In the run-up to the general elections last year, BJP had played the Robert Vadra card to the hilt and this had paid rich dividends for the party. Then PM-aspirant Narendra Modi had kept ranting that all corrupt persons would be sent to jail after BJP came to power. This resonated well with the electorate that was sick of financial scams tumbling out of the closet during the Congress led UPA rule. The Commonwealth Games scam (CG) followed by the even bigger 2G scam and then the massive Coalgate scam, which broke out just before the elections were just what the doctor ordered for the BJP to harp on and expose the Congress.
Ironically, today one year after coming to power, signs of the BJP being hit by the same contagion are slowly coming to light. Less than a month ago, after completing one year, PM Modi, boasted that no major scam had hit the government. He spoke too soon. Since then, the BJP led government has been hit by a major embarrassment with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s involvement in helping fugitive Lalit Modi to get travel documents to travel to Portugal from the British government, to be with his ailing wife coming to light.
Further embarrassment for the BJP came with Lalit Modi tweeting that Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje had also helped him in the matter secretly, with the condition that this should not come to the knowledge of the Indian authorities. Helping an absconder from Indian law is a very serious matter. Worse, her son is reported to have received over Rs 11 crore from Modi as loan and for purchase of some 815 shares in his hotel company at an astronomical premium of over Rs 96,000 per share. The project is yet to take off.
So why this huge premium? Could it possibly be a quid pro quo for favours rendered to Lalit Modi by Raje? We must not forget that Lalit Modi had siphoned off thousands of crores out of the country illegally and fled the country. The Enforcement Directorate is seized of the matter. In these circumstances, the heat is on the BJP. To minimize damage, it should ask Raje to resign pending an impartial enquiry.
PM Modi is silent on the issue. Has he forgotten he used to castigate Manmohan Singh as Maun Singh? Now, the shoe is on his foot.
