Arvind Kejriwal and his party India Against Corruption (IAC) have kept the newsrooms, political offices and corporate board rooms quite busy in the last one month with his stream of high-profile exposes. Amid all the hoopla, politicians have been trying to devise foolproof electoral campaign strategies and businessmen have been trying to win back investor confidence to see their scrip values go up on the stock markets.
Here is a look at those who have come in Kejriwal's line of fire and the stories that followed:
DLF/Robert Vadra
On October 5, Kejriwal accused Robert Vadra of buying property worth crores of rupees with an 'unsecured interest free loan' of Rs 65 cr given by DLF. The Congress came up in arms to defend Vadra who is party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. The press and media began their own investigations into these allegations while the company defended itself, calling its deals with Vadra transparent. Kejriwal began his bijli-paani satyagraha. Labelling the affair "tip of the iceberg", Kejriwal also said that DLF's clarifications were half-truths and lies. Vadra called these charges false.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram ruled out any probe into the matter as Kejriwal extended his attack, calling the Haryana government DLF's agent. The Haryana government dismissed allegations against itself by denying involvement in the deals which it said were conducted by private parties.
After Kejriwal, a Haryana government official Ashok Khemka cancelled a 3.5-acre land mutation in Manesar, which stopped DLF's commercial projects at the site.
Roles of GMR Infrastructure and Corporation Bank were questioned when Kejriwal hinted at controversial connections between politicians and certain companies.
Salman Khurshid
A week later, Kejriwal fired a second salvo, which sent the Congress scurrying for cover again. He claimed that an NGO in Uttar Pradesh headed by Law Minister Salman Khurshid had siphoned off Rs 71 lakh meant for physically challenged people. In response, Khurshid threatened legal action against Kejriwal. Undeterred, Kejriwal and ally Manish Sisodia started a protest rally, got arrested and detained, and then released while Khurshid said he was open to investigation.
A CAG report, which had earlier detected a fraud in a government grant to a trust handled by Khurshid, had demanded a recovery of the full grant amount and had substantiated Kejriwal's claims on Khurshid. A slew of exchanges (involving death threats and God) later, IAC organised a rally at Khurshid's constituency, Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh today amid tight security.
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Digvijay Singh who spoke for Khurshid also got dragged into the muck.
Nitin Gadkari/IRB Infrastructure
After making the ruling party sweat, IAC now focussed on the Opposition with a claim that there was a nexus between Gadkari and the Congress. BJP and Gadkari denied the charges. IAC now exposed Gadkari's land dealings and the involvement of IRB Infrastructure during his tenure as PWD Minister in Maharashtra. BJP, Gadkari and IRB Infra denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, accusations of land-grabbing were made against senior IAC members, Prashant Bhushan, Mayank Gandhi and Anjali Damania. Deciding to look inwards, a probe was set up and Kejriwal announced that if found guilty, they would have to quit the party.
Questions were also raised about IAC's 'dubious' sources of funding.
Also, fearing a public backlash, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs set up an inquiry into the allegations made against Vadra and Gadkari.
Mukesh Ambani/Reliance Industries
This time, IAC pulled one of India's biggest corporate houses under the scanner - Reliance Industries and claimed that "Manmohan Singh doesn't run the country, Mukesh Ambani does." It also said that it was because of Mukesh Ambani's influence that Jaipal Reddy was removed from the Oil Ministry in the Cabinet reshuffle that happened on October 28.
Then, there were statements by Kejriwal that RIL had made undue gains by pricing gas over three times higher than normal. RIL responded that IAC shouldn't make such irresponsible and baseless claims as it does not have the technical knowledge of the matter. The government too refuted the charges against itself.
Burmans, Naresh Goyal and HSBC
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And Mukesh Ambani again. Only this time, brother Anil and mother Kokilaben were dragged in too. The charge this time was that some of India's most prominent business tycoons had stashed away some Rs 3,100 crore in Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC), Geneva, through money laundering and hawala. While there were the usual denials from those Kejriwal had named, the Press Trust of India reported that the government was likely to probe allegations of money laundering against HSBC. Sources in the government, however, claimed that the proposed investigations were not the result of Kejriwal's accusations.
The dramas are still playing out and we are yet to see how many more face the fire.
Dikshit and the discoms
It isn't just conventional corruption (read bribery and corporate wheeling-dealing) that Kejriwal is fighting. The anti-graft crusader took up the issue of labour rights and rapped power distribution companies in the capital for flouting the Minimum Wages Act and Factories Act in their bid to exploit contract labour. He accused Sheila Dikshit of protecting the interests of these companies by not enforcing labour laws. The Delhi Chief Minister responded swiftly by sending him a legal notice. An undeterred Kejriwal likened himself to the dengue mosquito, according to a Times of India report, and promised to expose Dikshit for colluding with the discoms.
Kejriwal has also promised to expose Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for exploiting land acquisition laws to benefit private sector businesses such as the DLF group, Reliance and Unitech
Also read:
Bhupesh Bhandari: The man who hates profit
The making of Kejriwal's party
T N Ninan: What price a Lok Pal?
Party time for Kejriwal, gloom for UPA?
Behind the balance sheets and bungalows of Kejriwal's 3 targets