The excuses the Congress and the BJP are making for the business dealings of Robert Vadra and Nitin Gadkari seem driven by a shared fear of Narendra Modi
Even before the brutal nature of the Stalinist regime was formally admitted by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, many well-meaning socialists throughout the world were aware that what existed in the Soviet Union was a travesty. Yet, a great many of these idealists chose to look the other way in the belief that criticism would weaken the socialist state, encourage “counter-revolutionaries” and weaken the bigger fight against fascism and imperialism.
Having to choose between upholding what the British philosopher Roger Scruton termed “common decencies” and endorsing the lesser evil has confronted political activists for long. In the past year, this hoary debate has surfaced in India following a spate of corruption scandals that have seriously undermined the credibility of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-2 government. Far from being celebrated as a mildly progressive dispensation concerned with nurturing socio-economic entitlements for the poor and the marginalised, the magnitude of corruption has created a widespread impression that the apparent concern for the aam aadmi is a cover for riotous crony capitalism.
Vadra and the Congress
Matters have come to a head following the flood of disclosures of the dodgy business practices of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Media reports indicate that Vadra leveraged his privileged relationship with the Gandhi family to circumvent rules and procedures and make a fast buck for both himself and DLF, one of India’s largest listed real estate companies. It is also alleged that Vadra cleverly anticipated crucial decisions by Congress-controlled governments in Haryana and Rajasthan to make windfall profits — what in common parlance is called insider trading.
The details of Vadra’s entrepreneurship are revealing for what they tell us about the realty business in India’s boom towns. Politically, however, the issue is far more consequential. For the first time since 1974 when the CPI(M) MP Jyotirmoy Basu infuriated Indira Gandhi by raising awkward questions about Sanjay Gandhi’s Maruti project in Haryana, the Gandhi family has been directly hit by a money scandal. Sonia Gandhi may have reportedly brushed away the allegations by asserting that Vadra is a “businessman” but that hasn’t insulated her from the charge that she did nothing to prevent her exalted family name to be used for disreputable advantage. Since the tone of a government is set by its leadership, the first family of the Congress may well be accused of embellishing the architecture of India’s all-pervasive crony capitalism.
Without doubt, the business ethics of Vadra, not to mention his sneering sense of entitlement, has created a large hole in the moral edifice of the Congress. This, in turn, is certain to shape popular perceptions in the run-up to the general election unless, of course, the UPA is spectacularly successful in shifting the attention of voters away from sleaze.
For the Congress, unflinching loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family is an article of faith and, as such, it occasions little surprise that party leaders have fiercely protested Vadra’s innocence. For opinion-makers who are loosely supportive of Nehruvian values, the kerfuffle over corruption has raised awkward questions. While they are not inclined towards encouraging venality in public life, there is concern that the erosion of the Congress’ credibility will benefit the principal Opposition party. In particular they are petrified that the disgust over economic mismanagement and cronyism will trigger a fascination for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a leader who, at least BJP supporters believe, combines decisiveness with fierce personal integrity. Since, in liberal eyes, Modi personifies an “authoritarian” mindset, if not outright fascism, prudent politics demands that the fight against corruption — the proverbial lesser evil — be shelved till another day.
Gadkari and his defence
Paradoxically, this is a position that has cast a shadow over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which, as the principal parliamentary Opposition, stands to gain most from the erosion in the Congress’ support. The plethora of questions over the seed capital of BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s business empire, and the lack of credible answers to these, have both embarrassed and outraged his party. Since the BJP doesn’t have dynastic pretensions and still sees itself as favouring “value-based politics,” there has been less inclination to rush to Gadkari’s defence with the same passion that the Congress demonstrated in the case of Vadra. Even those who have proffered the template defence of Gadkari having offered himself to an impartial inquiry can scarcely conceal their disquiet over the “immoral” equivalence being drawn between the BJP and the Congress. It is significant that apart from L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj, few of the BJP’s front-ranking leaders and no chief minister have spoken up for Gadkari.
