The Hindu : The politics of chargesheets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 21, 2003

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National

The politics of chargesheets

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, appeared to be so wounded, even astonished, at the very idea of a "chargesheet'' being brought against his Council of Ministers by the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, during the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha yesterday. Perhaps he forgot, perhaps he did not know, that his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has brought not one, but four "chargesheets'' against the four Congress-ruled States of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — all in the last five weeks.

Either the BJP's memory is very selective or it is very short. For just 10 days ago, on August 10, one of these "chargesheets'' against the Gehlot Government in Rajasthan was issued and widely distributed in the form of a booklet when Mr. Vajpayee addressed a rally in Jaipur. And on July 17, a day before the BJP's national executive committee met in Raipur, the "chargesheet'' against the Jogi Government in Chhattisgarh was issued for wide distribution to the media and the people. In Delhi, a 24-page printed document entitled "five years of Congress misrule in Delhi, a chargesheet against the Sheila Dikshit Government'' was issued here 10 days ago when the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, flagged off the party election campaign at a rally.

"Chargesheets'', with or without adequate basis, have become part of the political weaponry available to the Opposition, and the BJP cannot escape its share of blame. The party virtually chargesheeted the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, on the basis of a false affidavit given by Harshad Mehta, which he later withdrew.

Ms. Gandhi was clever enough, or careful enough, to base her "charges'' against the Vajpayee Government on the Government's own documents and statistics. When it was pointed out that during the Vajpayee regime, for the first time, even Army camps had become unsafe, that Pakistan had virtually occupied part of India's territory in Kargil and that Amarnath pilgrims had been repeatedly attacked, the facts may be unpalatable not only to the ruling party but to every Indian. But the Government could have presented its defence instead of simply saying that it was the result of "sour grapes'' for the Congress, which is out of power.

Pointing out that a party has failed to keep promises made in its manifesto is fair play, and Mr. Vajpayee should have no complaints when a list of the broken promises of the National Democratic Alliance are read out. After all, the BJP's chief ministerial aspirant in Delhi, Madan Lal Khurana, has indicted the Dikshit Government on 11 counts for not keeping promises made in the Congress manifesto.

The BJP "chargesheets'' against the Congress State governments went to absurd lengths — the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, was charged with being an "appointee of the Pope'' (perhaps a reference to the faith he belongs to), and the Ashok Gehlot Government in Rajasthan was held responsible for and charged with the worsening female to male ratio in the State. Incidentally, the BJP perhaps does not know that the census covers a 10-year period, and if indeed the Government was to blame for the worsening gender ratio, the BJP's Shekhawat Government would have to share the blame.

While responding to the charges against his Government in the no-confidence debate, Mr. Vajpayee said that abuses would not solve problems. If Ms. Gandhi described his Government as "insensitive, irresponsible and brazenly corrupt'', and if this was bordering on the abusive, how would one describe Mr. Khurana's words — "Congress and crime are synonymous'' — in his chargesheet against the Delhi Government?

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