Oppositions claim of central agencies being misused
There is a criticism about the Modi government that it is misusing agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax, etc to target the opposition parties while going soft on BJP’s own leaders. Their criticism is quite justified.
Opposition leaders show statistics that the percentage of cases filed against BJP leaders is insignificant whereas the vast majority of the cases filed are only against the opposition leaders.
They also say the cases against the opposition leaders gain a lot more traction than the very few cases against BJP leaders and against the opposition leaders who crossed over to BJP.
And they also say that the track record of these agencies in terms of getting convictions is abysmally low.
I think they are making a strong case for how the Modi government is vindictive against the opposition leaders.
Dr. Abshishek Manu Singhvi, a Senior Lawyer of the SC and a top leader of the Congress party told India Today that he proposes to get many opposition party leaders to sign up to file a case against the Central government and these agencies like the CBI, ED, and Income Tax that this is discriminatory and this should be stopped, in the interest of fairness.
Corruption has been a scourge that has infested politics almost ever since Independence very badly and we have all cried from the rooftops about it but none, including the judiciary, has been able to do anything about it.
If at all there is a case, it is for going hammer and tongs against corruption in high places and not for whittling them down. Fairness is not stopping all corruption cases against leaders of all political parties, but proceeding against all fair corruption cases against leaders of all political parties.
But then, it is the ruling party that has the levers of power today. How do we justify proceeding only against the opposition leaders right now, in a discriminatory way?
If the ruling party is corrupt too, but is discriminatory, we should let the people judge the Modi government in the next elections and punish it. This will bring in the opposition, in some form, to power. We should let the opposition (which would be in power then) file cases against the BJP leaders and have them punished for their acts of corruption.
This way, any political party indulging in corruption would run the risk of being punished, sometimes, if not today. This is precisely what the people would want.
People would not desire the courts to intervene at this stage and stall the corruption cases against the opposition leaders and prevent any corruption cases from moving forward.
Hope the SC and other courts don’t fall for the temptation to stall the cases against the opposition leaders in the name of equity, thus maintaining the status quo ante of corruption cases against the high and mighty being stalled forever.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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