18.10.11 MACCS
Indian opposition hit by corruption scandal
The anti-corruption campaign of the biggest Indian opposition party has suffered
a serious blow with the arrest of a senior minister in a scandal involving
improper sale of government land.
The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition to the ruling Congress, has been deeply critical of
the government's lack of effort on tackling corruption. It has jumped on the
bandwagon of a national anti-graft campaign led by civil society activist Anna Hazare, taking advantage of widespread anger about corruption for political advantage.
BJP leader LK Advani has just begun a huge nationwide tour to speak out against corruption and rally
support for the party.
That strategy appears to have backfired, as with unfortunate timing a court
ordered the arrest of BS Yeddyurappa, chief minister of Karnataka state until he resigned in August. Yeddyurappa was
arrested for his alleged involvement in a scam to sell prime government-owned
real estate in exchange for kickbacks or to companies owned by members of his
family. The sums involved are extremely large – the court claims that the deals
cost
the state US$95 million, whilst they earned Yeddyurappa around US$38 million.
The day after he was arrested, he was admitted to hospital after complaining of
feeling ill. He is likely to remain there until his court appearance on 22nd
October. The arrest is a major embarrassment to Advani and the BDP leadership
as
they begin their five-week tour, which is being seen as potentially laying the
groundwork for the 2014 general elections.
Advani sought to deflect questions on the corruption scandal, before declaring
that “We had cautioned Yeddyurappa earlier... When the report came he had to leave. No
party can fight corruption when its own house is not in place”. Public opinion is likely to be sceptical about this attempt to gain the moral
high ground, and the BJP tour has yet to make much of an impact.
Neither of the main parties can claim to be particularly clean. The BJP has
previously been dogged by corruption rumours, and it is likely that Yeddyurappa
is
just the tip of the iceberg. Congress has been engulfed in multiple scandals,
including a multi-billion dollar scheme to grant telecoms licences in exchange
for
huge bribes which has claimed the scalp of telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja.
The BJP scandal will hurt the opposition but will not particularly help
Congress: the most likely outcome is simply to contribute to widespread fatigue
and
cynicism in Indian politics.
Sources: BBC, AFP, Times of India