by Sree Iyer
The first to be called for questioning by the CBI was Dalda. He ignored the CBI summons initially, but relented thereafter, when the agency made it clear that they would move to declare him an absconder. His patrons were out of power and he could not play with the law anymore. He arrived at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi and was grilled for five hours. The interrogating officers had prepared an extensive questionnaire that covered his incense-stick manufacturing business and the drug trade. Dalda flatly denied involvement in any illicit drug trade, but when he was confronted with evidence, including statements of people who worked for him, he was flummoxed. The CBI had every little detail of his illegal activities. He tried to wriggle out claiming political vendetta. Four days later, he was summoned for another round of questioning. At the end of it, he was placed under arrest.
Dalda had a battery of lawyers to defend him. They were among the country’s best legal minds and members from the Freedom Party. Initially, they had argued for anticipatory bail before he was held. Later, they changed tack and sought to convince the judge on the futility of keeping him under arrest since he was cooperating with the agency. They said that he would surrender his passport in order to ensure that he did not leave the country. But countering the contention, the CBI held that Dalda had been giving vague answers to their queries and his release on bail could compromise the inquiry since he could influence witnesses. The court accepted the CBI’s plea.
Meanwhile, the CBI had also begun to investigate the LEPE affair, involving the Indian Revenue Service officer Deepak Masani. Deepak had already been questioned and the agency had collected significant information thereafter. He had agreed to turn approver. But the CBI was still in the process of connecting the dots in the affair, what with things spreading beyond India’s boundaries. They were in no hurry to question Maida; he was a wily politician and seasoned lawyer, perfectly capable of slipping through legal and procedural loopholes.
Various teams of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had stationed themselves in Kerala, furiously ploughing through information they had collected on the counterfeit currency racket and its links with the IPL, drug trade, terrorism and Love Jihad. Haji Pir Mohammad was under the lens along with several others. A one-time cycle-puncture repairer, a one-time electrician, both of whom had come to sudden wealth, had been picked up for interrogation. The line of inquiry had led the investigators to half a dozen chartered accountants who had been excessively busy, far more in proportion to the assignments they handled. Agency officials visited Jai Mangalam Jewels as well. They were baffled at the extent of the network. It was actually a network that contained many smaller networks, making it extremely difficult to trace the roots.
Maida was both pleased and rattled by the news of Dalda’s arrest. He was happy that Dalda, who was forever seeking to undermine his influence in the corridors of power, was behind bars. Even if he were to be released, he would be severely constrained in his activities. But Maida was also worried that it might be his turn next. Now that he was not in the government, he could no longer pull strings to sabotage the probe. He was already aware that the agencies were on his trail and so he began wiping off evidence and clearing tracks wherever he could. The LEPE machine auction case was problematic, though. Maida had no hold over the IRS officer whom he had deputed to the Amazon jungles. His only hope lay in the Freedom Party returning to power. This, though, was a size zero chance.
The People’s Voice had made the Freedom Party’s corruption their main political plank. There were other individuals and organisations that started coming to the fore as well. An 80-year-old Gandhian emerged as the rallying point for an anti-corruption movement primarily directed at the Freedom Party’s rule. The activist had begun to attract massive crowds at rallies and nearly every anti-Freedom Party leader or outfit had sought his blessings. While the movement was at its peak, Maida finally received summons from the CBI for questioning. Unlike Dalda, he barely resisted and submitted himself to interrogation at the agency’s headquarters.
When asked about the LEPE purchase, he denied any involvement. He also claimed innocence on all charges of money laundering as well. Instead, in the capacity of Finance Minister, he had asked his team to crack down on the counterfeit currency business.
Although the CBI could get nothing incriminating out of him, the fact that he had been questioned was fodder enough for the main opposition to raise the ante against the Freedom Party. It helped that its new prime ministerial candidate’s image was sparkling clean. As voting day drew closer, it became evident that the Freedom Party was set to lose. The only question was, how badly.
The election results created history. The Freedom Party had won less than 45 out of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, a matter of grave embarrassment for the oldest political party of India with a century-long history.
The People’s Voice, that had started as a two-member representation in the parliament, changed the course of Indian polity by becoming the only single party to have secured a majority on its own, in the last thirty years. With its allies, the tally went up to 330. There were celebrations galore at the People’s Voice party headquarters and among its vast cadre throughout the country.
Someone else who was as happy had nothing to with the People’s Voice in any way. But Fali Mistry called up Jagat Dhillon to express his joy and congratulations.
The meek sardar’s gamble had paid off.
CHAPTER 21.
The arrival of Hasmukh Jadeja
Hasmukh Jadeja’s modest dreams had never extended beyond the obscure village in Gujarat that was his home for twenty years. His family was poor and landless and the day they had two full meals would be one to celebrate. His father toiled all day for the rich landowners in their village, while his mother worked as a housemaid. Hasmukh spent his initial childhood studying at a neighbouring village school that functioned when the teachers had time off from their farming duties. His parents strove to give him a decent education so that he could move to the town and make a better living after he grew up.
