Cong top brass tells state leaders to be cautious in defending DKS

'Party should only criticise timing of raids and use of central force'

With Income Tax raids reportedly yielding more details against Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, the Congress top leadership has cautioned the state unit to be more guarded in defending him to avoid a perception that the party was
shielding the corrupt.

The party should only criticise the timing of the raids and use of central force rather than defending underscanner leaders per se, is the message to Karnataka leaders, said Congress sources.  “Since Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has taken a tough stand of zero-tolerance towards corruption in public life, we should be very careful in defending any leader who comes on the radar of investigating agencies.

Though the party is against the timing of the raid and its motive, we can't blindly say that the I-T department should not raid anybody or probe anybody’s wealth,” a senior Congress leader explained here on Friday.

“If we oppose the I-T probe against our leader, the BJP may argue that we are obstructing the functioning of the investigation agency. Since we have already declared that the party is against black money, we cannot question the I-T department probing any of our leaders,” said the leader.

The emerging scenario in Karnataka is getting politically tricky and somewhat akin to what happened to the tainted former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

The Congress came under attack for not forcing its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal to ask its leader Tejashwi Yadav to come clean on corruption charges. The JD(U) used that as a ploy to trip the ruling coalition and, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP to form a new government to avoid graft charges from tarnishing his clean image.

The Congress had always moved cautiously while dealing with Shivakumar. When the party came to power in Karnataka after 2013 Assembly elections, Shivakumar tried hard for the chief minister’s post. However, the party made Siddaramaiah as the chief minister and Shivakumar was not even made a minister in the first round of swearing in.

After he exerted intense pressure on the party top brass, the powerful Vokkaliga leader was inducted into the Cabinet and given the Energy portfolio.

 Even when he tried hard to become the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president recently, the party ignored his overtures and retained G Parameshwara.