Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been served a notice by the Election Commission (EC) for urging Muslim voters not to split their vote during a rally in Katihar, Bihar. The EC has sought Sidhu’s response within 24 hours.
Election Commission of India has issued a notice to Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu seeking an explanation within 24 hours for his remarks ‘urging Muslims to not split votes,’ made during a rally on 16 April in Katihar, Bihar. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/n2CT5VR3VO
Sidhu, while campaigning for Congress candidate Tariq Anwar in Katihar, Bihar, tried to polarise the Muslim voters in the area by openly asking them not to split their vote. Making a veiled reference to the BJP Sidhu had said that attempts were being made to split the Muslim votes by bringing in people like Asaduddin Owaisi. Speaking in cricket jargon Sidhu urged the Muslim voters to score a sixer by voting in solidarity and thus throw PM Modi out of the boundary.
An FIR also has been filed against Sidhu for his comments made in the election rally. District authorities of Katihar filed an FIR under sections 123 (3) and 125 of the of the Representation of the People Act and section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.
The former BJP leader is often seen crossing the line in attacking PM Modi and the BJP. Blinded by his hatred for PM Modi, Sidhu had recently made a racist remark against Nepalis. In an attempt to run down PM Modi’s ‘Mai bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, Sidhu had posted a tweet in which he urged people to elect a Prime Minister this time, saying that honest chowkidars can be imported from Nepal.
An FIR has been registered against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur by a Congress leader Devendra Singh in Indore for her remarks about former Mumbai ATS Chief late Hemant Karkare.
Madhya Pradesh: Police complaint registered against BJP candidate from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, by a Congress leader Devendra Singh Yadav in Indore, for the remarks she made about former Mumbai ATS chief late Hemant Karkare. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/YAsPOzsNmZ
Sadhvi Pragya has been in the eye of the storm ever since her candidature was announced by the BJP from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency. Speaking to her party workers, she had shared her ordeal about how she had to go through unimaginable custodial torture for allegations of involvement in the 2008 Malegaon Blast case. Late Hemant Karkare was the Chief of Mumbai ATS when Sadhvi Pragya was taken into custody.
While speaking at a public meeting Sadhvi Pragya had implied that Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists because he tortured a Sadhvi. She later withdrew her statement and apologised for the same saying that she was sharing her personal experience.
#WATCH Pragya Singh Thakur:Maine kaha tera (Mumbai ATS chief late Hemant Karkare) sarvanash hoga.Theek sava mahine mein sutak lagta hai. Jis din main gayi thi us din iske sutak lag gaya tha.Aur theek sava mahine mein jis din atankwadiyon ne isko maara, us din uska anth hua (18.4) pic.twitter.com/COqhEW2Bnc
Clarifying its position on Hemant Karkare the BJP called Sadhvi Pragya’s remarks about Karkare as her personal view which she might have formed due to years of physical and mental torture.
The Election Commission of India has launched the beta version of its new Voter Turnout app in Google Play Store. The app would enable users to check the voter turnout in realtime during the elections.
The app can display an estimated voter turnout information at three levels: the state level, the various parliamentary constituencies and at the assembly constituency level. The displayed estimates are calculated from the data gathered by the Returning Officers in real time.
The app would increase the transparency of voter turnout information in public and also ensure that the information would be easily available to the media. The Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said: “once the election is over and polling parties return, the data would be verified and the final figure would be available on the app along with the breakup of male and female voters”.
Users are required to have a smartphone running on Android 4.4 KitKat or above to use the app. The app has been downloaded over 10,000 times till now, and it has earned a rating of 4.3 out of 5, means most early users of the app are satisfied with it.
Screenshot of the app
The app has a simple interface with two buttons on the bottom left and right side. The button on the left is toggle between the voter turnout aggregates of the states and parliamentary constituencies. The button on the right is used to find the estimated turnout for individual states, parliamentary constituencies and assembly constituencies.
