Quaint are the ways politicians dart, duck and throw bouncers or indulge in bodyline bowling. The YSR Congress scored a self-goal and tried in vain to cover up its goof-up over a brazen smear campaign against Nara Lokesh by interpreting a conversation between him and Deputy Chief Minister Nimmakayala Chinnarajappa.
As if to pay it back on the same coin, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu took a rabbit out of his magic hat to rebuke his bete noire Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
The Chief Minister in an interview to Eenadu-ETV on Sunday suddenly talked about the disclosure of Rs. 10,000 crore of income by a person from Hyderabad during the recently concluded IDS-2016 (Income Disclosure Scheme). He said that it had to be established whether such a massive disclosure – India’s highest – was done by a businessman or a politician and that usually businessmen would not have stashed such a huge black money. Mr Naidu reportedly concluded that it must be a politician.He, however, did not quote his source of the information. He banked on the social media gossip.
By the very mention of it, Chandrababu Naidu, a partner of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), wittingly or unwittingly, debilitated the spirit of coalition. The Centre’s intent in introducing the IDS is to fill coffers by smoking the black money out of the holes. The Centre asserted that the names and identity of the people who disclosed such black money reserves with them would be kept strictly confidential.
However, the AP Chief Minister sought to know who the declarant of Rs. 10,000 crore of black money in the IDS-2016 was.
Ironically, the very fundamental of the scheme is to keep the secrecy of the persons disclosing their unauthorised income on which they will have to pay 45 percent penalty.
If the NDA Government has to concede Chandrababu Naidu’s demand, it will have to vitiate the very objective. Now should someone approach the court seeking the disclosure of the name of the person who made the highest disclosure or seek a direction to the AP Chief Minister to provide the details of the information he had about this and verify their veracity.
Though Naidu’s demand or the very mention about it is against the fabric of the rule intended, his political intent might surely have been to obliquely suggest that the declarant could be YS Jagan.
Legally speaking, whether Jagan can disclose any black money, as all his assets are embroiled in IT, ED and CBI cases, remains to be cross-checked.
Picking up the gauntlet from his boss, AP’s Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao went a few more steps ahead and alleged that the discloser of the Rs. 10,000 crore was Jagan. He also observed that Jagan converted his black money into white in the garb of the IDS. The minister produced a list of district-wiseassets purportedly held by Jagan and his benamis (proxies). He said that 94,038 acres worth Rs. 33,995 crore and 1.81 lakh acres of mines were all held by Jagan’s proxies. By any measure, the Government could act on these properties, establish their illegality and seize the same.
However, the TDP exposed its shallowness in this, and emerged as foolish as the YSRC in the Lokesh-Chinnarajappa episode did. Sad part is the Chief Minister himself triggering the controversy.
The shallowness of the charge made without any basis is established by an October 3 press statement issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
The circular said: “While announcing the results of the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 on 1st October, 2016 at a press conference in Delhi, the Honourable Finance Minister Shri ArunJaitley stressed that no break-up of these declarations on the basis of trades / cities / states shall be released in order to ensure absolute secrecy with respect to the identity of the declarants. CBDT clarifies that no official list of region wise declarations has been issued. The Income Tax Department is committed to maintaining strict confidentiality of declarations made under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016. CBDT requests the general public not to pay any heed to such fraudulent messages circulating on social media.”
A PTI report on October 3 said that Income Tax Department said “strict confidentiality” would be maintained about the identity of persons who have disclosed black money during the 4-month window under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS).
A huge sum of Rs 65,250 crore in black money was declared through the one-time declaration window that closed last week, marking the biggest-ever disclosure of hidden wealth that will rake in Rs 29,362 crore in taxes to the exchequer.
On the declarations compiled so far, the government will get Rs 29,362.5 crore in tax and penalty. The declarants can pay this amount in three (rpt) three instalments up to September 30, 2017. Half or Rs 14,681.25 crore will accrue this fiscal.
How will Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley take the TDP’s outreach vis-à-vis the scheme as opposed to using it to settling political scores with the Leader of the Opposition? Will they tell their alliance partner to desist from such comments?
All said and done, the IDS is used by the TDP to overshadow the controversy raised by the YSR Congress over Lokesh. But, surely it did not augur well for the ruling party as it has fallen flat on its face.
