Corruption and BJP

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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