A day after Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad’s suspension from the
BJP, the party’s veterans, who form the margdarshak mandal, met at Murli
Manohar Joshi’s residence in New Delhi, presumably to discuss the fracas between Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the cricketer-turned-politician over
the DDCA scam.
This is the second time in a little over a month that the veterans – L K Advani, Joshi and Yashwant Sinha – have met to discuss issues emerging out of the BJP’s travails, within and outside.
Unlike the last time, when they strongly expressed their opinion on the BJP’s poor performance in the Bihar polls and sought accountability, this time around the veterans were more careful. They let their opinion be know very discreetly saying that Azad’s suspension does not bode well for a party which has resorted to “suppression of whistle-blowers”.
Different Standards
But what the BJP elders perhaps did not grapple with, is the more fundamental question of different yardsticks being employed. Disciplinary action was taken against Azad but not against the four party MPs from Bihar who were extremely vocal of distribution of tickets to nominees when the poll campaign was conducted.
Before, midway and after the Bihar election, the four MPs (three of them from upper castes) – RK Singh, Bhola Singh, Shatrughan Sinha and Chhedi Paswan – were critical and openly expressed their opinions which by all standards should have invited strict disciplinary action.
But what is baffling is that the four continue unscathed, even Sinha who has been the most vocal of the lot against the party leadership.
Sparing the quartet, who were prepared to discredit the party, while suspending Azad, is a clear instance of double standards.
Was it to Shield Jaitley?
So what led to Azad’s suspension? Was it because Azad’s fulminations and threats to expose more on the DDCA scam was causing a lot of damage to Jaitley and embarrassment to the BJP leadership? The suspension stick was wielded to blunt the attack on Jaitley alone.
The finance minister is caught in a cleft stick: if he drags Azad in as a respondent to this defamation against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders, the suspended MP could team up with the other six and make the case tough for Jaitley.
On the other hand, Azad, now a “free man”, will go full steam ahead to take on Jaitley with whom his relations have been less than cordial since the 1990s. Azad is now expected to attack with all guns blazing.
There is no doubt that between 2008 and 2013, when Jaitley was at DDCA’s helm, several questionable deals were struck. And yet there is nothing in the report of the Delhi government, which the AAP made public a few days ago, to suggest that Jaitley was a direct beneficiary. Although there is sufficient evidence to indicate that some DDCA office bearers benefited from the contracts given out to 14 shell companies at a time when Jaitley lorded over DDCA.
He could not have not known that his underlings were skimming.
Intraparty Rumblings and Elections
It is for the commission, to be headed by former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian, to go to the bottom of the DDCA scam, but Azad’s next move – to meet with the veterans – will certainly not be cause for comfort for Jaitley or the BJP.
After the electoral drubbing in Bihar, the party will face the electorate in four states (Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) in 2016 followed by the “big one” in UP the following year.
The BJP’s double standards will be exploited to the hilt by the opposition which appears to have turned the tables on the ruling party on the issue of battling corruption. It takes the sting away from the BJP’s attack on the Congress over the National Herald issue involving Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
Dissent May Grow
More importantly, the Azad episode will encourage other disgruntled BJP MPs to “open up”, which is a potentially frightening situation for a party still firmly under the control of the leadership.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have stood by Jaitley, but the same cannot be said of some of Jaitley’s detractors and they constitute a formidable force within the party.
In the
circumstances, their silence is awkward. After all, party governance impacts
party credibility.
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