Yet, the scepticism in the ranks over showcasing damaged goods hasn’t succeeded (so far) in removing Gadkari. On the contrary, emboldened by the bewildered ambivalence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Advani’s mystifying distinction between business practices and public life, and Swaraj’s unequivocal support, Gadkari has taken recourse to brazenness — as was evident in his show of strength in Nagpur last Monday. To the outside world, Gadkari has successfully managed to convey the impression that, never mind the accompanying ridicule and potential loss of a political plank, the “parivar” and party are behind him. The BJP president has wilfully overstated the quantum of backing for himself. But he has been able to get away with this hype by craftily exploiting the prevailing uncertainty over what follows a possible resignation. Actually, it is more than uncertainty. There is considerable fear in a small but powerful section of the BJP that the failure of the Gadkari experiment will facilitate a hegemonic role for Modi — assuming he wins the Gujarat Assembly election conclusively. The Gujarat leader is unquestionably the man most BJP activists and BJP-inclined voters believe is best suited to both taking on the Congress and stealing the thunder of the anti-corruption crusaders. Whether unattached voters who are disgusted by the moral decline of the country also agree with this faith in his leadership is still untested. But what isn’t in any doubt is that Modi threatens the cosy somnolence of bipartisan deal-making involving the main political parties. For many in the BJP, Modi isn’t merely a challenge; he constitutes a threat.
There is an unholy convergence of interests between a Congress determined to put a lid on the corruption issue by simultaneously creating a hype over economic reforms and establishing moral equivalence between Vadra and Gadkari, and that section of the BJP which wants to deny Modi a national role. As of now, the battle lines are confined to the opinion-forming industry in which the intelligentsia and the middle classes play a disproportionate role. In the coming months, as the general election approaches, the issues are going to percolate the social ladder. Will the aam aadmi also choose to overlook corruption as something inherent in the Indian way? Alternatively, will there be an angry vote, perhaps even for a different way of doing politics? In that case, which is the lesser evil?
(Swapan Dasgupta is a political commentator.)
Keywords: Robert Vadra, Nitin Gadkari, Narendra Modi factor, Cong-BJP strategy, Modi's national role
Why this Modi-bashing day-in-day=out. Like it or not he has come to stay the
hard way by virtue of having the noble qualities of honesty, sincerity and
steadfastness which is his 'mantra' and which he has put to good use in
transforming Gujarat into a modern State. Whether or not he should enter the
national politics is his choice and no doubt the nation will welcome a dynamic
leader of his calibre. It is natural for him to become an object of envy by
politicians of all hues including a section of the BJP but that is politics and Modi
knows how to play the game successfully. In this context to expect the aam admi
also to overlook corruption as something in the Indian way reveals total ignorance
of aam admi's culture apart from heaping an insult on his intelligence.The entire
nation are seized of the canker of corruption which has taken deep roots in the
soil and will vote for the exit of the present Govt in the 2014 general election
which is a foregone conclusion.
I dont expect such garbage in The Hindu. Modi is "fascist". Really? As opposed to the party that imposed Emergency and has masterfully suppressed free speech. Just yesterday, a guy was arrested for tweeting about Chidambaram's son. A bit before that we had Amit Trivedi charged with sedition for a cartoon. Then we had their ally, Mamata, arresting farmers and professors for asking questions. Then there's Kapil Sibal's genius plan to censor Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Not to mention the number of books and movies that they ban. On the other hand, I cant think of anyone who was arrested by a BJP government for free speech. I dont recall BJP banning a book or movie. As for 2002, I'm not even going to address that. Even Modi's critics know that they have no evidence, which is why they will let the case go on, so that they can keep slinging mud at him over something he never did. The fact that these people support Rahul Gandhi for PM, tells you all you need to know about their intellect.
//No one of course expects him to applogise for the 2002 massacre of
innocent people under his direction//
I beleive, the person who has commented this line or who supports this comment has not read or heard the supreme court appointed SIT's clean chit.
Everyone can place the allegations,it is their right and it is upto the court to decide and as a common man,we can obey court more than political party and media.
Some people are speaking,as if they are the ones,who have gone straight away into Modi's house and have seen his speech giving direction.
One of the highest constitution of our country has given this clean chit and hence there is nothing to blame him individually.
Those who blame even after this should never talk about democracy or supreme court verdict or even justice process in India.
People should behave like educated, atleast people who reads newspapers like "The Hindu" and should give comments with moral responsibility.
If BJP or RSS projects Modi as PM candidate nobody should grudge as it
was already decided long back. But there is some problem with him. No
one of course expects him to applogise for the 2002 massacre of
innocent people under his direction, because that is not in his blood.
But we expected him to be a little more careful while using derogatory
remarks, especially targeting women.A person who aspires to be the PM
of this great nation should not come down to the level of street
politician. I wonder why people like Swapan Das Gupta give him
unconditional support irrespective of what he does or utters.BJP is a
party led by statesmen like Vajpey, and Advani. God save the party!
