The storm triggered by the medical college bribery scam is likely to cause damage to the BJP at the national level as well as at the State level in the coming days.
Discussions are now veering around the hawala transaction mentioned in the internal report of the State unit. More than the scam, the alleged resort-to-hawala route to transfer the bribe, amounting to crores of rupees, to Delhi is widely felt to have brought ignominy to the party. It may have frittered away the ‘gains made’ by the party at the national-level with its relentless fight against black money.
Kerala was one State that had put up stiff resistance against demonetisation of high-value currency and the government and the Opposition were critical of its outcome. But the BJP leadership chose to explain away the crisis as a passing phase and reiterated that it would put the brakes on hawala transactions, black money, and terror funding.
Party leaders had always tried to put the blame on a particular community, depicting it as the purveyors and ready conduit for hawala transactions. Now, the report prepared by two prominent leaders says the BJP's own leaders involved in the scam had used the same route for their illegal fund transfers. The observation may come in handy for the BJP critics to put the organisation in the dock for using an illegal channel that it had trained its guns all along.
Party leaders are at a loss to explain their stance on the contents of the report. Resentment is brewing among the rank and file and middle-rung leaders who are tasked to directly engage the cadre.
Party sources told The Hindu that the national leadership would go for a thorough overhaul of the State organisational machinery before October, when president Amit Shah is expected to visit the State.
Once the lid on the scam is blown off, the national leadership is likely to get flooded with complaints regarding transfers and postings secured for interested candidates by certain State leaders in airports and Central public sector undertakings in the State. This is feared to incur even more serious damage to the party.
Since the charges have flowed from the organisation itself, arresting groupism and launching a damage control exercise taking all sections into confidence would not be an easy task. This realisation would force the national leadership to opt for stringent action, sources said.