Why Centre’s income tax raids are not likely to stop with Lalu, Chidambaram
Exactly as it marks three years of being voted into power, the Narendra Modi government has upped the ante and is making a big splash of coming down heavily on alleged corruption, by guess who, but the Opposition leaders. Continuing its controversial stance on keeping the scattered Opposition on an ever-tightening leash, the latest antic has, however, has its seed in a clause of the Finance Act 2017, which emboldened the income tax officials by literally opening the floodgates of what is being termed the “Inspector Raj”.
In a two-pronged attack on the most vocal Opposition leaders, the country’s top probing body, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), raided the houses of former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti, as well as about 22 premises in Delhi NCR, particularly Gurgaon, in relation to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s benami properties. This double whammy is the big headline of this morning, and as expected, the TV media is going ballistic over how serious the government is in cracking down on alleged corruption. Let’s look at the context of the raids.
Karti Chidambaram and Peter Mukerjea
In the case of P Chidambaram and his son Karti, the CBI has claimed that the raids were linked to clearances given to INX Media, the company once owned by disgraced media baron Peter Mukerjea. It has been alleged that in 2008, INX Media had paid money and allotted shares to Karti’s company Advantage Strategic Consulting and its linked firms, to obtain the clearances.
Reports say that cash was paid in several installments running into several crores, while about Rs 60 lakh worth shares were transferred from London-based company called Artevea Digital UK Limited to Karti’s firm. Apparently, INX Media had applied for an FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval worth 220 million dollars. Of course, Karti Chidambaram is already facing a probe linked to the dubious Aircel-Maxis deal and he’s no stranger to IT raids.
Nevertheless, it’s important to ask why the raids linked to Peter Mukerjea’s INX Media are happening now when P Chidambaram has sharpened his criticisms against the Centre, particularly when the investigation into the high-profile Sheena Bora murder case has been happening for about two years now. On expected lines, Congress has slammed the Modi government and has accused it of “destroying reputations”.
Chidambaram has himself said that the Centre is trying to “silence [his] voice”, which has been sharply critical of the Modi government’s bungling of Kashmir, foreign policy, national security, making Aadhaar mandatory for PAN and other welfare services despite data leaks, rising unemployment, cow vigilantism, among a host of other issues.
When your government completes 3years & nothings has been done on the jobs front- just get CBI to raid an opposition leader #PChidambaram https://t.co/beeVKUq7n7
— Shehzad Poonawalla (@Shehzad_Ind) May 16, 2017
It must be noted that only on May 14, P Chidambaram had penned an extremely critical piece published in the Indian Express, launching a strong attack on the Modi-led Centre’s inability to lead the country. Titled “That Sinking Feeling”, it said: “Secularism is derided. Liberalism is challenged. Dissent is sedition. Questioning the government 9or the Army chief or the RBI governor) is anti-national.”
My @IndianExpress Column | #AcrosstheAisle : That sinking feeling — 2 https://t.co/a2kZM3YofZ
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) May 14, 2017
In an official statement Chidambaram has responded to today’s IT raids in the following words: “FIPB approval is granted in hundreds of cases. The five Secretaries who constitute the FIPB, the officials of the FIPB Secretariat and the competent authority in each case are the public officials. There is no allegation against any of them. There is no allegation against me. The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son, and his friends. The government aims to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of Opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs, and civil society organisations. All I will say is, I shall continue to speak and write.”
Raiding Lalu Prasad’s ‘benami’ properties
Similarly, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is under the I-T scanner, with raids conducted at 22 locations in Delhi NCR on the morning of May 16, 2017. It is said that the income tax department is looking into alleged “benami” land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore involving Lalu and his family members, including his sons and daughter.
BJP is targeting those leaders who are questioning them repeatedly. BJP sponsored channels r indulged in character assassination of them pic.twitter.com/v834xXJ1sB
— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) May 15, 2017
It is interesting that the raids come days after the ruling BJP accused Lalu and his children of being involved in corrupt land deals. TV news channels have covered the allegations with relish, and a number of hashtags taking on Lalu and his sons and daughter have trended on Twitter for days now. Moreover, Bihar CM and Lalu’s partner in the coalition government, Nitish Kumar, has maintained a stern silence on the ongoing mudslinging and exchange of attacks and counter attacks.
Age of the Inspector Raj?
However, the trading of bureaucratic guns at the members of Opposition isn’t just limited to Chidambaram or Lalu; even the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has been in the line of fire, with allegations of corruption, accepting bribes and kickbacks now doing the rounds. But what had been a political strategy of throwing around loose allegations at the Opposition, has now been thoroughly emboldened with the amendments legislated in the Finance Act, 2017. Let’s do a round-up of what the Opposition feared when the controversial Bill was passed (as a Money Bill) and why it’s coming true.
Among the 40 amendments to different laws, the amendment related to income Tax Act in the Finance Act, 2017 that gave unprecedented powers to the income tax official was the one that was widely panned. But a toothless Opposition in the Lok Sabha, short of numbers, couldn’t stop the tsunami of Big State revisions in the Finance Act, 2017. What the Finance Act, 2017 does is that it brings in surreptitious changes to the already controversial Income Tax Act, 2016, and allows income tax raids to take place without furnishing a reasonable explanation (as was required under IT act, 1961), for conducting the raids, and without needing a court order.
As we said in these pages before, “This effectively puts enormous powers in the hands of IT officers and can bring about a new ‘Inspector Raj’ and reign of ‘tax terrorism’. A possible fallout could be raids on dissenters, journalists, whistleblowers, activists, human rights lawyers, among others who ritually call out the government on incompetence, authoritarian streaks and governmental overreach bordering on police state.”
Though the CBI raids have furnished explanations in the case of raiding both Lalu Prasad and P Chidambaram, it may not be long when the IT raids happen without reasonable explanation and only if the IT officials think they have reasons enough, which they don’t have to share. While Opposition leaders would kick up a storm every time they are targeted, what happens to the ordinary citizen critical of the government? Who would speak for the aam aadmi fed up of Modi sarkar?
Also read- It's clear Nitish Kumar won't defend Lalu Yadav - even if it breaks this Bihar government