The app is in beta stage, and at present, it is showing only the second phase figures, the most recent phase of the elections. There is no option to view data for the first phase of elections or cumulative turnout for all the completed phases. It is expected that subsequent releases of the app will have more options to view voter turnout data.
In a desperate attempt to cash in on the growing wave of Nationalism that has swept the country, Chhattisgarh Congress leader Pradeep Choubey made a hilariously mendacious claim that the Manmohan Singh government had arrested the dreaded terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
Addressing an election rally, the former MLA from Saja Pradeep Choubey who hails from Chhattisgarh’s Durg blatantly lied to the people when he asserted that Lashkar-e-Toiba co-founder and Jama’at-ud-Da’wah chief Hafiz Saeed was arrested by Manmohan Singh government.
Congress leader Pradeep Chaube says Hafeez Saeed was arrested by Manmohan Singh govt.
If Hafiz Saeed was indeed arrested by the UPA government when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of the country, it raises that question that what were the compulsions that UPA government did not reveal such a high-profile arrest and why was he released before any judicial trial. JuD chief Hafiz Saeed is a UN-designated terrorist and carries a bounty of $10 million. He is accused of staging many terror attacks including the gruesome attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
After surgical strikes and air strikes in Pakistan by Indian armed forces during the current government, several leaders of the Congress party have claimed that during Congress government also India conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan, but they have never revealed any detail of such strikes.
In recent times, Congress leaders have often taken stands that have been favourable to Pakistan. When the Air Forces claimed that they had hit terror camps of JeM in Balakot, senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath and Sam Pitroda had undermined the forces by doubting their assertions.
In what appeared as a symbiotic relationship, Pakistan then used these utterances by the Congress leaders to target the BJP government and wrongfully accuse PM Modi of whipping up war hysteria. Pakistan also premised its denial of the Balakot airstrike on the comments made by Congress leaders doubting its authenticity.
Recently, Hafiz Saeed lauding and supporting Congress had also recently emerged online. Saeed can be seen in the video praising Congress and censuring BJP for holding Pakistan responsible for the terror attacks in India.
Even as India’s richest person Mukesh Ambani and other industrialists endorse the candidature of Congress leader Milind Deora, party president Rahul Gandhi does not stop his lies that Narendra Modi has waived debt worth several lakh crores belonging to rich industrialists in India.
On several occasions, Rahul Gandhi has said that loans of 3.5 lakh owed by 15 richest industrialists have been waived by the Modi government. But like all numbers he uses to attack the Modi government, this amount is also flexible, which keeps changing with every speech he delivers.
In November 2016, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Modi government had then waived off loans worth Rs 1.1 lakh crores of big industrialists. During campaigning for Gujarat assembly polls in 2017, Rahul Gandhi inexplicably increased this figure by 20,000 Crores to Rs 1.3 lakh crores and repeated the same trite. In Karnataka, he went a step ahead and conjured up another grand figure- Rs 2.5 Lakh crores that was waived off.
After that, there has been no restriction on the amount that has been waived off for industrialists according to Rahul Gandhi, although the number of beneficiaries of this ‘waiver’ remains mostly the same, 15 richest industrialists in the country.
Now, a video has been made compiling the various amounts of waiver as claimed by Rahul Gandhi, and it has already gone viral on social media. In the video, it can e seen that the Modi government has waived loans of 5.50 lakh crore / 3.50 lakh crore / 3.00 lakh crore / 2.50 lakh crore / 1.50 lakh crore / 1.40 lakh crore / 1.30 lakh crore / 1.10 lakh crore owed by richest industrialists.
The video is compiled from various speeches of Rahul Gandhi at various times, and it is a hilarious compilation.
Fictional waiver amount for industrialists is not the only number that keeps changing in Rahul Gandhi’s speeches. The Congress president has promised Rs 72,000 per year, Rs 72,000 per month and Rs 72,000 crores per year under the NYAY scheme announced by the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi has also changed the price of Rafale jet negotiated by UPA government several times, and also changed the amount Modi gave Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal multiple times, also recently he seemed to have settled on Rs 30,000 crore, which is more than the total value of offsets under the deal.
