Rafale storm, CBI face-off show Narendra Modi has lost control on political narrative

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ome December, it can be the cruellest month for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP. If the present trends continue and the Congress and the other opposition parties can meet the electoral challenge of the assembly polls in the five states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana — the results on December 11 might be devastating for the saffron forces. If the BJP loses MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the anti- BJP forces will be getting such a momentum that the most powerful government of the BJP at the Centre will be converted into a lame-duck one.

As of now, the NDA government led by Modi has reached its lowest ebb of governance with the CBI under the stewardship of the PMO riven by unheard of factional fighting in the history of this investigating agency. The myth of minimum government and maximum governance lies shattered. It is now clear to the people that the BJP government has made use of the CBI to serve its political ends rather than really unearthing the corruption in the government and the economy. The now former CBI director Alok Verma — who has been unceremoniously and as many experts say, illegally, sent off on an indefinite forced leave by the government — himself has charged in the court that his deputy, Special Director Rakesh Asthana, known as a Modi acolyte, has been operating an extortion racket in the investigative body itself.

Prime Minister's desperate efforts to restore his image have made him shunt out Verma while sending Asthana on leave. This gimmicks to "restore peace in CBI" have been seen through as attempts to hide the corrupt practices that have been continuing in the CBI under the watchful eyes of the self proclaimed leader of anti-corruption. Though both the CBI chief and the deputy has been sent on leave on Wednesday, the fighting continues.

It is by now clear that Prime Minister's diktat does not rule any more among the top bureaucracy, otherwise, this sordid development in the CBI leadership would not have happened. While the Supreme Court will hear Alok Verma's petition challenging the government order sending him on forced leave on Friday, October 26, the anti-Modi trio — Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan — have now filed a PIL in the Supreme Court challenging the CBI director being divested of his erstwhile office in the "midnight coup".