Two years back, Union home minister Amit Shah made a rather curious claim. Speaking at the PHD Chamber of Commerce, he said there was ‘not a single corruption’ charge against the Narendra Modi government during the past ten years.The home minister’s assertion came barely months after the Supreme Court struck down the government’s electoral bonds scheme – an opaque system of political financing that was widely seen as the ‘world’s’ biggest scam. The whole plan was designed by Arun Jaitley and implemented with the active support of Modi and Shah.Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.Forty one companies facing investigation by the CBI, ED and IT department gave Rs 3,471 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through electoral bonds. And Rs 2,698 crore of this was donated after raids by these agencies. And yet Shah could say the Modi government was not involved in a ‘single case’ of corruption in ten years.Thousands had applauded when Modi made his famous ‘na khaunga, na khanedunga (won’t be corrupt, won’t let others be corrupt)’ declaration at Balia during the election campaign in 2014. Since then, he has repeated the claim of ‘I won’t indulge in corruption nor let others to’ at different meetings. In 2019, he asked all ministries to send the names of ‘corrupt and non-performing’ officers.Shah began the process of appointing centrally picked non-entities as chief ministers in BJP states with the selection of Bhupendra Patel in September 2021. These nominees were beholden to him. Moreover, Shah had an efficient system to micromanage them from Delhi. Things went smooth until the recent political crisis forced Modi to assign a more crucial role for Shah at the centre.The sudden removal of the prop put these hapless and weak chief ministers to innumerable troubles, including revolts and scams which were not discernible during the period that Shah was able to put a lid on them. Consider what has happened in the less than 20-month old Rekha Gupta government, where a Rs 650 crore medical purchase scam has just emerged.The alleged mastermind behind the Delhi scam who was named in the ACB’s FIR has gone missing. He was accused of rigging the entire medical purchase process. How is this possible under a ‘double-engine sarkar”? How did Rajiv Rangeela manage to escape? Why was he not picked up earlier? Who gave him enough time to disappear?No one in Rekha Gupta’s government gives answers to such crucial questions. Investigators were shocked to find that items available in the market at Rs 10 lakh were charged Rs 33 lakh. Most items were similarly found over-charged. In some cases, the difference were unreasonably exorbitant. In the case of portable X-ray machines, the FIR states that machines with similar specifications were supplied to other hospitals for around Rs 10 lakh per unit. However, the Central Procurement Agency purchased these for Rs 33 lakh. A total of 448 machines were procured at a cost of Rs 148 crore, although their estimated market value was only about Rs 45 crore. Several files were found destroyed. Crores were moved via hundreds of accounts, missing tender files & phones.Delhi’s Rs 650-crore medicine scam has opened a can of worms in other saffron regimes. This includes Puducherry and Maharashtra. The Chhattisgarh medicine scam involved Rs 550 crore and Uttar Pradesh’s Rs 10,000 crore. Soon it spread to other BJP-ruled states one after another.The CAG reports found that government also purchased medicines and equipment from blacklisted firms but also paid Rs 5.67 crore to 15 such agencies whose medicines have been proved substandard. Then there is the notorious ambulance scam in Haryana.Barely four years in office, Modi realised it was impossible to stop corruption altogether. Therefore, from the start, he made elaborate measures to effectively suppress all traces of massive swindling and fraud taking place under his administration. His total control of the media made the task easier for him. Moreover, he has already rendered ineffective all available statutory watchdog panels like the Central Information Commission (CIC) and Central Information Commission (CVC). Even the CAG had to suit itself to compulsions of new ‘ethics’. All parliamentary panels were ‘captured’.Since then, Modi-Shah’s emphasis has been on keeping the frauds shrouded rather than trying to prevent these from happening. In Modi’s India, as a matter ofIllustration: Pariplab Chakrabortyfact, all negative stories emanate either from the foreign media, Congress spokespersons or a few independent media outlets or social media. Never the pro-government, largely circulated mainstream media.State-level corruption, however, belongs to a different category, especially after Amit Shah withdrew from the micromanagement of provincial affairs. This left the field free for various power brokers and influence pedlars. Internal quarrels within the BJP at the state level made it worse. Hence every BJP-ruled state has its share of misdemeanours.“I have joined BJP, and now I can get sound sleep,” said BJP leader Harshvardhan Patil, rather gleefully. “The ED won’t come after me since I am a BJP MP… We have to take a loan in order to purchase luxury cars worth Rs 40 lakh to show off. The ED will be surprised to see the amount of loan we have…” Sanjay Patil, another newly laundered man boasted after joining BJP.Similarly, 23 of the 25 opposition leaders who were charged with corruption by the ED, CBI and police have got a reprieve after joining BJP. Among them are at least half dozen BJP chief ministers, including West Bengal’s Suvendu Adhikari and Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma.Adhikari, during his tenure as Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, was accused of corruption by the ED. He was in jail for some time. A senior TMC leader charged Suvendu with involvement in the Sandeshkhali scam. The question remains why Adhikari was not arrested and interrogated for his alleged role in the Narada scam?Consider the cases against Himanta before his ‘shuddhikaran (purification)’ after joining the BJP. BJD has spoken of a recruitment scam by Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s government.Even in Kerala, where the BJP is not anywhere near power, there is a massive election fund scandal gripping the party.Twelve years after his ‘na khoonga, na khan doonga’ promise, Modi is presiding over a feeding frenzy.P. Raman is a veteran journalist.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.In an age of fractured mandates, personality cults and transactional alliances, P. Raman brings clarity to India’s shifting political equations. With Realpolitik, the veteran journalist peers beneath the slogans and spin to reveal the power plays, spectacle, crises and insecurities driving India’s politics.