The Bharatiya Janata
Party [BJP] came to power at the Centre in 2014 mainly because of its promise
to provide corruption-free governance.
The Congress Party had not only become corrupt but also inefficient so
much as to merit a special mention in BJP’s election manifesto 2014:
“Corruption is a manifestation of poor Governance. Moreover, it reflects the bad intentions of
those sitting in power. All-pervasive
corruption under the Congress-led UPA has become a ‘National Crisis’.”
 |
| Manifesto 2014 |
The party that came to
power on the promise of providing clean governance became the most corrupt
party in two years’ time. What’s more
alarming is that BJP’s corruption is not confined to money matters alone; it
has corrupted the whole atmosphere of the country polluting it with the vicious
hatred of communalism.
Association for
Democratic Reforms [ADR] found that the BJP amassed a lot of wealth in various
ways soon after it came to power at the Centre in 2014. The ADR report says:
·
Between
FY 2014-15 and FY 2015-16, the income of BJP increased by 44.02 percent (Rs
296.62 crore), BSP increased by 67.31 percent (Rs 45.04 crore), NCP increased
by 22.05 percent while that of the CPM increased by 1.68 percent (Rs 2.05
crore). The Congress’s income decreased by 0.79 percent (Rs 4.74 crore). CPI’s
also decreased by 24.28 percent (Rs 59 lakh).
·
The BJP
declared the maximum income from donations which amounted to Rs 940.39 crore.
·
A comparison
of total donations declared by the parties in their IT returns (both above and
below Rs 20,000) and that declared in the donation report shows that only 49
percent of the total donations of political parties came from voluntary
contributions above Rs 20,000. A total of Rs 648.66 crore (51 percent of the
total donations) donated to national parties was from donors whose details are
not available in the public domain. Total income of political parties from
unknown sources is Rs 1,130.59 crore.
·
The BJP
had collected Rs 434.67 crore from donors whose details are unavailable.
- The maximum expenditure for the Congress has been towards election expenditure, BJP’s towards advertisements and publicity followed by travelling.
In addition to such
accounts of corruption are the various cases of malpractices that were reported
against the party in the last three years.
Many leaders were caught with huge amounts of black money soon after the
notorious demonetisation. Many were
caught indulging in scams involving enormous amounts the latest being the case
against R S Vinod of Kerala who was accused of taking ₹5.6 crore from a private
medical college which paid the bribe for securing an approval from the Medical
Council of India. What is more
interesting in this case is that a BJP leader took such a bribe in a state
where the BJP does not have any political power.
The moral corruption that
has gripped India like a deadly cancer is much more lethal. The party is spending huge sums of money to
spread malicious and false information on various social networks and the media
in general. Machiavellian strategies are
being employed to plant ‘stories’ created by the party in newspapers and TV
news channels.
The country is being
divided into Hindu versus non-Hindu.
Fortunately, there are still a sizeable section of the Hindu population
that has not fallen prey to the propaganda.
That may be the only reason why there is some semblance of democracy
still left in the country. But how long
will that last? It is a question worth
raising.
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