NaMo's silence over LaMo: Is the PM following the 'Maun-Mohan Singh' path?

The BJP’s biggest grouse against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, before and after the 2014 elections, was that while claiming to be clean himself he facilitated corruption by being silent on his scamster-colleagues. Narendra Modi mocked him as “Maun-mohan Singh” while his party called him a “puppet” who “lied with a straight face”. [caption id=“attachment_1491047” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi with Manmohan Singh. Reuters[/caption] In less than a year, Modi’s pungent remarks are coming back to bite him. Faced with the first scandal of his government, that too involving one of the most senior leaders of his party, he has been unable to utter a word. The man who declared war on corruption and made fun of Manmohan’s silence looks like a king who promised too much. More over, what also gets deflated is the carefully cultivated legend of the iron fist that controlled all ministries. With the Swaraj-Lalit Modi expose, it’s abundantly clear that he either knew nothing or had kept quiet. Either way, this is exactly what Manmohan also had been accused of. But there is a critical difference - Manmohan had accumulated his silence over ten years while Modi has just begun. After considerable wrangling and brainstorming, the BJP has argued that there was nothing wrong in Sushma Swaraj helping Lalit Modi because he was an overseas Indian in distress. But what the party compulsively blocked out are these cold facts: that Lalit Modi was an accused in serious economic offence cases filed by the government of India; that Swaraj violated standard operating procedures to help him out, and acted on her own; that because of her family’s professional/personal involvement with him there was a clear case of conflict of interest; and that there was indeed an “appearance of impropriety” which according to international conventions can be termed corruption. More over, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, there is still a “light blue” notice against Lalit Modi and reportedly the Enforcement Directorate is in the process of slapping a Rs 1700 crore penalty on him. A man wanted by one arm of the government being patronised by another. In August last year, Narendra Modi had said in Haryana  that corruption was worse than cancer and can destroy the country. “Some people said I did not say anything about corruption in my address on Independence Day. Let me remind them, I had talked about the ‘mera kya’ and ‘mujhe kya’ culture of corruption which has ruined this country. This has to change now,” was his catchy assertion. In less than a year, the Swaraj scandal has exploded on his face and he hasn’t ostensibly asked these “mera kya” and “mujhe kya” questions to her. It’s not his public rhetoric and promises against corruption that look compromised. Last month, the Union cabinet had reportedly recommended strengthening the section in the Prevention of Corruption Act that deals with the abuse of official position by public servants. According to the new provision, “any person who obtains or attempts to obtain undue advantage for himself or for another person, by abusing his position as a public servant or by using his personal influence over another public servant shall be liable to imprisonment for up to a minimum of three years and which can be extended to seven years.” Reportedly, the proposed change is to deter public servants from violating “a statutory duty or any set of rules, government policies, executive instructions and procedures.” Shouldn’t Modi have asked Swaraj to stand up and explain? Equally damaging for Narendra Modi’s reputation is the ministries of Finance and External Affairs working at cross-purposes. Lalit Modi is an accused in the eyes of the Finance Ministry which went to the extent of stripping him of his passport, but for the Foreign Ministry (or rather the Minister), he is a man who needed help even if it meant short-circuiting the former’s efforts to bring him to book. When his passport revocation was nullified by the Delhi High Court, the Foreign Ministry didn’t go on appeal even though the decision to take back his passport came from the Finance Ministry. Obviously, the Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry either didn’t talk to each other on this or the former kept the latter in the dark. Either way, there was no coordination. If Narendra Modi was in control of his Ministries and ministers as had been widely claimed in media reports, how did this happen? Apparently, Manmohan had asked his office to keep him at arm’s length from the 2G spectrum allocation while the scam was brewing. By being silent and inactive, he willy-nilly colluded with corruption. That’s precisely what brought Narendra Modi and the BJP to power. Now, by being tight-lipped, Modi too seems to be following in the footsteps of Manmohan in the first scandal that his government has faced. From the manner in which the RSS and various BJP leaders jumped to Swaraj’s rescue, probably Modi’s silence stems from the power struggle within the Sangh parivar and his party. If Manmohan had to satisfy the gluttony of coalition partners and keep quiet on their money-making ways, Modi is faced with the factional demands from the Sangh and the party. With the gnawing  example of a “clean” predecessor who couldn’t act, shouldn’t he break free and live up to his image and promise?