The arrest of CC 'Kallu' Thampi, the Dubai-based businessman and alleged associate of Congress 'damaad' Robert Vadra, ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, should play well for the AAP and the BJP. Both parties have successfully politicised corruption in the past and benefitted electorally.
The BJP's first attempt to mobilise votes on corruption and black money, back in 2009, came a cropper. Ahead of the general elections, L K Advani had promised to bring back “Rs 25,000 crore” worth of unnacounted money stashed by Indian nationals in tax havens abroad (incidentally, it was K N Govindarcharya who first red-flagged black money), but the issue had no electoral traction whatsoever.
It was Arvind Kejriwal who took the ball and ran with it. A key figure in the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement — a rare instance of middle class mobilisation which shook the UPA government — he delivered another (and fatal) blow with his stunning expose of Robert Vadra's real estate empire, built on loans from realty major DLF. The issue escalated when Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka negated a deal between Vadra and DLF. It proved a political jackpot for both the BJP and Kejriwal, who went on to found AAP and lead it to a historic win in 2015.
In the 7-odd years since Kejriwal blew the whistle on Vadra, thereby triggering a plethora of investigations, new facts have come to light. The Thampi-Vadra connection was uncovered by the media at least two years ago but the exposes did not elicit a significant response, because by then the AAP and BJP were in power and at loggerheads with each other. Corruption was no longer central to their agenda.
The DLF-Vadra case seceded into the background, largely because the BJP-led Haryana government was disinterested in carrying forward investigations into land fraud. Whatever breakthroughs were achieved on this front can be attributed to the judiciary and the CBI. It was not until the eve of the 2019 elections that an FIR was registered on the suspect transaction, essentially reiterating the facts that Khemka had already revealed.
Soon after, the Enforcement Directorate which had been probing both Vadra and Thampi in connection with land deals in Rajasthan, asked for custodial interrogation of Vadra in a money-laundering case. But Priyanka Gandhi stood by her husband and public response indicated that the Vadra issue was unlikely to yield political dividends a second time. In any case, the Balakot air strike had eclipsed all other electoral narratives.
In the run-up to the general elections, it was the Congress which attempted to put corruption front and centre with its 'chowkidar chor hai' slogan, but failed spectacularly. Given that it had fallen prey to the corruption issue in two elections – 1989 and 2014 – it was a doomed effort. Meanwhile, its own Karti Chidambaram romped home in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, despite the money laundering charges against him.
Now, with the BJP on the backfoot because of Congress and Left-backed protests against the CAA and NRC, Thampi could well prove to be the grand old party's Achilles Heel. For one thing, it will be hard for Vadra to distance himself from Thampi. The two have been in contact for at least 15 years, allegedly through Congress president Sonia Gandhi's former secretary. The Dubai-based businessman is also linked to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who made headlines in 2016, after his email exchange with Vadra regarding an apartment in London was leaked. The purchase of this property eventually led to Thampi's arrest.
The fact that the two had bought adjoining parcels of land in Amipur village in Faridabad near Delhi in 2005-08, where DLF had intended to develop a Gurugram-style township, also points to a connect. Priyanka, too, had purchased a 5-acre plot in the village, but sold it back to the original owner (an associate of both Vadra and Thampi) for a substantial profit. Several of Vadra's aides have been under the ED scanner.
Given that Thampi himself has been the subject of ED investigations for several years and has already been served two separate notices amounting to Rs 1,288 crore, the timing of the arrest may raise a few eyebrows. But then, the war on corruption appears to be contingent on political expediency.
It's not just the Vadra connect that perturbs the Congress. The Dubai businessman is known to be close to several Congress leaders from Kerala. Having started out in the liquor business in Kerala, he made good in Dubai and was known as a generous host to visiting Congressmen from the South. In 2018, he is believed to have lobbied for the appointment of compatriot K Sreenivasan as national general secretary of the party. (Sreenivasan is a long-standing associate of Vadra's; over a decade ago, he replaced Priyanka Gandhi as director in Vadra's company.) His arrest, or rather the revelations that may follow from it, could well deflect attention from the ongoing political unrest.
The writer is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.
