An uneasy week ahead for Modi

Modi's panic is reflected in his use of the nonsensical term u00e2u0080u009cUrban Maoistu00e2u0080u009d at an election rally. File pic

This should prove an exciting week for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Today, the Supreme Court will hear the matter relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), whose director Alok Verma was forced on leave on the intervening night of October 23-24. The day after tomorrow, the Court will hear on the pricing of the Rafale fighter jet deal, which Congress president Rahul Gandhi has alleged is an instance of crony capitalism and corruption by Mr na khaunga na khaane doonga Modi. It is not the best of timing for the BJP, as it is the incumbent in state elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Modi's panic is reflected in his use of the nonsensical term "Urban Maoist" at an election rally.

Verma was removed in the fall-out from a battle with special director Rakesh Asthana, an IPS officer close to Modi. Asthana, who headed the investigation into the events in Godhra leading up to the 2002 riots, was also sent on leave. When Asthana was appointed last year, Verma objected that his record was not clean. Asthana was possibly being groomed to take over after Verma retires in January 2019. Incidentally, the director is appointed by a panel comprising the PM, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of Opposition. Asthana's appointment would have been a fait accompli for the panel. Ironically, Verma's appointment was opposed by M Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress party, though technically not Leader of Opposition (since his party does not have ten per cent of the total Lok Sabha seats), but filling that role.

Verma revolted against the PM after Asthana sent a complaint against Verma to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), another Modi appointee. Verma counterattacked with an FIR against Asthana. This mess might have dragged on, since Verma only had a couple of months left in his two-year tenure, had it not been for National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Verma's FIR against Asthana mentioned the number four man at India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), special secretary Samant Goel. Doval urged R&AW chief Anil Dhasmana to complain to the PM that operations in Dubai, where Goel was once station chief, had been compromised by the FIR. The R&AW chief did that. The PM was reportedly enraged enough to order the murky post-midnight drama where both Verma and Asthana were relieved of their posts, sent on leave, and their offices sealed. Journalists close to the regime have breathlessly written about the R&AW chief's pained complaint to the PM.

Verma went to the Supreme Court, which directed the CVC to finish his probe against Verma in two weeks, under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court justice. It will be submitted today. Credible reports suggest that the CVC probe does not find anything substantial in Asthana's charges against Verma, which logically implies that Verma ought to be reinstated as CBI chief. This would not be the best news for Modi, since Verma was believed to have started looking into the complaint jointly submitted to him by eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan and former ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, requesting a CBI probe into the Rafale deal.

The Supreme Court has asked the government to share with it the pricing on the Rafale deal and will on Wednesday be hearing the matter. It has been contended that the September 2016 deal for the fighter jet with Dassault was faulty on two major counts: one, that the government paid a far higher price than when the deal was okayed by the Indian Air Force in 2012; and two, Dassault was forced to drop Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) as its Indian partner in favour of Reliance Defence Limited, a company that was set up ten days before the deal was clinched between Modi and French President Francois Hollande, and which was set to land Reliance Defence a windfall of up to Rs 30,000 crore.

The government has tripped over itself defending the contract and the Indian partner. It first said that the pricing was secret, until the French contradicted it. It then said that the 40 per cent higher price (36 jets each averaging Euro 217 million, as opposed to the earlier 126 jets averaging Euro 155 million, according to a Business Standard report) was required for India-specific add-ons, but reports establish that the same add-ons were included in the earlier deal. The government's defence of Reliance has come at the cost of bad-mouthing HAL. Whatever happens in the Supreme Court this week will not give comfort to Modi, whose party faces an uphill battle in the Assembly elections. No wonder he resorted to name-calling at a rally, using the term "urban maoist" which can be defined as a categorial mismatch. It is nonsense. It is the spouting of blind, impotent rage.

Aditya Sinha's latest book, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, co-written with AS Dulat and Asad Durrani, is available now. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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