The NDA government happily mentioned at the end of the first anniversary of them having assumed office in May 2014 that there were no scams in the one year after their assuming office.
Not even a month passed and we have multiple scams that has cropped up - Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje connection with Lalit Modi, Vyapam Scam, Pankaja Munde scam, PDS Rice Scam in Chattisgarh. BJP can still say that these are issues (except in the case of Swaraj) all are not related to the central government, but the perception that these scams create in the people's mind in very bad.
Let us go over one by one
Sushma Swaraj
She got the British government issue travel document for Lalit Modi so that he can be with his wife who was supposed to undergo treatment in Portugal. She did that without involving her ministry or checking with the Finance Ministry (under whom the ED comes) which had a case against Lalit Modi. Her defence was that she did this on humanitarian consideration. She has a personal relationship with Lalit Modi and her husband and daughter were working for him - with those in mind she should have recused herself from this issue and let her bureaucrats handle the issue. The best option would have been to have him promise to get back to India in lieu of the travel document. The defense that there is money involved doesn't cut ice.
She didn't involve her ministry, talked to her England counterpart directly, didn't get inputs from Finance ministry and didn't recuse herself from a case of a close friend doesn't warrant her to continue in the Government.
Vasundhara Raje
Vasundhara issued an affidavit to support Modi being issued travel document and stating that the case against him are politically motivated and she explicitly stated that her giving this affidavit should not be revealed to the Indian authorities. There is a money angle also to this where Lalit Modi has invested money in her son's firm. It is debatable whether this is quid pro quo but there is proof that money has changed hands in lieu of some shares in his company.
Vasundhara is a strong regional leader and she can even bring down the Rajasthan government or start a party on her own if she is asked to resign. That will definitely play in the mind of the BJP leadership. Her giving an affidavit to an accused with a disclaimer that her affidavit should not be known to the Indian authorities is in itself a reason for her to go.
Vyapam Scam
I am scared to write about it. This is a bit old as it is about the irregularities in recruitment and entrance exams (munnabhai style) which happened between 2008 and 2013 (not sure if it is still continuing). The issue has come up to limelight because many of the witness/accused are dying under mysterious circumstances. We have had maybe one or two witness being killed but so many dying is a cause of concern. We still don't really know the whole truth about this but with SC hearing a bunch of petitions requiring CBI probe has made the CM extremely vulnerable. As the central government is led someone who is not very close to him.
Chattisgarh PDS Scam
As far as scams goes this is pretty simple one - Increase the number of PDS ration cards on record and pocket the money that was supposed to go to providing PDS to these cards. There was an huge increase in the BPL cards issued and there was cash found in ACB raid in March of this year to the tune of 4 crores. This is also early days for this scam and it has to be thoroughly investigated as to who are the real beneficiaries of the scam.
Pankaja Munde Scam
The issue being raised is that there were orders issued by her to persons known to her family without following due tender process. This is a case of probity - in case the orders were issued to anyone other than the people known to her family there wouldn't have been any case as it could be explained as executive decision and as long as there were no money involved that explanation would have been accepted (same as the 2G case - the 1.76Lakh scam can easily be explained as executive decision but the 200 crore money trail to Kalaignar TV cannot be explained).
Congress is Happy
Congress must be very happy having so many scams to go against the ruling NDA government. However, there seems to be no clear strategy on how to handle these which was clear from their going on about the palaces and losing focus. It is clear that the monsoon session will go for a toss if no action is taken on these scams especially the Lalitgate where they will not relent till they get the blood of both Vasundhara and Sushma. Surprising that Media has moved on to Vyapam scam having forgotten the Lalitgate from this week - Congress cannot afford to do that. This is the best opportunity for them to make a come back.
The Prime minister has kept quite and it is his prerogative on when he wants to speak. As Swapan Das mentioned in his article today I remember the interview where Rajdeep kept asking about riot and he didn't utter a word about it and kept staring in the distant and Rajdeep was forced to move on. There is no necessity for him to speak also.
What's Next
Sushma and Vasundhara have to resign and there should be a thorough probe on the other three scams. Why is it that the BJP has not pressed them to resign yet? - It is simple this will set the benchmark for all other scams. BJP would not want to yield so soon. July 21st is when the Monsoon session is going to start and it is going to be interesting to see whether they wait till the Monsoon session is completely washed out or act before that.
