[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ahul Gandhi who was always against the demonetisation made a sensational revelation by saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been bribed nine times over a course of six months by employees of the Sahara India, according to notes in their diaries. This could well be the tremor Gandhi was talking about fortnight ago, saying there would be an earthquake if he was allowed to speak in Parliament. He said, employees of the Sahara group wrote in their diaries that they had given money to Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The I-T department raided the Sahara group on November 22, 2014. The Congress leader then went on to detail how much Modi had received in bribe: “As per records with the I-T Department, Rs. 2.5 crore was given to Modi on October 30, 2013, Rs. 5 crore on November 12 , 2013, Rs. 2.5 crore on November 27, 2013, Rs. 5 crore on November 29, 2013, Rs. 5 crore on December 6, 2013, Rs. 5 crore on December 19, 2013, Rs. 5 crore on January 13, 2014, Rs. 5 crore on January 28, 2014, and Rs. 5 crore on February 22, 2014.”
The Congress and other opposition parties have vociferously and relentlessly been criticizing the November 8 scrapping of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes. The note ban, or demonetization, has caused a severe cash crunch with the farmers and the poor bearing the brunt of the shortage of new notes and small value notes. He is a big fish. Since then, Modi and opposition have been attacking each other but we should understand that Modi has survived many charges in the past and acquitted in many. Every time, he was given clean chit doesn’t justify his innocence but it only proves that Indian judicial system has failed to deliver the justice. He will survive again. The system is opaque and complex, too many vested interests are ready to bend before the power that be. It looks like repeat of infamous Jain Hawala diaries which gutted the image and political career of so many politicians while charges could not be proved against them. In India, politicians are always caught in scams but as per his/ her power sharing capacity, they have never got convicted.
This note ban is the biggest scam in the history of India. Modi delivered election speeches, pre-recorded messages but avoided addressing questions about the currency ban in Parliament. If the PM is speaking on the issue at different places in the country then why he is scared of giving a clarification about it in Parliament? Anyway, financial scam by BJP leaders are not surprising or new, they are caught, exposed and got scot free.
On 25th November, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra told petitioner ‘Common Cause’ that it cannot order an investigation into allegations that representatives of the Sahara and Birla Groups had bribed politicians including Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The bench told senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, who was representing the NGO, that the documents that had been adduced to its petition were not reliable and asked ‘Common Cause’ to produce ‘better’ material when the case is heard again on 14th December. They never have genuine documents. Anybody can make a computer entry against a chief minister or prime minister. Can we order a probe based on all that? Bring better material…”
Referring to documents seized by the Income Tax Department after conducting raids on companies in the Aditya Birla Group in October 2013 and on the Sahara India Group in November 2014, Justice Khehar added: “If we accept what you say, then somebody can tomorrow make an entry that I sent PM this much of money … see how far-reaching this could be. We are not shying away from taking action against anybody but you must have something even prima facie to show wrongdoing. We cannot initiate proceedings only because you name a big man. There has to be something fishy. If any suspicion arouses our conscience, it is a good suspicion but your suspicion does not do it …this is only insinuation. Show us better material because we are not satisfied at all with this. It is zero for us.” Demanding a court-monitored probe by a special investigation team, ‘Common Cause’ had alleged that there had been a “cover-up” following the raids, the seizure of documents and computers, and the preparation of appraisal reports by the Income Tax authorities. The bench said that the petitioner should take its petition back from the court if it fails to gather “credible evidence”. Anyway, neither the special probe will ever be conducted nor Modi would ever be caught even if he is involved in accepting bribe. This is the sole reason, Prashant Bhusan, Arvind Kejriwal is not pursuing the case.
Names on diaries or papers are not admissible in the court of law. This can only be substantiated, if investigative authorities would have found out cash from Mr. Modi’s place. The best part in this case is that, this happened during the Congress regime, when they were in power in the centre. Does any one of you have any doubt that Congress must have not used all its state machineries to implicate Modi? The raids took place in 2013, when Modi was all over the Television and a Prime-Ministerial candidate. Moreover, when the accused Subhendu Amitabh from Aditya Birla group was interrogated, he referred that money was given to Gujarat Alkali Chemicals referred to as Gujarat CM.
Coming back to political attacks, PM ridiculed Rahul and his statements as a “political allegation”. However, he always failed to answer, “How many black money holders have been put in jail by BJP”? The answer is “not even one”. Many BJP leaders have been caught with huge currency, but none of them were ever punished or questioned by Modi or his party. BJP successfully tagged Congress as corrupt party but since it is a weak opposition, it failed to take mileage out of the issue. In the meantime, some of us believe that these papers need to be investigated and some believe that ‘evidence’ is not enough to put on trial. It doesn’t matter what we think, because it’s ultimately courts call to determine if a person is guilty or not. We can only raise our opinions on it.
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