Posted on 09/02/2024 (GMT 13:04 hrs)
Updated on 10/02/2024 (GMT 07:56 hrs)
To
Ms. Violaine Clerc,
The Executive Secretary,
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
Sub: Informing Atrocities Made by the Government of India (GOI)
Dear Ms. Clerc,
We are perplexed to view that there is no mention of the nation-state “India” in either your liste noire or the grey list. Therefore, we are sending you various reports on the governmentality of the Indian nation-state. The anatomo-bio-political intervention on the docile corporeal of the supposed Indian citizen is at its peak through disciplinary mechanisms such as the bio-metric Aadhaar Card, Pegasus Software, Citizenship Amendment Act, Data Protection/Privacy Act etc. The panopticon of the GOI is working 24X7 as India turns into a surveillance state on its way to become an Orwellian dystopia of mass censorship, where the freedom of speech and expression is curbed by the onslaughts of the repressive and ideological state apparatuses. The “subjects” of the geo-political entity called India are living within an archipelago, where there is an increasing level of authoritarian ritualization of language. The discursive formation of the “ruling” party’s text is nothing more than a pseudological enterprise.
In this situation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has metamorphosed into the richest political party by committing various money laundering and predicate offences, without ever getting legally penalized for the same. On the contrary, the Indian opposition parties are being mercilessly silenced on grave matters of concern that has made India a “partly free” country, a police state. The BJP has laundered public money by transparently opaque means with the help of its crony friends, Mr. Mukesh Ambani and Mr. Gautam Adani, as well as some of their family members. It has committed consecutive ethnic “cleansings” as a form of dividing practice on narrow religious lines.
In this situation, we present to you this oeuvre (collection or compilation) of reports/information for your kind perusal in order for you to delve further into the high risk situation of India that requires an urgent call for action.
We hope that your updated liste noire will rightly include India for the reasons cited in the above l’archive. We are optimistically waiting for the said inclusion, which is already deferred but will be differed from the current absentee, i.e., India— this will constitute the différance.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay
Mrs. Rupa Bandyopadhyay
Mr. Akhar Bandyopadhyay
DEAR DHFL VICTIMS, MANY OF YOU ARE ACCUSING US FOR MIXING UP POLITICS WITH THE DHFL SCAM. WE CANNOT HELP BUT DO SO BECAUSE WE ARE ZOON POLITIKONS OR POLITICAL ANIMALS. THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE IS A SOLID PROOF OF THE UNDERLYING POLITICAL CAUSATION OF THE SCAM ALONG WITH THE PREDETERMINED ROLE OF CRONY BUSINESS TYCOONS IN THE SAME. WE ARE REQUESTING YOU TO READ SECTION IIa AND THE VIDEOGRAPHED CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR. KAPIL SIBAL AND MR. P. CHIDAMBARAM FOR FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS. We can’t help but to cite Bertolt Brecht, “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
I. Introduction
We, as contingent citizens (yet to be proved through the discriminatory CAA-NRC-NPR-DPA⤡⤡⤡) of India, are writing this open letter to you with the aim of voicing a few necessary concerns with regard to one of your 39 member-countries, i.e., India.
While surfing through your website and open resources, we are surprised enough to find that the countries listed under “high risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action” or liste noire (not using the term “black list” to avoid the racist connotations) does not contain India as its component, neither is it a part of the “grey list” or jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
However, it is more than obvious to the politically conscious citizens of India that money laundering is the order of the day in this country at present, given the activities of the current ruling party, viz., the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). India being a part of the global economy and as a major arena of dubious, opaque and deviational activities, should have been made a part of the liste noire, since it meets the standard of a high-level of state-sponsored criminal activities related to the financial sector.
It is to be remarked here that India is categorized by the US State Department as a Country/Jurisdiction of Primary Concern with respect to Money Laundering and Financial Crimes.⤡ ⤡
What is stopping the FATF from doing the same as well?
Your website shows: “India has not yet been assessed in the fourth round of mutual evaluations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pause in the FATF’s assessment process, the mutual evaluation of India has been postponed to 2023.”
It is 2024, and there is no proper or thorough initiative (absence of any follow-up reports) on your part to tackle India’s heinous financial crimes at any point. We sincerely hope that your body shall soon take action based on the following points, which we are going to summarize for your kind and urgent perusal.
