The BJP has clearly squandered considerable goodwill in recent days. Controversies swirling around Lalit Modi, the former boss of IPL, have enmeshed two of the party’s top women leaders. Both Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje have had improper dealings with the rogue businessman. Modi had close links not only with these two BJP leaders but with a number of politicians and VIPs from several other parties as well. It maybe possible to make a case that both Swaraj and Raje committed no grave crime, helping him get travel papers in the case of the former and by urging the British to allow him to continue to stay in the country in the latter’s case. But both leaders compounded their mistakes by offering unconvincing explanations for their improper actions. If Swaraj wanted to help Modi on humanitarian grounds, she ought to have done so through the regular ministerial channels. By keeping it hush-hush, she suggested that she herself was not convinced of the correctness of her action. Raje made it hard for herself by denying that she had appended her signatures to an affidavit which sought uninterrupted stay for Modi in Britain. Since a blue corner notice was pending against Modi, her action was tantamount to helping a fugitive from the Indian law. However, the fact that three former Supreme Court judges too had done the same would suggest that Raje committed no grave crime.
In fact, one of the former SC judges said on affidavit that the Indian Government had wrongly revoked Modi’s passport. This should take the sting out of criticism against Swaraj and Raje. Admittedly, the actions of both BJP leaders constituted improper behaviour. But that would not oblige either to quit their ministerial posts. As for the hugely inflated price at which Modi bought shares worth Rs. 11 crores in a company owned by Raje’s son and a member of the Lok Sabha, Dushyant Singh, unless a quid pro quo is established, the transaction could not be called corrupt. After all, at the time of the investment Raje was not in power. Even if she was, no evidence has been produced to suggest that the investment was a pay-off for favours by the Rajasthan Government. Yes, the transaction does appear to be fishy, even if Modi in his generosity towards the son of an old family friend was keen to help him in a business venture. But unless Raje’s critics can establish that the investment was a bribe for favours done by the State Government, it will be hard to make a strong case for removing Raje.
Indeed, the comparison with Robert Vadra’s financial dealings with the real estate firm, DLF, is not correct for the simple reason that in his case a quid pro quo clearly existed. The Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government in Haryana actually helped Vadra to acquire land from private owners and then transfer the same at a whopping premium to DLF after it changed its land use from agriculture to commercial. No such case has been made out against Raje’s son.
But it is undeniable that the on-going revelations from the Modi Files have tarnished the image of the BJP. It cannot take shelter behind the plea that others, particularly the Congress, have a much worse record on probity. The fact that the BJP’s core constituency of middle-class is far more sensitive to the breach of propriety, in sharp contrast to the Congress’s traditional support base among the poor and the minorities, ought to have alerted the party leadership to the need to follow a strict code of conduct. Unfortunately, the general lack of norms and scruples in the wider polity have afflicted the so-called `party with a difference’ as well. The Congress leadership might be desperate to paint its chief rival in the worst of hues but the fact that a number of other Opposition groups are unwilling to be a party to its obstructionist agenda in Parliament might yet help the ruling party get over the hurdles in the coming monsoon session of Parliament. As for Raje, though the Congress can be expected to make a huge noise in the Assembly, given the overwhelming numbers Raje commands, she too might weather the storm. Right now there seems to be no likelihood of the party leadership considering a change in Rajasthan. But, without doubt, Raje’s unassailable position in the Rajasthan BJP has suffered badly following the exposure of her nexus with the alleged IPL scamster. She has reason to be contrite for her reckless behavior, especially when she was dealing with a highly unreliable customer such as Lalit Modi.
