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Journalism of Courage
AFTER maintaining silence for nearly a day on the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia – virtually the only non-BJP party to not speak up – the Congress leadership on Monday issued a statement criticising use of central agencies for “harassment”, without taking any names.
Its communications head Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “@INC has always held the belief that institutions like ED, CBI & Income Tax Dept have become instruments of political vendetta & harassment under Modi Sarkar. These institutions have lost all professionalism. Oppn leaders are selectively targeted to destroy their reputation.”
The silence of the Congress leadership, even as its Delhi unit “welcomed” Sisodia’s arrest, was telling, given that the party in its three-day plenary at Raipur repeatedly talked about its willingness to work with other Opposition parties.
But, for the leadership, it is plain practical politics. Congress leaders point out that the AAP is eating into the Congress vote bank in the states where it has made headway, particularly in Delhi where the Congress has not won a single Assembly seat in two successive elections. And that the AAP didn’t speak up when Congress leaders such as Sonia Gandhi faced questioning in the National Herald case.
Not everyone agrees. Asked about the Congress’s silence on Sisodia, a leader said: “It is foolish. You have to look at the big picture.”
Contrasting the high command’s silence with the Delhi unit’s response, the leader said: “It (the drift) is typical Congress. The party should take a stand… There are other examples where the party has an alliance at the Centre with an outfit, while fighting it in state. So a state unit cannot take the larger view, the AICC has to.”
Other leaders pointed out that the Congress would be called upon to take similar disparate positions when it comes to other states and the Centre. Given its presence across the country, the party has huge electoral stakes in states where it often finds itself pitted against regional parties (such as Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal and Telangana), which it needs at the Centre.
For example, Kerala. While the Congress and Left have had a warm working relationship at the Centre for a while, in Kerala, the two are the main rivals. The Congress has been strident in its attacks on the CPI(M) over the Enforcement Directorate case in which some of the closest aides of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are under the scanner.
Similarly, the Congress might need to associate with the Trinamool Congress for a joint front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, even though in the state, they are daggers drawn – especially over the Saradha and Narada scam allegations against TMC leaders.
In Telangana, the state unit of the Congress celebrates every CBI move against Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha, though the regional Bharat Rashtra Samithi could be another valuable partner post-2024.
During the Telangana leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul had criticised the BRS government as “the most corrupt in the country”. Last week, he spoke about the Saradha case, saying: “You know the history of the TMC. You know the violence that takes place in Bengal. You know the scams… They came to Goa, spent huge amounts of money in Goa. The idea was to help the BJP. This is exactly the idea in Meghalaya.”
Many leaders were not happy with Rahul’s attack on the TMC. “Is it a good time to fight with Mamata? Is there a West Bengal election before 2024? For that matter, is it a good time to fight with SP leader Akhilesh Yadav?” a leader said.
“I agree that the Bharat Jodo Yatra has rejuvenated the party, but is there a chance the Congress can form a government without a coalition? You have to think of 2024. The man who is laughing all the way to the bank is (Narendra) Modi,” another leader said.
Apart from the AAP, the TMC too had stayed away from a joint statement issued by Opposition parties on the day Sonia was questioned by the ED in July last year over money laundering allegations related to National Herald. The BRS though – then the Telangana Rashtra Samithi – was one of the signatories, along with the NCP, DMK, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), CPI, Shiv Sena, RJD, Revolutionary Socialist Party, IUML, National Conference and the MDMK.
“The Modi sarkar has unleashed a relentless campaign of vendetta against its political opponents and critics through the mischievous misuse of investigative agencies. Prominent leaders of a number of political parties have been deliberately targeted and subjected to harassment in an unprecedented manner. We condemn this and resolve to continue and intensify our collective fight against the anti-people, anti-farmers and anti-Constitution policies of the Modi sarkar,” the statement had said.
The AAP and TMC were, however, part of the joint statement issued by 16 Opposition parties in August last year after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act relating to the Enforcement Directorate’s power of arrest, attachment, search, and seizure.
The Indian Express had reported in September 2022 how, since 2014, there had been a five-fold jump in ED cases against politicians, 95% of whom belonged to the Opposition.
A resolution passed at the Congress plenary, hours before Sisodia’s arrest on Sunday, talked of the party being “prepared to work with like-minded political parties on the basis of a common, constructive programme to preserve and protect the Constitution in letter and spirit”. It identified three main challenges on which it was ready to work with other parties: “growing economic inequality, intensifying social polarisation and deepening political dictatorship”.
