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| Mayawati throwing out corrupt ministers, BJP hugging them | | Party With A Difference? | | Neha
Jammu, Jan 5: This is the way the word ends, not with a bang but with whimper. Till the other day, the people believed that the BJP was committed to a strong, effective and independent Lokpal and that it was also committed to eradicating corruption, notwithstanding its vague stand on the Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill. The people by and large appreciated the role of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha during the debate on the official Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill and accused the Congress of creating chaos in the Rajya Sabha in order to avoid voting on it. But this has now become a story of the past. The BJP leadership's political conduct in Utter Pradesh has left everyone shocked and baffled and made people believe that the BJP is as unscrupulous as other formations are and that it was not really committed to what the BJP leadership said in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the proposed institution of Lokpal.
The position today is that the BJP leadership is under scathing attack over the issue of corruption. The otherwise cornered and thoroughly exposed Congress is spitting on it and questioning its very moral right to speak on the issue of corruption. The Samajwadi Party, known for fielding, shielding and promoting persons with doubtful credentials, is ridiculing and jeering at the BJP leadership and asking the general public not to trust it. The Bahujan Samajwadi Party, known for fielding, shielding and promoting persons with questionable credentials, is taunting the BJP leadership and telling everyone that the BJP's real face stands exposed and blackened beyond recognition. The Rashtriya LoK Dal, whose president changes side almost everyday for personal power, is despising the BJP leadership and asking the people to teach the BJP a befitting lesson. The BJP's own ally Janata Dal - United (JD-U) is criticizing the BJP leadership and saying that it has committed a sin by hugging and siding with corrupt elements. The media, both print and electronic, is also criticizing the BJP leadership. Almost all the news channels are targeting the BJP leadership and questioning its very credibility and stand on corruption and Lokpal.
The fact of the matter is that all those who want India to be corruption-free and long for probity in public life have turned against the BJP. They are accusing the BJP leadership of indulging in double-speak as far as the issue of corruption is concerned.
What has provoked or motivated these political parties, all important actors in UP, to launch a scathing attack on the BJP leadership, which used to say till the other day that they were a party with a difference and that their party is known for its chaal (conduct), chehra (face) and charitra (character)? Why has the media suddenly turned critical of the BJP leadership? What has made the general public question the very credibility of the BJP leadership? Why has the BJP leadership suddenly fallen from grace and became an object of ridicule and contempt?
The questions are many but the answer is one. The answer is that the BJP leadership has thrown open its doors for persons with highly doubtful credentials and criminal record. The BJP leadership has admitted four former ministers to the party whom UP Chief Mayawati threw out of her government and party only the other day on the ground that they had taken recourse to corrupt practices to amass wealth and build properties worth thousands of crores. What has made everyone to ridicule and jeer at the BJP leadership all the more is the party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's ridiculous statement that the BJP has not become "impure" by admitting corrupt elements to the party and that the "Ganga will be cleansed through a cleansing campaign". The Team Anna has advised the BJP leadership not to further pollute the already rather polluted Ganga.
Everyone knows that UP Chief Minister Mayawati has over the past few days dismissed 21-odd ministers on the ground that they were involved in corrupt practices. She started the process of removing tainted ministers just before the announcement of election schedule for the state and the process is continuing. One can surely question the timing of her decision to throw out of her ministry and party these 21-odd ministers, some of them very close to her, including Babu Singh Kushwaha. Kushawaha was Family Welfare Minister in the Mayawati Cabinet. But no one can contest her decision, notwithstanding the fact that UP, like Punjab, Uttrakhand, Goa and Manipur, would get a new government after March 4. She has shown the corrupt ministers the door. This is a fact and this should be appreciated.
Four out of the 21-odd dismissed and blacklisted ministers, including Kushwaha, have joined the BJP. In fact, the BJP leadership has hugged them, admitted them to the party and accorded a very warm welcome to them. Three of the four ousted corrupt ministers will contest assembly election on the BJP ticket. Kushwaha would also have been given a ticket but he is not that lucky because his admission in the BJP has triggered a fierce controversy across the country and within the BJP itself. Kushwaha is allegedly involved in a multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Kushwaha is expected to be arrested. The CBI sleuths yesterday raided offices and residences of close associates of the former minister, including some state officials, health department suppliers, senior politicians and contractors.
The BJP leadership has committed a grave political blunder by giving respectability to those who were shown the door by Mayawati. This action of the BJP leadership would surely mar the poll prospects of the party not only in UPA but elsewhere as well. But more than that, this action would damage the RSS more because it is now established that these four dismissed ministers were admitted to the party with the full backing of BJP national president Nitin Gadkari, the RSS appointee. There is still time for the BJP to rectify its mistake. It can do so by showing the door to these four former BSP ministers and tendering an unconditional apology to the nation. Will the RSS intervene and set the BJP house in order? Not an easy question to answer. |
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