War against graft targeted at Opposition

Anger was expressed in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday by the Congress, the main Opposition party, which saw income-tax raids on its minister in Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar, as reprisal for the Congress leader sheltering 40-odd Gujarat Congress MLAs on the run from the BJP’s threats and blandishments on the eve of the Rajya Sabha polls, at his guesthouse on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

With the bringing down of the secular Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar by roping in chief minister Nitish Kumar himself in the exercise of overturning the popular mandate, and the direct mounting of pressure on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, both on corruption-related allegations like the Bengaluru events, the actions of the BJP and its government appear to have imparted a degree of urgency to Opposition concerns.

The drive of the secular Opposition parties seems to be in the direction of accelerating the process of coordinating their efforts, and recover from the recent “betrayal” by the Bihar CM. The proposed rally on August 27 in Patna called by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is likely to give us a glimpse into the state of the preparedness of the parties ranged against the Narendra Modi government’s policies, and the BJP’s ideology and political style of arm-twisting opponents and subverting established democratic norms.

The raids on Mr Shivakumar’s properties in Bengaluru and New Delhi, ostensibly to gather evidence, were done with the CRPF in attendance. The use of Central forces for such a purpose is shocking and speaks of a tendency to drive in fear.

In contrast, the Opposition parties point to several cases against BJP leaders being slackened or ended, like those pertaining to the Assam and Chhattisgarh chief ministers, to say nothing of former ministers in Punjab when it was under NDA rule until not long ago.

It has also not gone unnoticed that this sudden burst of activity to root out corruption in the country has focused exclusively on Opposition parties. Leading officials and BJP leaders from Gujarat, facing trial in criminal cases that were subjects of household discussions when Narendra Modi was chief minister, are being let off by the courts one by one, as if by divine providence.

India’s political democracy is lubricated by corruption. No party, big or small, can be said to be above board. An important part of the reason is the way elections are conducted. Changing the template of the system needs the concerted cooperation of all political parties. But the present government appears to be going after its political opponents with a vengeance in the name of targeting corruption.

This suggests lack of seriousness on its part. Evidently, the government is keen to slay its political opponents long before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.