I-T and CBI raids queer poll pitch

It’s been a messy, no-holds-barred election season. Trading charges and low intensity violence have always been part of poll-time realpolitik. However, a curious new element in recent years is the accompanying income tax and CBI raids on opposition politicians. The talk of the Tamil Nadu election scene for instance is the raid in recent days on DMK supremo M K Stalin’s daughter, Senthamarai. The I-T department claims it is to check “political cash distribution”. A little over a month ago, when the West Bengal poll campaign was just warming up, the CBI landed at the doorstep of Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee. They wanted his wife, Rujira Banerjee, for questioning in an old coal theft case. 

It’s not new, but there seems to be a pattern. In the run up to the Madhya Pradesh polls in April 2019, the I-T department targeted some of the main aides of Kamal Nath, the Congress chief ministerial candidate. One of them was R K Miglani over “corruption” charges. It is possible these central agencies have the evidence against these opposition leaders. But then doesn’t it seem one-sided? Does one hear of any raids on three former Trinamool politicians now in the BJP—Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari and Sovan Chatterjee—all of whom are accused in the Saradha chit fund scam? 

There is no denying that the I-T department and the CBI are empowered to unearth criminal offences. However, courts have repeatedly emphasised that these central agencies must be objective and reasonable in their investigation. What is suspect in these recent cases is the timing. There are bound to be eyebrows raised when I-T teams fan out in the midst of election campaigning and target only a few significant opposition party figures. The distribution of unaccounted cash as poll machinations are as old as the hills. What is worrying is the use of these agencies in partisan warfare. That is why the demand for an independent ombudsman—the Jan Lokpal movement—to investigate charges of corruption is so important. Meanwhile, the government must desist from queering the pitch at election time and allow a level playing field.