United colours of corruption: The week that exposed all

"Iss hammam mein sab nange hain (All are naked in this bathroom)"

- An old saying

Last week in the Indian political history was unique as three major parties and their leaders were busy exposing each other in different cases of alleged corruption. Mind you, this happened when it is not an election season. Whether or not anyone got exposed is a matter of perception but in the attempt to muddy each other's image, they were certainly found to be cornered.

It all started with the CBI raid on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary (PS) Rajendra Kumar's office on December 15. The chief minister found himself being criticised for keeping the company of corrupt officials. He was at the receiving end for choosing a bureaucrat as his PS whose track record was questionable and who was being interrogated in a few scams.

Just a week before the raid on Kumar's premises, another IAS officer of Delhi government, Sanjay Pratap Singh, had been arrested by the CBI after being caught red-handed accepting a bribe of Rs 2.2 lakh from the complainant whose firm provided security guards and subordinate staff to the Department of Welfare of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Minorities. Singh was the principal secretary of the department.

With the two senior bureaucrats in the CBI net, Kejriwal's USP is at stake. The Delhi CM's claim to fame is his anti-corruption crusade when he took on the mighty, powerful and rich during the UPA2 regime. The first dent in his image of a politician practising honest polity got eroded when he supported the three-party alliance of mahagathbandhan in the Bihar Assembly elections. By supporting Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, he was seen taking side of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, who is a convict in fodder scam and debarred from contesting elections.

Kejriwal was censured for hugging Lalu during Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony on November 20, a picture which will remain edged in the memory of all for a long time to come and which Kejriwal will be reminded of whenever he will talk about weeding out corruption from Indian polity.

The Delhi CM's image also of a decent politician has taken a major beating when he blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him "coward" and "psychopath" for the CBI action on his PS. This exposed the darker side of Kejriwal, his lowest in ethical politics. He received widespread condemnation for his overreaction. He had an opportunity to realise his mistake and apologise not only to the PM but everyone for his outburst. However, he asked him to apologise for his "misdeeds" before he apologised for his indecent remarks.

However, having failed to drag Modi in the political mudslinging and realising that it was more of barking up the wrong tree, AAP shifted its goalpost and attacked Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. The AAP is in trouble now as Jaitley on December 21 filed a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five other party leaders - Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.

They called Jaitley's name in the alleged  Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam without any proof. Kejriwal has this habit of levelling wildest of allegations based just on newspaper reports or hearsay. Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari had also filed a defamation case against Kejriwal for which the latter was jailed and was forced to settle the matter out of court. It seems, he and his colleagues have not learnt a lesson from that bitter experience.

While Jaitley responded to the allegations by rightly exercising the legal option,  Modi has displayed an exemplary maturity so far by ignoring the uncalled for remarks by Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, even though Jaitley has dragged Kejriwal and other AAP leaders to court for defamation, a question mark will certainly hang over his integrity till he finally gets vindicated like Gadkari. Particularly because his own party MP, Kirti Azad, has opened a front against him. Though Azad did not name him during his address to the media on December 20 on the alleged DDCA scam, he certainly hinted more than enough that he was hitting out at Jaitley. This is one of the reasons why Jaitley spared Azad in his defamation case.

However, Azad hasn't shown the same leniency in the social media. And his tweets are an ample proof of this. He seems to be provoking Jaitley and pushing him further in the corner.

While AAP and BJP leaders may be finding themselves in a spot, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi literally found themselves in the dock for alleged cheating, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust in the National Herald case. On December 19, the two appeared in the Patiala House Court in a complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

It was for the first time after former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1978 that any member of the Nehru-Gandhi had appeared in the court as an accused and as an aam aadmi. The Congress is crying hoarse and trying to make it is a case of "political vendetta" to overcome the perception of invincibility of the two Gandhis, the diminishing halo around them and dent to their image.

And, in all the three cases, it would literally be a long-drawn battle, which may only add dirt to the already muddied water of this hammam.