The Election Commission (EC) has issued a notice to the subscription-based media platform Eros Now to stop the online streaming of a web series named “Modi – Journey of a Common Man” and remove all the content connected with the series till further orders. This series is based on the life of prime minister Narendra Modi, and it is described as a ‘hybrid of fact and fiction’ in its disclaimer.
Election Commission to Eros Now: It was brought to our notice that a web series “Modi-Journey of a Common Man, having 5 episodes is available on your platform. You’re directed to stop forthwith the online streaming & remove all connected content of the series till further orders pic.twitter.com/ofs0neJMc3
The EC has ordered to stop the streaming of the 5-episode web series with immediate effect. “Modi – Journey of a Common Man” is a 10-episode web series, an original production on video streaming platform Eros Now, and the first five episodes of it were released on April 4. The series is directed by Umesh Shukla and written by Mihir Bhuta and Radhika Anand. The five episodes that have released covers Narendra Modi’s childhood, his initial years in RSS, and his involvement in protests against the emergency imposed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. The series is based on a book by Kishor Makwana titled Common Man’s PM – Narendra Modi.
Election Commission states that any biopic material serving the purposes of any political party or leader which has the potential to disturb the level playing field should not be displayed. Therefore, Eros Now has been asked to stop streaming the series, remove the content, and also to submit a compliance report.
Recently, the EC had barred the release of actor Vivek Oberoi’s biopic inspired by the life of Prime Minister Modi claiming that it could pose a serious threat to the level playing field as it may create an impression of truthfulness. Interestingly, the biopic had received the go-ahead of the Supreme Court which had dismissed a petition seeking a stay on the release of the movie.
Apart from the Narendra Modi biopic, the poll panel had also stalled the release of two other films called NTR Lakshmi and Udyama Simham. NTR Lashmi is a movie based on former Andhra Pradesh NT Rama Rao and Udyama Simham is based on the life of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
Indian Overseas Congress Chief and Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s close aide, Sam Pitroda has once against stirred up a controversy by saying that he stands by his remarks on Balakot air strikes.
Sam Pitroda, Indian Overseas Congress Chief: Few weeks ago I said something about Balakot, immediately PM started tweeting, head of BJP party went wild, called a press conference. Congress leaders started calling me why did you say that? I said what did I say? I said the truth. pic.twitter.com/0mBBbfflGr
He said that statement on Balakot created so much unrest that starting from PM Modi to Congress leaders are started questioning him. He added that he only spoke the truth. Questioning the Balakot air strikes Pitroda had said that he doubted the strikes because the New York Times said so. He said that he had been reading the newspaper for 50 years and pays attention to whatever is published in it.
Pitroda had also defended Pakistan on Balakot air strikes and said that the country should not be punished because of a few terrorists. He had also termed the air strikes a ‘wrong approach’. His dislike for PM Modi became public when he compared PM Modi, who is an elected head of a democracy with a dictator like Hitler.
He did not stop at making this illogical comparison between PM Modi and Hitler. He also insulted Indians by calling them monkeys who were still learning to play with toys (referring to mobile phones).
After looking at the statements made by Pitroda one might guess where Rahul Gandhi gets all his wisdom from.
The Anglican Church is the parent of the Church of South India (CSI) and the Church of North India (CNI). Together, these churches and its brother churches from around the globe form the Anglican Communion.
The beheading of a mistress-turned-wife, Anne Boleyn, of King Henry VIII of England
A few months ago the Church of South India’s Bishop Thomas K Oommen wrote a scathing letter about the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule and claimed that life is “miserable” under the NDA rule. (1)
Obviously, the Bishop has forgotten the entire races of North American natives, Australian natives (aborigines) who were genocidally exterminated by the British White European Christians under the spiritual guidance of the Anglican Church. He has also conveniently ignored the 100 million plus famine deaths caused by the Christian British government, again under the spiritual guidance of the Anglican Church. It cannot also be forgotten that the erstwhile slavery yoked on Indian bonded (servitude) labourers and many peoples of African races were by the people belonging to and spiritually guided by the same faith.