If it walks like a duck and quaks like a duck - it is a duck!! Even when the sycophants are
busy trying the damage control, one thing is certain, India has woken up after a long
slumber after being a part of the sycophancy and dynasty worship! Individualism is creeping
into the society moving away from the usual collectivism of the past and the people in power
can't any more dictate and demand respect from all,blindly! They will only be disappointed.
Their wil be more demand of transparency and accountability in Governance and failing to do
so will be met with severe backlash from the more informed and politically savvy people.
Those leaders who are not mindful of this philosophical change in the mass,will be
vanquished!
A well-meaning authoritarian and honest leadership without dynastic ambitions is any day better than a so-called secular leadership that follows and encourages dynastic/corrupt politics all across the country.
For a change Mr Dasgupta highlighted the strengths of Modi as decisiveness and integrity and both are missing in the UPA leadership at the moment. Corruption is eating into the vitals of Indian economy and corruptibilty index of India in the world is one of the highest. PM and FM should work towards getting better perception to attract investment from abroad as otherwise textbook policy interventions will not work so long the discretionary powers of the political bosses at all decision making stages is removed and replaced with rule based systems without leaving any chance for political interference.
You very craftily trying to create a space for Narender Modi in center stage of politics. Narender Modi a RSS worker came in lime light during Attal rule. Being ambitious he made his path from a state which suited him the most. BJP till it represented by the names of duo Adwani and Atal, he had less chances. Hence very cleverly a novice was planted as president of BJP. Nitin Gadkari was not a name to be heard in national politics. During these years Atal fell ill and Adwani became non represented even in BJP policy decisions. Sushma has no mass appeal but made leader of the opposition. Arun Jaitly no ground leader made leader in the Rajya Sabha. Duo can not challenge the authority of Narender Modi. RSS volunteers through out the nation sang praise worthy songs for Modi. Tweeter, face book and other social networking media is full of such manipulations. Kejriwal and Anna for both people were arranged by RSS. Ramdev though projected independent was another protegee. Task accomplished.
good one by sawapan dasgupta.
I do agree that BJP's internal politics is at play and the question of leadership is open. RSS The guiding force of BJP is also as confused as we are in deciding the correct leadership for 2014. I think the plan of RSS and BJP is to project Mr. Modi as choice of PM, get rid of JDU for now, fight elections alone in bihar, try to get 200 seats, convince other parties to believe in Modi's leadership, If agreed then fine otherwise go for Arun Jaithely or Shushma Swaraj or LK advani as their PM to get support of other parties to form next Government. The conflict is not between Gadkari and Modi but it is between unelected leadership sitting in Delhi and Mass Leaders supported by Party workers. RSS needs to find a mid way but before going for 2014 they will have to give a bigger say to party workers.
Insider trading has become the common practice in India and
politician cum businessmen are largely benefited from it. In USA's
democracy Rajat Gupta gets the jail for insider trading, why India
is not introducing that clause in financial crime? It is true that
Indians are losing faith in laws as they are incorporated in such
way that only elite class is benefited. Time has come to create
such environment where common man should feel that there is
democracy and not crony capitalism.
very good article....
For a strange reason, fall out of Vadra affair on Congress is not going to make a dent on its working or its image; but it is going to make a big impact on BJP. BJP lost a wonderful opportunity by not accepting Gadkari's resignation. Now BJP cannot claim it is party with a difference.
One must understand, common man is nobody's fool. He is fully aware what this politician nobles are out to do. This sort of situation is what resulted in major revolutions in the world time and again. If not checked in time, India may have to face soon one such revolution which may be not be all too pleasant.
While gadkari and vadra have been accused, some how the coal scam has taken a back seat. I think congress played a master stroke by opening retail sector and diverting attention of media from coal scam and then it was helped by kejriwal.
Its a shame that scams keep happening and people and media keep forgetting.
The only consolation for the aam admi of the country has always been
hoping and dreaming tomorrow will be different and hopefully better.
Tomorrow has always turned out to be different with larger and larger
scams - but never better! Under such a scenario how bad can a reign of
NModi at the centre turn out to be. If not anything this is atleast a
50:50 probability which is much better than the odds we are facing now.
Hopefully atleast then we can hope for a better tomorrow.
Honestly I would prefer anyone who can take on this unholy rampant
corruption which is eating India 24*7.
I would be happy to give a chance to Modi as PM in hope he will expose
all this unholy bi-partition nexus in corruption.
