Is there an evil design behind ED entering TSPSC question paper leak probe? At whose behest?

HDERABAD: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has silently entered into the investigation of Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) question paper leak scam ‘on the sly’. To legitimize the same, it apparently ‘wangled’ a complaint by laying a trap. It certainly appears that the financial probe agency, which has been hounding the anti-BJP forces across India, is exploring all possible opportunities – not options – to fix someone against whom the BJP is nursing a grudge.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy, by lodging a complaint with the ED a couple of days ago, is either working hand in glove with the BJP in the State willfully or walked into the trap of the BJP, which could have unambiguously pulled strings surreptitiously. In any case, his complaint would ‘formally’ form the basis for the ED to buttress its act of commencing the probe.

Is there a design – that too, evil in nature – behind the central agency swinging into action? There appears to be no haze in this question.

For, the central agencies are more than eager to take upon themselves any probe, irrespective of the scope and limitations. If not, the BJP will spur them into action. By ‘impleading’ itself and also egging on the accused in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs’ poaching case to press for the transfer of the probe to the CBI from the Special Investigation Team (SIT), under the stewardship of Commissioner of Hyderabad City Police C V Anand, the BJP has shown to the world that it essentially was an interested party. How is it an interested party, is anybody’s guess.

Can the CBI or the ED entrust the responsibility of the case to an officer of Anand’s stature? The Telangana Government did not think twice to hand it over to a very senior officer in the ranks with credible track record. Finally, the case, after several skewed twists and turns in a legal wrangle, landed in the Supreme Court which had ruled that the case of transferring it to the CBI be listed only after July 31 and also directed the SIT not to investigate it any further.

Take the case of the TSPSC question paper leak. Soon after the leakage came to light, the State Government constituted a SIT under the leadership of another senior officer in the rank of an Inspector-General, A R Srinivas, Additional Commissioner of Hyderabad City Police. By attributing regional motives to an all-India Services officer, Revanth Reddy exposed his parochial approach and also ‘tacit understanding’ with the BJP in Telangana.

The Congress should seriously doubt his loyalties, as it’s beyond anybody’s doubt that the TPCC chief works for his master, Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu. His three-minute swan song on the death of TDP in Telangana at a public meeting in Palakurthi in Warangal district and pouring of scorn on Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao exposed his innuendoes and impaled his heart beating in the portals of the TDP. And, they seem to be in a simple harmonic motion between the TDP and the BJP with the Congress as the fulcrum.

Take a look at the ED intervention. The ED, which is already targeting BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasehkar Rao, is now taking the blabber of Revanth Reddy “seriously”. Revanth Reddy, along with BJP’s Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay, is accusing BRS Working President and Minister K T Rama Rao of his involvement in the question paper leakage.

It's a question of common sense that anybody who is reasonably sane would understand and appreciate the commitment of the Telangana Government in filling the vacant posts through TSPSC. For, the government faced the ire of all sections, especially the unemployed youth in the inordinate delay in filling the posts, even after completing the process for over 1.30 lakh jobs. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao took personal interest and announced close to one lakh jobs on the floor of the Assembly and the process began in a phased manner.

Which politician on earth would indulge in a shady deal to commit a political hara-kiri? After all, KTR is a torchbearer of Telangana’s pride. If anything, he would help ensure there is no loose end in the conduct of examinations by the Constitutional body, the TSPSC.

In the garb of investigating the money trail in the question paper leakage case under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), the ED arrogated upon itself the right to probe. The parallel investigation by two different agencies would surely dilute and divert the direction of the case. The SIT went to the extent of questioning the board members and officials of the TSPSC.

The ED intervened even in the Tollywood drugs case and launched a campaign that people in the power corridors in Telangana could be called to question. However, the case apparently has fallen flat on the face of the agency which is demonstrating a vulgar overenthusiasm to investigate cases, right from chain snatchings to the ones of any magnitude.

Armed by the enormous powers and “unabated freedom” conferred on it, the ED could foist a case on anyone and everyone and leave the burden of proof on the accused. This a draconian provision in the rules governing the ED.

The ED’s entry into the TSPSC case only laid bare the agency’s readiness to heed “his master’s voice” at the behest of the beleaguered opposition leaders of both the BJP and the Congress in Telangana. The efforts of YSR Telangana Party chief Y S Sharmila to stitch a coalition with the two diametrically opposite parties to work unitedly on a ‘common minimum programme’ -- of fighting KCR – must be understood as part of their joint operation.