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Business News/ Elections / Lok Sabha Elections 2019/  Corruption set to take centre stage as election campaign frenzy builds
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Corruption set to take centre stage as election campaign frenzy builds

While the opposition is trying to corner the govt on demonetization and the Rafale deal, the BJP leadership is touting its anti-corruption measures
  • Corruption is set to become a crucial issue in the coming elections
  •  (Pradeep Gaur/ Mint)Premium
    (Pradeep Gaur/ Mint)

    As the Lok Sabha elections close in, constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are coming under increasing pressure from opposition parties to explain some of the major policy decisions taken by the Union government in the past five years.

    In particular, they are being asked to explain two measures—demonetization and the Rafale deal. While the Congress-led opposition has slammed demonetization as a “reckless economic experiment" that set back India’s economy and described the Rafale deal in terms of corruption, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has projected both as necessary in national interest.

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    Corruption is set to become a crucial issue in the coming elections—over the weekend, both the BJP and the opposition parties gave the nation plenty of evidence of this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led his party’s digital campaign of “Main Bhi Chowkidar" (I am also the guard) by adding the word chowkidar to his official Twitter handle. Soon after, all key Union ministers, top party leaders and party supporters followed suit.

    Political leaders and analysts said the national narrative around the issue could be stitched around the opposition trying to pin down the Union government over corruption allegations and the Modi government harping on its anti-corruption steps, including Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), benami and black money legislation.

    NDA’s pitch

    One of the key election campaigns of the NDA is likely to focus on how its measures have brought in more financial transparency, impacted the illegal parallel economy, increased access to banking services and streamlined the tax regime to reduce leakages. The government projects the system of DBT of subsidies to the poor as a landmark anti-corruption measure.

    The government says the combination of Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile phones (JAM), has helped reduce leakages in the benefits system.

    “The Union government came to power on the promise of reducing corruption. If we look back at the functioning of the NDA, the first steps taken by the government was to close leakages in programmes that were leading to corruption and hurting people directly because they were not reaching the intended beneficiaries," said a senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity.

    “DBT is a very big economic leap for the country. It is the key to not only end corruption but also to directly reach out to people. We have saved thousands of crores of rupees in different government schemes which used to either get stolen or leaked which includes scholarship subsidies, agriculture schemes and funds for housing," he added.

    A key promise in the BJP’s manifesto was to bring back black money, which was allegedly stashed in foreign banks by Indian citizens. One of the first decisions taken by the government was to set up a special investigation team to look into the issue of black money.

    To give legislative backing to tackle black money within the country, the government brought in the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015. It provides for confiscation of benami properties—assets held in the name of another person or under a fictitious name to avoid paying tax and conceal ill-gotten wealth. It also provides for a fine of up to 25% of the fair value of the asset and jail time of up to seven years.

    According to the government, steps such as rollout of the goods and services tax and demonetization, have increased transparency and put in place stricter anti-corruption measures.

    Opposition’s attack

    Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, have cornered the Union government and raised concerns over issues such as the Rafale deal and demonetization, accusing the government of failing to fulfil its promise of fighting corruption and, instead, being an enabler of it.

    The biggest allegation is the large scale corruption by the NDA government in procuring 36 French-made Rafale jets. The Congress has raised concerns over the pricing of the deal, choice of contract partner and the place of manufacturing.

    The matter is now being taken up by the Supreme Court, which in December, had found no evidence of wrongdoing in the government’s decision-making process. The deal has been a focal point of conflict between the government and opposition parties over the past one year, especially in Parliament and at public rallies.

    “Rafale is definitely a key issue for us, but our focus will also be to tell people that Rafale is a symptom of a bigger malaise, which this government is facing. It is a government that supports crony capitalists and a bunch of its corporate friends. Our campaign will convey to people that it is the poor which has bore the burnt of this government’s corruption primarily through demonetization," a former Union minister and senior Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.

    The Congress also plans to draw lessons from the assembly elections last year, where alleged corruption by BJP governments was the mainstay of its campaigns. According to party leaders, its research department has been working extensively to dig out data on specific issues to combat the government’s narrative.

    Opposition parties, particularly in Parliament, have cornered the government over the 12,636 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, reportedly involving jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, while alleging that the government did nothing to stop liquor baron Vijay Mallya from fleeing the country.

    “Except Rafale there is no other corruption issue that the opposition is raising. People are talking about jobs, security, temples, etc. This election is on non-issues concerning the people. This election is not debating the issues that concern the ordinary people," said N. Bhaskar Rao, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

    Graft and polls

    Corruption was one of the biggest issues in the previous Lok Sabha polls. The second term of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance, beginning 2009, was mired in corruption charges with some of its top ministers and leaders having to step down over such allegations. On the back of a strong anti-corruption campaign led by activist Anna Hazare and his then protégé Arvind Kejriwal, who is now the Delhi chief minister, corruption had become one of the key issues in the 2014 elections.

    The BJP stormed to power with an anti-corruption campaign. During his campaigns, Modi often used the slogan, “Na khaunga, na khane dunga" referring to his government’s promise of neither indulging in corruption nor letting anyone indulge in corrupt practices.

    In the past two years, the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, have been trying to highlight corruption as an issue by directly attacking the Prime Minister. Slogans used by Congress president Rahul Gandhi include “Suit Boot Ki Sarkaar" and, more recently, “Chowkidar chor hai". These are aimed at attacking the Union government for ‘stealing’ from the people and being anti-poor in its policies.

    “I don’t think corruption will be such a big issue in this election. Opposition parties have been trying to raise the issue of Rafale, but they have not been successful. If Rafale does not become an issue, then there is nothing else. There is small level corruption, but that is not enough for a national election," said Badri Narayan, director, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj.

    “The discourse from the government has been such that corruption has not successfully become an issue. Smaller issues of bribes, etc., have not been brought up. They (incidents like PNB scam) have been unable to become electoral issues. The NDA government has in some ways been successful in building an anti-corruption image and opposition parties have failed to raise those issues properly," he added.


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    Published: 20 Mar 2019, 12:49 AM IST
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