From corruption bond to tiny island - Deflection in action

As if the BJP were done with the liquor scam, we are now told about the Katchatheevu (non-existent) controversy with PM Modi accusing Indira Gandhi government of gifting away the tiny island to Sri Lanka. This was done obviously to whip up the Tamil voter frenzy in favour of the BJP. PM Modi attempted to hit two birds in one shot – the Congress and its ally DMK

The Electoral Bond Scam should have been the election issue as the corruption has impacted the governance along with other burning issues such as women’s security, unemployment, and price rise which the government has attempted to whitewash. If the opposition really works hard, they should be able to point out that the BJP’s balance sheet appears to be highly imbalanced when it comes to promise versus performance.

Then, you have the instances of misuse of the investigation agencies and converting them into caged parrots which act as long as the accused is out of the BJP fold and wind up the cases against them when they join the ruling dispensation.

The BJP, as always, has been trying to deflect attention from the main issue of the Bond scam. Mark the date March 21, when the EBS details with the unique identity numbers were out and the details of the company and party wise donationswith the bonds were disclosed. The Godi media, which enjoys a wide reach particularly in the Hindi belt, blacked out the Bond issue and hammered the Kejriwal arrest and the liquor scam.

As if the BJP were done with the liquor scam, we are now told about the Katchatheevu (non-existent) controversy with PM Modi accusing Indira Gandhi government of gifting away the tiny island to Sri Lanka. This was done obviously to whip up the Tamil voter frenzy in favour of the BJP. PM Modi attempted to hit two birds in one shot – the Congress and its ally DMK.

While working on this column, I was trying to gather some information on Katchatheevu island and stumbled on another interesting piece: The current BJP dispensation itself had way back in January 2015 said there was no question of ceding the tiny island to any country or anyone acquiring it. That was in response to an RTI application filed by Aladi Guruswamy of Chittor in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.

Guruswamy had asked who was the owner of Katchatheevu island –India or Sri Lanka.

Dr Rajeev Ranjan, then CPIO and under-secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in his response that the island “lies on the SL side India-Sri Lankan IMBL (International Maritime Boundary Line) that was delineated by 1974 agreement demarcating it in the Palk Straits and a subsequent 1976 agreement demarcating it in the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal”.

Ranjan then explained that “This did not involve either acquiring or ceding territory belonging to India since the area in question had never been demarcated. Under the agreements, the island of Katchatheevu lies on the Sri Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line.”

It is also interesting that the present external affairs minister S Jaishankar was the foreign secretary when this response was given. Sushma Swaraj was the external affairs minister.

The way the issue is being whipped up now amid the general elections raises many questions.

Why wasn’t this issue raised during the Janata Party rule (post the Emergency) and why nobody discussed it when Vajpayee was the PM?

As former Home Minister P Chidambaram pointed out, the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement 50 years ago also facilitated the resettlement of about 600,000 stateless Tamilians from Sri Lanka in India by granting them citizenship, human rights and dignity of life. That was not a small thing as compared to a non-existent island issue.

Any relationship, particularly between neighbours, is always based on give and take and even the current Prime Minister has been stressing on cordial ties between India and its neighbours, based on mutual respect.

Consider the case of enclaves in India and Bangladesh that existed before an exchange agreement between the two nations in 2015. There were Bangladeshi habitats surrounded by Indians in Bangladesh and vice-versa. In fact, there were cases of counter enclaves with a hand pump on the Bangladesh side serving the needs of people from India, barely five feet away. But this was all settled with the agreement under which 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India became Indian territory covering 7,110 acres. In all,14,863 residents remained in India and became Indian citizens, reports migrationpolicy.org quoting MEA data. Similarly, 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh became Bangladeshi territory, a total area of 17,161 acres. In all, 989 residents resettled to India. 37,532 residents became Bangladeshi citizens. Did anyone question why we gave away more land to Bangladesh than what India retained?

But Modi forgets all these and raises the Katchatheevu issue first through a tweet and then his speech at Meerut: “Eye opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away #Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds- we can’t ever trust Congress! Weakening India’s unity, integrity and interests have been Congress’ way of working for 75 years and counting.”

Congress president Mallikharjun Kharge reacted to Modi by saying: “On the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu, you are raising this sensitive issue, but your own Govt's Attorney General, Mukul Rohtagi in 2014 told the following to the Supreme Court. “Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974… How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back.”

Kharge summed up his counter: Stop this obsession with the Congress, and reflect on your own misdeeds, due to which India is suffering!

Having responded to the big outcry over the tiny island, the opposition must not lose track of the main issue – the Bond Corruption and keep hammering it. The EBS is just about political corruption, its ramifications have far-reaching consequences. And PM Modi’s own words, corruption, like termites, eat away our socio-economic fabric. Going by his own statements, Modi must look within the NDA and start worrying over the impact of just the pharma companies scam of not passing the crucial FDA tests and circulating the substandard drugs in the market.

I am not saying that the opposition must team up to defeat Modi or unseat the NDA. That’s within their political right anyway. But even if they do not win a majority in the Lok Sabha, they should be able to provide a cohesive and credible opposition to the NDA and undo whatever the INDIA bloc has done so far. Rahul Gandhi may dismiss the fears of the Modi 3.0 plans to amend the Constitution saying they do not have the guts to do so, but the 400-paar majority can tempt the BJP and its allies to play with the greatest document that the democratic India had created for itself to be governed as a Democratic, Secular and Socialist Republic. There have been enough indications to this effect from the BJP itself.

On the Bond issue, PM Modi People say those who are shouting against the scheme “will soon regret it”. He said, “Before 2014, there was no trail of funds given to political parties during elections. I introduced the electoral bonds. Thanks to the electoral bonds, we can now trace the source of funding,” as the Hindustan Times reported, quoting Modi’s interview to Thanthi TV.

By all accounts, the BJP remains the biggest beneficiary of the EBS and the party must be held accountable for all the quid pro quos and the massive scam. But PM Modi continues to talk of corruption among the non-BJP parties and his determination to end the menace. He, however, ignores the BJP Washing Machine concept. To give the latest instance, a Delhi liquor scam accused gets bail after buying EBS worth crores of rupees and the father of another gets the BJP alliance (TDP) ticket for the Lok Sabha election. The Godi media does not raise these questions and the independent media’s noise may not be loud. But it is a voice still! Thank you reader.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)