Ahead of the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the Modi government is desperate to expand its numbers and manufacture a two-thirds majority by hook or by crook. The motive is very clear. The government wants to pass a whole series of measures to secure its power and further tighten its grip on the Indian republic. The devious delimitation bill, one-nation-one-election agenda and maybe a nationwide NRC to seal the SIR campaign of disenfranchisement - several steps are on the anvil. The parliamentary wings of three parties - AAP, AITC and SS(UBT) - have already been virtually taken over by the BJP to erode the strength of the opposition and inflate the numbers of the government.
But while the government is going berserk with its Operation Lotus expedition, governance in the country is in utter shambles. Consider the three biggest corruption cases that are currently rocking the whole country. The repeated paper leaks that are driving students to suicide and ruining the futures of the youth; the land accumulation spree of the Madhya Pradesh CM and his family in and around Ujjain; and the land and donations scam surrounding the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya which is projected by the Modi government and the Sangh brigade as the epitome of faith for devout Hindus. These are signs of a system that does not care for any kind of accountability and believes that anything can pass. These are scams that illustrate the maxim 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'.
In 2014, Narendra Modi had come to power with his much touted promise "na khaunga, na khane dunga" (will neither take kickbacks nor allow anyone to enjoy kickbacks). Today, almost every department and every project of the government is surrounded by shocking allegations of corruption and misuse of power. And the government either keeps quiet or at times brazenly defends such corruption. The other day we saw media reports about the Minister of State for Agriculture, Bhagirath Choudhary receiving more than Rs 99 lakh as subsidy from the National Horticulture Board for a project of commercial farming of cucumber. As Union MoS for Agriculture, Choudhary serves as the ex-officio vice president of the NHB which administers the subsidy. Choudhary sees no conflict of interest and defends it as a 'subsidy for a farmer'!
The details emerging from Ujjain are far more shocking. Madhya Pradesh BJP CM Mohan Yadav has been at the helm of the land development projects in and around Ujjain for the last two decades and more. From 2004 to 2010 he was chairperson of the Ujjain Development Authority. During the next three years he was head of MP Tourism Development Corporation. Since 2013 he has been MLA from Ujjain South and since December 13, 2023 he has been the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. During this last period his family and real estate companies owned by his extended family members have purchased at least 137 plots measuring a total of 168 acres, mostly around new road projects in and around Ujjain or in areas demarcated for conversion from agricultural to residential land according to the Ujjain Master Plan 2035.
It should be noted that like Ayodhya, Ujjain too is fast emerging as a hub of religious tourism and is set to host a two-month-long Mahakumbh from 27 March to 27 May, 2028. There is a resultant real estate boom around Ujjain and the land value is shooting up like anything. The size of the massive windfall gains accruing to the Mohan Yadav family as a result of its strategically timed and located land acquisition spree is anybody's guess. While the CM has kept quiet about the detailed disclosures made in a five-part investigation published in The Indian Express, his extended family defends it as a 'legitimate business' predating Mohan Yadav's ministerial rise and the BJP calls the scam disclosure an anti-sanatan conspiracy!
In the Ayodhya donation theft scam, the government however could not deny it and attempts are therefore on to protect the top RSS appointees in the Ram Temple Trust with a controlled investigation laying all blame at the doorstep of some ordinary employees. And here too, the demand for dissolution of the corrupt temple trust and exemplary punishment to the guilty is being branded a rebellion against Ram! But there can now be no denying the fact that for the Sangh brigade Ayodhya is not a centre of religious faith, it remains a platform for targeting Muslims, spreading hate, garnering votes and now more than ever, for making money. It was the issue of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya which had propelled a party of two MPs in 1984 to power by 1998, and the party rode an anti-corruption wave to consolidate that power under the leadership of Narendra Modi in subsequent decades. Today the venality of the BJP stands brutally exposed right in the saffron citadel of Ayodhya.
The country is crying for an end to this venality. At Jantar Mantar, students from across India are staging an indefinite sit-in protest since 20 June demanding resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. From June 28 educator and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and AISA leaders Neha, Danish, Manish, Deepak, Aameen and Hrishikesh have turned this sit-in protest into an indefinite fast. An arrogant Modi government says it does not believe in the culture of resignation. The venal regime is desperate to hold on to power by breaking opposition parties, buying MPs and MLAs, disenfranchising citizens and silencing dissenters. The anti-corruption protests will have to hold this venal regime to account and defeat this tyranny. The regime that ruins the future of India's youth, loots India's workers and farmers, and plays with the faith of crores of devout Indians must be brought to its knees.
