Wrong Move - Times of India

The BJP has painted itself into a corner by making the case against Shah a political issue. Shah has been chargesheeted, along with 14 others including senior police officials, of conspiracy and murder in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. There's considerable evidence that Sohrabuddin, his wife Kauser Bi, and another eyewitness Tulsidas Prajapati may have been murdered in connection with an extortion racket that involved politicians, police officials and businessmen. Shah may well be innocent of the grave charges against him, and is entitled to the due process of law. But that process is imperilled when Shah refuses to appear before the CBI and the BJP chooses to run a strident political campaign around the issue.

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The party's explanation that its protest is directed at the government's "motivated use of the CBI", without bothering to offer any detailed refutation of the charges against Shah, is unlikely to find many takers. The allegation that parties that gain office at the Centre tend to use the CBI as a political tool isn't entirely untrue. But to raise this in the context of the Shah case is to miss the plot. The BJP is unlikely to find the support of other opposition parties if, in order to highlight the politics of CBI investigations, it says Shah shouldn't be investigated at all. The BJP had managed to build considerable opposition momentum on the price rise issue. Even the Left parties had come on board a joint opposition platform to protest inflation. The BJP needs to focus on substantive issues if it wants to close ranks with other political parties and put the government on the mat. A strident stand on the Shah issue, on the other hand, would dissipate the opposition's momentum and make it easy for the government to split its ranks.

Wrong Move - Times of India