When I wrote about the ‘Role of probe agencies and the curious case of Tamil Nadu’ in this column on April 3, I never thought the floodgates would be thrown open so swiftly. It was always a mystery why the national probe agencies stayed away from a fertile ground like TN while running amok in other opposition-ruled states.
By keeping them off the radar, the BJP was counting on its alliance with the AIADMK. Some believed that it was keeping the DMK, an old NDA ally, in good humour with an eye on 2024, which is no more a cakewalk for the saffron party. The sensational arrest of V Senthil Balaji last week at the end of an 18-hour-long search and questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decisively put an end to a series of political scuttlebutts.
By April end, shortly after BJP state president K Annamalai levelled corruption charges against the DMK, I-T sleuths had swooped down on G Square, a leading real estate company in the state. While Annamalai accused G Square of being owned by the DMK’s first family and alleged that it had amassed wealth through corruption, the company has rejected it.
Annamalai is now staring at a few serious defamation cases, including the one filed by MK Stalin. A few weeks later, in May, ED attached Rs 34.7 lakh available in the bank account of the Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation, claiming that the latter received proceeds of crime from a couple of TN companies. The foundation has already initiated steps to retrieve the amount legally. Balaji’s arrest is the third in quick succession.
Clearly, it is just the beginning.
Though the probe agencies are yet to make any headway and generate political gains for the BJP in the first two cases, they have definitely managed to create a buzz in the third. While the AIADMK has taken a backseat since Balaji’s case dates back to the previous regime, the DMK has delivered a powerful warning to the BJP, with several opposition parties in tow.
Asserting that the DMK is fighting communalism, casteism, and ‘Sanatana Dharma,’ Stalin said his party would not bow down to the BJP’s “intimidation tactics”. While Annamalai has continued to keep the pot boiling, governor RN Ravi raised his dissent in letting Balaji continue as a minister since “he is facing criminal proceedings for moral turpitude and is currently in judicial custody”. This has inevitably whipped up an uproar among the ruling coalition, which believes Ravi is acting as a BJP agent. If nothing else, the probe agencies have managed to rattle the consciousness of the TN voter, for sure.
It is now turn of political parties to fish from the troubled waters. While half a dozen AIADMK leaders, mostly ex-ministers, face a series of state investigations, none of the national agencies have so far bothered to poke their noses into it. The BJP knows well that it stands a chance in TN only with an AIADMK alliance for the time being, but given the option, the latter would prefer to go it alone in the 2024 elections for fear of distancing its minority voters. The catch-22 situation faced by EPS owes its existence to the potential fear unleashed by ED, CBI and I-T. If AIADMK loses its traditional vote bank due to its tie with the BJP, the DMK should thank the probe agencies.
Anto T Joseph
Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu
anto@newindianexpress.com
@AntoJoseph