The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the central government led by it on Wednesday built a narrative around the alleged corrupt ways of Opposition leaders. The Opposition hit back by accusing the Narendra Modi government of “misusing” central agencies to muzzle dissent. It said that by raising the specter of corruption, the government was trying to conceal its incompetence on the economic and diplomatic fronts.
Income tax (I-T) officials raided the residence of D K Shivakumar, Karnataka's Power Minister, and his room in a resort on Bengaluru’s outskirts where 44 Congress legislators from Gujarat are housed. In New Delhi, Union minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar addressed a press conference to demand West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee either come clean over corruption allegations against her nephew — Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee — or step down.
The Rajya Sabha was repeatedly adjourned and couldn’t transact any business when Congress members protested the I-T department raids. Congress’s Jairam Ramesh said the raids were part of the conspiracy hatched by BJP to ensure Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s defeat in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat. However, Congress leaders said they were confident Patel would win, and the raids betrayed BJP’s frustration at this.
“The BJP has declared war on the Congress. This isn’t tanashahi (dictatorship) but Amit Shahi,” Ramesh said.
In Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said I-T raids were conducted on 39 locations linked to Shivakumar. He, however, denied any vendetta. An I-T department official said over Rs 10 crore cash was recovered during the raids in Karnataka and Delhi.
Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien said to describe government actions as “super emergency” was “too light a term”. “To say the timing of the I-T raids is coincidence is ridiculous,” he said. O’Brien said the BJP was deliberately building a narrative around a 10-letter word – corruption. “But the attempt is to hide its failures around another 10-letter word – competence, or the lack of it,” O’Brien said.
The Opposition is now struggling to bring the focus back on issues where the Modi government is perceived to have performed poorly, including national security in the light of the Doklam standoff and poor economic growth. For Thursday, the Opposition has given notices to demand a discussion on India-China tensions in the light of the Doklam standoff.
The I-T raids in Karnataka come at a time when the state is scheduled for assembly polls next year. Apart from Punjab, Karnataka is the only big state currently ruled by the Congress. In recent weeks, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress in the state has spooked the opposition BJP on several occasions, be it the Kannada flag issue, the Bengaluru declaration on Social Justice, hijacking the anti-Hindi plank, or the decision to support a move for a separate religion for Lingayats, the dominant community that has a leaning towards the BJP.
The Congress approached the Election Commission to seek security of its legislators housed in the Bengaluru resort. The legislators were relocated to Bengaluru after several quit, which the Congress had alleged was under threats and inducements by BJP leaders.
Three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat go to polls on August 8. BJP candidates Smriti Irani and party chief Amit Shah are set to be elected, while there is a contest between Congress’s Patel and the BJP candidate for the third seat.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said using central paramilitary forces instead of local police for the search violated rules and exposes "political motivations behind the raids".