It is uncanny how cricket has become a WMD (weapon of mass destruction) unleashed on the BJP, repeatedly altering the discourse of Indian polity and as a consequence derailing parliament twice now in rapid succession. It literally grabbed politics and parliament by the scruff of the neck and dominating media eyeballs. Cricket strangely has scuppered everything and One India One Tax -- GST -- be damned. In many ways, this is an extension of the reality show culture that is the new all pervasive oxygen. At one level it is a natural corollary of how cricket, politics and politicians have always been intertwined in India. At the altar of this very trijunction, legislation is being sacrificed as politicians opt for a tit for tat strategy. Their football field sized malevolent egos not allowing parliament to function.
It is said that a week is too long in politics, but events unfolding before our eyes these last few days now show that a weekend is also too long. From the Gandhis being paraded at the Patiala House Court Complex on the India Gate Concourse in Lutyens Delhi to an unguided missile (or was it guided) in the shape of a CBI raid on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's office, politics in India has been turned topsy turvy. And the centrifuge remains cricket. Twice now the BJP has felt seismic shocks, first with the Lalit Modi revelations which caused acute discomfort to foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and then an embittered Lalit Modi striking at Rajasthan CM Vasundhra Raje and her son sitting MP Dushyant Singh. As Lalit Modi exploded on the Indian political scene, returning like a bad penny, the BJP was squirming. There was panic and consternation and the party was at sixes and sevens. This was the first real attack launched at the party by the opposition, till then in tatters itself.
A neat diversionary tactic was devised as the months old Vyapam scam was resurrected by the media with a helpful nudge and wink from the ruling dispensation. Almost overnight the narrative changed and Lalit Modi was consigned to the rubbish heap, as a bellicose opposition bayed for Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the MP CM. Media, in the main telly guerrillas who are in the business of manufacturing anger went blue in the face trying to bring down Sushma and Vasundhra, but failed as Vyapam 'gotala' became the pre dominant theme. Shivraj himself orchestrated a CBI probe, the courts nodded in approval and the crisis was defused. Nobody got a head, there was no victim and life went on. Till...cricket returned to political centerstage with a life force of its own.
Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar was raided by CBI which by itself was innocuous enough, but when the chief minister cried DDCA or Delhi District Cricket Association, then everybody woke up to a far bigger scandal. Yes cricket had once again struck despite the old adage of lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. It struck the BJP with such velocity that everything else went into a tailspin. Kejriwal alleged that the real target of the CBI raid was the DDCA file where he was all set to lodge a commission of enquiry. Whistle blower cum crusader Kirit Azad who along with spin king Bishan Bedi has been crying himself hoarse for years on the DDCA financial irregularities got a fresh lease of life. At a presser, Azad blew the top of the scam and opened a can of worms. Those who know Azad will tell you that he has been vigorously protesting on DDCA for years, but nobody really bothered other than a handful of media stories.
Azad has been railing over stadium building cost over runs, fictitious companies, overly high rentals for laptops and printers among other things, corporate boxes, audit misdemeanours et al, but this was his moment as he had the finance minister and erstwhile DDCA president in his line of fire. The finance minister is now the target, as Kejriwal and Azad in their own ways are going after him. Defamation notices, commission of enquiry and other assorted matters later, cricket still awaits its first scalp. The 247 page Delhi Govt report on DDCA doesn't name the finance minister even once even though it highlights irregularities, so where does that leave the AAP joust with the BJP and its war on corruption. Other than a few more rounds of pressers shouting polemics, nothing else, one would imagine. Once again had cricket failed to get a scalp?
That politicians have always coveted BCCI and state association positions is well documented. Even today, BJP MP Anurag Thakur is the cricket board secretary and HP CA president, BJP president Amit Shah took over from PM Narender Modi in June 2014 as Gujarat Cricket Association president, NCP boss Sharad Pawar returned as Mumbai Cricket Association president last year in June, Rajiv Shukla heads UPCA, Jyotiraditya Scindia heads MPCA, Farooq Abdullah is J & K CA boss, BJP leaders Amitabh Chaudhury (Jharkhand CA), BJP MP Gokaraju Ganga Raju heads Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association, Samarjit Sinh Gaekwad, Maharaja of Baroda is a known BJP sympathiser, he heads Baroda CA; Congress MP Ranjib Biswal heads Odisha while the Haryana Cricket Association is headed by Anirudh Chaudhary, grandson of former Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal and son of former BCCI chief Ranbir Mahendra.
The way cricket has sought victims this year goes beyond merely seeking office in the 27 state associations to become a part of the private cosy club called the BCCI. Cricket has acted as a demolisher of reputations. The allegations levelled against the finance minister have caught the BJP in a bind. Parliament's winter session was a washout, GST has once again come and gone, India suffers as a result. To explain to a foreign investor why India is a slow moving mammal is now justified and this is perhaps the DNA of the beast. The imponderables strewn in their path will only multiply, but even they must have thought of cricket as an instrumentality of wanton destruction.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
