Vyapam, Lalitgate scandals reveal a Modi govt that is far more brazen than corrupt UPA

It’s not surprising that that the BJP has chosen to brazen out the serious charges of impropriety and corruption both at the Centre and in the states, rather than subjecting itself to the test of high standards that it swore by, because it’s indeed a party with a difference. There are no two ways about the fact that the Congress-led UPA was steeped in corruption and impropriety. However, what was encouraging was that the party didn’t resist public pressure for too long or deflect attention through mealy-mouthed spokespersons or malicious cyber squads. Every time they came under attack, the UPA ministers were asked to resign and prove their innocence. Not that the Congress didn’t try to save them, but the party didn’t brazen it out. Every single person who was alleged of corruption or impropriety during the UPA ultimately resigned. [caption id=“attachment_2332964” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI image[/caption] Compare it with the BJP, the party with a difference that promised good governance and zero-tolerance to corruption. Despite clear evidence of misuse of office, explicit conflict of interest and even pecuniary benefits, the party chose to justify and protect Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje in Lalit-gate. No amount of proof was good enough for the BJP to concede political misdemeanour because the party had decided not to give in to public scrutiny. Citing legalese, the party tried to pull the wool over the eyes of its opponents and the media. Its stand was no different on the allegations against Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde (corruption), Union minister Smriti Irani (fake education claims), and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Kiren Rijju (abuse of power). And the most shocking was the Vyapam scam which has metamorphosed into a killer epidemic under Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Until Tuesday, the party was not even open to external scrutiny. even as people connected with the scam died like flies. The same brazenness of mis-governance was also seen in the appointments of Sangh ideologues with dubious credentials to key public institutions, the latest being a small-time actor with a laughable portfolio heading the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. FTII students as well as the film fraternity across the country felt slighted, outraged and are up in arms, but the party doesn’t care. The UPA took a decade to decay, but the BJP is showing signs of a deeper malaise in its first year itself. However, it doesn’t want a diagnosis and treatment. It’s not benign denial, but an undemocratic defiance. This brazenness is what makes the BJP different from the Congress, not its commitment to transparency and corruption-free governance. In an interview with Times of India on Wednesday, noted film-maker Anand Patwardhan summarises it lucidly:  “This is not Congress rule where despite massive corruption, the government was somewhat vulnerable to public pressure. The Sangh Parivar is made of different mettle. As you can gauge from the Raje and Swaraj episodes they have decided to brazen out anything and everything, no matter what the consequences.” This is exactly what Home Minister Rajanth Singh’s early defiance meant when he said,“our ministers do not have to resign. This is not their (Congress’) government. This is NDA government.” Patwardhan’s opinion is bang on. Compared to the present government, when there was pressure on the Congress to sack its ministers Shashi Tharoor and Ashwini Kumar, the party did resist first, but ultimately gave up. The Congress could have easily brazened it out by citing that there was absolutely nothing against them on record, let alone any charge of corruption. Tharoor didn’t make money on the IPL or influence the BCCI to get Kochi the franchise. Sunanda Puskhar, who apparently had sweat equity on the Kochi team, was not his wife then. The charge against Kumar was that he tried to influence the CBI as the law minister. But in the end, they both resigned for nothing more than alleged impropriety, because that’s what the public and media wanted. Going by that yardstick, all the BJP ministers who are on the dock, should have gone by now. But they wont, because the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, as Patwardhan says, is made of different mettle. Going by its record of just one year in office, it’s really hard to fathom what exactly is the BJP’s self-proclaimed high standard for impropriety and transparency. If there was no conflict of interest in the case of Raje and Swaraj, what exactly is BJP’s definition or standard for the term? In retrospect, how do its leaders justify their demand for the resignation of Tharoor and Kumar? How does the BJP justify good governance if its ministers hold up flights of state run airlines? How does it justify transparency, if it’s unwilling to furnish details for RTI queries on Lalit-gate and resist external investigations into deadly scams such as Vyapam? How does it justify good governance if it keeps posting ineligible lightweights and people who make false claims on their education to critical jobs? Accountability, transparency and fairness are essential principles of good governance and these terms are well understood across the world. The BJP seems to be reinventing them.