Not even a month passed and we have multiple scams that has cropped up - Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje connection with Lalit Modi, Vyapam Scam, Pankaja Munde scam, PDS Rice Scam in Chattisgarh. BJP can still say that these are issues (except in the case of Swaraj) all are not related to the central government, but the perception that these scams create in the people's mind in very bad.
Let us go over one by one
Sushma Swaraj
She got the British government issue travel document for Lalit Modi so that he can be with his wife who was supposed to undergo treatment in Portugal. She did that without involving her ministry or checking with the Finance Ministry (under whom the ED comes) which had a case against Lalit Modi. Her defence was that she did this on humanitarian consideration. She has a personal relationship with Lalit Modi and her husband and daughter were working for him - with those in mind she should have recused herself from this issue and let her bureaucrats handle the issue. The best option would have been to have him promise to get back to India in lieu of the travel document. The defense that there is money involved doesn't cut ice.
She didn't involve her ministry, talked to her England counterpart directly, didn't get inputs from Finance ministry and didn't recuse herself from a case of a close friend doesn't warrant her to continue in the Government.
Vasundhara Raje
Vasundhara issued an affidavit to support Modi being issued travel document and stating that the case against him are politically motivated and she explicitly stated that her giving this affidavit should not be revealed to the Indian authorities. There is a money angle also to this where Lalit Modi has invested money in her son's firm. It is debatable whether this is quid pro quo but there is proof that money has changed hands in lieu of some shares in his company.
Vasundhara is a strong regional leader and she can even bring down the Rajasthan government or start a party on her own if she is asked to resign. That will definitely play in the mind of the BJP leadership. Her giving an affidavit to an accused with a disclaimer that her affidavit should not be known to the Indian authorities is in itself a reason for her to go.
Vyapam Scam
I am scared to write about it. This is a bit old as it is about the irregularities in recruitment and entrance exams (munnabhai style) which happened between 2008 and 2013 (not sure if it is still continuing). The issue has come up to limelight because many of the witness/accused are dying under mysterious circumstances. We have had maybe one or two witness being killed but so many dying is a cause of concern. We still don't really know the whole truth about this but with SC hearing a bunch of petitions requiring CBI probe has made the CM extremely vulnerable. As the central government is led someone who is not very close to him.
Chattisgarh PDS Scam
As far as scams goes this is pretty simple one - Increase the number of PDS ration cards on record and pocket the money that was supposed to go to providing PDS to these cards. There was an huge increase in the BPL cards issued and there was cash found in ACB raid in March of this year to the tune of 4 crores. This is also early days for this scam and it has to be thoroughly investigated as to who are the real beneficiaries of the scam.
Pankaja Munde Scam
The issue being raised is that there were orders issued by her to persons known to her family without following due tender process. This is a case of probity - in case the orders were issued to anyone other than the people known to her family there wouldn't have been any case as it could be explained as executive decision and as long as there were no money involved that explanation would have been accepted (same as the 2G case - the 1.76Lakh scam can easily be explained as executive decision but the 200 crore money trail to Kalaignar TV cannot be explained).
Congress is Happy
Congress must be very happy having so many scams to go against the ruling NDA government. However, there seems to be no clear strategy on how to handle these which was clear from their going on about the palaces and losing focus. It is clear that the monsoon session will go for a toss if no action is taken on these scams especially the Lalitgate where they will not relent till they get the blood of both Vasundhara and Sushma. Surprising that Media has moved on to Vyapam scam having forgotten the Lalitgate from this week - Congress cannot afford to do that. This is the best opportunity for them to make a come back.
The Prime minister has kept quite and it is his prerogative on when he wants to speak. As Swapan Das mentioned in his article today I remember the interview where Rajdeep kept asking about riot and he didn't utter a word about it and kept staring in the distant and Rajdeep was forced to move on. There is no necessity for him to speak also.
What's Next
Sushma and Vasundhara have to resign and there should be a thorough probe on the other three scams. Why is it that the BJP has not pressed them to resign yet? - It is simple this will set the benchmark for all other scams. BJP would not want to yield so soon. July 21st is when the Monsoon session is going to start and it is going to be interesting to see whether they wait till the Monsoon session is completely washed out or act before that.
