EDITORIAL

BJP’s Arun Shourie exposes the real face of BJP! A party of indiscrepancy…

BJP leader Arun Shourie has now exposed the real face of his party when in a TV interview, he made an honest confession that he was denied for being the lead speaker for Union Budget 2009 in Rajya Sabha at last moment because notorious corporate lobbyist Nira Radia successfully persuaded top BJP leaders to replace him with Venkaiah Naidu as the lead speaker so that party could take a more accommodating line on proposals that could help country’s richest industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Former NDA minister Arun Shourie has said he was replaced as a lead speaker in a budget debate over fears that he would oppose a proposal that may have benefited Mukesh Ambani, bring the BJP under glare at a time the party has been targeting the Congress on corruption. The statement also reflects how much Shourie and the BJP have drifted apart since the dramatic events triggered by the party’s defeat in the general elections of 2009. 
It is now clear that all political parties and alliances, whether in ruling or in opposition, dance to tune of rich corporate honchos because of their being funded through approaching lobbyists. In fact, party-based political system has collapsed in India, and the country needs a refined democratic form of governance which should be qualitative and not just quantitative free from domination of party-bosses. 
In a TV interview last week, Shourie had opposed the BJP’s insistence on a joint parliamentary committee probe into the recent scams, saying previous committees had achieved little and helped the government in pushing matters under the carpet. Asked if he had spoken on this to BJP leaders, he said: “Actually, I am hardly in touch with the party as a party now. There are good friends as individuals.” "I was asked to open the debate on the budget. I worked for one week to speak on the matter and at the last minute, after I reached the house I was told the previous night, Mr Venkaiah Naidu had decided to speak suddenly. Therefore, as he had been party president, he will speak first."Shourie said that that it was certainly clear from the tapes that the main aim for the last-minute replacement was for the BJP not to go strongly against a budget proposal which would favour RIL. 
Democracy survives on counter-rallying power. It survives when there are alternate sources of authority. But now those have joined hands. There is, what my friend (Union Urban Development Minister S) Jaipal Reddy has once called, an invisible government of India which is completely stable. The visible Government of India keeps changing, but that invisible government of India remains completely stable. That is the real danger because now the Opposition is no different from the ruling party, whichever is the ruling party. The influence of those puppeteers behind the scene works on both sides. As a result, no issue is pursued to conclusion. 
Don't you think the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) also has a lot to answer for in the current situation? I don't see the difference between the two. I feel they (the BJP and the Congress) are one party. They are jointly ruling. It is a dinner party. They meet at dinners. They meet socially. They decide on what has to be done about issues. It is all very cooperative behaviour. They (the BJP) are shouting (for a Joint Parliamentary Committee). They know that it will kill the investigation. A JPC will raise side issues and that is what both sides want. Because the corporates behind both sides are the same. They don't want the 2G spectrum investigation to proceed. If you see the bigger picture of 2G spectrum, it is a battle between the old operators and the new operators in telecom... That's why political parties are not taking up the issue of the Radia tapes. 
The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) shouted about the tapes, but the next day the story came that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was dealing with Radia for the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Now can the CPI-M shout 'crony capitalism' in the same way? The problem is the homogenisation of India's political parties. All are becoming clones of each other. That means there is no counter-wheeling power any longer in the country. 

Why Modi is not appointing Lokayukta in Gujarat?
A Lokayukta is a body appointed to battle corruption in any state. It is surprising that a Lokayukta had not been appointed in the state of Gujarat for the past 7 years. For the past 7 years there is no ombudsman for the government of Gujarat. There is no one to expose corruption in Gujarat and there is no one to act on complaints. For the past 7 years, Narendra Modi can appoint tourism ambassador but not a Lokayukta. The Congress, even the governor has raised the issue in assembly and outside many times but no action on part of Modi. It could be concluded that Modi deliberately doesn’t want to appoint a Lokayukta because he wants to shield corrupt people in his government or perhaps because he himself is a corrupt man. If Narendar Modi will appoint Lokayukta in Gujarat State, all his political leaders of BJP will be booked under corruption which Modi doesn't want that his Ministers, Corporators go behind the bars? The Lokayukta's post is lying vacant since November 2003, which was when the last incumbent, retired High Court judge S M Soni stepped down. Soni was appointed Lokayukta during the Keshubhai Patel regime in 1998. In the absence of a Lokayukta; no one can lodge complaints of corruption against ministers, chairpersons and directors of the various government-owned boards/ corporations and elected representatives in local self-government bodies. After almost seven years, the Gujarat government has initiated the process of appointing a Lokayukta or ombudsman in the state. This information was provided by the state government to the Gujarat High Court following a public suit seeking the appointment to the post. Amit Jethwa had also spearheaded the campaign against corruption. It was on his petition that the HC directed the state government to complete the appointments within a stipulated time. He had also filed a PIL petition questioning the state government’s inaction over the appointment of Lokayukta. Because Amit Jethwa was fighting against the corruption in Gujarat he was murdered and eliminated.