Narendra Modi had boasted during his campaign speeches in 2014 that he would neither take bribes nor tolerate others taking it (na khaunga, na khanedoonga). He had also exhorted the people to appoint him as a humble chowkidar (watchman) of public coffers and promised he would ensure that nobody would be able to loot a paisa from them. On black money, he had boasted of bringing back all the money stashed abroad within 100 days and claimed that bank accounts of the poor would have Rs 15 lakh each deposited in them. The reality of the last four years makes each of these claims seem like a bad joke. All this government has done in these four years is to actively sabotage the fight against corruption by diluting laws dealing with the issue and selectively targeting its political rivals while protecting those who are willing to play ball with it.
Anti-corruption Laws
The Modi government’s hypocrisy on the issue of corruption is clearly illustrated by what has happened to three crucial bills that sought to fight corruption in public office. The first of these and the most talked about, thanks to the Anna Hazare movement, is the Lokpal bill. The BJP had been vociferous in its support for Hazare’s movement to bring in a Lokpal Bill. What has happened to that Bill? Four years into the government’s tenure, the Lokpal is yet to be appointed. The government initially bought time by pleading that the Lokpal Bill as it existed when it came to power needed the Leader of the Opposition to be a part of the selection committee and since none of the opposition parties had 10% of the seats in the Lok Sabha, there was no person who held that post.
This trivial objection could easily have been taken care of by amending the law to provide that the leader of the largest opposition party would be part of the selection committee, but the government took its own time to bring about such an amendment. Finally, after a parliamentary standing committee submitted its report in December 2015, the bill was amended, but it remains in limbo with no signs of its becoming law while this government remains in office. To those who are aware that Gujarat under Modi as chief minister appointed a Lokayukta only after being forced to do so by a court, this should come as no surprise.
Another crucial anti-corruption law, the Prevention of Corruption Act, has been amended to dilute and defang it. One amendment requires the prior approval of the Lokpal or Lokayukta not just for prosecution of public servants but even for investigation of charges against them. This clearly makes it much more difficult to take legal action against corrupt public officials. But by not appointing a Lokpal at all, this government has made it not just difficult but impossible to get such approval. This is true also of states without a Lokayukta.
A third law, the Whistle Blowers Protection Act (WBPA) was passed in 2014 to protect those who expose corruption in high office from victimization. Yet again, staying true to form, the Modi Government has brought amendments to the Act that are calculated to discourage anyone from reporting corruption. It seeks to exclude, in the name of security and national interests, anything which may prejudice the state’s “economic interests”, “strategic interests” etc. That effectively excludes the major areas of corruption. It also weakens the protection of whistleblowers from action under the Official Secrets Act, which can lead to imprisonment of upto 14 years. With these changes, it would take an exceedingly brave person to report corrupt deals that they gain knowledge of. The government claims the exceptions under this law are on the same lines as the exceptions under the Right to Information Act, but this is a spurious argument. While the RTI Act is for public disclosure, the WBPA only deals with disclosures made to a Competent Authority defined under the Act. Thus, no national security would be compromised by such an exposure.
Black Money
As for the tall claims on black money, Amit Shah has himself made light of the Rs 15 lakh promise by saying it was just a “chunavi jhumla” (election rhetoric). Need we say more about how seriously promises made by the Modi-Shah duo ought to be taken? But even if we forget that outlandish claim, the government’s performance has been pathetic. Not only has no black money from abroad been brought back, the government has chosen to protect the identities of those who have cheated the country by refusing to make public the list it received from some banks abroad. And where independent investigations by a global consortium of journalists has exposed names, as in the Panama papers, there’s deafening silence and no action from the government. A recent expose has shown that Ambanis allegedly stashed away Rs.2100 crore in tax havens but the Modi govt. seems to be indifferent to this. Desperate to cover up the fact that he had not delivered at all on his tall promises on black money, Modi opted for high drama in the form of his late night demonetization announcement. And what exactly did that yield? The government had boasted about how at least Rs 3-4 lakh crore of black money stashed away at home would never come back to the system since the hoarders of such cash would fear exposure. Instead, over 99% of the money came back into the banking system. All the demonetization achieved was an economic disruption on a scale unprecedented for any government action, loss of lakhs of jobs and closure of thousands of small businesses. What little black money was brought into the system came in the form of an amnesty scheme for tax evaders – an instrument used more than once in the past and roundly condemned by the honest each time as a reward for tax evaders and a penalty on the honest.
Scams
Then we have a long list of BJP leaders whose names have cropped up in dubious circumstances, but on whom there has been no action. Forget for the moment that Nirav Modi appeared in a group picture with the PM himself in Davos after having fled from India as his loot of PNB was on the verge of discovery. Maybe that’s just a coincidence. But how about another remarkable coincidence? Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah saw the turnover of his business multiply 16,000 times in the year after the Modi government came to power. Just one more coincidence? Why then is the BJP so desperate to gag the media on this issue? What about Madhya Pradesh CM Shiv Raj Chauhan’s alleged role in the shocking Vyapam scam? Are the ‘accidental’ deaths of over 40 witnesses and minor accused in this scam just another of the unexplained coincidences that seem to abound in cases that could bite BJP leaders? And what about Adani, a close friend of Modi himself, who has been involved in various shady deals as per the CAG and evidently been favoured in a host of projects? In the latest expose, it has been revealed that shipping laws have been changed to accommodate Adani associated shipping lines.
Modi govt. abandoned a deal made by the UPA govt. to buy 126 Rafale fighter aircraft from the French company Dassault for reported cost of $81 million per aircraft and renegotiated the whole deal, ending up settling for 36 aircraft reportedly for a whopping $243 million each. The earlier deal had included technology transfer while the Modi deal buys the aircraft in fly-away condition.
In May, 2015 CAG named Nitin Gadkari as the promoter and/or Director of Purti Sakhar Karkhana, which had taken government loans in violation of guidelines. What about Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj’s alleged role in helping Lalit Modi get away? Yeddyurappa being sworn in as the BJP chief minister in Karnataka should be enough to tell anybody just how much of a farce the BJP’s posturing on corruption is. A minister in Maharashtra, Pankaja Munde, has been accused of making money even on the food for children of the poor in ICDS schemes. Another, Eknath Khadse, has been involved in land scams. Both have been protected by the BJP leadership. And how about Mukul Roy? As long as he was with the Trinamool Congress, central agencies were investigating him as one of the key figures in the Sarada chit fund scam and the Narada sting. But since he joined the BJP, his sins have all been washed away. The signal is loud and clear – oppose us and we’ll set the dogs on you, join us and we’ll make it all go away.
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