Saturday, April 15, 2023

The fig leaf could fall.

"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning in the liquor policy case." India Today. In March, "The Enforcement Directorate...arrested former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on money laundering charges in excise policy case after questioning him inside Tihar jail." HT. "Two months after the Income Tax (I-T) Department conducted 'survey operations' in a tax evasion case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case against news broadcaster BBC for foreign exchange violations." DH. In February, "BBC offices in India have been searched as part of an investigation by income tax authorities. The searches in New Delhi and Mumbai come weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary in the UK critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi." BBC. "The British government has strongly defended the BBC and its editorial freedom in Parliament after the Income-Tax Department's survey operations on the UK-headquartered media corporation's Mumbai and Delhi offices." NDTV. "Now data about FDI (foreign direct investment) remittance from India has revealed that almost 50 percent of the foreign funding for Gautam Adani's firms came from companies linked to his relatives. Between 2017 and 2022, the port to airport conglomerate received $5.7 billion in overseas investments, of which $2.6 billion came from entities connected to the Adani family." FPI. "The Financial Times has said that it will not be complying with the Adani Group's demand to take down an article" which originally reported the story, The Wire. "The Union finance ministry turns remarkably coy when it is time to go after a labyrinth of shell companies allegedly linked to Vinod Adani, elder brother of Gautam Adani, and housed in a variety of tax havens." The Telegraph. "The reason for this benevolence is as bizarre as it is shocking: the Modi government has claimed that 'an offshore shell company is not defined in the Acts administered by the ministry of finance'." "A Chinese company connected with the Adani Group is involved with building critical infrastructure in India." Adani Watch. "It operates from premises owned by Adani Enterprises, the flagship of Adani Group, but is owned by Chang Chien-Ting (also known as Morris Chang), son of Chang Chung-Ling, who has been director of many Adani companies over the years and is said to a business associate of the 'elusive' Vinod Adani." Meanwhile, Former Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Satya Pal Malik "revealed that the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama (wikipedia) was the result of 'incompetence'," and that "the CRPF had asked for aircraft to transport its jawans but was refused by the Union Home Ministry." The Wire. "More importantly, he said all these lapses were raised by him directly when Modi called him from ouside Corbett Park shortly after the Pulwama attack. He said the prime minister told him to keep quiet about it and not tell anyone." The fig leaf could be blown away by more buffets. Is next year's election becoming fraught? Nemesis awaits.            

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