“Unka Sankalp, Vipareet Bharat” “Sab ka naash, Sab ka Vinaash”
March 28, 2024
By Aravind Bhatikar
FOR the first time in the history of free India, two constitutionally-elected and sitting chief ministers have been jailed by the Enforcement Directorate of the government of India. Arvind Kejriwal, the extremely popular chief minister of Delhi and Hemant Soren, the fearless and daring ex-chief minister of Jharkhand, are in jail. Opposition parties across the whole political spectrum have openly alleged foul-play by the Modi-Shah duo for weaponizing government agencies and targeting Opposition politicians. They have pointed out that the ED during the last 10 years of the BJP rule has filed 121 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Out of which 115 are against politicians belonging to Opposition parties.
There is a widespread disillusionment over the way the Judiciary has been pussyfooting on bail applications of politicians put in jail for years together without trial.
For the first time in the history of free India, the Enforcement Directorate is being viewed as an extortion agency to secure funding for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The no-nonsense stance of Chief Justice of India Chandrachud forced the State Bank of India (SBI) and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to reveal all information about the secret electoral bonds. Independent journalists and researchers have now come out with startling findings that at least 41 companies which contributed hundreds of crore were raided earlier.
Electoral bonds scheme was introduced in Parliament and approved as a part of Money Bill in 2017. The strategy to make the scheme part of the Money Bill was to prevent the eventual rejection of the scheme by the Rajya Sabha. The scheme was notified in 2018 because some amendments had to be made in other laws for inter-legislative compatibility.
Corporate funding of political parties is not at all new and has been in existence possibly in all democracies around the world. In India also corporates have always taken care to be on the right side of the government and funding of the ruling political party has been a part of their survival strategy.
For reasons which are obvious, the ruling political party always gets a lion’s share of funding from corporate. It should not surprise any political analyst that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party got more than Rs8,000 crore out of the total Rs16,000 crore contributed through electoral bonds to political parties.
Governments everywhere need to keep their main donors happy and hence the quid pro quo arrangements between governments and their donors are not new. However, what is being exposed now in the electoral bond case are the quid pro quo instances which are otherwise illegal, improper and immoral. Corporates don’t exist for charity and there is always an assumption of “give and take” while giving donations to political parties.
The ingenuity of the top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party lie in the fact that they used the secret electoral bonds scheme not only to route huge funds from corporates but to use the Enforcement Directorate to force many small and medium level businesses to fund the BJP through electoral bonds.
However, Sarat Chandra Reddy’s donation to the BJP through electoral bonds after the ED put him in jail, and the ED’s misadventure in getting Reddy to be a government witness – all to prepare a case to arrest Chief Minister of Delhi and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal – may prove to be a very crucial last minute self-goal by the BJP!
CAN DY CHANDRACHUD SAVE INDIA’S DEMOCRACY?
March 30, 2024
IF there is one man who has single-handedly protected Parliamentary democracy in India, it is Hon DY Chandrachud, the present Chief Justice of India.
If there is one man who has opened the floodgates of information on BJP’s mega corruption, it is again the same Hon CJI D Y Chandrachud.
If there is one man today whom the BJP would like to see evaporate in thin air, it would certainly be the Hon CJI, DY Chandrachud.
The Supreme Court observed that free and fair elections were not possible unless the voter has access to all information on the electoral bonds. The illegal, improper and unethical quid pro quo arrangements between big corporates and the Bharatiya Janata Party may not be the only factor which prevents free and fair elections. The illegal use of the ED and CBI by the BJP government in targeting main opposition leaders just before the Lok Sabha elections continues unabated, despite the watchful eyes of the Supreme Court.
The arrest and incarceration of Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate in cases that are ostensibly fake and that are bound to be thrown out by courts, are the most glaring examples of how the BJP is desperately trying to fight the Lok Sabha elections through its regulatory agencies.
Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest is based on a statement made by Sarat Chandra Reddy, who was earlier arrested and jailed by the ED, whose company Aurobindo pharma donated Rs55 crore by way of electoral bonds to the BJP and whose bail application later was not opposed by the ED.
How can the Supreme Court watch this travesty of justice?
Manish Sisodia, the former deputy chief minister of Delhi has been incarcerated for more than 30 months without trial. A senior judge of the Supreme Court observed that the case against Manish Sisodia, when the trial starts, would not even stand for a minute. The same judge rejected the bail application of Sisodia the next day.
Will the Hon CJI, DY Chandrachud do justice to Sisodia?
Satyendra Jain and Sanjay Singh, senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party are rotting in jail, again without trial. Will the Hon CJI, DY Chandrachud do justice to all these victims of BJP machinations?
Above all, can free and fair elections take place if the Supreme Court looks the other way when opposition leaders are arrested and put in jail just before the elections?
Can WE, THE PEOPLE raise our voice all over the Country to demand the release of all jailed political leaders to enable them to fight e