We did hear that one of your teams arrived in India at the end of 2023:
FATF team in India to hold on-site review meetings VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 15th November, 2023 ©The Hindu)
Your team even stated the following:
‘Violent extremist organisation’ in India collected funds through well-structured networks: FATF report VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 4th November, 2023 ©Indian Express)
However, it should be remarked that your focus was directed to somewhat partial issues in only talking about “…a violent extremist organisation under investigation collected funds through well-structured networks spanning the entire country. Resorting to solicitation at mosques and public places, the group’s fundraising tactics included offline and online mechanisms, such as circulating QR codes and account details through which donors were asked to send money.”
The present open-letter would be aimed towards clarifying far larger and much worrying issues at the broadest possible scale, which involves the BJP at the centre of the narrative.
India has been characterized in many international indexes as a “partly free”, “unhappy”, “poor”, with “data opacity, data paucity and data denial”, with the most “hungry population” and so on. Thus, India’s situation has become much more “wounded” during the BJP’s crony oligarchical regime. Why don’t you report it and take the suitable course of action?
We will be going through the principal points that make BJP a primary/chief undertaker in carrying out drug-related crimes, terror-funding, human trafficking and other means of money laundering, thus making it pertinent that India is suffering from grave AML/CFT deficiencies, which are to be addressed as soon as possible.
II. The Instances: Dirty Hands of the BJP
a) The Dawood-Iqbal Affair and the DHFL Scam:
In January 2019, Cobrapost reported that the BJP is involved in terror-funding (or political charity or political donations) through the proper-channel of Dawood Ibrahim, late Iqbal Mirchi, Chhota Shakeel, RKW Developers (Dheeraj Realty) and the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL). The collusion was reported and it was followed by the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) from December 2019, showing concerns for “fraudulent transactions” and “loan defaults” (which have not been yet definitively proved) for the DHFL when it was still a profitable, ongoing concern meeting its payment obligations on time. This paved way to major haircuts for lakhs of the small investors of the DHFL, who were made the victims of financial abuse.
i) A WHITE PAPER ON THE DEWAN HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION LTD. (DHFL) VIEW HERE ⤡
ii) THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE DHFL SCAM VIEW HERE ⤡
This whole “DHFL scam” was undergirded by the BJP’s terror-funding variable, which was deliberately sidelined and all the blame was put on the ex-promoters/suspended owners of the DHFL, the Wadhawan Brothers.
We, being DHFL victims, thus filed an RTI, inquiring about the details of this very fact of political collusion/nexus between international terrorists, the Mumbai underworld and the BJP:
When the concerned authority of the RTI gave us a negative (ambiguous?) response, some of the DHFL victims had requested the President, BJP and the Sarsanghchalak of the RSS (a non-registered Hindu extremist group) to file a defamation case against the media houses, who had spread such “rumors” against a party, which is “not a public authority”⤡.
However, till date no such defamation case has been filed either by the BJP or by the RSS against those newspapers. They are still completely silent about the whole issue.
Does it prove their agreement to this reported news by following the common proverb: “mounam sammati laksanam” (silence entails consent)?
In connection with the DHFL Scam, there is another activity with legal conflict: The Flashnet Scam. The DHFL can be considered as a return gift from the ruling party to Mr. Ajay Piramal (secondary kin of BJP’s favoured tycoon: Mr. Mukesh Ambani) for Mr. Piramal’s “services” to the BJP during the Flashnet Scam when one of BJP’s Union Ministers, Mr. Piyush Goyal, was involved in the same:
Thus, it falls under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). One can say that “Physician Heal Thyself” before attacking Opponent Parties in this very special case of the DHFL scam! Isn’t the Islamophobic BJP (responsible for ethnic “cleansing” multiple times, especially in Gujarat pogrom, 2002) a predicate offender in both the Flashnet and the DHFL scams, in the latter due to the terror-funding via Dawood Ibrahim and Co.?
The Idea of Embezzlement: Moreover, though the BJP is a self-proclaimed Hindutvavadin or “Hindu” Fanatic, they commit sins, which are against their own scriptures. In the context of the DHFL scam, the same thing happened: embezzlement, as mentioned in FATF’s FAQ objectives.
“When criminal funds are derived from robbery, extortion, embezzlement or fraud, a money laundering investigation is frequently the only way to locate the stolen funds and restore them to the victims.”
