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Why CBI raids on Virbhadra have backfired on the NDA

Charu Kartikeya | Updated on: 13 February 2017, 5:06 IST
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The raid

  • CBI raided HP CM Virbhadra Singh residence and other addresses on 26 September
  • The raids took place at the same time as his daughter\'s wedding
  • The case against Singh is an old one. CBI could have raided on any other day

The reactions

  • Congress has slammed this as an act of vendetta on the part of the Modi government
  • JD(U) and CPI(M) slammed BJP for its double standards on corruption
  • RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said that CBI has become part of the NDA

The CBI raids on Virbhadra Singh on 26 September have ended up triggering sympathy for the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister.

The agency raided Singh's house in Shimla when he was on his way to his daughter's wedding.

Raided on daughter's wedding day

The Congress has naturally cried foul over the timing of the raids but even other parties have also voiced their outrage.

Responding to the raids a day later, Singh tweeted, "I was on the way to Temple for my daughters marriage ceremony when I encountered with the CBI Team outside my house at Shimla".

"I proceeded to the wedding ceremony, opened my house doors to the CBI & asked them to check what they want, as I have nothing to hide," Singh said in a subsequent tweet.

The Congress has termed the CBI raids as "the zenith" of "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hate agenda and political vendetta against the Congress and its leaders."

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said that this is an "example of politics stooping to its lowest ebb".

"Modi government's lust for settling political rivalry has made it alien to India's culture and tradition of not disrupting the marriage of a daughter," he added.

Double standards on corruption

The Congress' alliance partner in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) also slammed the timing of the raids.

"While I am not defending corruption, I condemn the timing of this raid. This was a particularly bad incident for the chief minister's daughter, her in-laws and society in general. The sole objective behind the timing of the raid was revenge and to demean Virbhadra Singh," said JD(U) General Secretary KC Tyagi.

CBI raided Singh on his daughter's wedding. Congress calls this the zenith of Modi's hate agenda

Tyagi further criticised the BJP for its double standards on corruption. "No court has framed charges against him (Singh). There are similar cases of corruption against the BJP's chief ministers in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raj. In fact, the CBI itself is investigating the Vyapam scam in MP. In spite of all this, BJP does not ask Chouhan and Raje to resign," he said.

Even though the Samajwadi Party has fallen out with the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar, it also came out strongly against the raids. Its national secretary Rajesh Dixit said, "The prime minister talks about humanity. He promotes 'selfie with daughter' and then gets the CBI to raid a person on the day of his daughter's wedding. Either the CBI or the PM should tell us what is the motive behind this?"

Is CBI becoming part of the NDA?

RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said that this was the first time in independent India's that such an incident had taken place. Jha said this incident proved that CBI had transitioned from being a "caged parrot" to a "controlled parrot" and that its remote control was in the hands of the political dispensation.

Jha alleged that the extensive use of CBI for political gains shows that the BJP is trying to make the agency a part of the NDA.

CPI(M) MP Mohammed Salim said that at a time when there should be zero-tolerance towards corruption, "the Modi-Shah regime has been selective in taking action". "There are corruption allegations against the Rajasthan CM and Madhya Pradesh CM besides scams in Chhattisgarh and the chit fund scam in West Bengal, but the CBI was not taking action in any of these cases," he pointed out.

There has been an unspoken understanding in the political class that even the most bitter rivalries are forgotten in personal functions such as weddings. Many politicians attend weddings and other social functions organised by their enemies.

The 'disproportionate assets' case against Virbhadra Singh is an old one and the raids could have taken place on any other day, even a day before or after the wedding.

Only the CBI can explain why it chose to raid the Himachal Pradesh CM on that particular day. In the absence of an explanation, it will leave itself vulnerable to allegations of political subservience to the Union government.

First published: 29 September 2015, 9:00 IST
 
Charu Kartikeya @CharuKeya

Assistant Editor at Catch, Charu enjoys covering politics and uncovering politicians. Of nine years in journalism, he spent six happily covering Parliament and parliamentarians at Lok Sabha TV and the other three as news anchor at Doordarshan News. A Royal Enfield enthusiast, he dreams of having enough time to roar away towards Ladakh, but for the moment the only miles he's covering are the 20-km stretch between home and work.