CBI DOES IT AGAIN

It may appear that the prosecution launched against two heinous crimes – Corruption case in Kerala and murder probe in Maharashstra – involving leaders of two different political parties, not on the same ideological platform though, and both pursued by the CBI, to be a mere coincidence. But it is not. The timing – so soon after the 2009 verdict giving the ruling Congress semblance of self-confidence and optimism, suggests that it is a calculated move and a part of the party’s grand strategy to make a lonely furrow tired of its demanding partners.

The murder case against the NCP MP Padamsinh Patil has been pending for the last three years and the successive NCP Home ministers of Maharashtra declared him “clean”. Even a political novice can make out that Patil, being an acolyte of Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, need not have to do anything to prove his innocence since Pawar might have taken care of it at the lower courts, just like Pakistan did not provide enough evidence before the court to prove LeT chief and mastermind of 26/11 Sayeed guilty. After all, two Home ministers of the state were Patil’s partymen.

Then, the question is how come the CBI thought of pursuing the case now. It is too much to expect the CBI to act on its own. It has always surrendered its notional autonomy at the altar of power at the Centre, whichever party was ruling the Centre, and now, after three years, especially after the poor performance of NCP at the hustings with just 8 members in its kitty, if the CBI proceeds against a powerful MP of NCP, an alliance partner at the Center, can we not deduce that the epicentre for its enthusiasm lies elsewhere. The Congress wants to reap two benefits in one stroke. It wants to fix Pawar for his “audacity” during the run up to the polls and make him vulnerable. How dare can he aspire for the top post when it is reserved for the dynasty or whomever the dynasty nominates. So, he has to be shown his place. That is how the CBI came into the scene.

Secondly, elections to the Maharashtra assembly are not far away. Pawar should be enfeebled to such an extent that he cannot make any ambitious demands at the time of seat sharing nor nurture a thought to be a leading partner of the alliance in the state. In fact, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was more keen to take his actor-son around the 26/11 debris than reassuring the people of Mumbai about the return of normalcy, jumped the gun and said that the Congress may not need a tie-up with the NCP. Perhaps he wanted to be on the same wavelength of the crown prince, whose strategy it was to go it alone in UP and Bihar, and thus earn his goodwill. However, the party disowned Deshmukh, atleast for now. Well, it does not have the moral strength to ask Pawar to atleast suspend the murder-accused Patil from the party till his innocence is proved in the courts. After all, the party harboured people like Shibu Soren in the cabinet. Even the party in AP cannot absolve itself of the charge of shielding murder-accused. However, after three days of dilly-dallying, the NCP suspended Patil from the party so as to minimise the damage. Perhaps, inaction on the part of the NCP would have suited the Congress.

The second command performance for the CBI is SNC Lavalin corruption case in Kerala involving CPI-M state secretary and former Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The issue has many dimensions – the role of Governor, duplicity of Marxists, glaring rift in the Marxist party and the Centre’s unconcealed desire to fish in the troubled backwaters of God’s own country. In a way, the Centre is only trying to ensure a level-playing field when it comes to corruption charges. Hitherto, the Marxists were playing a holier-than-thou game and now they have lost the game. When B V Raghavulu talks about the corruption of YS Rajasekara Reddy or refer to the video clipping of Banagaru Laxman taking bribe, he has to turn a little and look at his own back.

The widening rift in Kerala CPI-M between the party and the chief minister is an open secret. The present State secretary of the CPI-M in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, it is well known, has no love lost for the chief minister V S Achuthanandan. When the former was the Power Minister of the state he struck a deal with a Canadian firm for the installation of power projects in Kerala and he is alleged to have made crores of money in the deal. Not surprisingly, the party, which always takes a high moral ground, hushed up the case for long inspite of mounting evidence against Vijyan. Though the chief minister and other Left partners were in favour of proceeding against Vijayan, the cabinet did not recommend to the Governor of Kerala for granting permission to the CBI to prosecute him. Now that the Governor ignored the Cabinet decision and gave his nod to the CBI to go ahead, the party wants to fight legally and politically. The Governor R S Gavai received a threat to his life and the Marxists in Kerala have taken to the streets.
Defenders of Marx and Marxism in the country have taken up the cudgels and point out how undemocratic the Governor’s action was. A legal luminary and an apologist for Communism in the country says that the “Constitution of India is reduced to printed verbosity...If one man can, in his authoritarian discretion, decide Government orders, thereby making the Cabinet a nullity, then the general election becomes a travesty or a farce. This is outrageous”. May be. In the normal circumstances, the Governor has to go by the Cabinet decision. But here is a case where the chief minister, a Constitutional authority duly elected by the people, is in favour of action and he is prevented by the party against such action. Whose will should prevail? Party’s? Or the CM’s? But, for the communists anywhere in the world, party is supreme. If the party felt that Vijayan was innocent, they could have simply accepted the demand for investigation rather than allowing the case to be taken to the door steps of Raj Bhavan. Let’s pause for a while and ponder what would have been the attitude of the Marxists if Modis or Reddys were to be found in a similar situation as that of Vijayan. They would have come out with one hundred reasons to justify Governor’s action.

Legal, Constitutional and moral considerations apart, what suits the new government at the Centre is that it has acquired yet another weapon to tear apart the beleaguered Left which has to face the electorate in West Bengal two years ahead and to make its alliance partner in Maharashstra a toothless Maratha when the state goes to polls in three months time. If you have to win a war, not necessarily you must acquire stronger muscle, but it is enough if you weaken your enemy. That is what the Congress is doing in the states. The only exception is Trinamool Congress whose help it needs in W Bengal to decimate the Left. It will be easier to tackle the DMK whose leader is counting his days on this planet and once he disappears from the scene the family-oriented party will be highly vulnerable.