BRITISH CHRISTIAN CREATION OF CASTES-BY-BIRTH
The Bishop particularly talks about the “Dalits” in his letter. It is a fact of objective history that the Dalits as a class and community were carved out (created) of the mainstream society and made untouchables, discriminated against by the Christian British rule. (2–4)
The Britishers own data from a survey of the indigenous education in India (1822–38) show that there was near universal (that is 100 per cent) education in India till the period of the said survey. 60–84 per cent of the student population in the traditional Hindu schools from the south of India was from the now so-called Dalit communities (then recorded as Shudras and “castes below” by the British surveyors). In the north of India, this percentage was between 40 and 60. (5) When people were physically mingling with each other in Hindu schools there could have been no such discrimination or untouchability within the mainstream Hindu society. This is attested by the irrefutable logic of arithmetics of demographics (demographic collapse), population genetics and various evidence from the Hindu scriptures (from Valmiki, a hunter, to Vyasa, a son of a fisherwoman – most of them were non-Brahmins and from tribal and professional backgrounds that would now be classified as Dalits under the British system).
It is important to highlight that Vyasa who compiled the entire gamut of four Vedas, the most sacred of all Hindu scriptures, could not have done so if Bhagawan Vyasa had been discriminated against and the Vedas were not taught to him. The clinching evidence for the Chrisitan British creation of castes-by-birth is their own census records. The number of castes kept multiplying exponentially with each new census as if castes are a biological entity that can procreate.
NOW, THE HISTORY OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH
King Henry VIII, a tyrannous monarch of England, founded (or separated) the Church of England from its parent Church, the Roman Catholic Church. It was after the Catholic Church refused to grant him a divorce or annulment of marriage with his first wife, the sister of the then powerful King of Portugal.
The act of not granting divorce by the pope was also neither a religious nor a moral act. The pope needed the support of the then most powerful monarch in Europe, the King of Portugal. Under pressure from the Portuguese king, the pope would not give into the request from the less powerful and then not so important English monarch.
Why did the king of England want a divorce? He wanted to marry one of his then mistresses Anne Boleyn. It is claimed that he later went on to make Anne’s sister also a mistress. But that marriage as well did not last long. Under false charges of an improbable affair with Anne’s own apparently homosexual brother, she was beheaded. Then the king went on to marry more women, by divorcing or beheading the previous ones. His infamy is poetically expressed as”
King Henry VIII, To six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, Two divorced, two beheaded.
Boleyn and Howard lost their heads, Anne of Cleves he would not bed, Jane Seymour gave him a son – but died before the week was done, Aragon, he did divorce, Which just left Catherine Parr, of course! (6)
The tyrannous king of England has many exclusive Wikipedia pages. Noteworthy of them is a page for the list of his wives and another for his mistresses. (7)Many would rightfully object to the discussion of the personal lives of monarchs, especially historic medieval ones while discussing the history of the Christian churches or any religion for that matter. Agreed it would be generally inappropriate to do so. However, this case is different as the tyrant king was the founder and the first head of the Church of England.
King Henry VIII founded the Church of England and proclaimed himself as the head of the Church and then gave himself a divorce. In other words, the Church of England (Anglican Communion) is no spiritual organisation or even a religious organisation in its founding. It was founded to grant the then king of England to have as many divorces as he likes. Thus, the Anglican church is not even a political organisation: it is a divorce granting rubber-stamp organisation of the English monarchy. This is the reason one still finds this modern-day anachronism in the Anglican church where the head of the state (the monarch of England) is as well the head of the church. Well, it is not really an anachronism while the UK Prime Ministers openly say it is a Christian country and the US Presidents openly declare and promote their Christian faith. Of note, many protestant Christian European nations and their monarchs have the monarch as the head of their Churches too, similar to the protestant Anglican Communion.
