The RSS is reportedly worried that the many allegations against Nitin Gadkari, who has just got an unprecedented second term as BJP president, will dent the main opposition party's image perilously close to the next elections.
The BJP has for some time now made corruption a key political plank to attack the ruling UPA with, but a reverse pressure is now building with an inquiry being demanded into party chief Nitin Gadkari's source of funds for his businesses.
Mr Gadkari has been handpicked by the BJP's parent body the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS to head the political arm of the Sangh Parivar and rules were recently amended to allow him the second term, much to the chagrin of many top party leaders. The spiraling controversy and allegations of a conflict of interest between his roles as a political leader and a businessman could well make Mr Gadkari's position untenable. Today, the BJP chief, in full RSS uniform, is attending a Vijayadashmi function in Nagpur.
While Mr Gadkari refused to answer questions on the controversy today, RSS spokesperson Dr Manmohan Vaidya said allegations against the BJP president "seem like a media trial." He added that "the RSS is not in the picture. Let the BJP respond to it. We have not issued any ultimatum and have not sought any explanation. The fight against corruption will go on. Nothing will affect it," he said.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has written to the Prime Minister, asking for an investigation into who funds the business set up by Mr Gadkari in 2000 and cites NDTV's recent and exclusive report, which highlighted that several of the 18 companies who have invested in Mr Gadkari's Purti Power and Sugar are steeped in mystery - their official addresses, for example, don't check out; many of them are headquartered at the same small room in Mumbai, pointing to the strong possibility of shell investors. In some cases, different investors share directors, and Mr Gadkari's driver, Manohar Panse, is shown as a director of a company that allegedly provides Purti with shares worth a little over three crores.
NDTV also reported that a company which was hired for enormous infrastructure projects during Mr Gadkari's term as minister of Maharashtra's Public Works Department went on years later to invest in Purti. Mr Gadkari, appearing in NDTV's studios, denied that the investment by Ideal Road Builders Group was a quid pro quo for the massive contracts it won when he was in office, or that there was a blatant conflict of interest in accepting investment from the contractor. He described DP Mhaiskar, who owns Ideal Road Builders, as a good friend.
Mr Gadkari stepped down last year as Chairman of Purti.
Mr Singh has asked in his letter to the Prime Minister for an investigation by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of that ministry, has already indicated that an inquiry is likely.
The BJP said yesterday that Mr Gadkari is "open to any sort of inquiry", but the opposition party says there has to be a level-playing field for investigations centred on politicians who are accused of graft. The Congress, it said, is protecting its own.
BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman compared her party's response to the Congress and the case of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra, who has been accused of accepting sweetheart deals from real estate giant DLF. In exchange, the Congress government in Haryana allegedly did favours that promoted DLF's vast business interests in the state. Mr Vadra, DLF and the Haryana government have refuted the charges.
A series of senior cabinet ministers enthusiastically defended Mr Vadra - a point of much criticism among the opposition, the media and the activists headed by Arvind Kejriwal, who has launched a new political party and "outed" Mr Vadra's DLF connection by releasing documents about their transactions at two different press conferences. "...you found cabinet ministers in the Union Cabinet coming out openly to say there is no need to investigate (against Vadra) in this matter. The difference lies in the fact that BJP is always open and it is ready to meet the press and to say they are open to investigation," Ms Sitharaman said.
Mr Gadkari has recently been granted a second consecutive term as the BJP president - a decision that required amending the party's constitution. In NDTV's studio on Saturday, he refuted suggestions that several of the companies who have invested in Purti appear to be fronts.
The Ministry of Company Affairs website for 2010 shows that there are 18 investor firms for Purti. NDTV found that some of the directors and the companies were not traceable at their listed addresses. Mr Gadkari said official records may need to be updated to reflect new addresses. "There are 10,000 stakeholders," he said, of Purti. Mr Gadkari said he could not be expected to have ready details, but, on prompting, said he could furnish "addresses of all 10,000."
Mr Gadkari was the Public Works Department Minister of a Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra in 1995-99, when Ideal Road Builders Private Limited won a series of contracts and its turnover rose from 41 to 67 crores in a period of three years (1996 to 1999). Mr Gadkari told NDTV that he did not sanction the deals; many were approved by the union government.
After Mr Gadkari exited office in 2001, Ideal Road Builders invested in Mr Gadkari's Purti group of companies, picking up shares worth Rs.1.85 crore. Mr Mhaiskar also invested in approximately 2 crores of shares in Purti.
In 2010, the Purti Group received a loan of Rs. 165 crore from Global Safety Vision, a company started by Mr Mhaiskar. With this one loan, Purti was able to repay all its outstanding debt. Surprisingly, in its last regulatory filings, Global Safety Vision had only one lakh paid up capital.
"Purti has losses of 64 crores, Mhaiskar loaned me 165 crores from his company, and I have repaid him 64 crores with interest," Mr Gadkari said, adding that his company's assets were mortgaged to Mr Mhaiskar.
Mr Gadkari also does not agree that there is a conflict of interest in his being a leading politician and a businessman. His latter role, he says, has ceased to be pertinent. His sugar company is one of the biggest companies in the Vidarbha region; Mr Gadkari says that business is an agriculture cooperative, set up for social good to help farmers in the region driven to suicide.