Khadse goes, but will things change?

The resignation of Maharashtra’s revenue minister Eknath Khadse has been secured after media reports that BJP president Amit Shah sent him a veiled ultimatum in the background of reports that his wife had bought a piece of government land for a song — on the face of it a serious charge of corruption. There were other allegations too — that an aide of Mr Khadse was found demanding a bribe of ` 30 crores for certain favours, and that the former minister had been engaged in conducting a telephonic conversation with the notorious Mumbai gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who has made Pakistan his home.

That’s quite a list of allegations indicative of dubious conduct on the part of arguably the BJP’s most influential OBC leader in Maharashtra, who was in the running for chief minister before the party opted for Devendra Fadnavis.

However, there is nothing on record to show either the BJP’s or CM Devendra Fadnavis’ displeasure against the erring former minister for any misdemeanour, leave alone on grounds of “corruption”. This is a word the BJP is running scared of since all that it has done in the past two years is to accuse Congress leaders of corruption and would be loathe to have the same allegation flung at it.

In Parliament, the ruling party has steadfastly refused to acknowledge any trace of corruption in Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam scandal or the rice distribution scandal in Chhattisgarh. These are BJP- run states. The government has also simply turned a deaf ear to persistent Opposition demands for a probe into the Lalit Modi scandal, in which serious allegations were made against external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj as well as Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje.

Following the same pattern, the BJP has not officially pointed any fingers at Mr Khadse. In fact, the Maharashtra party chief and other senior leaders have leapt to his defence. A probe by a retired high court judge is being ordered, but the CM has tweeted that this was being done only because Mr Khadse had himself sought a probe so that he may get a chance to clear his name. This smells of an in- house probe, which simply will not do.

In the fitness of things the government should institute a probe into the former revenue minister’s dealings under the Prevention of Corruption Act after due notification. But the BJP appears worried about getting on the wrong side of someone as politically influential as Mr Khadse in state politics, and it is unclear if serious steps will be taken to hold the former minister accountable. As matters stand, the strange case of Mr Khadse appears to be BJP’s way of handling a serious allegation of corruption through a sleight- of- hand.

The BJP appears worried about getting on the wrong side of someone as politically influential as Mr Khadse in state politics, and it is unclear if serious steps will be taken to hold the former minister accountable