The boy was an average student but was adept at gathering children and creating morchas. On one occasion, he led a procession of little agitators to the headmaster and placed the demand for better toilet facilities in the school. He was caned for this. But it was an early reflection of the leadership he would exercise later in life.
On another occasion, when the district school inspector was to visit, he got together a bunch of students and petitioned the official against the errant teaching staff. The headmaster later summoned his father and gave a stern warning.
It was a government school and education was free. Besides, there was a midday meal that the school served. Hasmukh would later recall that that was the only meal he was sure to have in the day, six days a week. Beyond school hours, he had nothing much to do except frolic in the village pond or raid the mango orchards with his wayward friends.
By the time he was enrolled in a secondary school close by, the financial situation at home had worsened. His father was grossly overworked and therefore suffered from repeated ailments. His mother had to cut down on her household chores to tend to him. Secondary education was relatively expensive; Hasmukh had to invest in a uniform and textbooks too apart from the fee. At one point, it appeared that he would have to drop out and help his father.
One day, as Hasmukh was trudging along to go to school, he met Kapil Shah, the village headman. Kapil was well-off, having procured twenty acres of land. His elder son was a construction supervisor in Ahmedabad. The headman was acquainted with Hasmukh’s family’s problems. He was empathic but not the sort to give away money in charity.
Instead, he had a job for Hasmukh. He asked the boy to help him with maintaining his accounts, on a monthly pay of Rs.100. Hasmukh had seen the red ledger only from a distance and had no idea of what to do with it. But the prospect of earning a hundred bucks was enough to get him going immediately. In lesser time than Kapil anticipated, Hasmukh mastered the skill of accounting. With his
new earning, he was able to fund his education and contribute to the household expenses as well. He continued to work and study till he completed his school education.
On his way home one day, the weekly congregation in the village playground piqued his interest. There were more than a 100 people listening to someone he did not recognise. Often, Hasmukh would linger at the periphery of the playground and watch the proceedings. He would hear them sing Vande Mataram, recite slogans that revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh used to raise. He would listen to the main speaker talk of someone named Swami Vivekananda who had popularised the Hindu way of life and the country’s cultural heritage across the world. Towards the end, everyone would chant in unison: Bharat Mata Ki Jai. It ignited a passion for patriotism in him just like it did with the others attending the talk.
One day, he approached the leader, introduced himself and said that he would like to join their group. The leader, an elderly person with a warm smile, agreed to let him in on the condition that he would continue with his studies as well. It would be a turning point in Hasmukh’s life.
The issue of higher education was a challenge soon enough. He did not have the means to go to college because he would have to settle in the nearby town. Kapil Shah came to his rescue once again. He got Hasmukh admitted in a distance learning programme for a graduation degree. Now the young man was occupied with a number of activities — his studies, his apprenticeship with Kapil and his participation in the weekly gatherings at the village playground.
The flexibility that the distance education programme offered left him with a lot of time for the activities of the organisation that he had joined. It was called Bharat Nirman Sangh (BNS). Within a year of joining, he had been made the chief campaigner at the block level. He was to learn that a political party, People’s Voice, was an affiliate of the BNS. Over the next few years, Hasmukh had risen through the ranks of the voluntary outfit and was made the national general secretary. He earned his graduation degree as well, around the same time.
As one of the half a dozen national general secretaries, he had the opportunity to meet with several senior leaders of the People’s Voice. There were constant interactions between leaders and workers of the two organisations. The People’s Voice, although the chief opposition, was in power in only a few states of the country, and Gujarat was one of them. Unfortunately, since it could not effectively manage the aftermath of the massive floods that hit the state, the Gujarat government fell into crisis.
There was huge public outcry and the party’s national leadership realised that they would lose Gujarat if they did not bring someone dynamic in charge. This was easier said than done because the state unit was in shambles, having been split into various factions. An ‘outsider’ to the state’s politics could just save the day. Out of the blue, Hasmukh was summoned by the senior leaders of the party and told that he would have to assume charge as the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
He was stunned by this. He had no experience with governance; in fact, he had never stepped inside the state secretariat. His protests were brushed aside and Hasmukh Jadeja became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, listed among the country’s youngest chief ministers.
Barely four months into the job, he faced his first and only serious crisis. A massive communal violence had broken out in Ahmedabad, originating in the old city and spreading everywhere. Hasmukh was new to politics with hardly any experience in these matters. The police force was behaving as if it ruled the state. But he acted swiftly, asking the centre for military assistance and cracking the whip on the police. Within three days, the situation normalised, but over a hundred people were killed by then.
