Double standard
The BJP has shown the wide gap between its profession and practice by inducting into the party a corruption-tainted former minister of Uttar Pradesh and two others who are equally tainted.
Babu Singh Kushwaha was a BSP leader for a long time and had been dropped by chief minister Mayawati from the cabinet in the face of serious charges of irregularities in the implementation of the rural health mission scheme. Mayawati is not very intolerant of corruption but even she could not keep in the cabinet a person with the dubious credentials of Kushwaha. But the BJP, which has tried to assume the high moral ground with its self-righteous campaign against corruption, had no compunction about admitting into the party a man who is a symbol of all the bad things associated with politics.
That the party is not as uncompromising about corruption is known by its conduct in Karnataka where it is being held to ransom by a leader facing very serious corruption charges.
And yet the party had recently taken a highly populist posture against corruption. It supported Anna Hazare’s campaign, opposed the Lokpal bill in Parliament claiming that it was not strong enough to deter corruption and launched a campaign against black money, which was led by its tallest leader. It led the attacks on the government over the Commonwealth Games and 2G scandals. But Kushwaha is very much UP’s Suresh Kalmadi and A Raja rolled into one and he may be, in addition, mixed up in murder cases too. The CBI has raided his houses and filed a number of cases against him.
The BJP’s attraction for former minister lay in the fact that he belongs to the backward castes which the party wants to woo in the forthcoming elections. The party’s statement that it holds no brief for him and would not defend him is no convincing explanation. Nor is the assertion that he will not be a candidate in the elections. A state party leader who criticised his induction in the party has been suspended. That shows the value the party attaches to its new catch. But that also exposes the claimed commitment to clean politics and public life of the party with a difference. It is true the BJP is not the only party that welcomes and shields opportunistic, corrupt and criminal elements in its fold. But Kushwaha will mock the party’s pretensions like no other.
