Did Smriti Irani misuse her MPLAD funds?

Sections of the political class and the media have once again returned to play their favourite sport- targeting Smriti Irani. Amit Chavda, the president of the Congress Party’s Gujarat unit, has accused the minister of financial malpractices in spending her MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development) fund. Smriti Irani is a member of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, and she has adopted the Maghrol Village in Anand District under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). Chavda has alleged that she has spent her MPLAD funds without inviting any tender. Mainstream media outlets like The Indian Express picked up the story and published it.

Most of you might not have heard of Amit Chavda. Chavda took over as the president of the Congress’ Gujarat unit in March this year, after Bhratsingh Solanki quit. Interestingly, Chavda is Solanki’s cousin. The entire family has been associated with the Congress Party for decades. Sources tell us that he doesn’t get along with opposition leader Paresh Dhanani, and that an internal feud is underway in the local unit. Days after Chavda’s appointment, one of his cousins Prashant Chavda and an accomplice were caught by the Valsad Police carrying liquor. Gujarat is a dry state.

The Indian Express has quoted Chavda as saying, “Smriti Irani illegally used her MPLAD fund in violation of the guidelines for their use. She and her staff insisted and coerced official into awarding contracts to one Sharda Majoor Kamdar Sahkari Mandli… so that funds could be easily misused and misappropriated and fraud goes unnoticed.”

To begin with, the very fact that such stories find any resonance displays a lack of understanding as to how the MPLAD fund works. The funds, which are distributed by the Central Government, never go into the hands of any Member of Parliament. These funds go from the Central Government to the District Administrations across the country. The Members of Parliament then decide what works they want to take up, and this is communicated to their respective District Administrations. The rest is taken care of by the District Administrations. For example, if a Member of Parliament wants to construct a road from point A to point B, they communicate this to the District Administration. Who constructs the road, how much money is allocated for it from the MPLAD fund, how the tender process works and other nitty-gritties, are the District Administration’s prerogative. Any irregularity or malpractice regarding the MPLAD fund then, cannot be attributed to any Member of Parliament. The buck stops with the District Administration.

Now Chavda has also gone on to allege that Smriti Irani’s first personal assistant coerced the District Planning Officer into awarding contracts to a particular entity. It is alleged that this happened over a telephonic conversation. Any civil servant worth his salt knows better than to take verbal orders, and that too over the telephone from someone claiming to be of certain importance. If indeed a verbal order from anyone was carried out by a civil servant, it entails to the civil servant having flouted the norms. Either ways, even in such a hypothetical scenario, the Member of Parliament cannot be held responsible.

But this is where the story gets very interesting. Rumours about irregularities in the District Administration’s dealings were flying thick and fast last year. Incidentally, it was Smriti Irani herself who wrote to the District Collector seeking accountability. On 12^th July 2017, Smriti Irani wrote to the District Collector, providing a list of all the works she had assigned under her MPLAD fund, and asking the District Collector to furnish details about the amount spent on each of the projects and what their current status was. Within days, Amit Chavda had filed a PIL in the Gujarat High Court, accusing Smriti Irani of malpractices and coercion. So on one side, there was Smriti Irani trying to get to the bottom of certain alleged irregularities, while on the other, she was being accused of those very irregularities!

There are two possibilities as to why the Congress Party attacked Smriti Irani, who was herself trying to get to the bottom of the alleged malpractices. One, considering Anand District has been a bastion of the Congress Party, they might have been hand in glove with certain malpractices on the ground, and went after Smriti Irani because her moves threatened to blow the lid off whatever was going on. The other reason seems more plausible. Smriti Irani was up for re-election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat the following month. It is entirely possible that with old scores to settle, the Congress Party was trying to pressurize the BJP not to give her another term courtesy the supposed malpractices.

On February 2^nd this year, the District Collector issued an order asking the entity in question to return ₹ 2.95 crores to  the government treasury with 18% interest. The Congress Party is claiming that this vindicates its stand, and that Smriti Irani should resign. However, what this actually shows is that Smriti Irani’s letter demanding accountability, which set things in motion before any allegations were made against her or any PIL was filed against her, has had the desired effect. The irregularity has been detected, and the correction made. At a time when Smriti Irani deserves full credit, the Congress Party seems to have twisted things to slander her.

This isn’t the end of the story. The timing of Chavda’s statement is interesting. Considering the District Collector issued the order in the beginning of February this year, why is the issue being brought up three months down the line? On 2^nd June, Gujarat opposition leader Paresh Dhanani made a statement asking Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to convene a special assembly session to discuss 12 issues which were allegedly plaguing the state. This statement received widespread media coverage, asserting Dhanani as the face of the Congress Party in the state. Not be outdone, Chavda raked up this old issue. Attacking Smriti Irani is a sure-shot way of receiving maximum mainstream media coverage. Incidentally, the statement also came on the heels of Smriti Irani telling the press that whoever challenges Rahul Gandhi in Amethi on a BJP ticket in 2019, would defeat him. The way this old issue was suddenly raked up by a Congress Party member and propagated by the mainstream media, seems reactionary.

This is the sad truth about the Indian mainstream media. It laps up anything negative about Smriti Irani without verifying the facts. It is the first one to attack Smriti Irani, and when she is under attack, it is the first one to turn a blind eye. This is a pattern which repeats itself again and again, ever since she stood against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi and gave the Congress Party the jitters of their lifetime in the family pocket-borough. Things have never been the same, and it looks like the orders to finish her political career have come straight from HQ.