The media remained complicit and did not question Kejriwal on facts already in the public domain and laid bare before the courts by investigating agencies, which prove beyond reasonable doubt that crores of rupees were taken as bribes to benefit the liquor mafia. It was the natural quid pro quo for thousands of crores of advertising money paid regularly by the Delhi and Punjab governments where Kejriwal runs the show. Even today media is not revealing the truth to the public -that Kejriwal is deeply mired in blatant corruption and has fleeced the public exchequer of thousands of crores of rupees, writes former IAS officer V.S.Pandey
Finally the officials of the Enforcement Directorate have managed to arrest the mastermind of the Delhi Excise scam . It took nine summons and months of dramatic hide and seek, played out by Arvind Kejariwal, who went on stridently denouncing every ED summons as fake and terming the excise scam as just a political ploy of the BJP to prevent him from campaigning in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A shocking part of this sordid drama was the complete silence of the media. It never even attempted to confront Kejriwal and his coterie with straight forward questions- as to why he was shying away from answering questions asked by the enforcement agencies regarding his role as a kingpin of the multi billion rupee liquor scam. Also nobody ever quashed the absurd argument of the minions of his party that the PM is scared of Kejriwal so the Enforcement Directorate is hounding him! Why will the Prime Minister of a country like India having 17 or so states ruled by his own party ever bother about, leave alone cower in fear from the CM of a Union Territory with miniscule power?
The media remained complicit and did not question Kejriwal on facts already in the public domain and laid bare before the courts by investigating agencies, which prove beyond reasonable doubt that crores of rupees were taken as bribes to benefit the liquor mafia. It was the natural quid pro quo for thousands of crores of advertising money paid regularly by the Delhi and Punjab governments where Kejriwal runs the show. Even today media is not revealing the truth to the public -that Kejriwal is deeply mired in blatant corruption and has fleeced the public exchequer of thousands of crores of rupees .
The nadir our politics has reached is becoming increasingly apparent in the several press conferences conducted by the scam kingpin Kejriwal’s cronies, after his arrest, brazenly proclaiming that Kejriwal is not a person but a “vichar” and thousands of Kejriwals will appear on the horizon soon . Nothing can be more shameful than this. The so called Kejriwal bhakts, with eyes wide open, are still vociferously trying to negate the reality of the role of kingpin played by Kejriwal in the Delhi excise scam running into thousands of crores and proclaiming they want a replica of his everywhere. Sycophancy, at its very best, is on noisy display in Delhi .
Lies do not travel far. One of the standard lies perpetuated by Kejriwal and his cronies -that during raids by CBI and ED not a rupee has been recovered- now stands exposed. ED has made several alarming disclosures in the court making it abundantly clear that Kejriwal was the kingpin of this excise scam and plentiful evidence of a money trail running into crores and crores of rupees through a web of shell companies and hawala route -leaves nothing to imagination .The falsely repeated public utterances of Kejriwal and his cronies that “not a single rupee could be recovered” stands refuted .Unfortunately all these lies had remained unchallenged by the media for months.
What next? Undoubtedly the venality and looting that is salient in the Kejriwal episode, is the common narrative of all political parties and their leaders. They are all mired in corruption irrespective of the color or ideology of their parties. Those who get caught are branded “corrupt “ but what about the rest who are yet to be caught? All are emperors without any clothes, without exception. As far as Kejriwal is concerned, his game is over and his party has a bleak future. He was the chief minister, when under his chairmanship, his cabinet approved the scam ridden excise policy. As per the evidence available in the public domain , his conviction in the excise scam is certain. His political career is troubled. Any party whose face and “karta dharta” is involved in multiple corruption scandals and is about to be convicted for years in jail, has no future unless those left in the party accept the reality that their leaders are corrupt so they need to be jettisoned. Instead of empty sloganeering of “Kejriwal zindabad” , they should face and accept the reality that they were burdened with corrupt leaders who are in jail now for their mammoth corruption. They should expel these corrupt leaders and forge the path of honest politics for which AAP was brought into existence.
Other political parties and their leaders should also not show solidarity with a corrupt person who has been caught red handed in a massive scam and is now in custody. Politics does not mean that others are duty bound to defend and stand by a leader even when he is prima facie found to be corrupt and the kingpin of such a humungous scam. All the while, Kejriwal’s arrogant shenanigans continued unabated accompanied by advertisements of his nonexistent honesty while duping the aam janta underhandedly.
What is most disquieting is that unprincipled unethical Kejriwal could arrogantly and audaciously preach about truthfulness/ integrity, dare to don the mask of honesty and continue his devious charade for so long and play with the “vishwas” of the common man for so long . No other political leader had dared to play such a duplicitous game-the janta was always aware of their reality. Kejriwal, the master practitioner of deceit stands exposed . Others of his ilk should beware.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
