Is the opposition missing the bus?

Prashant Bhushan who fought a relentless legal battle against the Bonds, told a Meet-the-Press at Mumbai Press Club on the last Sunday, that the scam involved four parties – the donor companies, the political parties, the government departments giving licenses and contracts and, of course, the regulators such as the ED, CBI and IT

Flashback to 2014 poll scenario: Please recall as to how the 2G and Coalgate scams were blown into major political communication tools during the campaign even as Narendra Modi was anointed as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. The anti-UPA tide was so high that it just engulfed the Manmohan Singh government which could neither get any breather nor swim ashore. Wordplay apart, the BJP stuck to the word corruption and Modi’s Congress-mukt Bharat sloganeering. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had to admit that his party failed to communicate its version and the failure continued even in 2019 general elections. Will the Congress score a dubious hat-trick in 2024?

The Congress and the opposition have got several major opportunities – three, says poll strategist Prashant Kishore – and they appear to be missing them, being unable to give it back to the BJP in the same coin – corruption.

Time is running out and April 19, when the first phase of the elections are to be held in the 102 constituencies across in 21 States and Union territories, is not far away. By this time, the 2009 type tidal wave should have been built by the opposition considering all the disturbing aspects of the EB Scam.

"Electoral bond scam is not just the biggest scam in India but the biggest scam in the world,” said noted economist and union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband Parakala Prabhakar, in an interview to a TV Channel.

The Congress reposted the interview byte. That is about it. Rahul Gandhi off-and-on makes remarks. The Congress manifesto makes a reference to corruption and EBS saying: “We will carry out complete investigations of the Electoral Bonds Scam, the reckless sale of public assets, the PM CARES scam, repeated intelligence failures at the highest levels and corruption in major defence deals”.

The manifesto also says: “In the last 10 years, we have seen that several measures taken by the BJP/NDA government were actually a cloak for corruption. Some examples are demonetisation, the Rafale deal, Pegasus spyware, and the Electoral Bonds scheme. Congress will probe these dubious deals and schemes and bring to law those who made illegal gains through these measures.

“Known offenders were allowed to leave the country in the last 10 years. The BJP/NDA government is perceived to have facilitated their leaving the country and has not been able to bring back any of the scamsters. The circumstances under which they were allowed to leave the country will be probed and all scamsters and their accomplices will be brought before the law. The BJP has turned out to be a giant washing machine. Accused in registered cases who joined the BJP was allowed to escape the law. The allegations against such persons will be revived and investigated.”

As you can make out, the reference to EBS is nothing more than a passing remark. The party could have done much more and prepared enough ammunition for the campaign machinery across in all languages and the word about EBS corruption should have been spread to every home, voter, particularly the first-time voter.

The only people who seem to be talking a lot about the EBS are the independent media and columnists, apart from veteran lawyer Prashant Bhushan and activist Anjali Bharadwaj. The least that they could is to take a cue from AAP leader Sanjay Singh who launched a tirade against the BJP the moment he stepped out of Tihar Jail on bail in the liquor scam case. Modi is a worried man, said Singh.

The BJP, on its part, has launched a major justification campaign, using all avenues including the guest appearances at events on major media platform.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been harping on corruption by the Congress and the rest of the opposition though it is his party that is embracing the tainted leaders from other parties and giving them high positions. Modi who started the Ab-Ki-Baar, Char-Sau-Paar campaign from the Lok Sabha continues to focus on it and the entire party machinery - from members of Parliament to Panchayats – chants it. The congress needs this kind of an aggressive communication.

Another major point that the Congress needs to understand that the pro-BJP machinery is at work across all media and social media platforms. While the Congress has termed the EBS as nothing but extortion and hafta vasooli, the defenders have questioned the narrative.

Prashant Bhushan who fought a relentless legal battle against the Bonds, told a Meet-the-Press at Mumbai Press Club on the last Sunday, that the scam involved four parties – the donor companies, the political parties, the government departments giving licenses and contracts and, of course, the regulators such as the ED, CBI and IT. He mentioned that the apprehensions about quid pro quo coming into play with the EBS have come true. He cited the Megha Engineering case to illustrate this – how the company got benefits after buying the Electoral Bonds.

The Congress should use each point that Bhushan and others say and every line from the Supreme Court judgment for its messaging just as the BJP conducted its onslaught making use of the CAG reports and court rulings on 2G and Coalgate cases.

In a wheel-within-wheels case, the amended Telecom Act has also contributed to EBS quid pro quo, as media reports indicated. The satellite spectrum allocation was done by an administrative recommendation instead of an auction that the Supreme Court has directed in its ruling in 2G spectrum allocation case. The SC found fault with the 2G spectrum distribution on a first-come-first-serve basis. The BJP used this to the hilt in its anti-Manmohan Singh drive in 2014.

The BJP government has done exactly the opposite in satellite spectrum allocation, despite the assurance given by Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that all provisions align with the observations and directions of constitutional benches of the Supreme Court regarding spectrum management.

This is a major win for companies such as Bharti’s OneWeb, which was advocating for administrative allocation, said in a news report.

Yet the entire opposition appears to have slept over this and they were shaken out of the slumber only after the EB scam broke out. But again, the Congress seems to have failed to pay Modi back in his coin – spectrum corruption.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal said the opposition should take the EBS to every nook and corner and expose the BJP. Has anyone taken him seriously?

The Congress and the rest of the opposition say Modi and BJP are unsure of winning majority in the upcoming elections. This is exactly why the government machinery is targeting the opposition leaders with fake cases and bundling them into jails, they argue.

Parakala (as he is referred to in Andhra Pradesh), has a different take altogether: now the fight is not between two alliances but between the BJP and the people of India, he tells to a TV channel.

Right. It’s time the anti-corruption wave was built. It’s time that the nation pressed for a court-monitored independent SIT probe and a surgical strike on corruption, quid-pro-quo and fake cases.

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