Crown of Thorns

Written by Haris Butt

He wasn’t given a throne to sit on, in fact he has been fighting against the pliant media since the fake news in reality came into existence.

The tone was set right by the sold-out media and the opposition with all and false claims of massive scams which tainted the Indian National Congress to the core. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters, “The CWG scam is (to the tune) of Rs 700 billion, 2G scam is Rs 1.76 trillion (short scale) and coal scam is Rs 10.67 trillion (short scale). It is a government of scams… from airwaves to mining, everywhere the government is involved in scams.”

CWG, 2G and the coal scam were the foundation of the arrival of BJP to the Centre. Media was shouting at its peak and hailing Anna to lead the crusade with the hidden hand, help, and the malafide intention of the RSS. This is when the investigative media died a 1000 deaths. Without proper investigation, they aired the massive numbers of the amount involved in then scams. In the current scenario, its not debatable that it was intentional then.

CWG figures came down to the total of $56.7 million from $9.36 billion after investigations and the culprit was sent to jail.

In the 2G scam, on 21 December 2017, the special court in New Delhi acquitted all accused in the case including prime suspect A Raja and Kanimozhi. This verdict was based on the fact that the CBI could not find any evidence against the accused in those 7 years. As per the judgement, “Some people created a scam by artfully arranging a few selected facts and exaggerating things beyond recognition to astronomical levels.

In the coal scam, Vinod Rai, the auditor in chief, put the first report in the parliament stating that the scam was of worth US $150 billion which in the second report was tuned down to US$ 26 billion. The number of tons of coal decreased by 81% from 33.169 to 6.283 billion metric tons. This is because the Final Report considers “extractable coal” as against the Draft Report, which considered coal in situ (i.e. coal in the ground without taking into account losses that occur during mining and washing the coal). Rai was awarded with world’s richest BCCI president-ship by the BJP.

Since then, opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, is fighting a fierce battle. The BJP took an oath of a Congress free India but were unsuccessful. Gandhi has been giving them the the BJP a fight of their life. Due to the pliant media, no demand now for probe or enquiry if their is any scam has been unearthed; be it vyapam or Rafael. The Judiciary as well seems to be turning a blind eye to the current happenings in the country. After the mysterious death of Judge Loya, it seems the judiciary is afraid to pass judgement against the ruling government, while opting out of the hearing was almost a norm at a time. At the same time, the CBI was fighting on the streets to keep its validity alive.

2014 and 2015 were the toughest for the INC as the elections were lost in a row under the influence of fake scams reported. The news of Scams which were aired 24*7 for almost a year did not got more than a slot or two to tell the people they were lied to.

Rahul Gandhi has proved his mettle by taking the RSS and BJP head on. He is not alone now. Not anymore. People are coming together as we are witnessing in their fight to save India and its future. Since 2014, the BJP is using every ounce of their power, money or state machinery available to them to topple democratically elected state governments. While the media was chanting before the 2019 general elections “If not Modi, then Who?” 2020 has given a clear hint to the answer.

2019 might had been a setback but now is the time when we desperately need a leader like him; one that is not afraid of calling spade a spade. We need a change in leadership for a non-communal, tolerant and progressive India. Our India.