Foundationally thus, CSI and CNI are churches whose parent was founded not for any spiritual or a remotely religious function, or even for a political reason, but for the then monarch of England to grant himself the liberty of as many divorces as he wanted, the right to legally and openly murder (execute, behead) wives and mistresses, and go on to have more wives and mistresses.
This is the history of the English church (the Anglican Communion) and its faith, for which Bishop Oommen is so graciously batting. (8)People living in glass houses should not throw stones at others.
Vadivelu MK (2016) Emergence of sociocultural norms restricting intermarriage in large social strata (endogamy) coincides with foreign invasions of India. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A113 (16): E2215–7.
As the Congress party failed to sustain its negative campaign against Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, it has now resorted not only to express their hatred towards the Hindus but also to demonise the Hindu faith with their usual false propaganda videos.
In a newly released video-song, the Congress party led by ‘Janeudhari’ Hindu Rahul Gandhi has depicted the Hindu religious symbols of ‘Tripundra’ and saffron flags in a slanderous form to depict the Hindus as ‘extremists’. The Congress party further associates the words like ‘fake news’, ‘misogyny’ and ‘terrorism’ to show the Hindus in poor light through its propaganda song.
This is the modus operandi that Modi gives his blessings for- organized propagation of hate, spreading of fake news, misleading people, rampant misogyny, abusing the Constitution & misuse of religious sentiments to incite hatred. #BhaktCharitrapic.twitter.com/mIVEWBirrE
The propaganda video-song is not only full of Hindu religious symbols but has also attempted to mock Hindu spiritual and religious gurus, while depicting them in a negative manner. The Congress party has gone to the extent of portraying Lord Ram as a symbol of hate. They have even used the photograph of a police officer killed by a pro-Pakistan Muslim mob as an example of Hindu lynch mobs.
However, social media users have taken a strong note against the malicious attempt of the Congress party to defame Hindu culture and symbols. Rebel Aam Aadmi Party leader Kapil Sharma targetted the Congress party for their Hinduphobic video stating that it was an attack on Hindu Dharma and demanded to remove it.
— Chowkidar Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) April 20, 2019
Some social media users targetted Congress President Rahul Gandhi for displaying anti-Hindu videos by depicting Hindu symbols in a bad light.
Congress associates Bhagwa Dhwaj and Tripundra – cultural symbols of Hindus – with hatred, misogyny, fake news and terrorism. Thank you @RahulGandhi for once again reminding us how brazenly anti-Hindu you and your party are. https://t.co/g16UTA6qeV
— Chowkidar Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) April 20, 2019
Some opined that the Congress party has already accepted itself to be an Anti-Hindu party in 2014. In 2019, through these videos, it is simply trying to push the narrative to appease Muslims ahead of the elections.
BJP supporters are the ones rapidly circulating #BhaktCharitra
In 2014 Cong concluded that it is seen as a anti-Hindu party. So in 2019, it decided to make a shoddy video to push the same point as effectively as possible
Tripundra – the symbol of Lord Shiva, the saffron flag, the ringing of temple bells, all these are representations of the Sanatan Dharm, you fools, not a political party. Pathetic. #BhaktCharitra#Congress#RahulGandhihttps://t.co/6AVa1Y1bgX
It is not surprising to see that the Congress party stooping to such political lows by targetting the Hindus to further appease their core vote base of Muslims. It is rather an irony that the Congress Preligiousresident Rahul Gandhi who claims to be the ‘Shiv Bhakt‘ has used the symbols associated with Hinduism to humiliate Hindus.
“Everybody was so focused on magician’s right hand, that no one noticed him slipping the coin in his pocket with his left hand. He did it right in front of our eyes and in broad daylight, but still, we had no clue how the coin disappeared and reached his left pocket.”
This exactly is the case with black money and politicians. Whenever we start talking about black money, Swiss Banks are almost immediately brought into the conversation. Recently, the news was aired in mainstream media that the money parked by Indians in Swiss Banks increased by 50% to INR 7000 Crores. However, nobody knows how much of that money is black.