The DHFL case is also a case of live embezzlement. Since you have mentioned on your website that it is one of your aims to return the embezzled funds to the victims, we, the DHFL victims, sincerely urge for the same from you.
b) Horse-Trading Factor:
The BJP has openly involved itself in horse-trading activities for buying MPs and MLAs of other parties after/or at the cusp of election results in multiple states of India over the past 10 years of its rule (Operation Lotus or Kamala⤡, as the BJP has named it for running “Double Engine Sarkar”⤡, i.e., both center and state must be ran by mono-party system):
‘BJP may indulge in horse-trading after results, misuse ED’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 19th November, 2022 ©The Times of India)
Shiv Sena alleges horse trading as BJP puts up 3rd Rajya Sabha candidate VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 31st May, 2022 ©Economic Times)
BJP carried out heinous horse-trading in Karnataka; Congress on govt fall VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 24th July, 2019 ©Business Today)
BJP spending crores in bid to topple Maharashtra govt, claims VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 29/06/2022 ©Indian Express )
Whatever Going On In Maharashtra Not Good, Horse-Trading Happening There: Ashok Gehlot VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 25/06/2022 ©The Outlook)
Maharashtra Updates: BJP’s Intentions Of Horse-Trading Clear, Says Shiv Sena VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 25/06/2022 ©The Outlook)
BJP has become the “political laundry” or kind of a washing machine for members of other political parties, e.g., in Maharashtra, after Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who is currently the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was accused in the 70k Crore Irrigation Scam, he submitted to the BJP and managed to get recognition from the Election Commission as well! Such examples are numerous…!
NCP factionalism fallout. Probe into Maharashtra’s ₹70,000-cr irrigation scam hangs in balance VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 13th July, 2023 ©Businessline)
NCP’s Ajit Pawar faction distributes sweets in Pune after ECI recognition, Sharad Pawar loyalists attack BJP over split VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 8th February, 2024 ©Indian Express)
Suvendu Adhikari, the present leader of Opposition in West Bengal, had become “clean” after he was accused in the Narada bribery scam, whereby he joined the BJP overnight.
Suvendu, host of TMC leaders join BJP at Amit Shah’s rally VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 19th December, 2020 ©The Hindu)
Mr. Adhikari managed to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 2021 from Nandigram by manipulating the EVM with the help of the Election Commission. At the time of counting, the Nandigram counting booths suddenly underwent a power cut, when the results were about to be declared that it was Mamata Banerjee, who won from the constituency! One can easily guess why that power cut took place!
Bengal panchayat polls: Ballot boxes set on fire, filled with water, thrown into pond and some in ‘relay race’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 9th July, 2023 ©The Times of India)
How do we choose then? Where would the voters stand then? No question of choosing anyone!
Recently, the Mayor Election in Chandigarh saw such similar tampering activities by the Presiding Officer, who was caught red handed by the CCTV footage.
Democracy on edge as BJP steals Chandigarh election from Congress-AAP alliance VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 31st January, 2024 ©The Frontline)
c) The Booth Capturing/Vote Manipulation/EVM Fraud/Tampering Tactics:
The BJP in elections (or whoever in the power) has taken a principal role in manipulating votes in its favour by money and muscle power as well as by using technological means to control EVMs in polling booths.
Though all tech-savvy countries of the world do not use the EVM or VVPAT for conducting elections (since they can be easily tampered with), India is still using both. The window of the VVPAT has become opaque during the NDA/BJP regime. On the other hand, the ballot paper-based voting system is also not full-proof as well, since it could also be controlled by deploying party-sponsored coercive forces.
BJP, 2019 polls & ‘vote manipulation’: Why Ashoka professor’s paper has kicked up controversy VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 5th August, 2023 ©The Print)
A new research paper argues manipulation in 2019 polls – what does this mean for EC? VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 14th August, 2023 ©The Scroll)
Was the 2019 Lok Sabha Election Really Manipulated? VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 13th August, 2023 ©The Wire)
From the Will of the People to the Whim of the Machines VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 10th December, 2022 ©The Wire)
If EVMs not ‘fixed’ before LS polls, BJP can win over 400 seats: Sam Pitroda VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 28th December, 2023 ©The Hindu)
So at the present age,
“That a political party which works for the defense and growth of capitalism is called “Socialist, “ and a despotic government “democratic,” and a rigged election “free” are familiar linguistic – and political – features which long pre-date Orwell.” (Marcuse⤡)
See Also: Towards a New Word Order VIEW HERE ⤡
d) Electoral Bonds and PM CARES Scam:
The Electoral Bonds are another way for the BJP to launder money under the veils or disguise of being a so-called “corruption-free party”. One cannot file RTIs to elicit any information regarding such activities of BJP, whereby the identity of the donor remains unknown (and unknowable?)! It is only revealed to the ruling party.
