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On May 21 final yr, after polling concluded throughout the nation for the Lok Sabha elections and counting was but to be taken up, the lull in political exercise that’s usually seen within the quick break was all of the sudden damaged.
Seven-time Congress MLA from the Shivajinagar constituency R Roshan Baig abruptly determined to communicate to the media, and went on to name his social gathering bosses every kind of names. He known as one a “buffoon”, one other a “flop show”.
Had Baig acquired a whiff of the social gathering’s dismal efficiency within the elections? Had he simply determined to, that day, vent his excessive frustration with the social gathering high brass — and that he had been sidelined for a ticket to contest the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency as he had so lengthy desired?
The social gathering quickly despatched him notices, determined to “take action” slightly cautiously at first, and later, extra critically. Baig was not new to courting controversy. Nor was it information for the social gathering that he had desired the LS ticket for himself, in order that he might, later, set up his son Ruman Baig because the MLA within the Shivajinagar meeting section on this constituency. What had caught the social gathering high brass ship unexpectedly had been the slightly snide phrases chosen to deride the leaders with.
In hindsight, most of the Congress leaders in Karnataka say Baig had sensed bother if the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to energy — so it was vital to be on the market and be vocal early sufficient in opposition to his social gathering, if he had to cosy up to the BJP in subsequent days.
On Tuesday, Baig was remanded in custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation by a CBI courtroom in Bengaluru—this could allow the company to interrogate him for his alleged involvement within the IMA Ponzi scheme case. The rip-off, which got here to gentle after over 40,000 traders filed police complaints final yr, is estimated to have siphoned off over Rs 2,500 crore from individuals who thought they had been placing their financial savings in a ‘Sharia-compliant’ funding fund.
The major accused within the rip-off, Mohd Mansoor Khan, had named Baig because the one who had taken greater than Rs 400 crore from him in a video that he had put out on social media.
Baig, who had final yr give up his meeting seat when he noticed many others from his social gathering do this to facilitate the BJP to come to energy in Karnataka, maybe thought the saffron social gathering would look kindly upon him and reward him with a ticket to re-contest the seat. The BJP did that with 17 different MLAs, however determined to preserve Baig out.
Baig was advised to assist the BJP within the Shivajinagar by-elections, with none official energy or place bestowed upon him. This, after assembly chief minister BS Yediyurappa a number of instances to plead his case. His son Ruman too was not inspired by the social gathering.
For seven phrases ranging from 1985, Baig had at all times had one brag up his sleeve. “Nothing happens in the Vidhana Soudha without my knowledge,” he would inform the media with a smile. “I’m the local MLA, no.”
As “local MLA” of the Shivajinagar constituency, Baig was at all times the presiding visitor throughout any occasion on the Vidhana Soudha— that grand construction within the coronary heart of Bengaluru which the Karnataka authorities capabilities from. Regardless of which social gathering was in energy, he would preside over public programmes hosted within the Vidhana Soudha for a easy purpose— it falls in his meeting section. And Baig took a lot satisfaction in reminding individuals he met about this significant half of his existence.
Despite Baig’s backhanded help, the BJP misplaced the Shivajinagar by-election in December 2019, to the Congress’s Rizwan Arshad who had it straightforward on this Muslim-dominated constituency. Arshad had at all times confronted hostility from Baig up to now few years, with no help from the latter when he contested the Lok Sabha election in May or within the earlier Lok Sabha election in 2014, although each belonged to the identical social gathering.
“Maybe he felt Arshad would occupy the space he had carved out for himself and tried to preserve for his son. Maybe he did not want another promising leader from the same community to come up. Either way, the two had never got along well the past few years,” says a Congress chief from the group.
That Baig senior had political ambitions for his son Ruman is not any secret. Ruman, who calls himself a “social entrepreneur”, was usually seen at authorities occasions when Daddy Baig was a minister, particularly throughout his stint as info minister.
Roshan Baig had, at one time, even been dwelling minister, later holding reins varyingly as minister for tourism, medium and small industries, city growth and infrastructure.
Either manner, the dream run resulted in 2020, the yr that has introduced ill-fortune for a lot of.
For, the IMA scheme was one which took cash from middle-class, hard-working, abnormal individuals with the promise that they might get good returns and the promise that the cash wouldn’t be used for any monetary exercise that goes in opposition to the diktat of the Sharia. Devout Muslims from Karnataka to Kerala had thus chosen this over all different kinds of investments, and lots of had put all their financial savings into this scheme.
“Nothing is proven yet of course, but these are monies taken from middle classes and poorer classes. And coming from that community, to cheat your own community… when those people had reposed their faith in you and they have been cheated… and I have a feeling he knew about it, whether he had a direct role or not. It is a sad reflection on him,” says a Congress chief who has headed the social gathering state unit up to now.
The outburst in opposition to the social gathering in May 2019 will need to have been intentional, and been within the run-up to keep away from the precise state of affairs that Baig finds himself in at present, the chief says. He wished the social gathering to take motion in opposition to him, and thus overtly criticised it (the social gathering expelled him subsequently for his “buffoon” comment).
But Roshan Baig had discovered himself in bother earlier too, having been suspected of a job within the multi-thousand-crore pretend stamp paper racket in early 2003. He had resigned from the-then ministership of the SM Krishna cupboard, when his brother Rehan Baig was named as an accused together with Abdul Karim Telgi, the prime scamster.
Two weeks again, his plea within the Karnataka High Court to quash one other 2012-registered disproportionate belongings case was additionally thrown out— he has to now face trial on this as effectively after a grievance was filed by a non-public citizen, probed by the Lokayukta in 2014.
A buddy of his since faculty days says Roshan Baig is, on the core, a “nice enough, jovial man”, including, “how else could he have won so many times?”
“Maybe he was disappointed with the Congress as other Muslim leaders were also growing within the party, but he wanted to join the BJP to safeguard himself in this investigation. I felt that was his main goal; he knew what was coming. But when the CD (where prime accused Mansoor Khan says he gave Rs 400 crore to Baig) got leaked, the BJP decided to keep him away. If not for that, he would have definitely joined the party,” the buddy says.
In mid-November final yr, when 16 different defectors from the Congress and JD(S) joined the BJP, Baig’s title was conspicuously out of the checklist— an oversight he tried to brush off as a “typo”.
But the BJP had clearly barred his entry from the social gathering headquarters, sending him away many a instances he went knocking. If he had been a BJP MLA or perhaps a functionary at present with a membership, what it could have meant for the social gathering or for the investigation could have been a distinct story.
Today Roshan Baig is neither within the Congress, nor within the BJP; neither an MLA, nor an MP. His son does not maintain any political sway both. The former dwelling minister finds himself in jail, his picture severely dented and, extra importantly, his sympathy with the general public markedly waned. And he has extra than simply ‘2020’ to blame for the misfortunes brimming over.
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