India has everything to match China or even overtake it in development
but we have no real leader with vision. In China or any western
country even 1 rs scam involving public money never goes unpunished
but in India now few hundred crores scam is not even worthy reporting/investigating .Congress has crossed all limits by doing
scams in lakhs crores.And shamelessly not only protects corrupt but
give them promotion too as seen in current cabinet expansion. Reddy
was kicked out because he was trying to save some $6 Billion and
demoted and salman Khurshid who despite being Law minister of country
breaks all law and even threats openly to play with blood gets
promotion as EAM same with Tharoor ..who was dropped because her then
GF got 50 crore but inducted back !?
Excellent article. In one shot it has made clear all the political
streams flowing in India. However, I had to look up the dictionary
multiple times during the course of my read. I wonder how the common man
will be able to read this.
Such nice an article deserves to be translated into simpler form to
educate the common man.
Good possibility is "there be an angry vote, perhaps even for a
different way of doing politics", but who ever succeeds in tapping into
anti Congress and anti BJP sentiments will find the governance an Herculean task, as the underlying cause of the India's curse is the
woefully primeval mindset, preference to caste and linguistic
sentiments over pan national interests. Address and overcome these
root causes will take time, genius and divine leadership of extraordinary calibre. Optimistically most Indians believe and take
comfort in Gita which says “Nothing is permanent-When pot of sin
overflows something happens to restore order”. This is exactly where we
have great faith in anti-corruption crusaders emerging in the horizon.
So true, only Modi can clean up institutionlised Corruption , whatever
being said about him Fascist , RSS ideologist but this is equally true
he is man with a impeccable record about corruption, decisive leader and
tolerate no nonsense ..people in all parties are scared of him because
once he come to centre , he will clean the mess , thats why they are
maligning him up with bringing gujarat riots time and again , but i
guess this man has so strong will power and aura that nobody can stop
him from being PM
All these subtle distinctions which the writer tries to make are of no consequence. The fact is
that most politicians are rottenly corrupt. Methods of handling black money to avoid taxes is
the name of the game. It is only the salaried class which is flogged time and time again and
made to shell out taxes which the politician does not hesitate to loot.
Rober(t) Vadra only showed that the Gandhi family was never honest. Nitin Gadkari
employed clever accountants to mystify his cloaking of black money. How can investors
whose address can not be verified and who are known to be poor suddenly have so much
money? It is obvious that this is all the bribes he took when he was a PWD minister in
Maharashtra.
The only thing we have to wait and see is whether the common man will continue to vote for
these crooks. Since most of the people in this country are corrupt or support corruption the
same set of crooks will continue to get elected. What we need is a benign dictatorship.
I think the victory of Modi/ BJP in Gujarat is a given unless Congress can pull out another hidden card, which is most likely be in the form of damning accusations by the trio of Teesta Setlvad, Sanjiv Bhatt and Zakia Jafri. Zakia has delayed response to the SIT report for over six months, probably with the intentions of dropping a sensational bomb shell which the "secular" media and Congress party will build into a crescendo on the election hour. These tactics have however been over exploited for more than a decade and the voters have seen through this campaign time and again. Assuming Modi secures a bigger mandate for BJP in Gujarat now than in 2007, his elevation to national scene is a given. This is a great opportunity for BJP to build on Modi's persona of a decisive, nationalistic, incorruptible, secular (in true sense of the word), business and farmer friendly (at the same time) leader with vision of great India that deserves its right place in the "league of the nations".
Excellent article. In which case which is the lesser evil? Poor governance and corruption, or a lurking fascism capable of unleashing fear, murder, pitting one community against the other. With forces favouring the majority would India change forever and emerge where a section of the population lives in fear and subjugation?
A thought-provoking, incisive analysis from Swapanda. The best article
on this subject thus far.
There are more daggers drawn against Mr Modi in the RSS and BJP than
outside. Modi also suffers from a tendency for shrill talk that makes
his persona unacceptable to those outside the BJP aura.
The author conveniently introduced the article with a mention of Stalin. Anyone with half a brain would have predicted what was to follow. The breaking point in the article came when the author decided to speak on behalf of all liberals. He says:
"Since, in liberal eyes, Modi personifies an “authoritarian” mindset, if not outright fascism, prudent politics demands that the fight against corruption — the proverbial lesser evil — be shelved till another day."
I believe the author has forgotten the real values of liberals, or he is so obsessed with slandering Modi that he thinks liberals would prefer the corruption of Congress over development of Modi.
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