The Curious Case of BJP’s battle against Corruption

The Universal Post
5 min readOct 9, 2024

--

Photo by Jesus Monroy Lazcano on Unsplash

When the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came to power in 2014; it was on the back of a highly corrupt UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government led by the Congress. Narendra Modi’s anti-corruption plank was trusted by the people, and they voted him to power with full majority. It is a different thing that the stage was set by the CIA’s own men. Now, here don’t confuse CIA with the “Central Intelligence Agency”. Here it means “Commonly Intelligent Angels” — Anna, Kejriwal and the rest. You know what I mean. The CIA failed and the lotus bloomed. My guess is the intelligent Indian voter didn’t plan this. It just happened. Just like 2024: Ab ki baar 400 (oops 240) paar.

Corruption Agenda

One of the things that was high on the BJP agenda was “fighting corruption”. And that it did. How? Well, an SIT was formed to find black money (rings a bell?), Demonetisation of Rs 500 and 1000 notes, introduction of Rs 2000 notes (subsequently withdrawn in 2023), abolishment of the Planning Commission, establishment of NITI Aayog, Digitisation, Ujjwala scheme, GST, Action against 300K+ shell companies, Changes to FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, fraud and money-laundering cases against many businessmen and politicians, toughening of several laws ridding many tax and legal loopholes and so on and so forth.

Thus, the BJP followed, the simple game of “follow the money trail and you will find the culprits”. This did help the nation in many ways: it broke Pakistan’s back and that of many NGOs who were working surreptiously to hollow India from within. The Maoists, the Naxals and N-E insurgents just dissolved as if someone had killed off their money supply. Many government processes became streamlined. Corrupt bureaucrats were raided (used to happen previously as well). The biggest achievement was savings achieved through massive reduction in the siphoning of government funds to unknown beneficiaries. This angered some groups while others were left high and dry. A reduction in outside interference in government formation and functioning further reduced corruption. Government spending and rules were streamlined and that reduced opportunities to do corruption.

However, there is one glaring missing piece to all of this.

The Missing Piece

So many scams happened during the UPA era and during the tenure of various state governments. Many high-profile politicians had cases lodged against them. Some were arrested but were eventually let off. Bail became the “case closed” yardstick for all. Almost all the opposition parties faced this quagmire. This included the DMK, TMC, Congress, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena, TRS and JMM. It was strange how the CWG scam, Coal scam and 2G scam cases have either dragged on or resulted in unsatisfactory convictions and outcomes. Several including Jalebi Gandhi, Muffler Khan, Aloo Yadav, Hemant Sauron, Kavitha, Kanimoi were incarcerated for some time or bailed out. To date, many such high-profile creatures and their associated cases across the political spectrum are only resurrected like Jesus Christ during elections. If you thought the government was sparing the big fish and going after the small ones, then you are wrong. The cases against many second rung leaders of many parties who had clearly indulged in corruption fared no better. The Scam Raja(2G) now passes obnoxious comments against the Sleeping Dharma while some others have chosen to live out their days quietly away from the public eye. The corruption cases just don’t seem to move. There is always political fighting without any public benefit. It seems this is an art, and the BJP has mastered it and thus, many call it “Masterstroke”. Thus, on the face of it, the BJP seems to have failed in a big way. The rot is still there, and it smells worse than ever. But and there is always a “BUT”. Something else may be happening in the background and what might that be?

What could really be happening?

What if the BJP is blackmailing (ahm…negotiating…meaning mandvali) or better still doing hafta vasooli from all such politicians whose cases are dragging on. BJP realises that there is no point in putting such corrupt politicians behind bars and thus granting them the opportunity to play the martyr card. Such politicians behind bars can be far more difficult to deal with than when they roam around freely. But, hey that comes at a cost. What if such politicians pay a regular sum of money to the BJP? Is that why Jalebi Gandhi has been so angry and ready to say and do anything to win back power. Is the anger because all the ill-gotten wealth of the Gandhi clan is slowly shifting to that “right” party. Does boiling blood in many youngsters of the family run fiefdoms prove that they are desperate as they see large sums of their inheritance walk away to manage cases against them/their parties. This includes Stalinson, Uddhamson and Yadavason. After demonetisation, many parties most prominent amongst them, the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) almost went into hibernation. What really happened? Did they lose all their financial firepower? Probably same happened to many other parties but at a lesser scale.

So, if the BJP is recycling corrupt money to its own party fund/kitty, is that a good thing? Is that legal? Obviously not! However, legality in India has gone for a toss. The Indian justice system is ridden with so many holes that even Pandey ji of Dabangg fame will be ashamed. Further on, why do the opposition cry about Adani more than Ambani. Are they seeing the flight of their wealth via BJP to Adani to fund projects across the world. Are they scared of the corporatisation of the BJP and that too with their ill-gotten wealth. It is astounding how the BJP grew so fast and along with that Adani. Where did the money come from? It certainly can’t be from allotment of contracts and compounding of money or new loans from banks. It is certainly a conspiracy theory. But hey, so what. If the BJP is doing so, then it is probably a good way to punish these clans who have sucked the blood out of India. What they did for so long: convert black money into white is what the BJP is doing but the black is not BJP’s but the white certainly will be? Now, that’s what I call a “Masterstroke”. Zero earnings but full profit!!

--

--

The Universal Post

Arunesh is the author of 2 books — The Migrant, A Biography and The Astrologer’s Curse. He works in the energy industry and loves writing and travelling.