Though NCP has announced
unconditional outside support to BJP for forming the government in Maharashtra, when Narendra
Modi addressed NCP as 'naturally corrupt party' during campaigning in the
run-up to the assembly polls, it was not without reasons.
Many high level politicians from
NCP and Congress have been facing allegations of corruption and many had to
resign. The list includes chief minister and deputy chief minister besides many
other ministers and politicians.
The nation cannot easily forget
the 'forced resignation', a hastily brought whitepaper to declare Ajit Pawar
clean in the irrigation scam and his 'reinstatement'. It was all in bad taste.
And the 15 years of NCP-Congress
combine rule had no dearth of such newsmaking headlines going deep on follow-ups.
Every year, if thousands of
farmers are forced to commit suicide, in a so-called prosperous and industrialized
state, Maharashtra, and if the state sees huge scams like the irrigation scam
worth 70,000 crore, nothing but political corruption is to be blamed.
Similar was the case in Haryana.
A chief minister belonging to the
main opposition party was out on bail sighting health reasons. He was jailed after found guilty in a recruitment scam. He misused the terms of his bail to campaign in the
polls and was sent again to jail by the high court.
The last chief minister was
alleged of mammoth scales of corruption, though nothing proved yet. Family biases and nepotism ran deep in
Haryana. And it is not always necessary that court verdicts drive the sentiments. In electoral politics, it is all about perceptions and the perception that corruption was running deep in Haryana had made deeper inroads in the psyche.
The nation cannot easily forget
the largesse shown to Robert Vadra and the witch-hunting against an honest
official, Ahok Khema, for taking on Robert Vadra because he found his case
violating norms. The Hooda government
went out of the way in clearing the deal for Vadra the nation saw it. And the
nation also saw how defiantly the previous chief minister defended his acts perceived
to be wrong and corrupt by the common man, the common man who sent him packing in the just concluded elections.
Allegations of widespread
corruption and nepotism in Haryana civil services are a regular feature to
decorate the news headlines. Then there were case studies like Gopal Goyal
Kanda.
And the electors were watching, in
Maharashtra and Haryana, waiting for a chance, that they saw in promises of Narendra Modi, to bring the politics of development back on track, and to deal with political corruption.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com
