The arrest of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers taking bribes in Rajasthan has emboldened the Congress to intensify its attack on the Narendra Modi government for the misuse of central agencies, wondering why only Opposition leaders were being selectively targeted by the central agencies.
While Congress media department chief Pawan Khera said the arrest of ED officers for letting off the accused in a chit-fund case for Rs 15 lakh showed rot in the agency, indicating that officers were fully compromised from top to bottom, he also asked why the ED had forgotten the address of all BJP-ruled states. “Five states are going to elections. Why is the ED active during the campaign only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where the Congress is in power? Some months ago, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh had elections. Did the ED raid anybody there?”
While raids on the Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasara in Rajasthan happened in connection with paper leaks, this issue was dominating the Gujarat election but the ED did not intervene. Addressing a news conference in Bhopal on Friday, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “The FIR in Patwari scam says chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was aware of the irregularities since April 4, 2023 but the examinations continued till April 25. Why did the chief minister remain silent after he knew of the scam?”
Surjewala said: “The racket of selling jobs has been running in Madhya Pradesh for 18 years. It has become the centre of recruitment scams. Vyapam shocked the nation but dental and medical seats were sold for crores, turning out to be an even bigger scam. Then came the nursing scam. Now Patwari scam.”
Even in Karnataka, ED was grilling Congress leaders while the BJP government faced serious charges of wrongdoing.
This accorded credence to the Congress allegation that the ED, CBI and income tax department were the star campaigners for the BJP in state elections.
Addressing two rallies in Chhattisgarh, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s duplicity on corruption, recalling how he targeted Bhupesh Baghel for 30 per cent commission while remaining silent on 40 per cent commission in Karnataka.
Kharge said: “Everybody called the BJP government 40 per cent sarkar in Karnataka. But even the BJP never made this allegation of a 30 per cent cut against Baghel in the last five years. Now the Prime Minister suddenly makes this allegation without any proof.”
On Thursday, Modi said: “30 per cent kakka, kam apna pucca.”
Though the ED has been conducting raids in Chhattisgarh in different cases over the year, this 30 per cent tag that Modi attached to Baghel was a poll-time decision. But the timing of ED officers’ arrest in Rajasthan came as a jolt to the central government, clouding Modi’s narrative of his very presence being a guarantee against corruption.
Khera said: “The agency that has been assigned the task of fighting corruption is involved in deal-making. Officers are caught red-handed accepting bundles of notes.”
This is not the first time that the ED officers have been caught making deals. An assistant director of ED was arrested by the CBI in August for accepting bribe. While the Opposition parties have highlighted that the conviction rate of ED cases has been pathetic, courts have repeatedly commented on the functioning of the ED.
Khera on Friday said questions will be asked if 95 per cent of raids are against Opposition leaders. He reeled out names of high-profile Opposition leaders whose cases were put on the back burner after they joined the BJP.
Khera said: “The Congress always wants the investigative agencies to remain strong. But their credibility is important. They should not work under anybody’s control. They must protect their autonomy. Our only concern is that the ED, CBI, and income tax department should not work as Modi’s frontline warriors. You send ED-CBI to states and start tormenting some leaders. They give in after a while and then you send J.P. Nadda to induct them into the BJP. What a mockery you have made of politics!”