The issue of this transparently opaque Electoral Bonds was pointed out by the CJI of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, who stated that the Electoral Bonds issue is a case of bribing the ruling party.
One may directly hear it from the apex court:
BJP received Rs 5,271 crore through electoral bonds, Congress slams PM Modi VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 9th August, 2023 ©ADR)
The secret bonds are masterminded by the BJP leaders through which money is laundered within the bank by means of secret transactions by the corporate to heal the itching palms of the ruling party. The corporate is then bound to open shell companies to fulfill the greed of the BJP (a sort of compensation process). This is all part of the Crony-Monopoly agenda of the BJP!
Same goes for the PM CARES fund, in which case the opacity issue remains identical. It is simultaneously governmental (?) as well as non-governmental “trust”:
PM CARES gets Rs 6,500 crore donation in a week, 3 times more than what PMNRF got in 2 yrs VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 4th April, 2020 ©The Print)
Maha: Investigate PM CARES Fund, says Uddhav Thackeray amid ED action in jumbo COVID facility ‘scam’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 24th June, 2023 ©The Economic Times)
Congress Lashes Out at Opacity Surrounding PM CARES Fund VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 26th April, 2023 ©The Wire)
Both the Electoral Bonds Scam and the PM CARES Scam are instances of “Racketeering”, whereby the coercion exercised on the investing party is subtle, latent or covert to the public eye.
KISSA CRONY KA (THE TALE OF CRONIES) VIEW HERE ⤡
e) The Mundra Musings: The Case of Adani The Drug Peddler
BJP’s favoured business tycoon of the “Modani” (Modi+Adani) era, Mr. Gautam Adani, is related to drug-curtails, especially made available through Adani’s Mundra Port in Gujarat:
Heroin Seizures at Adani’s Mundra Remain a Source of Worry for Indian Authorities VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 3rd August, 2022 ©The Wire)
When the Hindenburg Report came against the Adani Group and the Indian Opposition parties voiced their concerns in the Parliament regarding the same, the BJP ensured to remove all those dissenting voices from the legislature at once, be it Congress MP Rahul Gandhi or AITC MP Mahua Moitra. The BJP is openly defending Adani, without ever arresting him either for his alleged drug-related activities/connection with the international drug mafia or for the well-supported accusations made in the Hindenburg report.
IF A[M]DANI SCAMS, CAN AMBANI-PIRAMAL BE FAR BEHIND? VIEW HERE ⤡ @academia.edu
It can thus be seen that the BJP is selling the toxic superstitious drug of religion as well as drugs as in narcotics!
While Adani remains scot free after this “drug” accusation, Mr. Kejriwal (along with Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, who are already in prison for the Excise Scam) is being targetted by the BJP’s agencies for the “Sharab Ghotala” (Liquour Scam):
‘Sharab Ghotala Is A Ghotala Of Kejriwal, By Kejriwal, For Kejriwal’; BJP On ED Summons To Kejriwal VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 31st October, 2023 ©India.com)
f) BJP and Human Trafficking:
Although the BJP wanted to shift the blame to CPIM-led Kerala government for being at the forefront of illegal human trafficking by making a propaganda film called “The Kerala Story”, the BJP’s home-state, i.e., Gujarat, has recorded the highest number of women getting sold abroad as well as people entering other countries such as the US through the “Donkey” process;
Rampant Illegal human trafficking from Gujarat to the fore VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 25th January, 2022 ©The Hindu)
Gujarat passengers on ‘Dunki’ flight offered Rs 60-80 lakh to agents to enter US illegally VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 2nd January, 2024 ©Business Today)
The big, booming business of child-bride trafficking in Gujarat VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 1st June, 2023 ©The Hindu)
g) Demonetization as a Money-Laundering Tool:
The Demonetization drive of the BJP Government in 2017 also allowed it to launder money without ever meeting its given promises, viz., a nation free from black money, counterfeit money and terrorism:
“That means demonetisation allowed those holding even counterfeit notes, forget black money, to get new notes. The banks are now saddled with lakhs of crores of rupees against which they have to pay interest.
