The Supreme Court’s order on Friday granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is in consonance with the dictum about bail and not jail being the norm. The Aam Aadmi Party leader was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 and by the CBI on June 26 in the same liquor excise case. The CBI too had arrested him in the excise case on the eve of his getting bail from the apex court, another unwelcome feature of the investigations in high-profile criminal cases whether against politicians or others. With the release of Kejriwal, and earlier the release on bail of his close associate and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, most of the high profile accused in the excise case are now out on bail. It can be no one’s case that the central government has not pursued the investigations in this case vigorously. But Kerjiwal has offered not even half a cogent reason for abandoning the controversial policy once the scandal hit headlines. Besides, the fact that in the Goa poll the party sought to match the other two parties in the use of political finance was borne out by all the externals of a well-oiled poll campaign as also from the statements to the investigating agencies that AAP candidates were provided through hawala sources up to Rs.90 lakhs each for electioneering. All this, of course, was aimed at fulfilling the AAP Supremo’s ambition to become a national leader in his eventual quest for the highest office in the land. Ambition is alright, but when the means used are corrupt, such as the AAP leader used by inflicting on the tipplers in Delhi a one-sided excise policy regardless of its impact on the exchequer it did warrant a criminal investigation into the scandal.
However, like all other scams involving high profile politicians the fear is that this too may end up in judicial limbo. For, nearly two years now the trial has not begun, one ground for the apex court to free the jailed accused/suspects on bail. Again, looking at the fate of politicians across the board who had indulged in various acts of omission and commission while in power, the record of convictions in such investigations does not inspire confidence. For one Laloo Parsad Yadav, who has spent couple of years in jail in the Rs.800-crore fodder scam, one can hardly recall a notable politician who has been convicted for corruption. It does not suggest that all of them barring Laloo Yadav were lily-white and shunned the temptation to dip into the public till. Far from it. Scan around the country. Without an exception the political families in each State have risen from modest means to enormous wealth in double-quick-time. Indeed, it will be interesting to find out what, if any, day-job heads of these families held to pay for their luxurious life-style.
Kejriwal and others in AAP claim with a kernel of truth that not a penny has been found in raids from their homes or offices. But, the charges, on the face of it, seem convincing. Besides, IT, ED, CBI raids on various political dynasties, even under the Narendra Modi government, have failed to yield much. No. Not even an unaccounted penny, as far as we know. Yet, the miasma of corruption and malfeasance hangs around those raided. For two reasons. Politicians know how to game the system. And the ruling parties lack sincerity in investigating political corruption, merely weaponizing the CBI,ED, IT, etc., to bend inconvenient politicians to their will rather than to penalize corruption per se. The record of the Modi government in this regard is as bad as any government that came before it. We can recall the case of the late and celebrated Orissa politician Biju Patnaik. The actual charge for which he was arrested was that a couple of bottles of the then imported Black Label whisky were found in his house in violation of the excise law. That was in Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. But before and after Emergency too central and state governments have gone after their critics, slapping various provisions in the penal code — not with the intention of upholding the majesty of law or to root out corruption, but only to teach their political opponents a lesson — or to make them join their ranks. As we have witnessed in recent times in Maharashtra, nay especially Maharashtra. In the case of Kejriwal, it is quite likely that the BJP Government would like to trip the AAP leader as he manoeuvres his way up the greasy political pole, keen to spread his footprint outside Delhi. Even a Congress government would have shown alacrity in going after Kejriwal had it been power because, more than BJP, the AAP took away the Congress vote-bank in the shanty colonies in the national capital on the back of freebies such as water and bijli. But Kejriwal walked into the trap owing to his burning ambition, resorting to all the tricks which the established parties resort to for raising funds. He was caught and must pay the price for his stupidity. Meanwhile, have some consideration for the taxpayers who are made to bear the enormous financial burden for costs of defending Kejriwal and others charged in the excise and a host of other cases in which AAP finds itself embroiled. And to say the least it has a special tendency to seek judicial intervention at every other step.
