The by election frenzy of the demoralized and desperate Congress Party and its proposed coup on Jagan before elections can be counterproductive to it. Vayalar Ravi, the impresario of Sonia Gandhi, is stage managing the show. He is dispatching many state congress honchos to different constituencies to cook the goose for KKReddy.They are at it. Mean while the CBI is enacting its climactic episodes. But things are not going according to the high command’s script. The over enthusiastic order of stoppage of govt.ads to Sakshi is stopped in its tracks by the court. The GOs for the attachment of the properties of Jagan and his cohorts were deferred by the court on technical grounds. As the play goes on several kinks are arising in the performance. More intractable questions are cropping up. It is estimated that Rs.1170 crore were invested in Jagathi as quid pro quo deals. The effect is the creation of this giant media house, with the illegal money. But what and who are the cause for this effect. YSR, his cabinet members, bureaucrats who formulated the schemes, made decisions and issued GOs are the cause. Key members of the Congress high command were also in the know of these things. But even before identifying the perpetrators of the cause and accounting them for, the CBI is asked for prosecution of the beneficiary.
“The government certainly has power to attach properties and freeze accounts to prevent disappearance of property, including money which is result of proceeds of crime and corruption. But the only problem is that till the quid pro quo is proved or prima facie evidence shows that misuse of authority by father has a direct nexus with investments in Jagan’s companies, it is difficult to justify freezing and seizing. The fact that investigators could not narrow down to arrest Jagan manifests failure in getting clinching evidence. Without investigating the key links, co-corrupt political office-holders, ministers, bureaucrats hand-in-glove with them and other beneficiaries at New Delhi, the criminality of a single person cannot be proved. As they belong to the Congress party, they can be corrupt and escape the CBI’s long arm, but if any one opposes the party, the State will use the CBI as a weapon and crush their media.
This selective use of prosecuting power and sanctioning authority against political rivals could be abuse of law. The rule of law appears to be ‘make lakhs of crores of illegal money and join the Congress to expiate all crimes’. Like the sacred Ganga, the Congress washes away all the sins of those who dip in it. Can the long arm of the law reach New Delhi and all those political beneficiaries of YSR’s corrupt regime? Why are the Opposition, media and the civil society not asking for a probe against all these along with Jagan?”
(Madabhushi Sridhar in Times of India Dt. 22- 05-2012)
The writer is Professor and Head, Center for Media Law and
Public Policy, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
Whatever be the script, strategy and the urgency of the Congress party, it is very unlikely that it can enact its entire act un interrupted before ‘D’ day the 12th June. Courts have their own ‘modus operandi’ and law of the land to contend with. It is difficult for Congress Party to make much headway in this prosecution without roping in the culprits in its own party and state administration. If it attempts to rough up the things in its despair to win the by-elections it can boomerang on to them.
By: J R Janumpalli