CBI raiding Lalu for 2006 case, but what about Panama Papers scam, Mr Modi?
The series of raids on opposition leaders, now culminating in the CBI investigation on RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family, is par for the course. The case involving illicit transactions and huge sums of money in Bihar goes back to 2006. What is intriguing is that in the more than three years of NDA rule, and 10 years after the alleged event, the Lalu family is subjected to raids by the CBI.
Are no NDA leaders corrupt? Was it not corruption when external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje facilitated the notorious felon Lalit Modi to escape from Indian justice? What happened in this episode is as clear as day, thanks to the national and international media.
Why was urgent and stringent action not taken by the CBI then? Is the CBI “His Master’s Voice”, as the Supreme Court indicated when it tagged the CBI as “a caged parrot?”
Earlier, there were politically motivated raids on former Union minister P Chidambaram and his non-political son Kartik. Even the media has not been spared.
The “investigation” into NDTV was another farce attacking a basic pillar of democracy, soon forgotten since it was so brazen and inept.
What takes the cake, however, is the many billions of dollars stashed away in Panama banks, as investigated by the International Consortium of Journalists (ICJ), in which some 500 Indians are accused of stashing huge amounts of black money. These include industrialists, politicians and actors.
Early names announced a year ago included legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and several industrialists. All denied any such illicit transaction. So all in India were allegedly shielded by the Modi government.
Other countries were much less lenient. The then PM of Iceland had to resign. A famous cellist, reportedly close to ruling circles in Russia, was pulled up. Relations of Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif were named.
In a country desperately in need of further resources for crop loan waivers and more investment funds, the Panama funds could be a boon. However, the Modi government’s argument, according to insiders, is that the investors were guaranteed immunity from prosecution.
Firstly, starting from the Swiss banks, international agencies have questioned, and in many cases, repudiated all such money laundering schemes. But why, after important persons from other countries have been hauled up by their governments and vigilant media, is the Modi regime so stubbornly silent?
After all, black money is a crime. PM Modi used demonetisation as a tool to root out black money. It now appears that that effort was a failure. Nonetheless, the effort itself was a political statement of intent by the government. Much has been written about that but no new policy initiative has been launched.
Why is the media so quiet about the ICJ investigation into the Panama Papers? The investigation has been summarised in the book The Panama Papers which is widely available in this country, not to speak of others. The media, for the most part, is resoundingly silent.
When I referred to this issue on a major channel, there was a stunned silence from all political party spokespersons. I have not been invited to the channel again.
Are the Panama Papers just one other of many scams? Can the ruling establishment just ignore it as just one more tax haven where industrialists, all of whom having influential connections, are just stashing relatively small amounts of money, in just millions not billions of dollars?
Firstly, black or tax evaded money is a crime. When it is hidden abroad it is a much bigger crime. The billions of dollars smuggled out of the country are a grand theft of the Indian exchequer and the vitiation of several Indian laws. Not only the huge sums of black money, but the erosion of the principles of the Indian Constitution and law are now under threat.
Ironically, some weeks before the Punjab Assembly elections, Captain Amrinder Singh was accused of stashing money abroad. Nothing came of it.
To attack a Congress leader for a relatively minor offence which was never proved, while silencing discussion on the huge Panama Papers scam, exposes the double standards in the upper echelons of the Indian elites.
Is the Indian opposition going to rise to the occasion? Or will Indian wealth continue to be smuggled out, at the ultimate cost of social justice in this country?