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Timing of the CBI Raid Over Illegal Sand Mining Raises Doubts

Timing of the CBI Raid Over Illegal Sand Mining Raises Doubts

Soon after the CBI conducted raids over illegal sand mining during his chief ministership, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav categorically issued a statement saying, “Hamare paas gathbandhan hai aur BJP ke paas CBI (We have alliance and the BJP has CBI).” The succinct import was not lost on anybody, the ruling BJP at the Centre seen as trying to squeeze the new SP-BSP alignment in Uttar Pradesh, considering the latter’s pilot experiments in last year’s byelections could hold and challenge the former more than creditably in the Lok Sabha polls. Even BSP supremo Mayawati, the bua to babua Akhilesh, jumped in with all her protective instinct, saying she would stand by him in fighting the politically motivated probes by Central agencies, unleashed to scare them off a tough electoral race. So when several pre-poll surveys indicated that the SP-BSP alliance could indeed make a difference to the seat tally, even the voter on the ground was wondering what the BJP leadership would throw up next to derail Mayawati. Soon enough the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids about alleged fund embezzlement in construction of memorials during her chief ministership, one that ostensibly cost the State exchequer thousands of crores of rupees.

Of course, all scams need to be investigated impartially and the guilty booked but the timing of the ED raids raises more questions than answers. For starters, the latest swoops were conducted five months after the Allahabad High Court sought a status report on the memorial scam. The Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta had even indicted former ministers Nasimuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha along with 197 others for “wrong-doings” in procuring sandstone for Dalit memorials in Lucknow and Noida during Mayawati’s regime from 2007 to 2012. However, the Lokayukta had exonerated Mayawati for lack of evidence and said there was no proof against her or any bureaucrat. Meanwhile, Siddiqui, who is facing several probes in disproportionate assets cases, has quit the BSP and joined the Congress. And Mayawati herself expelled the other accused, Kushwaha, after she came to know about his complicity in another scam related to the National Rural Health Mission. By this yardstick, it doesn’t seem the latest round of ED raids will have an unnerving impact on the BSP though the case could implicate some contractors and engineers. Of course, this corrective probe mission could have gone in BJP’s favour if it had followed a timeline approach and brought all the scam-tainted, including its own and allies, in that bandwidth. But selective amnesia punches holes in the theory of ensuring a corruption-free society. Revenge politics has been played in Uttar Pradesh by the Congress too as well, especially while putting together numbers for propping up Central coalitions. Unfortunately, this see-through ploy is now past expiry date.

Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer

Timing of the CBI Raid Over Illegal Sand Mining Raises Doubts

Timing of the CBI Raid Over Illegal Sand Mining Raises Doubts

Soon after the CBI conducted raids over illegal sand mining during his chief ministership, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav categorically issued a statement saying, “Hamare paas gathbandhan hai aur BJP ke paas CBI (We have alliance and the BJP has CBI).” The succinct import was not lost on anybody, the ruling BJP at the Centre seen as trying to squeeze the new SP-BSP alignment in Uttar Pradesh, considering the latter’s pilot experiments in last year’s byelections could hold and challenge the former more than creditably in the Lok Sabha polls. Even BSP supremo Mayawati, the bua to babua Akhilesh, jumped in with all her protective instinct, saying she would stand by him in fighting the politically motivated probes by Central agencies, unleashed to scare them off a tough electoral race. So when several pre-poll surveys indicated that the SP-BSP alliance could indeed make a difference to the seat tally, even the voter on the ground was wondering what the BJP leadership would throw up next to derail Mayawati. Soon enough the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids about alleged fund embezzlement in construction of memorials during her chief ministership, one that ostensibly cost the State exchequer thousands of crores of rupees.

Of course, all scams need to be investigated impartially and the guilty booked but the timing of the ED raids raises more questions than answers. For starters, the latest swoops were conducted five months after the Allahabad High Court sought a status report on the memorial scam. The Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta had even indicted former ministers Nasimuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha along with 197 others for “wrong-doings” in procuring sandstone for Dalit memorials in Lucknow and Noida during Mayawati’s regime from 2007 to 2012. However, the Lokayukta had exonerated Mayawati for lack of evidence and said there was no proof against her or any bureaucrat. Meanwhile, Siddiqui, who is facing several probes in disproportionate assets cases, has quit the BSP and joined the Congress. And Mayawati herself expelled the other accused, Kushwaha, after she came to know about his complicity in another scam related to the National Rural Health Mission. By this yardstick, it doesn’t seem the latest round of ED raids will have an unnerving impact on the BSP though the case could implicate some contractors and engineers. Of course, this corrective probe mission could have gone in BJP’s favour if it had followed a timeline approach and brought all the scam-tainted, including its own and allies, in that bandwidth. But selective amnesia punches holes in the theory of ensuring a corruption-free society. Revenge politics has been played in Uttar Pradesh by the Congress too as well, especially while putting together numbers for propping up Central coalitions. Unfortunately, this see-through ploy is now past expiry date.

Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer

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