DNA Edit: Comeuppance comes

The BJP government came riding to power in 2014 on the promise of a corruption-free government. That narrative seemed to be at risk after the Nirav Modi orchestrated PNB fraud exploded and the Congress mined the nitty-gritty’s of the scam, never mind the fact that representation of the fraud timeline was artfully crafted to discharge the UPA government of its role in the scam.

However, with the CBI arresting Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, the BJP has sent a loud and clear message to the Congress: That it will not stand by silently while the Opposition tries to steal its thunder. It is not as if the people have forgotten the sorry state of public probity under the UPA regime. Scams, big and small — the 2G Spectrum case, Coalgate, CWG scam — had roiled the trust that the masses had so blindly placed in the government.

Ministerial corruption was ubiquitous. The very leaders that were put in charge of judiciously dispatching the vast natural resources of this country abused their positions filling their personal coffers even as the impoverished millions looked on haplessly. Many amongst them, drunk with power, thought that there would be no comeuppance in the distance. Karti’s arrest by the CBI could very well be an inflection point in the battle for 2019, and the BJP must devote all its resources into showcasing the muddy history of the Congress.

Last year, after the release of A Raja in the 2G scam case, the BJP suffered a massive setback and an opportunity fell into Congress’s lap to thumb its nose at the government. The BJP, rightfully so, faced flak for letting the investigation into the case derail into a thicket of ambiguity and legalistic confusion. In other matters as well, the party has been weathering the public’s whiplash. Investigations against the Gandhi mother-son duo and the son-in-law Robert Vadra in the National Herald case and the Manesar land grab case respectively have been moving at a snail’s pace.

Consequently, a rhetoric that the BJP is not willing to pull its punches against corruption was taking shape. Not so, said the BJP and how. After a long time, the BJP has hit back hard and the Congress is on the back foot again. Caught off-guard, Congress has reverted to its auto-pilot mode invoking the age-old refrain that the move is part of BJP’s vendetta and a  diversionary tactic. The masses are not so naive to be taken in by these lame defences. “Na khaunga, na khane dunga” is a motto that resonated with the masses in 2014 and PM Modi’s popularity hasn’t dimmed since then.

While the Congress might see Karti’s arrest as an adversarial move, Indians know very well that unlike the Congress, there are none so high that cannot be touched in BJP’s playbook. The Congress now faces two uphill tasks. It will have to (a) Tarnish the image that PM Modi’s persona commands in collective imagination and (b) Whitewash its less than pristine history. In the coming days, the Congress will obviously amplify the PNB-Nirav Modi salvo. P Chidambaram is one of the strongest opponents standing against the BJP in the Congress line-up. Keeping him involved in matters personal and familial is a strategic move. What will the Congress do next?