People who opposed him within the party and outside seized upon the opportunity and demanded his resignation. He refused and called for an election instead. He led the party to a big victory, thus establishing himself as Gujarat’s undisputed leader. He reshuffled the administration and the police force, bringing in people with the right credentials and good track records of performance. He warned his officials that the consequences would be tough on everyone if another communal incident were to occur.
From there on, Chief Minister Jadeja directed his focus towards Gujarat’s all-round development. In what came to be called the Hasmukh Model, he rewrote the growth narrative of the state. Soon his name came to be recognised across the country as a super performing Chief Minister and he became the point of attention whenever he was in Delhi on official engagements.
Ten years into the job, and with two back-to-back electoral wins in Gujarat, Hasmukh had begun to emerge as a nationally recognised leader. Yet his party, the People’s Voice, was stagnating at the national level. With general elections a mere eighteen months away, it needed a fresh burst of energy, which the veterans in the party were unable to provide.
A few middle-level leaders, who had been consistently groomed by the senior leadership, made a bold move and floated Hasmukh’s name as the prime ministerial candidate, amidst opposition from veterans and their supporters. The feedback from the masses was too loud in Hasmukh’s favour to ignore. The die was thus cast.
Hasmukh’s strengths as a powerful orator, a man of the masses and a strong leader untouched by corruption were systematically projected. These qualities stood out even more starkly in contrast with the image of the Freedom party’s top leadership. Disgusted with the state of affairs of the past years and eager for change, the people voted massively for the People’s Voice. There was no doubt that every vote was earned in Hasmukh Jadeja’s name. The entire election campaign turned out in the American presidential style, with the focus settling on one man and his potential. No other election campaign in India’s election history had made one candidate into this kind of a rock star.
After a grand oath-taking ceremony, which was attended by leaders of various neighbouring countries as well, Prime Minister Jadeja got down to business right from day one. As a consummate politician, he knew that public mood takes no time to shift. Having won the election on the plank of fighting corruption, the first decision his government took was to set up a Special Investigation Team to tackle the black money menace. The second was to expedite the ongoing probes into counterfeit currency, drug trade and terror funding. Anybody found guilty, no matter how high up on the ladder, would be taken to task.
Alarm bells began to ring elsewhere. The battle lines were clearly drawn, after all. With Hasmukh Jadeja assuming power at the centre, regional parties, politicians, bureaucrats had to decide whose side they were on.
CHAPTER 22.
A New Era of Indian Politics Begins
The Freedom Party’s comprehensive loss in the elections had as much to do with Hasmukh Jadeja’s magnetic personality and connect with the masses, as it was about his colleague and close friend Kapil Pandya’s organisational acumen. Kapil had taken over as president of People’s Voice just before the polls and was entrusted with the task of creating a mechanism by which the huge goodwill that Hasmukh enjoyed translated into votes. This meant, besides other things, a micro-management of booths across the country. Kapil launched a massive membership drive for the party, conducted workshops for booth-level workers in all parts of the country, and motivated everyone to work in a way that would ensure that every single person who supported the party turned out to cast their vote.
He put in a great deal of effort along with senior party leaders, coming up with unconventional choices and strategies. Both Kapil and Hasmukh had realised that it was now or never; the Freedom Party’s image was at its lowest ever and now was the best time to strike. And strike hard. Kapil was a genius in his own right. He had the reputation of being a no-nonsense leader, and his clarity of thought was matched by his decisive actions. He had demonstrated these abilities as a state minister in Gujarat during Hasmukh’s chief ministership. In one of the many huddles they had, the two decided that their focus should be especially on Uttar Pradesh, the state that sent the highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha. It was also a state w
here the People’s Voice had been stagnating for years.
Over many years of dormancy, the local leadership of the party in Uttar Pradesh had all but vanished, though it still had a percentage of loyal followers among the voters. The rise of regional parties that played the communal and caste-based cards to lure voters had not just eaten into the People’s Voice vote share but also that of the Freedom Party’s. Eventually, the presence of the Freedom Party was rendered irrelevant in a state that was once considered the party’s bastion. Kapil came to the conclusion that the regional parties could be stymied if he could not just sell the Hasmukh dream effectively but also cause a dent in the caste-based equations of these parties.
Stationing himself in Uttar Pradesh, Kapil work on relentlessly and came out with one winning formula after another, including pitching the prime ministerial candidate to contest from an Uttar Pradesh seat. It proved to be a masterstroke.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, Kapil took keen interest in the neighbouring state of Bihar, where the party was contesting the elections in alliance with other parties, except one of the main regional parties, which had until recently been a critical partner. That party had parted ways after People’s Voice had declared Hasmukh as its prime ministerial candidate.
The results from both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were astoundingly in favour of the People’s Voice with the voters choosing to place their trust in Hasmukh Jadeja’s leadership rather than caste-based politics. The two states thus prepared the ground for the party’s stunning triumph across the country.