By Poonam I Kaushish
A gentleman met a beautiful lady and invited her to bed. She gave him one tight slap and angrily asked: “How dare you take me for a prostitute.” Not to be browbeaten, the man persisted: “I will give you a million dollars if you agree to sleep with me.” The lady replied: “Now you are talking.” The man asserted: “Since we have established what you are, we are only haggling over the price!”
Politically translated, this underscores the ongoing maelstrom in New Delhi. All hell broke loose last week when news leaked that two “close family friends” — foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje — helped disgraced economic offender and former IPL czar Lalit Modi.
Swaraj is accused of facilitating Modi’s travel to Lisbon from London as his Indian passport had been revoked by Delhi High Court, ostensibly for signing “consent papers” for his wife’s cancer surgery. She is said to have spoken to the British High Commissioner in New Delhi and British-Indian MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee last July.
The LaMo tsunami then engulfed another “family friend”, Raje, then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. She is said to be guilty of furtively endorsing Modi’s residency application in the UK in 2011 when he was wanted by the enforcement directorate on charges of money laundering.
This is not all. She explicitly wanted it kept secret from the Indian authorities. “I do so on the strict condition that my assistance will not become known to the Indian authorities,” she declared. Pertinently, she has not denied this. Two, as quid pro quo, LaMo obliged by investing more than
`11 crore in her son and BJP MP Dushyant Singh’s hotel company.
These definitely are cases of gross political moral turpitude. Worse, both have been caught red-handed for brazen impropriety vis-à-vis engaging with a foreign government surreptitiously. This notwithstanding Swaraj’s defence that she did not derive any material benefit even as her husband and daughter are Modi’s legal counsels, or Raje conveniently mumbling “I don’t recollect.”
The BJP’s reaction like other parties is par for the course. President Amit Shah, ministerial colleagues and even the RSS mounted a strong defence for Swaraj by underscoring that her action was “nationalist and humane”. Is helping offenders an act of nationalism? On Raje, it trotted out the lame, “There is no technical or legal definition of corruption …..No technical or legal wrongdoing or misappropriation has been proved.” Really?
Undeniably, Prime Minister Modi’s nationalist credentials have take n a big hit, and how! “Main na toh khaata hun na khaane doonga,” he tom-tommed in the run-up to the polls in 2014. A year later, he is mum on the alleged bribes and the moral turpitude that has engulfed his administration and party. Is Modi suffering from amnesia, archetype bragging or is it a case of this-does-not-apply-to-me-and-my-ministers. Should one put it down to a classic case of pot calling the kettle black: Tu-tu-mein-mein of my corrupt leaders’ vs yours.
There is no gainsaying that Swaraj knew her husband has been Modi’s lawyer for the last 20 years and her daughter, who resides with her, is representing him in the passport revocation case in court, even as her own ministry is opposing him. Also, it is unexplained how Raje’s son’s defunct company is suddenly infused with funds.
Besides, it is a mystery why Swaraj did not consult colleague finance minister Arun Jaitley as the ED falls under his purview or tell her foreign secretary to get the issue sorted out . Who took the decision not to file an appeal in the Supreme Court after the High Court decision against revoking Lalit Modi’s passport? Who took the decision to grant a fresh passport?
Why isn’t the ED pressing for Modi’s return to India given that the court got his passport restored in August 2014. A team could travel to London to examine and question him. What has the government done to make sure he respects the summons by the ED? What about Modi’s wild claims that he can’t come to India because his life is in danger?
The answer is simple. It has everything to do with politicians and their ‘love’ for sports — read power and money. A clique of chor chor mausere bhai. Why blame Swaraj and Raje alone? Conflict of interest is ripe for the picking in any sports organisation. LaMo per se is only a symptom of an all-pervasive malady that has ensnared sports in a vicious Octopus grip in which sport has ceased to be a sport. The line between politics and sports has become so obfuscated that it has become another unseemly pocket borough of our netagan to wield and earn big money. Big deal if it results in bloopers!
Crores are spent in deals over the table and under the table in keenly fought elections for control over various sports bodies, only to generate more money via hijacking government funds, sponsors, TV and media rights and enlarge their fiefdom.
An exemplary example of corruption and crony capitalism is the exclusive Board of Control for Cricket of India. The cosy, closed club is a mammoth corporate conglomerate that lacks transparency and is all about wielding power and money. It is packed with fat political cats, a virtual who’s who of friends and enemies all rolled into one. These include our erudite finance minister Jaitley, former Congress minister Rajeev Shukla, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BJP MP Anurag Thakur who doubles as IPL chairman, RJD chief Lalu Yadav who represents the Bihar Cricket Association and a retinue of other netas who head their respective state cricket bodies.
This overlap between politics and sports, which made Lalit Modi a hero-turned-zero, has become the albatross around the PM’s neck. Politically speaking, it is understandable that given the seniority of the two ladies and the dearth of talent in the party it is a tough call. At the same time, he should realise nobody is indispensable.
As the Opposition gears up for Parliament’s monsoon session it remains to be seen how the government is going to stall the domino effect? Will the Prime Minister let the sleazy saga wash away his legislative agenda or will he take the bull by the horns and sacrifice political expediency for upholding the moral high ground. Only time will tell! INFA