In short, demonetisation helped the holders of black money and counterfeit notes to legitimise their wealth. Not a single note became worthless, except in the case of those small sums the NRIs, the elderly and the poor kept with them.”
SOURCE: Demonetisation: A legal money laundering scheme VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 8th November, 2018 ©National Herald)
AN OPEN LETTER TO MODIJI: THE HORNS OF THE DEMONETIZATION DILEMMA VIEW HERE ⤡
h) BJP and Swiss Bank:
Our Honorable Prime Minister, before being a PM, declared in a election rally, that he would bring back the black money, deposited in the Swiss Bank.
However, Indian kitty in Swiss banks jumped 50% to over ₹30,000 crore in 2021 VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 16th June, 2022 ©The Hindu)
Indian money parked in Swiss banks rise to 14-year high VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 17th June, 2022 ©CNBC)
India gets fresh 5th set of Swiss bank account information of individuals, corporates and trusts VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 9th October, 2023 ©Mint)
i) BJP’s Love for Superrich Wilful Defaulters:
While the coffers of the BJP are getting filled in such a way (away from the public eye), they are also enabling the superrich to escape from all blames and obligations. The issue of “wilful defaulters” who have fled the country [and their loans have been waived off/written off (the Différance between the two is blurred in the context of Orwellian doublespeak) by the Reserve Bank of India] with political protection further complicate the matters of the Indian economy and proves that the latter has reached to a worrying depth:
Banks Technically Write Off Over Rs 68,000 Cr Loans, Choksi Among 50 Top Wilful Defaulters: RTI VIEW HERE⤡ (As reported on 28th April, 2020 ©News 18)
38 wilful defaulters including Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya fled India in last 5 years VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 15th September, 2020 ©India Today)
Consolidated list of Wilful Defaulters as on 31 March 2023 VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on ©Watchout Investors)
Top 50 wilful defaulters, including Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems, owe Rs 87,295 crore to banks: Finance Ministry VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on Aug 02, 2023©The Business Today)
It is quite transparent that without taking any help from the ruling party, these willful defaulters could not fly away from India to other countries (mainly England).
j) CAG’S REPORT ON BJP’S CORRUPTION:
In August 2023, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) revealed through its report that much of the corruption happened actually during the BJP regime. For example, the PM-JAY scam by creating fake phone numbers and thereby diverting the funds. Same goes for the Ayodhya Development Plan scam, the Bharatmala project scam and so on.
CAG Report Finds Glaring Holes, Violation of Cardinal Rules in Centre’s Accounting Practices VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 18th September, 2023 ©The Wire)
k) BJP the Extortionist
Though in India, the instrumental role of the BJP in the Gujarat pogrom (2002) after the train burning in Godhra and the Delhi pogrom (2020) are denied by the ruling party, the whole world knows the actual facts from the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” (which is banned in India), the Caravan Report on the Gujarat Pogrom with Godhra as the pretext, “The Final Solution” by Rakesh Sharma, and Rana Ayyub’s “The Gujarat Files”.
BBC Row: UK report states VHP planned Gujarat violence in advance, Godhra a “pretext” VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 23rd January, 2023 ©The Caravan)
Moreover, one cannot forget the Pulwama tragedy in 2019, just before the Lok Sabha elections. Who were responsible for the casualties of our Army Personnel?
One year of Pulwama attack: All suspects dead, no clue still how explosives reached Kashmir VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 14th February, 2020 ©The Print)
Pulwama Attack Was BJP’s Conspiracy Just Like Godhra, Says Shankersinh Vaghela VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 5th February, 2019 ©early Times)
Pulwama: JeM’s Indian touts helped move RDX provided by Pakistan army VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 25th February, 2019 ©oneindia)
We can connect or associate the above with Mr. Satyapal Malik’s (ex-Governor of J&K) series of statements/testimony about the reality of the Pulwama attack and how the current ruling party was thoroughly involved with that:
At the time of Pulwama attack, PM Modi was busy shooting for a Man vs Wild episode with Bear Grylls. Modiji then cut himself from the gadgets of communication. It is the height of responsibility on the part of Hon. Indian PM.
There is no doubt that the deus ex machina of the Pulwama affair had tried to garner sympathetic votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election by the calculated murder of 40+ jawans of the Indian Army!
