Viewpoint: Congress, corruption worth crores and laughable logics

Congress and corruption are the two faces of the same coin. This cancer of corruption is limited to not only Congress but its allies as well. That is why when Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly says 'Na Khaunga aur Na khaane doonga', Opposition members start a combined campaign against him, says Prem Shukla

Opinion Congress, corruption worth crores and laughable logics

Team Asianet Newsable

First Published Dec 13, 2023, 5:43 PM IST

The Income Department raided liquor manufacturer Baldev Sahu group’s 10 locations on December 6 in Jharkhand and Odisha. Officers seized unaccounted cash of more than Rs 300 crore and jewellery worth millions of rupees. The proprietor of this company is a Congress MP and state treasurer of the Jharkhand Congress. The Income Tax department has linked the entire money in the name of Dheeraj Sahu. This will make it the 'highest-ever' black money haul by any agency in a single operation. Despite this massive seizure members of the Congress party are trying to save him and saying illogical things in favour of Sahu.

They are blaming the BJP for all of this and saying that it is a case of revenge by the Modi Government which prompted the agency to raid the MP’s company. A few days ago, a relative of a Congress leader was also raided and an unaccounted amount of Rs 42 crore was seized.

Even then, the Congress blamed the BJP for the raid and seizure of unaccounted money. In a statement, they said that at the behest of the BJP, businessmen are being harassed by the agency. The Congress and members of the INDI alliance have developed a habit of blaming the BJP in all such cases of corruption.

They have a stereotypical statement that those leaders who change their loyalty from their respective parties after the raids by agencies and join the BJP are absolved of such crimes and come out clean. When asked for evidence, they do not have an answer. They simply run away from the debate.

During the Congress-led UPA rule, there were allegations of scams worth Rs 12 lakh crores. There was a scam in every single department and it went on unchecked. All the scam-related cases are pending before the courts. In some cases, the accused went scott-free because of being hands-in-glove with some officers of investigating agencies. But in many cases, the hard work and sincerity of honest officers led to the accused being prosecuted. An example is the current case of Dheeraj Sahu.

Let’s go back to the current case. In one location of Dheeraj Sahu, the amount was so big that the note-counting machine stopped working in the middle. There were bundles of notes of Rs 500, 200 and 100 and counting required additional workforce, which banks provided immediately.

In this case. Congressmen are saying that Dheeraj Sahu is a prodigy businessman and his ancestors were also in business since old times and the availability of cash in such amount in his premises is a normal phenomenon. What a laughable logic!

The fact of the matter is when in 2018 Dheeraj Sahu filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha his entire property was said to be worth Rs 34 crore. He had a liability of Rs 2.36 crore as well. Before 2018, he declared that his income was merely one crore. Dheeraj Sahu had lost twice from the Chatra Lok Sabha constituency of Jharkhand. Interestingly, Congress sent him to the Rajya Sabha not only once but thrice.

Dheeraj Sahu is not a national leader or a well-known leader, and the question arises as to why he was nominated for the Rajya Sabha thrice. Why was the first family of the Congress obliging him? Officials of the Income Tax department claim that the money seized from the Sahu family is not related to his present business. They say that the family liquor business of Sahu does not require a cash amount of more than Rs 25-30 crore whereas in this case, they found more than this from just a single location. The question is who does this money belong to?

Dheeraj Sahu was treasurer of the Congress for a long time. Many journalists from Jharkhand say that his image has been of a chief financier of the Congress party. He was instrumental in the ticket distribution of the Congress; without his nod, nobody could get a ticket to contest elections. When the prince of Congress was doing his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Dheeraj Sahu accompanied him. It is crystal clear that the money trail goes to the Congress as well. That’s why Congressmen are vehemently supporting him and giving alibi in his favour to prove his innocence. What else can they do?

The Congress party has a dubious distinction of having its top leaders, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi facing criminal cases under section 420 of the IPC. The Congress president’s daughter is facing heat for allegedly selling a third-grade painting for Rs 2 crores to the ex-chairman of Yes Bank, Rana Kapoor. Her husband, Robert Vadra is allegedly involved in cases of extortion from real estate tycoons.

We all know that the high-profile Finance Minister of Congress during UPA, P Chidambaram went to jail with family in corruption cases. The party whose Dy CM has been in jail for money laundering is a blue-eyed boy of the Congress bosses. The Gandhi family selected Revanth Reddy as the Chief Minister of Telangana; he was in jail in corruption cases. The family also supported Bhupesh Baghel against whom there are allegations of massive corruption as well as extorting huge amounts of money from gamblers.

An unaccounted cash of Rs 238 crores was seized from ex-Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s personal secretary. The wrongdoings of Ashok Gehlot are hidden in a secret red diary. Gehlot’s son, Vaibhav Gahlot and many members are allegedly involved in cases of scams in fertiliser distribution and such things. Obviously, the party will be angry after the exposure of all these corrupt people. Congress and corruption are the two faces of the same coin.

This cancer of corruption is limited to not only Congress but some other parties also. It is worth mentioning here that during the UP elections seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs 200 crore from the house of a Gutka businessman made headlines. You may remember how angry former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav was. Similarly, in July 2022, unaccounted cash of Rs 50 crores and jewellery was seized from the location of Parth Chatterjee who was a confidante of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

The DMK, which is a close ally of Congress, has been in the soup for corruption cases. Unaccounted money worth Rs 142 crore was seized from the party’s close members. The AAP, which boasts of honesty, was also exposed when the ED raided the locations of its minister, Satyendra Jain. Unaccounted cash worth Rs 2.82 crores and 133 gold coins were also seized. In 2022, when ED raided the houses of some officers of the Jharkhand government it seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 20 crore. The JMM, which is an ally of the Congress, is facing the heat in coal distribution, MNREG scam, rural development scam worth Rs 1500 crores and land scam worth Rs 3,000 crore.

The same kind of ill-gotten wealth is being unearthed from Dheeraj Sahu’s locations and premises. In Maharashtra, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s close aide Anil Deshmukh allegedly fixed a target of Rs 100 crore from the then Police Commissioner. Maharashtra became a den of corruption during their regime. That is why when Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly says 'Na Khaunga aur Na khaane doonga' Opposition members started a combined campaign against him.

After the seizure of huge money from Dheeraj Sahu’s locations, PM Modi clearly said that whatever had been robbed from the public would have to be returned. This is Modi’s guarantee! This is creating fear in the hearts of corrupt politicians. That’s why they are making loud noises. This was the reason why all the corrupt leaders of the opposition were supporting TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who has been expelled from the Parliament on the charges of taking money from a Dubai-based businessman.

The author is a National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Views expressed are personal.

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