Congress leaders in the BJP-ruled State of Chhattisgarh have alleged a pattern of persecution by the ruling party after a six-time Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), from the Congress, Kawasi Lakhma was recently arrested in connection to a liquor scam just before the civic body election in the State.
This alleged case of corruption took place during Lakhma’s tenure as excise Minister (2018 to 2023) in the former Congress-led State government, and he has been sent to judicial custody, along with his son Harish Kawasi, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, till February 4.
Born to a poor Adivasi family in Nagaras village in 1953, Lakhma’s rise from being a cattle trader to a sarpanch, to a Congress MLA (from Konta constituency) and then the State’s excise Minister, has indeed been meteoric. With no formal education, he plunged into politics in 1998 when the Congress sought fresh faces in the Bastar region ahead of the Assembly election (when Chhattisgarh was still part of Madhya Pradesh). As per census 2011, tribal communities make up one third of Chhattisgarh’spopulation.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a statement claimed that Lakhma “did nothing” to stop an alleged Rs.2,100 crore liquor scam when the Congress was in power. The ED said that Lakhma received not less than Rs.2 crore per month out of proceeds of crime and informed a special court that Lakhma made Rs.72 crore from the scam, which he used to construct the Congress Bhavan and a house in Sukma. According to Lakhma’s election affidavit filed during the 2024 general election, his net worth was Rs.2.4 crore.
BJP’s test by narco
Lakhma made headlines before the 2013 Assembly election when he narrowly survived a Maoist attack on the Congress convoy in the Jhiram Valley. The entire top party leadership at the State level was wiped out in the attack. Among the few survivors, Lakhma was accused of colluding with the Maoists. The BJP demanded a narco test.
In the 2023 Assembly election, when the BJP returned to power, defeating the Congress, Lakhma was among four Ministers in the incumbent government who could retain their seats. Taking into account Lakhma’s popularity, the Congress fielded him in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the Bastar seat, but he lost.
Former Congress Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, accused the ED of acting at the behest of the BJP, and suggested that the ruling party aimed to gag the opposition. He termed ED’s action “totally dictatorial”. Baghel posted on X: “Kawasi Lakhma ji is the vocal voice of Bastar. He is facing punishment for exposing the corruption of the BJP and the State government also understands that if Kawasi ji stays out, BJP will lose badly in the municipal and panchayat elections in Sukma.”
Baghel also cited the case of Congress MLA Devendra Yadav, who was arrested in August 2024 in connection with the Baloda Bazar violence. Yadav, a youth leader who was re-elected from the Bhilai Assembly seat and has previously served as Mayor, has been in jail for the past six months. Earlier, in March 2024, the ED had registered an FIR against Baghel in an online betting app case.
Before Lakhma was arrested, the ED, in 2023, also arrestedthespecial secretary at the department of excise and the former managing director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Ltd, Arun Pati Tripathi, former bureaucrat Vivek Dhandh and Congress leader Anwar Dhebar among others over the same liquor scam.
Claiming widespread corruption and manipulation in the State’s excise system during the Congress regime, the ED said bribes were allegedly collected from several distillers for each case of liquor procured by the Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Ltd.
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In the tribal belt of Bastar and Surguja, the Congress suffered a severe setback in the 2023 Assembly election: BJP won eight of the 12 seats in Bastar, and wrested all 14 seats in Surguja from the Congress.
The election for urban bodies, such as the municipal corporation, municipal council, and nagar panchayat will be held on February 11. Voting for the three-tier panchayat election, for the posts of panch, sarpanch, janpad member and district panchayat member, will be held in on February 17, 20, and 23 respectively.
Meanwhile, Sudiep Shrivastava, a prominent political commentator in Chhattisgarh, addressed the question of Lakhma’s “lack of formal education,” about which concerns were raised when he was appointed Minister. Lakhma, known for wielding humour and wit to navigate political tensions, had then famously said: “God has given me a mind, and I will use it for the poor and marginalised.”
Shrivastava explained, “Though there’s no constitutional provision barring an illiterate person from holding a Ministerial post… the question remains why the Congress appointed such a person to a key position in the State government.” He added that when Lakhma was a Minister, someone else would answer questions on his behalf in the Assembly. Days before his arrest, Lakhma said he signed the papers that officials brought to him without fully understanding their content, since he was uneducated. He had no idea what he was signing, he added.
Asked if Lakhma’s arrest would affect the Congress in the upcoming civic body election, Shrivastava dismissed the idea. He said, however, that “his long-term incarceration could hurt Congress in the next Assembly election, particularly in the tribal belt.”
Source:https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/chhattisgarh-liquor-scam-congress-leader-kawasi-lakhma-arrested-ed-claims-72-crore-fraud/article69154635.ece