Senthilbalaji arrest carries a message: ‘Toe the line or take a hit’

CHENNAI: Amid the high tension political drama following the arrest of Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V Senthilbajali during the early hours of Wednesday in the cash-for-job scam, the BJP has a message for both its allies and political rivals. And, that is to play by my rule or face the music.

After field days in New Delhi, West Bengal and other non-BJP ruling states, the central agencies have now turned their attention towards the southern states. Following the IT raids on minister V Senthilbalaji and his family members and friends' properties in the last week of March this year, ED officials knocked the doors on the minister's residence on Tuesday to search the premises. The 18-hour search culminated with the arrest of the minister.

Political critics opined that this is a "well measured political move" of the saffron party to curtail the funding sources of the opposition camp, besides intimidating the opposition camps and caution its allies to their line.

"Since the BJP came to power, it has been using the central agencies as a political tool to achieve their desired results," said political observer Satyan and backed his statement with statistics that around 3,100 raids carried out by ED since BJP voted to power.

Out of these, 95% of raids targeted leaders of the ruling party in non-BJP states.

He questioned why the agencies are not showing such intensity in BJP-ruling states and corruption cases against the turncoats gathering dust. "The classical example is Karnataka state where building contractors openly complained against the BJP government and called it a 40% commission government, which eventually led to its downfall in the elections. And there are a number of politicians, who faced corruption charges, joined BJP to save their skin," he said and recollected Harshavardhan Patil's quote that he was getting "sound sleep" in the saffron party as there are "no inquiries''.

The former Congress leader joined BJP in 2019.

And the list is long- Narayana Rane, Himanta Biswa Sarma and many more, he said.

The arrest of Senthilbalaji and the manner it has been carried out is a message not only to the DMK, but also to the AIADMK from the BJP ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls, he said, adding, "The message is - toe the line or face the music."

Political critic Kolahala Srenivaas said what unfolded in the last few months is a well coordinated move with purpose in Tamil Nadu.

“The arrest of minister Senthilbalaji is a move to curtail the economy of the DMK party ahead of the LS polls. Meanwhile, we cannot rule out that BJP is sending a message to AIADMK. It is purely a political move and the BJP is using the agencies to the optimum level for its political advantage," he said.

However, another political critic and senior journalist Thaarasu Shyam differed from others and said the raids, arrest and inconclusive and prolonged legal proceedings is nothing but a political tamasa. "At the end, the people will lose faith in the law enforcing agencies, judiciary and the system. And they are the losers here," he said.