(15 Dec) Taking tensions between the Delhi government and the Centre to a new level, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided his office at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also went as far as to call the Prime Minister a ‘coward and a psychopath.’ The central agency has registered a case against Rajendra Kumar for allegedly favouring a firm in getting contracts from Delhi government. A CBI spokesperson said, “The CBI has registered a case against Rajender Kumar, secretary to CM Delhi, on the allegation of abusing his official position by favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders from delhi government departments. After taking warrants, searches are being conducted in the office and residence of Rajendra Kumar.” CBI sources said the case was registered based on a complaint filed former Delhi Dialogue Commission member Ashish Joshi who has a running feud with Kejriwal. Joshi was one of the first few bureaucrats with whom Kejriwal picked up a battle after assuming office in Delhi.

The feud eventually saw an unceremonious exit of Joshi from the Delhi Dialogue Commission. CBI lying. My own office raided. Files of CM office are being looked into. Let Modi say which file he wants? – Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015 “I am the only CM who dismissed, on my own, a minister n a senior officer on charges of corruption and handed their cases to CBI. If CBI had any evidence against Rajender, why didn’t they share it wid me? I wud hv acted against him,” Kejriwal wrote on Twitter. The raid could potentially be the latest flash-point in what has been a highly troublesome and tumultous relationship between the AAP government and the BJP-ruled Centre ever since Kejriwal assumed power. Explained: Last week, The Indian Express Kumar, the most powerful bureaucrat in the capital, was questioned several times by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government in connection with the 2002 CNG fitness scam case. Sources said Kumar denied any involvement in the case. Back in June, the Home Ministry was all set to initiate disciplinary action against Kumar for not relinquishing his position. Kumar had assumed the charge of home secretary after the city government shifted incumbent senior IAS officer Dharam Pal and placed him at the disposal of the Home Ministry following a tussle between the AAP government and Lt-Governor Najeeb Jung over the appointment of Mukesh Kumar Meena as chief of Anti-Corruption Branch. The government on its part has denied any involvement in the CBI raids.

On Friday, proceedings in Parliament continued to be disrupted with Congress MPs refusing to relent on their vociferous protest against the government for what they claim is “political vendetta”. The Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned more than once. It has been like this for the past four days ever since a trial court in Delhi issued summons to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, who is also the party vice-president, in what has come to be known as the ‘National Herald Case’.

The questionable acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd, a public limited company and publisher of the now defunct newspaper National Herald, by Young Indian, a private limited company in which Sonia and Rahul own 38% shares each, has been in the news for some time. The details of how Congress funds were used for the transaction that has given Young Indian control over AJL’s vast prime properties are by now well known and need not be recounted in detail.

Two points are of interest and merit elaboration. First, the National Herald case dates back to the time when Congress was in office as the head of the UPA government and Sonia wielded enormous power, though no accountability. Documents related to the AJL-Young Indian deal appeared in the public domain in 2012, a full two years before the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Second, Subramanian Swamy, who has taken the transaction to court alleging “criminal breach of trust”, was not a member of the BJP in 2012-13. That he has since joined the BJP does not in any manner change the fact that the petition was filed by a private citizen and maintained by the judiciary.

Therefore, to allege, as the Congress is doing, that the National Herald case is a BJP-inspired litigation or harassment by proxy by the government of the day is at once far-fetched and untenable. Unless the Congress is insinuating that the judiciary, including the High Court of Delhi, is willing to do the bidding of the government. That would be tipping over into the dangerous zone of contempt which any well-wisher of the Congress and admirer of the Nehru Dynasty should try and avoid.

Ideally, the Congress should have responded to the court summons, issued after the High Court rejected the defendants’ plea, with dignity. Sonia and Rahul should have said they would be present in court (which in any case they have agreed to do on December 19) and let the law take its own course. The numerous top gun lawyers in the Congress should have said they would contest and disprove Swamy’s charge of criminal misdemeanour (which the court says is prima facie valid).

Instead, the only other national party’s response has been anything but dignified. Flatterers have sensed an opportunity to demonstrate loyalty. Lawyers have betrayed a certain tasteless disdain for the judiciary and judicial process. The First Family of the Congress has been less than gracious.

“I am Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law. I am not afraid,” said Sonia in response to the summons. “This is pure vendetta coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office,” added Rahul. “This is political vendetta… Modi’s dictatorship… Hitlership…” has been the subsequent loyalist refrain both inside and outside Parliament, prompting Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha PJ Kurien to quip, in half amusement and half puzzlement, “Why are you howling? It is not in human nature to howl.”

Not surprisingly, the Trinamool Congress has come out in support of the Congress and the Dynasty. The TMC’s top leaders are facing prosecution for benefiting from chit fund scams and the party’s boss Mamata Banerjee has similarly claimed “political vendetta” as the heat generated by the CBI’s investigation threatens to singe, if not scorch her. It makes sense to make common cause.