After going through the above points, one may also view the recently released “Black Paper” released by the Indian National Congress on the 10 year regime of the BJP and its major failures:
Congress Releases ‘Black Paper’ on Modi Government’s Failures VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 8th February, 2024 ©The Wire)
III. BJP “On The Rocks”!
Given such circumstances,
it is no wonder that the BJP has so many party-members with serious criminal records such as rape, molestation, forgery, bribery, stalking, fund diversion etc.:
139 BJP Leaders, 49 Congress Members On List Of 306 MPs Facing Criminal Charges: ADR Report VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 12th Sept, 2023 ©ABP News)
Chhattisgarh Assembly election: Most candidates with criminal cases from BJP, ADR study finds VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 27th October, 2023 ©Mint)
Forty Percent of Sitting MPs Have Declared Criminal Cases Against Them: ADR Report VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 12th September, 2023 ©The Wire)
On the other hand, there are rampant bankruptcies in the financial sector of India, which is not at all affecting the astronomical rise in the BJP’s assets in being the richest political party at present:
BJP held assets worth Rs 6,046.81 cr in 21-22, highest among all parties: ADR VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 4th September, 2023 ©Deccan Herald)
BJP’s Declared Assets Increased By 627% in 10 Years: ADR Report VIEW HERE ⤡ (as reported on October 17 2017 © BloombergQuint)
BJP highest earner in FY19 at Rs 2,410 crore; TMC’s income spikes 3,628% VIEW HERE ⤡(as reported on January 16, 2020 © BusinessToday)
BJP’s assets increased by 22% in 2017-18, Congress’ down by 15%: ADR VIEW HERE ⤡ (as reported on 01 Aug 2019 © Economic Times)
Amit Shah’s Son Delayed Filings, His Total Income Rose By 15000% From 2014-19: Report VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 5 Nov 2019 ©The Logical Indian)
Amit Shah’s son’s ₹6 crore company got credit facility worth ₹97 crore, says Congress VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 11th Aug 2018, ©National Herald)
BJP is to be held accountable for the “disappearance” (?) of significant amounts of money within the Indian economy, though the Reserve Bank of India (the apex regulatory body of banks) has denied such claims:
How in First Eight Years of Modi Government, Nearly Rs 12 Lakh Crore ‘Disappeared’ VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 16th January, 2023 ©The Wire)
BJP behind missing Rs 88,000 cr worth 500 notes VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 18th June, 2023 ©Telangana Today)
IV. The PMLA Controversy
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was introduced in 2002 (Act 15 of 2003) by the Vajpayee-led NDA government, when it was not duly notified. Consequently, your body, the FATF, exerted pressure on the government to duly notify the said act. When the UPA came into power in 2004, it notified the Act with a few necessary amendments made by Mr. P. Chidambaram. Mr. Chidambaram himself was worried about the fact that this Act would be grossly misused by consequent governments. The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India that responded to this fact of “misuse” by the present government went, according to Mr. Chidambaram, against many well-established statutes of the law, e.g., the bench said that the PMLA was not a “penal statute”. A Review Petition was filed, challenging many conclusions of the judgement of the aforementioned bench. However, no hearings have been made with regard to that comprehensive review petition.
The amendments brought in the PMLA during the BJP’s regime in the past 10 years were introduced as “money bills”⤡ (or Finance Bill, an Orwellian Doublespeak!), so that it does not have to go through the due scrutiny of the Upper House of the Parliament, i.e., the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP did not have a clear majority during the time of making these amendments. These amendments enlarged the initial short schedule (primarily consisting of two parts; though this particular amendment took place during UPA’s time) and gave arbitrary or excessive powers to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as some sort of “super-agency” to specifically target opponent parties/the opposition in order to bring down governments, thus destructively affecting the very federal structure of the Indian nation-state as a “union of states”. The PMLA now includes under its “scheduled offences” non-monetary crimes (such as forgery, cheating etc.) along with money-laundering offences (which was initially its specific aim), making them non-bailable, which were otherwise easily bailable under the Indian Penal Code. If the PMLA is not a “penal statute”, then the ED has no right to arrest alleged offenders; conversely, if the ED can arrest (often with blank schedules!), then the PMLA is obviously a penal statute! This is against the basic notion of fair procedure of law!
