An FIR has been filed in Bengaluru, against Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J.P. Nadda, unnamed officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and some Karnataka BJP leaders, on the orders of a special court of the city, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 384 (extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 34 (acts by multiple individuals with a shared intent).
This unprecedented decision is based on a complaint filed by Adarsh R. Iyer, the co-president of Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath (JSP), asserting that the accused allegedly committed the crime of extorting Rs 8,000 crores from different companies by using the ED, an instrument of the state, in the guise of donation to the BJP under the now-scrapped Electoral Bond Scheme (EBS) after being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The FIR was registered after the magistrate’s court in Bengaluru took cognisance of Iyer’s complaint. The Karnataka high court has stayed further proceedings on the FIR and has said that it would examine it in the next hearing on October 22.
A finance minister facing an FIR on alleged crime of extortion and criminal conspiracy is unprecedented in the history of independent India. The naming of Sitharaman, Nadda and others, and the punishable offence they allegedly committed is so grave that it would have shaken the conscience of the nation at any other time.
The finance minister’s action, according to the FIR, in ‘extorting’ money for BJP by employing state machinery is a serious matter. The question of allegedly unleashing the ED to force companies to purchase electoral bonds for the BJP was flagged by the Supreme Court in its February 2024 judgement which held the scheme as unconstitutional. When the Modi regime argued in the court that the disclosure of the identity of donors and the amount they contributed under scheme would infringe the freedom of individuals, the court sharply and presciently observed, “The disclosure of the particulars of the contributions may affect the freedom of individuals to the limited extent that the political party with the information could coerce those who have not contributed to them”.
More importantly the court made a scathing observation that “Under the current scheme, it is still open to the political party to coerce persons to contribute…Thus, the argument of the Union of India, that the Electoral Bond Scheme protects the confidentiality of the contributor akin to the system of secret ballot is erroneous.”
It further said, “…the right to information of the voter includes the right to information of financial contributions to a political party because of the influence of money in electoral politics (through electoral outcomes) and governmental decisions (through a seat at the table and quid pro quo arrangements between the contributor and the political party)”.
The court’s incisive observations seem to be coming true. The magnitude of the alleged corruption and extortion associated with the electoral bonds scheme prompted economist Prabhakar Parakala to describe it not only as “the biggest scam of the world” but also as the “Modi Gate”.
The title of Gabriel Garcıa Marquez’s famous book Chronicle of a Death Foretold may be altered in light of the Supreme Court’s observations and the allegations made in the FIR to characterise them as ‘Chronicle of a Scam Foretold’.
Prime Minister Modi famously said “Na khaunga na khane dunga”, asserting that he would neither be corrupt nor allow anyone else to be corrupt. The recent allegations in the FIR make Modi’s claims sound hollow.
He, who waxed eloquent against corruption and unfairly targeted the opposition parties with ED raids and arrests, has now been caught red handed with his own finance minister facing an FIR for the alleged crime of extortion by using state agencies. Modi should ask the finance minister to step down while the rest of us would do well to remember Amit Shah, who said, “aap chronology samajhiye (understand the chronology)”.
SN Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to former President KR Narayanan.
