Race Against Time

Advani decided to resign from the Lok Sabha as soon as the CBI decision was made known, and had promised he would not contest the elections till he was cleared of the charges. The effort was aimed at salvaging his image and somehow retain corruption as one of the main planks for the upcoming elections. Since then, of all the hawala accused it, Advani has been working the hardest to expedite the hearings and had pleaded that his case should be taken up on a day-to-day basis. The stakes are high, for if Advani is not cleared before the campaign for the elections, the BJP's electoral efforts could be severely hamstrung.

The BJP president also moved an application before Justice V.B. Gupta of the special court handling the hawala cases, challenging the CBI chargesheet on the grounds that it was politically motivated and malafide. However, the court rejected the application on February 17, dimissing the apprehensions of the BJP leader as "wholly unfounded". However, the judge pointed out that the CBI had not yet submitted all the relevant documents in the case.

Besides moving the application in court, the BJP leader also wrote to the CBI director furnishing details of his assets. This was done, said Advani, to disprove reports appearing in a section of the media that his assets were disproportionate to his income. These reports, he claimed, were being planted by the CBI. The entire effort on Advani's part was an attempt to show that he was ready to come clean since he had nothing to hide.

There were other moves towards damage control. One was the release of extracts from the Jain diaries to the press by Atal Behari Vajpayee which allegedly pointed to Narasimha Rao as being among the recipients of the hawala money. The revelations did kick up a storm in the media, but the CBI is yet to proceed against the Prime Minister.

The case, however, took a fresh turn on February 29 when the special court took cognisance of the chargesheet against Advani and nine others and directed the CBI to arrest the BJP supremo and produce him before the court by March 12. Advani, who had been granted anticipatory bail on the same day by the Delhi High Court, was formally arrested and produced before the special court on March 1 and then immediately released on bail.

The trial will begin soon. But Advani's staunchest supporters admit that even if there is a speedy trial it may not be quick enough for the BJP leader to contest elections. Advani could very well miss the bus this time.