Sarma was last interrogated in November 2014. He joined BJP in August 2015. His file was closed and today he is the Chief Minister of Assam.
Shubhendu Adhikari is currently a strong leader of BJP and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal. Subhendu, who was a minister in the Mamata government, was interrogated by the CBI in the Saradha scam case.
TMC has been alleging that when the officers were in TMC, the investigating agencies used to harass them, but as soon as they joined BJP, they got a clean chit.
The same thing applies to Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. NCP Chief Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit was accused of an irrigation scam worth Rs 70 thousand crore.
Devendra Fadnavis also made serious allegations of corruption against Ajit. Now after joining BJP, the investigation against him has been stopped. Today Ajit is the Deputy CM in the BJP coalition government in Maharashtra.
Similarly, other names include many leaders including Mukul Roy, Hardik Patel, Praveen Dharekar, BS Yediyurappa, Narayan Rane and Jitendra Tiwari.
Records show that the cases of two top leaders of the NCP faction, Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel, were closed. There are 12 names from Maharashtra in the list of total 25 leaders.
Out of which 11 went to BJP in 2022 or after. These include four leaders each from NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress.
Opposition’s allegation- BJP has become a washing machine
Political parties call it a washing machine for targeting opposition leaders in corruption cases. The opposition alleges that BJP has such a washing machine that corruption cases against any leader who joins BJP are closed.
Two months ago, when 14 parties approached the Supreme Court against the action of CBI and ED, PM Modi himself came to its defense. PM Modi had taunted that leaders involved in corruption were coming together on one platform.
Some parties have started the Save Corruption Movement, but the action will not stop. Recently, in an interview given to a South Indian channel, PM Modi again said that the investigating agencies have launched a campaign against the corrupt, which is not going to stop.
Congress also accused
It is not that only BJP has faced such allegations. Even during the Congress government, cases of misuse of investigative agencies had come to light. In 2009, during the Congress-led UPA government, the CBI changed its stance in corruption cases against BSP’s Mayawati and SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav after they extended their support to the UPA.