For instance, a person like me who lives and works in Germany gets his salary credited in a German bank and so are the savings, in the same bank. However, one of my friends from university lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland. His salary and savings are in a Swiss bank. Now, in those 7000 Crores did they include his savings and salary? Is he the only Indian Engineer or to say Indian working there? No! There are thousands like him.
Moreover, there are Indians who have their big or small businesses in the country. Was their money included in those 7000 crores? Yes, it was and the interim Finance Minister Mr. Piyush Goel tried to explain the very same thing.
In fact, if you look at the stats, India stands at the 73rd position in terms of money parked in Swiss Banks by Indian Citizens. The total money parked by Indians there is only CHF 1 Billion i.e. 0.07% of the total money parked in Swiss Banks. The UK stands at the first place with CHF 403 billion i.e. 27% of the total money parked. The USA comes next in second place with CHF 166 billion. Germany also manages a place in the top ten.
Do you think all these countries are corrupt and their citizens are parking their black money in Swiss Banks? I don’t think so. Even when we compare BRICS, India comes last. China at 20th place (CHF 160 billion), Russia at 23rd (CHF 135 billion), Brazil 61st (CHF 1.9 billion) and South Africa 67th (CHF 1.5 billion). All the money in Swiss banks is not black money, in fact, only a very small fraction of Indian black money is there. As you continue reading further, you would know where most of the black money is.
Never the less, Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) has now been implemented between India and Switzerland. The two countries signed a joined declaration on Nov 22, 2016. At least now each and every conversation about Black Money would not end with Swiss Banks. With this process in place the following pieces of information would be shared regularly:
Image courtesy: Federal Department of Finance, Switzerland
Coming back to the elephant in the room. If most of the black money is not in Swiss Banks where is the black money?
Do our political parties (both INC and BJP) know where the black money is? Did our government (current or the previous) had any clue about it what so ever?
Yes, they knew exactly where the money was. But they did not think it was important for us to know that.
Three financial institutes, Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and the National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) in Faridabad conducted a research and concluded that proportion of total black money lying within India is much higher than outside the country. Up to 97 percent of the total black money lies within India.
Did Congress know about this? Yes, it did!! Because the research was commissioned in 2009-10 and the report was submitted in 2013 when UPA was in power. The coalition government dominated by INC did what they do best, bury the report. The report did not see the public domain. They chickened out when the time came to take a strict decision. And when in opposition, they mocked the Modi government when it took the steps that should have been taken earlier like demonetization. The people who still support INC should at least ask them why the report was not made available to the public?
Not only did they mock, but they also mislead the nation by spreading incomplete information. For example, they claimed that 99.3% of the total currency (₹15,417.93 lakh crore) was returned leaving merely 0.7% undisclosed. First, this .7% comes out to be INR 16000 crore. Even if we consider all the money in Swiss money as black i.e. INR 7000 Crore. This even by opposition’s claim means Demonetization killed black money of worth more than twice of what is deposited in Swiss Banks.
Second and more importantly who said the total currency in circulation was ₹15,417.93 lakh crore? This could have been the currency printed by the official mints, but this could not be the actual value of the currency in circulation.
Simply because the Reserve Bank of India has no way to determine the exact amount of fake bills in circulation, they have already accepted this. They can only detect the ones that reach the bank. For example, back in 2010, the bank detected fake currency worth INR 3200 Crores, and that would just be a small fraction of the actual number of fake currency in circulation, as not all bills reach the bank. There can only be approximations.
image courtesy: Times Of India
In addition to this, from 2008-09 to 2010-11, RBI received more bills than the ones printed by the mints. The RBI had no answer to this question, except every time they would say that some of the bills were in transit. However, even if the data for consecutive years was taken, the numbers did not add up.
Between 1999-00 and 2010-11 RBI received approximately 339 million notes more than what was actually printed. RBI along with the UPA government(s)1&2 kept a lid on this fake currency issue. And now for a change, when somebody, did do something in this regard, highly educated people like Raghuram Rajan have something to complain about. Where was his voice when the mess was being created? Was he not allowed to speak then? Or was he involved in all these scams?
