Fight the Central Move to Harass non-BJP Governments
in the Name of Fighting Corruption

The three Bills, including the 130th Constitution Amendment Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha just before the conclusion of the monsoon session of Parliament, is a barely concealed move to harass non-BJP Governments in the name of fighting corruption. It is part of a disturbing trend, seen ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, to browbeat leaders and officials including Chief Ministers in states ruled by Opposition parties, using the Central investigating agencies.

The present bills are proposed to divest executive officials including the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers, of their positions in case they are arrested and put in jail for more than one month. The Central Government, defending these bills, have claimed that they are being introduced to ensure probity and accountability in public life. They claim that even the Prime Minister is coming under the ambit of the proposed legislation.

This a cynical and fabricated line of argument, full of half truths and absolute lies, as is the pattern with all Sangh Parivar campaigns as they seem to have little respect for objectivity and truthfulness in public life. It is sad that such a strategy is now creeping into the Indian administration, eroding its credibility and stature.

A cursory look at the past experiences will tell us that these claims are simply nonsense. All the central investigating agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), etc, are under the administrative control of the Central Government, and they have been misused hundreds of times to harass Opposition leaders and ministers including chief ministers. A number of chief ministers and ministers have been arrested while in power, on the charges of corruption and some of them had to spend months in jail without bail. For them the only relief came from the Supreme Court, as lower courts including even the High Courts refused to grant them bail, obviously under pressure from the Centre.

It is a laughable claim that even the Prime Minister is covered under the legislation. Which Central agency will dare to put shackles ont the hands of a Prime Minister for corruption? Is it imaginable? So the real intent of the proposed legislation is suspicious and malafide. The Central Government is now rather weak politically, with the BJP falling short of majority and so they want to use the central agencies as a weapon to destroy Opposition unity in order to stick to power. With such sweeping powers in their hands, they could even threaten their own allies and so these measures should send some warning signals to their friends like Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu, both known for corrupt administrations.

It is dangerous to empower the police beyond any judicial overseeing and accountability. The recent trend has been that many of these agencies have been indulging in power grabbing, and their arbitrary actions against Opposition leaders have been called out by the courts, and some of their actions have invited severe strictures from judicial authorities. But such judicial interventions come rather late, and by the time the damage is done.

The fact is that the BJP and the Central Government are aware of these genuine concerns, but still they go ahead with such arbitrary moves with a single objective of making Central agencies into their convenient political weapons. There have been several allegations of corruption against BJP controlled state governments and even against the Central Government, but did the ED or CBI or any other agency raise a little finger against it? They have not and they will not, because the strings attached to them are being pulled by powerful people running the party and the Central Government.

So there is no reason to defend such malicious moves, and they have to be resisted tooth and nail inside Parliament and outside it. Fighting corruption is fine, but fighting Opposition in the guise of it is dangerous.

Elyas Muhammed Thumbe
National General Secretary
Social Democratic Party of India