In another world, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would have been the first proponent of the Central Bureau of Investigation's decision to take an unprecedented step and raid a senior bureaucrat in a sitting chief minister's office in connection with corruption allegations. Except this time there was one difference: It was a bureaucrat close to Kejriwal with an office in the same premises as the chief minister's office.
Kejriwal's response has been to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "psychopath", claim the raid was part of a political vendetta and attempt to shift the conversation on to other allegations altogether.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party convened a Special Session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly – a house where 67 out of 70 members come from AAP – to talk about the events of the past few weeks. One by one, Members of the Legislative Assembly stood up to fulminate about corruption allegations and make snide remarks about Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. According to Kejriwal, it was the Delhi government's decision to investigate Jaitley's tenure at the Delhi & District Cricket Administration that prompted the Centre to respond with a CBI raid.
"If I happen to name the person you don't want me to name," Delhi culture minister Kapil Mishra said during the Special Session. "If that name happens to fall out of my mouth, you can just strike it from the record, and replace it with 'sophisticated Kalmadi'," he added.
Mishra was attempting to connect Jaitley to Suresh Kalmadi, the former chairman of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi who has been accused of large-scale corruption.
Corruption allegations
But the reference also served as a reminder of the Delhi government before it turned into a machine with a single-minded objective of annoying Modi and the Centre. The Congress government that ran Delhi for 15 years before it was dethroned by AAP was, in its later years, also plagued by corruption allegations – not just regarding politicians like Kalmadi, but bureaucrats as well.
Among those bureaucrats was one Rajendra Kumar. Kumar is the one accused by the CBI of having set up companies to get government contracts without going through the tender process. He also happens to have been hand-picked by Kejriwal to be Delhi's principal secretary, and the reason the CBI was raiding his office.
If Kalmadi and Jaitley were worth making snide remarks over – and it's useful to remember that Kalmadi has not yet been convicted and Jaitley hasn't even been formally charged – then members of AAP, a party built on an anti-corruption platform, should be the last ones defending someone like Kumar.
"If your party is so spotless, if it is so blameless, then why are you afraid about an investigation," said Vijender Gupta, the lone voice of the Bharatiya Janata Party, attempting to defend Jaitley and his government in the assembly. "You are exposed. Look who is heading your inquiry?"
Motivated inquiry
Gupta was making a reference to Gopal Subramanium, a senior advocate and former solicitor general, whom Kejriwal has asked to head the panel of inquiry into alleged corruption at the DDCA. Subramanium has a history with the current government. The previous administration had suggested his name for elevation to the Supreme Court towards the end of its tenure, but the incoming Bharatiya Janata Party government spiked his name, citing alleged connections to the telecom industry.
Subramanium may have had a stellar record as a lawyer but his treatment by the government last year, which many attribute to Jaitley, make him a less-than-ideal candidate to conduct an inquiry. Even if it ends up being completely above board, his findings against the finance minister can be expected to be seen as motivated. Justice may be done, through the inquiry, but it has to be seen to be done also.
In effect what AAP has managed to do is just the opposite of what it promised. Instead of taking politics out of corruption charges, it has managed to politicise not one but two investigations. The investigation against Kumar will now be seen as a vendetta against Kejriwal, even though it concerns allegations that date back to the Congress regime. And the investigation against Jaitley and the DDCA will now be seen as a path for Kejriwal to get his revenge.
Wrong number
"The Prime Minister cannot forget the defeat the BJP was dealt with by AAP in Delhi," Kejriwal said at the end of the Special Session he had convened to talk about the DDCA allegations. "What happened on December 15 [when the CBI raided Rajendra Kumar's office] was unprecedented and shameful.... I want to ask the Prime Minister, what has come from spending all this time interrogating Rajendra Kumar?"
Kejriwal did add that if they found something against Kumar, he would be the first to disown him. But he also questioned the very reason for the CBI to question the bureaucrat in the first place. "The prime minister has simply ordered this raid to save Arun Jaitley, there's no other reason for it," the chief minister said. "I have to tell you Modiji, you can intimidate other politicians, but you're dialling the wrong number here."
