Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 9, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/337248/Man-who-knows-a-lot.html
Is that why the UPA is running scared?
With every new revelation, the Hasan Ali money-laundering
case is becoming more and more of an embarrassment for the ruling UPA which
had initially sought to brush the issue under the carpet. Remember how the
Government had claimed ignorance of his whereabouts, but when the Supreme
Court cracked the whip, the authorities suddenly located him. When Hasan Ali
was at large, the Government was reluctant to treat the matter too seriously,
maintaining that he was at best involved in tax evasion, albeit of a huge
proportion. For such dubious cover-ups the Government received an earful from
the apex court, which said that the case involved more than mere tax fraud.
It was a subject of money-laundering as well, with all the attendant consequences.
It was only after the authorities probing the issue realised the mood of the
court that they became serious about their job. On one occasion, they admitted
that the laundered money could have found its way to terrorist organisations
or shady international arms dealers. The Enforcement Directorate, now so active
that it has suspended an officer for shoddy investigation, has revealed that
Ali handled black money for a number of clients. The fact that the Pune-based
stud farm owner's name is being linked to dubious people, including international
arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, should be cause enough for the Government to
understand the gravity of the situation. But if it continues to prevaricate
in court it is perhaps because the UPA, more so the Congress, is worried over
the possibility of Ali spilling the beans. Already there are rumours that
he has been patronised by senior Congress leaders. Seen against this backdrop,
it is obvious what the fate of the Hasan Ali case would have been had the
Supreme Court not stepped in and virtually taken over the investigations.
But it's not just this one case that we should
be concerned about. The larger issue of black money stashed in secret foreign
bank accounts by various people and used for dangerous purposes, sometimes
against the very country from where the money has emanated, should give us
sleepless nights. One of the best ways to fight the menace is to track the
illegal funds and seize them. True, this is easier said than done, since the
money is parked in tax havens that have strong privacy laws which make it
extremely difficult to secure information about such accounts. Even so, had
there been adequate political will, the task would not have proved difficult.
After all, it is not just powerful countries like the US which have succeeded
in securing information from banking institutions about black money parked
with them by their citizens, even smaller countries like the Philippines and
Yemen have managed to get accounts containing illicit funds of their citizens
frozen. That happened because these countries approached the banks in tax
havens with evidence that the funds parked with them were proceeds from tax
fraud or other criminal deeds. Tragically, unlike them, India has so far largely
failed because it has merely forwarded the argument of tax evasion, which
tax havens consider at best a minor misdemeanour. It's scandalous that an
estimated $462 billion in illicit assets have gone out of the country and
the Government continues to twiddle its thumbs!