The thing is, neither you nor me or nor anyone else knows for sure as to how much currency was in circulation in India before Demonetization. Can you think of ways where you or any government would know for sure as to how much fake currency is in circulation? If you know, please let me know through your comments. I would be grateful. But with all these pieces of information readily available on the internet in the form of various reports, it could easily be said that currency in circulation was way more than ₹15,417.93 lakh crores.
To tackle black money, demonetization was a mandatory step but not the only step. It was coupled with the steps like Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, or the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana or Income declaration scheme (which was mocked as Modi’s fair and lovely scheme by Rahul Gandhi), etc. Have a look at the table which shows the amount collected by the government with the help of these schemes.
Image courtesy: Business Today
Moreover, the number of taxpayers in India increased by almost 80% from 2013-14 to 2016-17. In 2013-14, there were only 3.79 crore taxpayers in India, which increased to 4.07 crore in 2015-16 and 6.84 crores in 2017-18. A clear cut increase of more than 3 crore taxpayers in the first three years. Now, either it is that the government generated 3 crore new jobs in first three years that people were able to pay taxes or those people by not paying taxes were generating black money for all the previous years.
You could choose to believe either of the options. If you have any third reason as to how the number of taxpayers increased, please do mention in the comments. If the Modi government had killed millions of jobs as claimed by the opposition, the number of taxpayers should have reduced and not increased. Do you agree? Unemployed don’t pay taxes, do they?
These are not the only actions undertaken by the Modi government. Modi government has tried to cut the source of black money in the first place. “Prevention is better than cure.” Had the right measures be taken at the right time, black money would not be such a big problem today. The previous governments let it happen. They could have nipped it right in the bud.
Shell companies have been de-registered in lakhs. Shell companies are those companies that exist only on paper but have no office or employees. For example, the corporate affairs ministry shut down 226,000 shell companies in 2017-18 and was planning to shut 250,000 the next year.
Back in 2013, the Delhi High Court claimed that 99% of NGOs are fraud and money-making devices. The Modi government has shut down more than 10,000 fraud NGOs in the first 3 years of its tenure. Approximately 20,000 FCRA licenses were cancelled and 13,000 licenses were not renewed.
On one side is the Modi government, that has tried to kill the source of Black money and on the other side is the Indian National Congress, which not only turned a blind eye towards black money but also created ways to generate more black money.
For example, CSR (corporate social responsibility) which came into existence by the companies act, 2013. It is a mandatory 2% contribution from some of the companies towards social issues and India is the only country in this world to have this mandatory condition. How did it or will it promote black money? Some of the companies donate their 2% to charitable trusts, who return the money back to the owners in different forms from the back door after deducting their commissions. And you could guess who are the people controlling charitable trusts.
In short, this extra 2% tax or extortion gives a reason for the Corporates to look for “different” ways to avoid this. So much for the ease of doing business.
Modi government since its first day behaved as an extremely responsible and professional government. The government worked with a blueprint to kill black money. For the first two years, the government opened Jan Dhan accounts for free. The PM himself called for people to declare their undisclosed income several times, he launched several other schemes as well. They had the Benami transaction act, Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 already in place. And only then did they hit black money hoarders with Demonetization.
Demonetization was not a whim of one person, it was perfectly planned move. When on November 8, 2016, at 20:00 hrs, PM Modi announced demonetisation, people with black money knew they were in trouble. Unlike Congress, BJP did not leave a clever loophole in the design so that somebody could exploit that. All the doors were shut at the same time and this is the biggest reason they cried foul. The loud noise we saw after demonetization was the corrupt crying. Corrupt people/politicians/parties don’t carry a mark on their head. They look like everyone else.
The only sad part is that PM Modi had not started his #MainBhiChaowkidar campaign till then if he would have done so, a lot of people would have refused to help a certain few in getting their currencies converted. This is the reason why we all need to do our parts, and cannot just wait for Modi to wield a magic wand and wipe all the problems off.