Kejriwal's response has been to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "psychopath", claim the raid was part of a political vendetta and attempt to shift the conversation on to other allegations altogether.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party convened a Special Session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly – a house where 67 out of 70 members come from AAP – to talk about the events of the past few weeks. One by one, Members of the Legislative Assembly stood up to fulminate about corruption allegations and make snide remarks about Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. According to Kejriwal, it was the Delhi government's decision to investigate Jaitley's tenure at the Delhi & District Cricket Administration that prompted the Centre to respond with a CBI raid.
"If I happen to name the person you don't want me to name," Delhi culture minister Kapil Mishra said during the Special Session. "If that name happens to fall out of my mouth, you can just strike it from the record, and replace it with 'sophisticated Kalmadi'," he added.
Mishra was attempting to connect Jaitley to Suresh Kalmadi, the former chairman of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi who has been accused of large-scale corruption.
Corruption allegations
But the reference also served as a reminder of the Delhi government before it turned into a machine with a single-minded objective of annoying Modi and the Centre. The Congress government that ran Delhi for 15 years before it was dethroned by AAP was, in its later years, also plagued by corruption allegations – not just regarding politicians like Kalmadi, but bureaucrats as well.
Among those bureaucrats was one Rajendra Kumar. Kumar is the one accused by the CBI of having set up companies to get government contracts without going through the tender process. He also happens to have been hand-picked by Kejriwal to be Delhi's principal secretary, and the reason the CBI was raiding his office.
If Kalmadi and Jaitley were worth making snide remarks over – and it's useful to remember that Kalmadi has not yet been convicted and Jaitley hasn't even been formally charged – then members of AAP, a party built on an anti-corruption platform, should be the last ones defending someone like Kumar.
"If your party is so spotless, if it is so blameless, then why are you afraid about an investigation," said Vijender Gupta, the lone voice of the Bharatiya Janata Party, attempting to defend Jaitley and his government in the assembly. "You are exposed. Look who is heading your inquiry?"
Motivated inquiry
Gupta was making a reference to Gopal Subramanium, a senior advocate and former solicitor general, whom Kejriwal has asked to head the panel of inquiry into alleged corruption at the DDCA. Subramanium has a history with the current government. The previous administration had suggested his name for elevation to the Supreme Court towards the end of its tenure, but the incoming Bharatiya Janata Party government spiked his name, citing alleged connections to the telecom industry.
Subramanium may have had a stellar record as a lawyer but his treatment by the government last year, which many attribute to Jaitley, make him a less-than-ideal candidate to conduct an inquiry. Even if it ends up being completely above board, his findings against the finance minister can be expected to be seen as motivated. Justice may be done, through the inquiry, but it has to be seen to be done also.
In effect what AAP has managed to do is just the opposite of what it promised. Instead of taking politics out of corruption charges, it has managed to politicise not one but two investigations. The investigation against Kumar will now be seen as a vendetta against Kejriwal, even though it concerns allegations that date back to the Congress regime. And the investigation against Jaitley and the DDCA will now be seen as a path for Kejriwal to get his revenge.
Wrong number
"The Prime Minister cannot forget the defeat the BJP was dealt with by AAP in Delhi," Kejriwal said at the end of the Special Session he had convened to talk about the DDCA allegations. "What happened on December 15 [when the CBI raided Rajendra Kumar's office] was unprecedented and shameful.... I want to ask the Prime Minister, what has come from spending all this time interrogating Rajendra Kumar?"
Kejriwal did add that if they found something against Kumar, he would be the first to disown him. But he also questioned the very reason for the CBI to question the bureaucrat in the first place. "The prime minister has simply ordered this raid to save Arun Jaitley, there's no other reason for it," the chief minister said. "I have to tell you Modiji, you can intimidate other politicians, but you're dialling the wrong number here."
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