Opposition rant on black money issue unjustified
The walk-out by certain opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament over the Union Government's statement on the black money issue was unfortunate. Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley laid bare the intricacies of the matter and also the steps the Government was taking to recover the money illegally stashed abroad by Indians, as well as to prosecute the accused.
No opposition member contested the points he made about the various international treaties that bind the Government on the issue of disclosure of names of such account holders and the adverse fall-outs if the names are prematurely made public. Opposition leaders clung on to supposed assurances that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had made during election campaigning that the illegal wealth would be recovered within 100 days of the Government coming to power.
Everyone knows that election rhetoric is not to be taken at literal value. What is essential is the intent. There should be no doubt that the Narendra Modi-led Government is determined to bring holders of unaccounted money, kept in foreign tax havens, to book. Within a couple of days of coming to power, the new Cabinet had cleared the establishment of a Special Investigation Team, which the Supreme Court had directed, to tackle the issue. A similar intent had been missing in the Congress-led UPA Government, which dragged its feet on the SIT matter, and even in the final lap of its tenure, sought to scuttle the formulation of the probe body. It also moved slowly on gathering information, pleading helplessness over the various treaties that had allegedly tied its hand.
The treaties the Congress talked about are the very ones which the new regime is using to expedite the recovery of the money and the revelation of names of the accused. Since the opposition parties which walked out of the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, did so claiming that they were dissatisfied with the Government's response, they need to tell the people what the unsatisfactory part is. Do they want momentary sensationalism through the disclosure of names of account holders in foreign banks even when no charges have been filed against those namesIJ Are they willing for the backlash the country would face from other nations as a result of the violation of international and bilateral agreementsIJ Are these leaders concerned more about getting to the bottom of the truth, even if the process takes a bit more time, or do they just want to name and shame without adequate material at handIJ Finally, does the Opposition want black money to return to India and the accused to stand trial or does it want the accused to escape and information on them to eventually dry outIJ
The Government's commitment to unravel the black money issue is also clear from Mr Jaitley's remarks that he was studying the possibility of amending the money laundering and the income tax laws. The fact that he admitted to weaknesses in the Acts which prevent the regime from, among other things, taking punitive measures such as the confiscation of property in India of holders of black money abroad, demonstrates the Government's seriousness in bringing about systemic changes. The Opposition must give the Government time to resolve the matter and hold it accountable on actions, not rhetoric.