The Union government is mulling over a damage-control plan to try and change the current Lalit Modi controversy-driven narrative before the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament in July. The strategy, party insiders say, has three elements that the ruling dispensation hopes will wipe the slate clean, close the fault lines within the BJP and effectively stem the Opposition onslaught against it.
One, in a bid to demonstrate its commitment to fight corruption, and reinforce a key poll promise, the government will push to get the former scam-tainted Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi back to India to start legal proceedings against him. The effort will be to distance simultaneously External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje from any charges of involvement.
Two, as the BJP has already stressed, it is banking on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s cases against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as well as former Union Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela to help it neutralise the Congress offensive.
Three, the BJP leadership, at least, for the moment, has decided to back both the External Affairs Minister and the Rajasthan Chief Minister, though for different reasons.
The Enforcement Directorate, it is learnt, is poised to send a letter rogatory to Mauritius in connection with its investigation into a money laundering case, relating to Mr. Lalit Modi’s involvement some years ago in the granting of television rights for IPL matches to certain companies. This could lead to a red-corner notice being issued against the former IPL chairman. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which allows for criminal charges to be pressed against an individual, will enable the ED to press for his arrest and extradition from a foreign country after such a notice is issued.
The week gone by also saw the CBI acting against two Congress leaders. In quick succession, the agency launched a preliminary investigation against Mr. Virbhadra Singh, days after it had Mr. Vaghela’s Gandhinagar residence raided.
In the coming days, the BJP, which has already demanded Mr. Virbhadra Singh’s resignation, intends to run a campaign against him, stressing that his continuance as Chief Minister reflects the Congress leadership’s disregard for corruption. Indeed, the BJP hopes it will be an effective counter to Congress pressure on it to sack the Rajasthan Chief Minister.
The case against Mr. Vaghela dates back to the time he was Union Textile Minister and relates to his selling prime land belonging to the National Textile Corporation in Mumbai’s Parel area to a firm, allegedly causing a loss of Rs. 709 crore to the state exchequer in 2007.
Special targetFor the BJP, Mr. Vaghela, a six-time MP from Gujarat, has always been a special target: he had begun his political career with the BJP, but later fell out with the party. He then joined the Congress in 1998, becoming a Minister in the UPA-I government (2004-09); currently, he is the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly.
Meanwhile, though it is known that the BJP does not intend to concede the Opposition’s demand to sack either Ms. Swaraj or Ms. Raje, party sources explained the reasons for the decision:
The External Affairs Minister could not have been sacked, they said, without upsetting the delicate power balance in the second tier of the government. Dropping her would also have been interpreted as an acceptance of guilt, giving her supporters and detractors within the party another opportunity to square off against each other. And while Ms. Swaraj’s husband and daughter have been the former IPL commissioner’s lawyers, leading to accusations of conflict of interest, the BJP says there is no evidence that she has personally benefited by intervening on Mr. Modi’s behalf with the British government to secure him travel documents.
In Ms. Raje’s case, the circumstances are completely different. Initially, it appeared as though the BJP was willing to sacrifice her. Not only did the document purportedly written by her in support of Mr. Lalit Modi’s application for travel documents seem distinctly shady, the business dealings between the latter and the Rajasthan CM’s son, Dushyant Singh, also compounded a sense of wrong-doing. But on Friday, the BJP defended Ms. Raje officially.
