India: Black Money And Political Stunts
India became free in 1947. Post-independence while the patriotic leaders, officers and nationalists had the huge task of making the country self-dependent, at the same time many such forces became active which, indifferent to the poor of the country, were only concerned about their own wealth accumulation. And these people started looting the nation just after independence. Nation is well aware of the fact that all corrupt politicians, officers, corporate and hoarders have their black money stashed away in the Swiss banks. And thanks to the proactive Indian media, people have also come to know that these anti-nationals also have their black money parked in other such banks than the Swiss banks which follow the similar privacy standards.
Indian economy, here persisting poverty and unemployment and national debt can never allow any Indian stash away his money in foreign banks rather than in the Indian banks. And that too the illegally earned money so as to escape tax and finance laws in India. These western banks are said to have such high level of privacy standards that the name and amount deposited by any individual cannot be easily known. Albeit, any source of investigative journalism such as Wikileaks, is free to expose any such information. Such banks also have their own definition of ‘Black Money’. In India, the issue of black money has become so hot that it seems as if the folks crying foul know that who has how much money stashed in which country.
No doubt, India’s economic situation is such that it can ill-afford any kind of negative economic environment. The government of India should certainly take this issue seriously and try to bring back the black money as soon as possible. Not only this, the people carrying out such anti-national acts should be severely punished irrespective of their position or stature. Their names should also be urgently exposed so that the people of the country come to know the devils hidden behind such politicians, bureaucrats, socialites, corporates and godmen, thanks to whom, our country is still poor.
But in the guise of hullabaloo over ‘black money’ issue, many politicians, political parties and people having ambition of entering politics are presenting such kinds of misleading facts and logics by which the entire issue seems going off the track. The entire hue and cry over ‘black money’ has just become a blame game targeting individual politicians. Probably, such people know very well that the innocent voters of the country don’t take much time in believing and following such rumours. The period of 1986-87 has anyway become a landmark for the opportunist politicians who made careers out of the scam involving the Swedish Bofors deal. They succeeded in maligning the people of clean image like Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan by accusing them of corruption. Consequently, the Congress party had to lose power and thus began the era of coalition politics.
It seems that the propaganda masters are once again trying to create such environment before the next general elections. The main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), apart from blaming the government of ‘inaction’ to bring back black money, has constituted a “task force” to enquire into the issue. This “task force” of the BJP is trying to ascertain that who’s who has how much money stashed in which foreign banks. The “task force” claimed that the former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, both had stashed away their black money in foreign banks. On this, Sonia Gandhi herself denied this allegation about her and her family by writing a personal letter to the senior BJP leader LK Advani. She has clearly written that she did not have any bank account in any foreign bank. In response to this letter, Advani also regretted the mention of her family by the “task force”. He has also written that had she clarified this earlier, it wouldn’t have happened.
Advani expressing regret to Sonia Gandhi is certainly a gesture of political etiquette. Such conversation between the big leaders is a healthy sign of democracy. But what kind of morality and politics is practiced by accusing anybody without any strong evidence or information? If Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh are blameworthy or there is any strong evidence against them, they should definitely be criticized and legal course must be taken. But misleading the people of the country by mudslinging the responsible leaders of the country just to hide own blots is completely immoral. Such ill-founded blame game mentality clearly shows that the opposition is somehow trying hard to malign particularly the Gandhi family so that the Congress party can be weakened. This will ease the opposition’s way to power, just like in 1987 when the Congress was ousted on the Bofors issue.
