The question that looms large over the BJP is how many of its leaders have been accused in criminal cases but no action has been taken against them.
With AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest on Thursday, the Central government is yet again faced with allegations of ‘misusing’ central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation – an allegation that the BJP too has leveled against Congress-led governments in the past.
While the ruling dispensation has often defended the allegations by claiming that opposition leaders have been involved in corruption or other scams, the question that looms large over the BJP is how many of its leaders have been accused in criminal cases but no action has been taken against them.
The current chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma was part of the Congress party until 2015. The BJP had then alleged that Sarma was a ‘key suspect’ in an alleged water supply scam in Guwahati involving the Congress-led state government and Louise Beger International Inc, which worked as a consultant. The BJP in fact released a booklet at a meeting of its party’s MPs in New Delhi with the title ‘Water Supply Scam 2010 in Goa and Guwahati’.
According to the booklet, as quoted in a report by Assam Tribune, it had said, "Sarma was the then very powerful minister of Guwahati Development Department of the Assam government under which the Guwahati Water Supply Project was launched… Although the American court did not make the name of the Indian minister who took bribes public, the time of this scam and the department under which it occurred make Sarma the prime suspect in this entire scandal.”
Barely a few months later, Sarma joined the BJP. According to local media reports, CBI is yet to make headway in the case. “In September, 2018, a CBI team quizzed some officials of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) in connection with the case. However, since then, we have not seen any progress in the investigation into the case,” activist Bhaben Handique, who had taken the petition to Guwahati HC, told Northeast Now in 2023.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan has been named in two cases linked to Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society, wherein a 31-storey posh building in south Mumbai was constructed allegedly on land owned by the Defence Ministry without getting the requisite permissions and clearances. Chavan is an accused under the Indian Penal Code provisions for criminal conspiracy and cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Some of Chavan’s relatives had figured in the list of beneficiaries.
The matter is pending before the Supreme Court which in 2018 stayed proceedings in the case. The BJP had raked up the issue during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In fact Chavan had then alleged that BJP's "vindictive attitude" was behind the Governor's grant of sanction for prosecuting him in the Adarsh scam case. "The grant of sanction for prosecution and the CBI's decision to move the application has been done at the behest of the BJP," he said. He joined the BJP in February this year.
The former Trinamool Congress leader was accused of being involved in Saradha chit fund scam and Narada sting case – these two issues were consistently used by the BJP to target Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. The Narada sting operation, conducted by Narada News, purportedly showed Trinamool Congress leaders, MPs and cabinet ministers accepting bribes, right before the 2016 assembly elections. According to a report by Indian Express, Roy was accused No.1 in CBI’s FIR in the case but the agency did not apply for prosecution sanction against him. The TMC leader joined the BJP in 2017, and CBI made arrests in the case in 2021.
The former TMC leader Suvendhu Adhikari was also summoned by the ED for his alleged involvement in the aforementioned Narada sting case. However, the CBI did not apply for prosecution sanction against Adhikari as well in 2021. He joined the BJP in 2020 and won the Nandigram seat against Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly elections.
Maharashtra minister and rebel NCP leader Hasan Mushrif was under the scanner of ED after an FIR accused him of collecting money from farmers as capital for setting up of Sar Senapati Santaji Sugar Ghorpade Sugar Factory Limited (SSSSGSFL) — linked to Mushrif — in 2011. The Bombay High Court later gave him interim relief. In June 2023, Mushrif joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state along with Ajit Pawar and a few other Nationalist Congress Party leaders. There has been no update on the case after that.