By Arun Srivastava
Bullying their political opponents is the key strategy for the top BJP leaders. The tweet from Amit Shah: “Those rejoicing over the Hon’ble SC decision on the ED case are delusional for various reasons: The amendments to the CVC Act, which were duly passed by Parliament, have been upheld. Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same. ED is an institution which rises beyond any one individual…. Thus, who the ED director is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cosy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset.”
Shah also said: “ED is an institution focused on achieving its core objective; to investigate offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws. Thus, who the ED director is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset”. As he admits that it is not the person but the organisation is important, naturally he ought to not have tweeted, giving clear indication that he was aggrieved at the court pronouncing the extension illegal.
Obviously, one is free to perceive it as a threat the opposition leaders and the persons who are supposed to be Modi-baiters and critics. However, it also aims at sending the message to the Supreme Court, to look at its feet. Shah’s remark coming just after a few hours of the apex court order that government notification of November 17, 2021 and November 17, 2022 granting extensions to the Enforcement Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra for a period of one year each, were illegal.
Shah getting angry at the apex court was quite justified. This order demolished the edifice of oppression and repression built assiduously by the BJP-RSS ever since Modi government came to power. It is significant to note that the apex court did not mention that the office of Director ED cannot have a new incumbent. It did not even pull him up for concocting the cases. It simply discussed the issue of extension.
The SC asking Mishra to vacate the office of ED was certainly the matter for the opposition to feel elated and happy. He had come to symbolise the rule of terror and repression. Obviously, there is no tangible reason for Shah to get angry at the opposition or the individuals who felt relieved. Shah was absolutely right in saying that it did not matter who the ED director was. The person replacing Mishra too will carry out the directions of Modi and Shah. He too will gag the dissenting voices. But the moot question is, whether he would be effective like his predecessor. It is this question of efficiency and proficiency of the new person that has been haunting the Modi government.
The aggressive posture of the Supreme Court will certainly have its bearing on the psyche of the new ED director. With the political ambience gradually turning anti-Modi, to what extent the new director will muster courage to fall in line is wrapped in ambiguity.
For the Modi government, the next nine months are quite important. The manner in which the ED has launched the mission to demolish the opposition in Maharashtra and Bihar, the states which send 88 members to Lok Sabha, had made it explicit that Mishra would have turned more aggressive in the coming months. The explanation offered by the Modi government for retaining Mishra as the ED director has been simply rubbish. It said Mishra’s services were required for a review meeting related to the Paris-headquartered Financial Action Task Force, which evolves global strategies to curb money laundering and whose 200-odd members include India. There are a number of bureaucrats who have expertise in foreign affairs. They can undertake this responsibility. Government’s insistence on Mishra makes their intentions clear.
At this stage one question acquires importance. In the fodder scam, the Patna High Court had held the extension of service of the animal husbandry official SB Sinha illegal and had convicted Lalu Yadav for his act of giving extension. In the ED case, since the Supreme Court has found the extension of service of ED director S K Mishra as illegal, why the person who gave extension should not be framed? It is really sad that Modi government, though aware of the legal implications, has been endorsing the illegal acts.
The petition on which apex court held the extension of Mishra as illegal, was basically against misuse of ED under Sanjay Mishra. But the government as well as its legal team dwelt on the importance of the agency. They did not refute the charge that the agency was misused by Mishra as the director to intimidate the opponents of Modi.
Quite interestingly, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta making his submission before Justice C V Karthikeyan of Madras High court said it was the moral duty of the ED to investigate or interrogate an accused in a money laundering case. As per the scheme of the Act, the ED has to collect material, investigate, search, seize and attach properties, besides arresting the person. Thereafter, if no case was made out against the accused, closure report has to be filed. When the ED has powers to file closure report, definitely it has power to conduct further investigation, he said.
But the actions of ED contradict the submissions of Mehta. Some months back Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, had told Rajya Sabha that since the NDA government has been in power, the ED filed charge-sheets in 888 cases resulting in conviction of 23 accused. What does it imply? The charge sheets did not have concrete proofs and evidence. Besides raids carried out by the Enforcement Directorate in the last six years have jumped nearly 27 times to 3,010 in 2022 as compared to just 112 in 2004. This figures tells us that corruption was more pronounced in Modi’s time. But unfortunately could not collect evidence.
Choudhary also said: “During 2014-2022, the ED took up 22,330 cases and conducted 996 searches. It sent show cause notices in 5,329 cases. During this period, a penalty of Rs 6,376.51 crore was imposed on the accused and properties worth Rs 7,066 crore were seized”. He did not mention about other cases. Who were the accused persons? What happened to them? What has been result of serving the show cause notices? Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the ED of doing the bidding of the Centre during Mishra’s tenure.
ED has said that only 2.98% of its complaints have been filed against serving or former MPs and MLAs even as its conviction rate under the anti-money laundering law is at a high of 96 per cent. But a look at the notices makes it explicit that many of the powerful sitting MPs or MLAs have been ED targets. The agency has been investigating many high-profile people, sitting chief ministers, top politicians, bureaucrats, business groups, corporates, foreign nationals and others, under the anti-money laundering law.
The most talked about case of misuse of the ED has been the attempt to implicate Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut. A Mumbai court had accused it of selectively arresting individuals. The court also noted that the ED has a tendency to arrest an accused person immediately but is then slow to prosecute them. There have been several such instances recently where courts have criticised the agency for its investigation process. Raut was arrested in relation to an alleged money-laundering incident in the redevelopment of Patra Chawl. The special court presided by MG Deshpande noted that his arrest was completely illegal and also made several adverse remarks on its conduct.
For defaming him and sensationalising his arrest, ED sleuths picked in the midnight while he was sleeping. The court said, “All this prima-facie indicates that his arrest is nothing but a witch-hunt and annihilation of his valuable rights,” the order read. The court also observed:“The operation aimed at conveying a message” to other politicians “that, they are the next in the queue” to get arrested. (IPA Service)
The post Amit Shah On Mission ‘Bully Opposition’ After SC Verdict On ED Director first appeared on IPA Newspack.