Why doesn’t CBI act against Jaitley & friends, asks Kirti Azad

It was ironically a BJP Member of Parliament who on Tuesday called the bluff of CBI’s raids in Chennai and Income Tax department’s dramatic searches for disproportionate wealth allegedly concealed by RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family members.

Azad, who has been alleging corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) during the tenure of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as President, tweeted why the CBI has not yet raided friends of Jaitley who made a killing while he was President of DDCA.

In one of his tweets last week, Azad had said that while the brother-in-law of Arvind Kejriwal is described as ‘mafia’ over an allegedly irregular dealing of ₹2 crore, what about the 19 companies with the same address, the same email and the same directors, who were allegedly paid ₹132 crore?

Azad claims that he had submitted the documents in support of his allegations to the CBI. But the central investigative agency has predictably not moved against Jaitley and friends.

RJD chief Lalu Yadav also tweeted that he would not succumb to pressure and coercive tactics. “My name is Lalu Yadav—I am not afraid of your agencies,” he declared. Saying that he was being told that he would be arrested long before the August 27 rally, Lalu re-tweeted Mamata Banerjee’s supportive tweet that she would be there at the rally on August 27.

There was mixed reaction to the CBI and IT Department’s TV-friendly forays on Tuesday, the day when results of the 2014 general election had been declared three years ago. While the hashtag #3yearsoffailure trended on Twitter for some time and some people felt that the raids and searches were diversionary tactics to take attention away from the failures of the Government, others welcomed the drive against corruption.

Vendetta or anti-corruption drive?

“Corruption in public life is nothing but cancer. It needs to be eradicated with impunity. Anyone indulging in an act of corruption—howsoever high or mighty he or she may be—should not be spared. Going by this standard, the Modi government move to conduct IT and CBI raids on Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambram and Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad Yadav’s premises must be welcomed,” said a political observer.

There were quick rejoinders too as people expressed doubts that the campaign could well be designed to defame and discredit political rivals. “What has been happening in the last few weeks in the guise of taking on so called ‘‘corrupt” politicians border more on vendetta rather than any sincere effort to eradicate corruption from public life,” was the opinion shared by several others.

There certainly seems to be a method in the madness in the entire anti-corruption campaign against opposition politicians. First, a leak about some alleged financial misdeed is planted through media to create a negative perception about certain politician. As it recently happened in the case of Lalu Prasad Yadav, there were first reports of some alleged wrongdoings of Lalu’s daughter Misa in property deals. Once these stories appeared in print, the electronic media went to town debating and discussing his alleged misdeeds.

Nothing has been conclusively proven so far against Lalu Prasad in legal terms but he has been tried and declared guilty by the media. Then IT and CBI moved in to raid Lalu’s residence and anything and everything related with him.

Similar tactics has been used in the case of P Chidambram whose son Kanti has been under media attack in so-called “corruption” charges. A similar story is being repeated in the case of BSP supremo Mayawati in whose case audio tapes of her telephonic conversation with her former party colleague Naseemuddin suddenly started doing the social media rounds.

All this point to very systematic and synchronised attempts at character assassination of selected Opposition leaders who could put up a challenge to the government.

If the government had an honest intention to fight corruption, it would not have used a different yardstick against BJP leaders who have been facing grave corruption charges.