Public all for rooting out political graft

There is a huge hue and cry over the raids by the ED and the CBI on the politicians in the country with the Opposition expressing its 'grave concerns' over the threat to the democratic institutions, freedom and liberty in the country and the capture of all institutions by the RSS-led BJP. Senior advocate and Congress veteran Kapil Sibal recently said that the ED cases were only directed against the Opposition. "What happened is, when we brought it in and if you look at the history of the Enforcement Directorate prior to 2014, there is no such data that is available that tells you that all of it is directed against the opposition." He went ahead to add that out of the 121 ongoing proceedings by the ED, 115 are directed towards political opponents. "That data itself gives you the answer. This has never happened before. 95% of all proceedings by the ED are against the opposition. You name one minister in the BJP government, either at the state level, or at the Union level, who is being proceeded against by the ED. Or some great industrialists who are great friends of the party - has the ED ever reached them, has the CBI ever reached them? That data tells you by itself what is happening in this country. Pre-2014, this was happening as well, but at a much lower scale."

However, Sibal also admitted that no government could be given a clean chit for not having used the system. However, like his philosopher-leader, Rahul Gandhi, he claims there is a tsunami of injustice now. The entire Opposition claims that every institution is being used to target people who are speaking out against the government. Everyone appeals to others to save the country and its democracy while Rahul only goes a step further and invites the West to step in and prevent the erosion of democratic values. The likes of Kapil Sibal, KCR, Stalin, Mamata, Kejriwal and Uddhav should recall the fate of the Vohra Committee report under the previous dispensation. One of the tallest Parliamentarians of the past, Somnath Chatterjee, hit out at the Congress in 1995for its monumental contribution to corruption and said "on the basis of the report, it could be said that the mafia is virtually running a parallel government forcing the State apparatus into irrelevance." It was Vohra Committee finding and not a BJP accusation. The Committee was set up on July 9, 1993 to take stock of all available information about the activities of crime syndicates, mafia organizations which had developed links with and were being protected by the government functionaries and political personalities.

Strangely, the Centre seemed to have partly accepted the same in a clear case of self-indictment yet put the report on the backburner. The then pusillanimous government had displayed a total absence of political will in dealing with it. The report dealt with how politicians are making money joining hands with criminals. Is the situation any different now? The only difference, perhaps, is that the politicians are making more money than ever. Every citizen of India knows how politicians are becoming wealthy nowadays as in the past. Cases against such people, even out of political vendetta, are only welcome to the common man. This country demands action. The country is entitled to action. Any other form of corruption could be tackled effectively only when political corruption is handled effectively.