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ECONOMY
Black Money: The era
of ‘Drain of Wealth’
India’s neighbour, Pakistan, appears to be more vigilant in the fight against the
black money by punishing its former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10-year
imprisonment. When would India take action against its loan defaulters or illegal
40-41 Shekhar Suman Sinha.indd
Due to the lack of
wealth, India was
ecognising the ideals unable to invest Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul
9,000 crore in 2016. Nirav Modi,
of colonial India and its
in agriculture,
heroes in independent
Choksi are among 36 businessper-
industry and trade,
India has become a ro-
sons who have absconded abroad
R mantic experience. We as a result the after being named in scams or mas-
sive loan defaults, the government of
do not want to talk much about the
country got stuck
socia-economic causes that were the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told
the Parliament.
core issues of freedom struggle. Very
MJ Akbar, Minister of State,
few Indians are aware that the entire
freedom struggle movement was in the poverty cycle Ministry of External Affairs, said
focused on the Dada Bhai Nauroji’s country through political forums. the government has sent extradi-
theory ‘Drain of Wealth’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tion requests to concerned foreign
After this principle of Nauroji,
Indians had discovered the real said that if this alleged black money countries. They handed a list to the
comes to India then every Indian will Parliament.
‘Drain of Wealth’? SHEKHAR SUMAN SINHA writes causes of poverty in colonial India. get around 15-15 lakh rupees. In June 2018, the Swiss National
He said that the East India Company From these figures counted on Bank released annual data, accord-
was sending money from India to fingers, the semi-educated new Indi- ing to which Indians deposited
Britain through its own policies. The an middle-class was charmed. Poli- 50 per cent more in the year 2017
British used to buy Indian goods and ticians took advantage of this craze than last year and this amount has
send it to the UK without having and made it national issue to win become around 7000 crore. The
any British pound sterling. The rich the 2014 general elections. Indian bank also said that in the last three
Indians were also depositing their National Congress faced defeat and years there were fewer tendencies to
money in British banks. This process under the leadership of PM Naren- deposit money.
lasted long in the British period. The dra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party The Swiss National Bank report
result was that India and Indians government promised to bring black did not surprise the Indians. India
lacked wealth. money back to the India. seems to ignore the promises which
Due to the lack of wealth, India Modi government took sev - the great politicians had made to
was unable to invest in agriculture, eral steps to curb black money, in them from the political forums.
industry and trade, due to which which the demonetisation and tax People of this country have forgot-
the country got stuck in the poverty information exchange agreement ten that the poverty of India was the
cycle. are the most prominent. As a result result of the ‘Drain of Wealth’ and
After understanding this knowl- of the demonetisation, many Indi- that the country was trapped in the
edge, almost all the famous histori- ans, especially small-time traders poverty cycle and is still trying to
ans and politicians made this idea lost businesses and some even lost get out.
the basis of criticism of British rule. livelihood. India’s neighbours appear to be
After this, it was believed that mon- In the fight against black money, more vigilant than India in the fight
ey and capital must remain in the the aware media is also supporting against Black Money. A Pakistani
country. the government. In the second year court sentenced former Prime Min-
In independent India, ‘Drain of of Modi’s tenure, in February 2015, ister Nawaz Sharif to 10-year and
wealth’ has emerged as a new form. a noted newspaper released a list seven-year sentence to his daugh-
Influenced by European authors, of 1195 Indians whose account and ter Mariyam in the Panama Paper
Indian writers also started address- money are in the Geneva branch of leak case in July, 2018, but India has
ing it with the term ‘black money’ by HSBC. In the year 2016, the news- not yet convicted any defaulter in
racial discrimination. Some thinkers paper published the names of 500 the loan defaulting or black money
prefer to call it undeclared assets. He more Indians in the Panama Paper cases. With the lack of wealth, we
also sees it as an undeclared proper- Leak case, quoted by the Interna- cannot hope to flourish business in
ty in the country. However, in politics tional Consortium of Investigative the country. We need to learn from
it was mainly used for illegal money Journalism, which had an illegal the history of India. There should be
deposited in Switzerland and other account abroad. a stringent punishment and laws to
European banks. But these efforts did not stop the check on the black money or illegal
It was believed that if this ille - ‘Drain of Wealth’ and neither the ‘Drain of Wealth’.
gal ‘Drained Money’ came to India, alleged black money deposited in (Shekhar Suman Sinha, Research
poverty here would end. Politicians foreign countries. Famous Indian Scholar, Banaras Hindu University)
calculated this by counting their businessman Vijay Mallya escaped
fingers and told the people of the to Britain with a loan of about LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM
TEHELKA / 15 SEPTEMBER 2018 40 WWW.TEHELKA.COM TEHELKA / 15 SEPTEMBER 2018 41 WWW.TEHELKA.COM
2 9/1/2018 3:28:31 PM 40-41 Shekhar Suman Sinha.indd 3 9/1/2018 3:28:37 PM