Lalit Modi to Vyapam scam: The big conspiracy theory behind PM Modi's silence

A list of the victims so far: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

In what cases are they implicated: Swaraj for conflict of interest in ensuring Lalit Modi received travel papers to go to Portugal, Raje for signing documents that might have allowed the former IPL chief to stay in the UK and financial deals, and Chouhan of staying away from a CBI probe even as the death count in the Vyapam recruitment scandal rises by the day.

And who’s the biggest suspect for their woes right now? The central government and the Prime Minister.

With every scandal there’s a political conspiracy and in this case the trail leads all the way to the Prime Minister’s door, if the theories are to be believed. In Chouhan’s case, like in the case of Swaraj and Raje, the Prime Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah’s silence is being seen as the sign that the Madhya Pradesh chief minister is all alone when it comes to the Vyapam scam and the deaths of persons connected with it.

Writing in the Economic Times , Rakesh Mohan Chaturvedi points to the fact that the Madhya Pradesh chief minister was perhaps the biggest challenger to Modi’s nomination as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2013 and there’s never really been any love lost between the two leaders.

He notes:

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan has been left alone to defend himself and his government in the Vyapam scam. Though a case was lodged on July 7, 2013, and a high court-monitored probe is on, Modi and his associates in BJP have not spoken in Chouhan’s defence.

As Chauturvedi points out, the relation between the Madhya Pradesh chief minister and the Prime Minister were at best cordial in the run-up to the 2014 general elections.

In the run up to the polls, Chouhan was widely seen as the best possible alternative to Modi and in the run up to the Madhya Pradesh state elections in 2013, and there were reports that he had asked that Modi not be made the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate so that it didn’t affect his chances to be re-elected for a third time. However, Chouhan denied the reports and the BJP overruled him to make Modi the Prime Ministerial candidate.

And when party veteran Advani decided to throw a fit about not wanting to contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, the seat that was being projected as a safe haven was Bhopal in the state where Chouhan’s government had come to power again. Chouhan was reported to have called up party president Rajnath Singh to offer the seat and as Firstpost columnist Chandrakant Naidu had noted at the time it was seen as a decision that would turn the state into into a refuge for Modi baiters. Getting Advani to contest from Gandhinagar, Naidu had noted at the time, was seen as a warning to the Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

The Rajasthan Chief Minister, who has also been under fire in the Lalit Modi case, has also been looking to Delhi for help but while there were words of support from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, there was a stony silence from the Prime Minister and party chief Shah.

Firstpost’s Sandipan Sharma had pointed how in the summer of 2013, when Raje began her campaign from Charbhuja, she didn’t invite Narendra Modi.

“When Rajnath Singh, who was the BJP president then, began to speak, hundreds of workers started shouting ‘Modi, Modi’ to remind Raje of her folly,” he noted, adding that she had steadily gravitated towards the Prime Minister’s camp since then.

However, the Prime Minister and government may have chosen to stand aside in that case since Raje’s case was seen as being an indefensible one by the central government. The Rajasthan Chief Minister finally relied on her own state government ministers in the state to mount her defence as she remained silent.

In Swaraj’s case while the government barring the Prime Minister came out strongly in her defence, the external affairs minister wasn’t reportedly very convinced about who was behind the attack on her.

NDTV columnist Rana Ayyub in her column  wrote:

“If sources close to Sushma Swaraj are to be believed, the External Affairs Minister holds two senior leaders in the BJP as the architect of the entire saga who did not facilitate the leak of the emails but helped journalists with information that could lead them to a big expose. One cannot take this as a valid piece of news as it is an apprehension expressed by members of Sushma’s office who claim to have the full support of the RSS.”

Ayyub also said that the External Affairs Minister had also complained to the RSS, while those who were reportedly behind her being dragged into the scandal just wanted to have her wings clipped.

While the theory tying the two scandals is a very juicy one, like most political conspiracies it has almost no substantiation. However, for opponents of the Modi government, the theory only gives more material against the Prime Minister as he continues to maintain a silent vigil on the troubles plaguing his fellow party men while he is on another foreign tour.

For now, however, the government’s silence in the Lalit Modi scandal seems to have worked given the focus has since shifted. And with Chouhan seeking to transfer the probe to the CBI, it may just end his woes as well for now.