Crime

BJP going against it’s anti-corruption campaign – inducting accused politicians for the UP polls

The BJP keeps on trying to portray itself as a party that is totally against corruption, very different from the corrupt practices of the Congress and other parties. As a part of this, the party has sought to put itself as the main supporter of the Lokpal campaign, and had sought a strong Lokpal so that an institution to stop the endemic corruption in Government can be put in place. But, from time to time, the BJP also takes steps that immediately portrays the party as being opportunistic and forces those looking for an alternative to the Congress to re-think.
We saw this in the whole drama in Karnataka. It was quite clear for some time that the Yeddyurappa Government in the state was corrupt, indulging in many corrupt practices. And the state of Karnataka was critical for the aims of the BJP in South India, a part of the country where the BJP does not really have much of a presence in terms of electoral seats (either in the state assembly or Parliament). And yet, what the BJP accomplished in Karnataka was drastically opposite to all this, with the party getting a name for having a high degree or corruption; and even when this was recognized, the party was unable to change the Chief Minister who was the embodiment of this corruption.
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The cash for votes scam – High court knocks aside basis of police complaint

Ever since a few BJP MP’s stood up in Parliament and displayed currency notes, claiming that they were being tried to be bribed for their vote, things have gone topsy turvy. The Delhi police ignored the case, putting it in deep freeze for a number of years (I would think that this was logical from their perspective, since any bribery in favor of the motion would mean supporting the Congress Government, and the police was not really expected to investigate anything against the Government). However, a few months back, the Supreme Court (in another action out of the many that put the Government on the defensive) asked the Delhi Police for its action report on the incident, and actually admonished the police for no action even after so much time has happened.
Given this step, the Delhi Police took a really interesting action. In most cases, when somebody complains that there was an attempt to bribe and exposes, you would try and find out who was trying to pay the bribe and who was the ultimate beneficiary of the bribe. However, the Delhi Police instead treated the intermediaries and the complaining MP’s both as the criminals in this case, and sought their arrest, which duly happened. So, there was no investigation as to who would have benefited from the bribe, since in this case, that would have been Manmonhan’s Government. Even when Amar Singh’s involvement was exposed, it was almost orders from the court that forced the police to arrest him, from where he went to the hospital and was then released on bail. The only people whom the police really wanted to keep in jail were the MP’s and ex-MP’s who complained about the attempt to bribe.
The lower court refused to give any relief in terms of bail, but the High Court took a different stand and released the MP’s under bail with a few well chosen comments that seems to knock the stuffing out of the Delhi police case (link to article):
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What exactly is happening in the case of the Jan Lokapal Bill ?

Ever since August, when Anna launched his fast, which was such a huge success in terms of getting the Government to move from not contemplating any changes in the Government version of the Lokpal bill, to a state where Parliament had accepted most of the propositions of Anna (without actually committing to the Bill). The Government was desperate to get the fast ended, and decided to postpone the eventuality by sending the various versions of the Bill to the Standing Committee of Parliament, which in turn would talk to most of the people involved and then finally work out a version of the Bill, which would be sent back to Parliament. For this, the Government had committed in writing to Anna that they would do this in the winter session of Parliament, which is due to start pretty soon.
In the meantime, the Government started its usual smear campaign against the various members of Anna’s team, coupled with some dodgy actions of the team, and also some practices that were more controversial. So, you had Kiran Bedi getting money for her NGO by charging various organizers of events full business fare, and actually going by economy (but the full exposure of this must have gladdened the heart of the Congress side); then you had the discredited Swami Agnivesh creeping out of his hole to allege that money collected during the entire fast was actually taken to Arvind Kejriwal’s NGO (later stated that this was by design, and with full audits revealed of the collection); and Prashant Bhushan making statements of plebiscite in Kashmir, something that does not sit well with the middle class, and did not sit well with Anna. However, if the argument is that only those who have not done anything wrong can campaign against corruption, then we might as well give up and let the corrupt (of the thousands of crores as well) get what they want.
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