Surprisingly, though, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has made a fetish of fighting corruption and misuse of office for self, has maintained a loud silence on the National Herald Case. So loud that Delhi is awash with stories of an AAP-Congress alliance in the making as part of a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ to take on the NDA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

But corruption has never succeeded in trouncing political expediency. At the moment, the ongoing sideshows of stated and unstated solidarity with the Congress are not really overwhelmingly important. At best they indicate the direction of future winds.

What should concern everyone, especially those who worry about the revival of India’s economy without which neither jobs nor development would happen, is the disruption of proceedings in Parliament. There are many who see nothing wrong with this; after all the BJP did it too when in Opposition. That’s whataboutery at best and chicanery at worst. It could be argued if the BJP’s stalling of parliamentary proceedings was wrong, it does not make the Congress’s disruptive tactics right. More importantly, as someone acidly commented on Twitter, “The BJP stalled proceedings to protest Congress’s corruption; the Congress is doing the same to protest Congress’s corruption”.

Popular perception is not influenced in the Congress’s favour given the present circumstances. Arguably, corruption per se is never a clincher of an election issue or else Lalu Prasad Yadav, convicted of corruption and out on bail, would not have succeeded in winning more seats for his party RJD than Nitish Kumar could for his JDU in the Bihar Assembly election. But the Congress would be committing a huge mistake in copying the Lalu Model. The crafty meshing of identity politics and community votes in caste-ridden Bihar helped Lalu Prasad Yadav. That advantage does not accrue to the Congress.

More importantly, India was a different country in 1975 when Mrs Indira Gandhi could thumb her nose at the judiciary, bank on ‘committed judges’, and impose Emergency with impunity after the Allahabad High Court judgement unseated her from Parliament and disqualified her from contesting elections. Forty years later, it would be disastrous for Mrs Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law to attempt a replay of her mother-in-law’s brazen bravado. Nor should Sonia bank on recreating her mother-in-law’s post-1977 victimhood narrative. Like Morarji Desai, Narendra Modi may be a Gujarati, stern and puritan, but the comparison does not extend any further. The two, to use a cliche, are as different as chalk and cheese as are the Janata and NDA governments.

Equally important is the fact that unlike the Shah Commission of Inquiry, the judiciary is not a creation of the government. Narendra Modi may be a Gujarati, stern and puritan, but the comparison does not extend any further. The two, to use a cliche, are as different as chalk and cheese as are the Janata and NDA Governments.

Wisdom demands that the Congress demonstrate maturity and display responsibility to remind people that it still remains a national party. Unless the disruption ends, the GST Bill will not pass in the Rajya Sabha and the April deadline for its implementation won’t be met. Surely this fact is not lost on the Congress?

Or are we to assume that the Congress has decided not to allow any legislation to pass the Parliament’s approval by blocking Bills in the Rajya Sabha under some excuse or the other? If the Congress strategy is to hobble the Modi government by blocking key legislation, then there is little to say. All that can be said is that this would amount to cutting India’s nose to spite Congress’s face.

GUWAHATI: Six BJP MLAs and nine from Congress, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party, were today suspended from Assam Assembly for the 5-day Winter Session by Speaker Pranab Gogoi for disobeying his ruling and creating noisy scenes. Just before the beginning of the Question Hour on the first day of the session, the Speaker gave the ruling that all the BJP members and those from Congress supporting it, have been suspended from the House for the entire Winter Session. BJP has six MLAs and nine Congress MLAs recently announced their decision to join the party. All of them were suspended. The strength of the Assembly is 126. Earlier, when the House assembled, BJP MLA Jadav Chandra Deka demanded scrapping of the Question Hour and holding of a discussion on the “deteriorating law and order situation” in the state.

“The law and order situation is deteriorating day by day. Hindi-speaking people are being tortured and Jehadi activities are on rise. Allow us to discuss the issues by today itself,” Deka said. When the Speaker did not accept his demand, all BJP MLAs stood up and shouted in support of their demand. Immediately, all Congress MLAs, including the ministers, countered the opposition demand by shouting back. The BJP MLAs then rushed to the Well of the House and pressed the Speaker with their demand. They were joined by the Congress MLAs, who had recently declared their allegiance to the opposition party but had not resigned from the ruling party. Thereafter, two Congress MLAs also rushed to the Well and shouted slogans against BJP, leading to a face-off between the members. With no signs of cooling of frayed tempers, the Speaker called the Marshals, who took the BJP MLAs out of the House, and announced his decision to suspend the members for the Winter Session period. Congress MLAs then returned to their seats and normal business began. Outside the House, the expelled BJP members shouted slogans against the state government and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who holds the Home portfolio. The opposition members also demanded immediate resignation of the Chief Minister for failing to improve the law and order situation in the state. However, the Congress MLAs, supporting BJP, have not formally resigned forcing the ruling party to seek termination of their membership just before the start of the Winter Session. Today, after the Question Hour ended, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rockybul Hussain again demanded action against the nine Congress members. “Some of our MLAs walked out with BJP members and they have not resigned from the party. It proves that they have defected. There are many recommendations against defection in India. I request you to take action against them accordingly,” Hussain told the Speaker. On this, the Speaker said, “I will take action as per rules.”