CBI raids: Kejriwal targets Jaitley over ‘DDCA scam’, Trinamool calls CBI ‘Gujarat Bureau of Investigation’

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pumped up the offensive against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying the CBI raid team went nit picking into a file relating to the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) which Jaitley once headed — a charge rejected by the probe agency and the Centre.
“Why is Jaitleyji so scared of DDCA probe? What is his role in DDCA scam?” Kejriwal tweeted. Delhi government sources said a commission of inquiry may be announced to probe alleged irregularities in the DDCA.
Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha floor leader batted for Kejriwal, calling the CBI “Gujarat Bureau of Investigation.”

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The analysis:
A chief minister’s office being sealed off by a central agency makes for poor optics and equally unpleasant post-action sound effect. It reflects a lack of respect for the office, and for the incumbent as well. Let’s ignore the expert mumbo-jumbo on the ethics and morality of Arvind Kejriwal’s sharp reaction to the CBI’s raid on his office to nail a supposedly corrupt official, he is entirely justified in taking offence at not being informed.
If you are getting angry already, please go ahead. But pause for a moment to imagine a situation where a central agency keeps Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of the loop on a corrupt official close to him and one fine morning locks him out from his office for searches. In an ideal world, the action of the agency would be entirely acceptable, even commendable. After all, it’s about corruption and the agency is only doing its job. Holders of high offices should allow independent institutions to function without any hindrance. The problem is we don’t live in a world that is ideal by a long stretch.
The point of the article, however, is not to judge who is right – this will forever be trapped in contradictory opinions, it’s to find who is emerging smarter in the political game that’s going around.
Look who else has piled on: Trinamool Congress.
It’s been a good week for gatecrashing, indeed. First the National Herald case and now the CBI raids.
In both cases, the Trinamool Congress floor leader has been quick to get to the megaphone and hook any loose ball into the stands for a six.
Today this soundbite did it: “CBI is the Gujarat Bureau of Investigation.”
“Earlier people were saying that CBI means Congress Bureau of Investigation; now it has been changed to GBI, Gujarat Bureau of Investigation. The director and additional director of CBI belong to Gujarat cadre. It may kindly be investigated whether they have been very recently appointed from Gujarat cadre of IPS or not. I would also like to know whether there is any official with the name Mr Modi… This signifies how CBI is being misused,”
“The CBI is totally under the prime minister’s control. It cannot ever happen that the CBI is operating and doing all these things without the knowledge of the prime minister.”
In a polity where noise has taken precedence over substance and perception has substituted reality, the Kejriwal vs Modi battle is more about winning the day than about the core matter.

Is principal secretary Rajendra Kumar corrupt, as charged by his former colleague in the Delhi government Ashish Joshi? Did he launch shell companies to fleece the government? Is Kejriwal afraid that Kumar’s interrogation would lead the CBI to alleged corruption in the AAP government’s huge spending on self-congratulatory advertisements? These are matters for the courts to decide and nothing will be clear immediately.

But the gap between now and the time of the court verdict leaves ample space for perception games. The question is who plays it better on a given day. The AAP won it spectacularly on Tuesday. If the BJP thought it would cash in on the CBI raid to deliver a nasty blow to the moral halo around Kejriwal, he pre-empted it by going on the offensive faster. The Delhi chief minister quickly converted it into a fight between him and the prime minister. The nasty words – coward, psychopath – were intended for impact, not merely the result of a momentary loss of self-control. He also sought to convey the impression that the prime minister was targeting him. The BJP had to go on the defensive.

The BJP, which has a habit of being condescending to political rivals, should be extremely wary of Kejriwal. This man does not play politics by the book and thus is unlike any other political player around. While all other parties are still way behind the BJP in the sound byte and media space control games, Kejriwal is beating them hollow in these. He is deft at turning circumstances to his advantage and he knows the irrelevance of the media opinion. And he is no more worried about his image. The BJP is still stuck on attacking his image as an anti-corruption crusader, but he moved beyond that long ago. Didn’t he?

While other parties have tried to be respectful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in language at least, Kejriwal has shown no hesitation in taking him on head on. Modi might have ignored him so far, but the Delhi chief minister has managed to place himself in the same bracket as the prime minister, by hook or by crook. It might not result in huge political gains for him, but his relentless attacks may leave the Prime Minister a bit rattled at some point. It should be a matter for worry for the BJP that he is now a legitimate, and perhaps one of the biggest political player in Delhi, no more the upstart that they take him to be.

The BJP played the perception game wonderfully to demolish the UPA in 2014, now it has to play it better to handle Kejriwal. With one complaint against the Centre a day he is winning it hands down at present.