PMLA amendments | Money Bill verdict holds the key VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 28th July, 2022 ©The Hindu)
However, the ED does not ever file charge-sheets against sitting BJP MPs, MLAs or Ministers despite the fact that, as we saw earlier, a significant portion of BJP’s members are with legal conflict or predicate offenders!
After such amendments, the Article 20(3) of the Indian Constitution (“No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself”), whereby a person, who could be a bureaucrat, a minister or a party leader or an office-holder in the state executive, could be arrested as either a witness or an accused (one can simultaneously be shown through this Act to be an accused and a witness simultaneously! Schizophrenia? Divided selves? partitioned selves?) by producing coercively imposed statements of manufactured confession, forcibly signed under Section 15, without any other substantive evidence at all. Instead of attacking money laundering as such, the PMLA after the amendments is attacking alleged money launderers in their capacity of being opposition leaders!
“Mr. Sibal argued that the amendments stripped a person of his right under Article 20(3) (fundamental right against self-incrimination) of the Constitution. He said the ED could arrest a person even without informing him of the charges. This power was violative of the right to ‘due process’ enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Besides, Article 22 mandated that no person can be arrested without informing him or her of the grounds of the arrest, the petitioners contended.”
“He said the ED could summon a person without telling him whether he was being called as a witness or an accused. He said even possession of the alleged proceeds of a crime was money-laundering, making it into a continuous offence.”
SOURCE: Harshness of amendments made to PMLA in 2019 shocking, says Kapil Sibal VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 22nd November, 2022 ©The Hindu)
The following conversation between Mr. Kapil Sibal and Mr. P. Chidambaram must be seen and heard for better understanding of the (mis-)deployment of PMLA along with the strategic money bill/finance bill amendments within the cocoon of the Lower House of the Parliament (the Lok Sabha):
Now, the question that arises with relation to the discussion on the PMLA is:
Who committed the Predicate Crime or Predicate Offence in the instances cited above?
With due respect, we are bound to reiterate P. Chidambaram’s comment that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India’s earlier Three-judge bench on the PMLA case seemed to have forgotten the distinction between a Predicate Offence and Money Laundering, between proceeds of crime and money laundering; so it is necessary to point it out again in this context.
For Example, If one has a pile of dirty clothes and a washing machine to cleanse them, one will put the clothes into the laundry/laundering machine in such a way that the clothes come out clean. Similarly, if one has dirty money (e.g., bribe), one can launder it (e.g., by investing in property) and come out “clean” in front of the face of the public. The dirty clothes/money are proceeds of crime whereas the way in which the clothes/money are laundered (washed off) is the act of money laundering. Under the PMLA, solely money laundering should have been the offence, not the proceeds of crime, e.g., crimes that do not involve money-matters such as murder for rivalry. Say, a crime might be committed under a scheduled or predicate offence, e.g., cheating under IPC 420. Moreover, if one commits murder and also burglary (or murder for ransom), it gives rise to proceeds of crime. If one has to be then convicted for money laundering, one must have converted or projected that tainted money to make it appear as untainted money. Otherwise, no charge of money laundering could be brought. (Cf. Section IIb)
BJP is both a money launderer and predicate offender in all the above instances.
V. Conclusion
As one of the goals of the Hon’ble FATF is to share information, we are just sharing all these collected/reported information as contingent citizens of the Indian republic. We have worked as bricoleurs to maintain the duty of being responsible citizens. The next progeny will suffer due to the burden of the huge debt taken from the three international terrorist organizations: WB, IMF and WTO.
One generation will have to bear the cost of what Modi has done: Ashis Nandy analyses the election verdict VIEW HERE ⤡ (As reported on 20th June, 2019 ©Caravan)
It is to be remarked that we possess affection for the planet (which is now at stake due to anthropogenic glocal heating), but despise the crony, oligarchical, despotic, tyrannical, plutocratic, polarizing and authoritarian functioning of the present Indian governmentality. We desire that the present ruling party should be held accountable for all its deeds with legal conflict and due process should be carried out with regard to their offenders as per the statutes of the Law of the Land, especially in reference to Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, which provides for Constitutional Safeguards for the common Indian citizens against the illegitimate power structure.
We are condemning profit over people⤡ for the free flow of private capital and for preserving market fundamentalism.
Disclaimer: As bricoleurs, whistleblowers, non-partisan political activists (as proposed by Mahatma Gandhi, M. N. Roy, Vinoba Bhave et al.) we have gathered fact-checked data only without any intention to malign other.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 
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