Playing hardball: Arrest of Hemant Soren

Ok what happened with Soren exactly?

Last week, the Jharkhand Chief Minister stepped down from his post—under pressure from an Enforcement Directorate investigation. He was promptly arrested and is now in judicial custody.

The charges: The case involves 12 parcels of land in Ranchi—measuring 8.5 acres in total. The ED claims that Soren acquired this land with the assistance of the local land mafia. They basically made fake deeds by falsifying records—and then sold the land.

The state of play: Jharkhand is ruled by a coalition between Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress. In the last election, JMM won 29 seats—and Congress 16. That is a total of 45 seats—plus the support of one RJD MLA. The majority mark: 41. The BJP is the second largest party with 25 seats.

The floor test: Hemant Soren turned the baton over to his fellow JMM leader Champai Soren—a veteran tribal leader who is not a relative. Hemant would have preferred to put his wife Kalpana Soren in place—but there were very few takers for that idea. The governor did not agree to swear in Champai—without a floor test. This means he will have to prove his majority on the floor of the legislature.

Resort politics ahoy? The delay is making the ruling alliance antsy. Their MLAs were whisked away to Hyderabad to protect them from the BJP’s seductive lures. For now, everyone remains on tenterhooks—worried that the BJP-appointed governor is dragging his feet for nefarious reasons. As one MLA gloomily put it: “We are going to the airport. You know what kind of people they are, they can do anything anytime." More amusing is this cheery gentleman looking forward to an unexpected treat:

The court rulings: The Supreme Court refused to hear Soren’s plea challenging his arrest—and asked him to go to the High Court instead. But a Ranchi court has allowed him to participate in the floor test—overruling the ED’s objections. It is scheduled for today.

So this is becoming a trend, yes?

If you add in Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and Lalu Yadav in Bihar, we do indeed have a damning trifecta.

The elusive Mr Kejriwal: As we explained in this Big Story, AAP is accused of taking kickbacks from the liquor industry in exchange for a cushy excise policy. The claim is that the party then funnelled the money into the 2022 Punjab elections. Two senior leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were arrested last year—and remain behind bars. Kejriwal is widely assumed to be next on the list. But Delhi CM has ignored repeated summons from the ED—playing chicken to see who blinks first.

Back to jail, Laluji? The veteran Bihar leader was released on bail in 2022—after being convicted on corruption charges. His return to politics was marked by an alliance with his old friend-turned-nemesis Nitish Kumar in the same year. They ousted the BJP and seemed content in their new-found camaraderie—until Kumar switched sides once again last month (See: this Big Story). In recent months, Lalu, his heir Tejashwi and wife Rabri Devi have been raided and interrogated repeatedly. This time, the case involves allegations of doling out railway jobs in exchange for land.

Umm, so they’re being framed?

No one can claim that with any certainty. There are always legitimate concerns about corruption by almost every party in Indian politics. What matters is a damning pattern of lopsided enforcement. As Indian Express notes, the ED has become the “new CBI”—i.e the new tool for government harassment. Between 2004 and 2022, the agency has probed 147 politicians—of which 85% belonged to the Opposition. 

As for the CBI: The bureau has similar stats. Eighty percent of its 200 targets were rival party netas during the same 18-year period. Under the Congress-led UPA, 72 political leaders were investigated—of which 43 (60%) were from the Opposition. The spike during eight years of BJP rule is astonishing: 118 of the 124 netas investigated were from the Opposition—a whopping 95%.

Escalation under BJP: The stats above cover both Congress- and BJP-led governments. But the trend has visibly escalated since 2014. This is what the ED track record looks like:

The investigation shows that 121 prominent politicians have been under ED probe since that year [2014], of whom the agency booked, raided, questioned or arrested as many as 115 Opposition leaders — 95 per cent, and that, too, with a staff strength that is less than one-third of the CBI.

During the UPA years—between 2004 and 2014—the ED only probed 26 netas, of which 14 belonged to the Opposition (54%).

The PMLA effect: The Enforcement Directorate has used the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as its weapon of choice—which was honed to lethal effect by the government in 2019. It introduced a series of amendments that gives the ED “unbridled powers of summons, arrest, and raids, and makes bail nearly impossible while shifting the burden of proof of innocence on to the accused rather than the prosecution.” The Supreme Court upheld the amendments in 2022—but has since promised to review its judgement.

Point to note: Opposition leaders claim that the government is also using the ED as a stick to motivate defections in key states. Example: Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra and Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam. Both are happily ensconced as Chief Ministers—and their investigations have mysteriously disappeared. It’s popularly known as the “washing machine” strategy—referring to the magical transformation of black money into white—when someone joins the BJP. Unsurprisingly, this kind of activity peaks right before elections.

Quote to note: As Modi-ji himself said: “I have your janampatri”—one of the undeniable perks of being a ruling party. 

So it is a BJP thing….

Well, it was also a Congress or a Janata Dal thing. You just have to go further back in history:

• In 1977, the new Janata Government dismissed all state governments headed by Congress chief ministers and dissolved their Assemblies—claiming the party had lost the people’s mandate. 
• This is, of course, after decades of Mrs G using president’s rule to topple pesky Opposition netas.
• FYI: When she returned to power in 1980, she returned the favour—managing a record nine states in one fell swoop. 
• Data point to note: The union government has invoked Article 356, 126 times to impose president’s rule in Indian history. 
• Of these, the Congress is responsible for 88. And of those 88, Mrs Gandhi can claim credit for 50.

An unexpected twist: Legendary Tamil Nadu leader MG Ramachandran firmly adhered to a political maxim that served him well: never fight with Delhi. And it helped keep him in power:

MGR’s logic was that for a State not part of the Hindi heartland, it made no sense to quarrel with the party in power at the Centre. The Centre could at any time make out a case for President’s rule, dismiss the State government and run the State through its proxies. On the other hand, cooperation with the Centre meant an undisturbed reign in the State, easy access to federal funds, and even a share of Central power.

But the current CM has apparently abandoned that principle. Unhappy with multiple raids on state ministers, the TN government has decided to take a page out of the ED book—by investigating directorate officers on charges of corruption. 

The bottomline: The problem isn’t any one leader but a political system that rewards the concentration of power—in one party, in one location (Delhi) and in one leader.

Reading list

The Hindu has the latest developments—including the floor test slated for today. Mint looks at the numbers—and fear of ‘resort politics’. Indian Express’ did two investigations that uncovered a damning pattern in Enforcement Directorate and CBI investigations. LawFare has a good, detailed piece on how the judiciary has aided and abetted the government. The Hindu looks at the history of imposing president’s rule in states—while The Wire offers ten reasons why Modi-ji is like Mrs G.