BJP Workers Were Involved in Money Laundering During Demonetization

As we approach the first anniversary of one of the most devastating events in India’s history – the demonetization of 86% of currency on 8 November 2016 – one thing is very clear. All the high goals set forth by Prime Minister Modi to be achieved by this move have turned out to be failures. No black money has come back, terrorism has not been controlled, counterfeit currency has not stopped, India has not gone cashless. 

The PM had also claimed that in the furnace fires of demonetization, the good will become separated from the bad. A survey of media reports suggests that BJP workers and leaders were deeply involved in laundering money during the black days when old notes were being exchanged for new ones at banks. There has been a lingering suspicion that many BJP leaders knew about the demonetization and hence were able to convert lakhs of rupees in old notes to new ones without getting caught.

This suspicion has been fuelled by media reports of BJP leaders being caught red-handed with old and undisclosed new notes from different states.

Two days before the announcement of the policy, on November 6, Sanjeev Kamboj, head BJP Legal Cell Punjab tweeted the picture of Rs 2,000 notes, an incident that was widely questioned by opposition parties.

In December 2016, Manish Sharma, a BJP leader from West Bengal was arrested along with several others and an amount of Rs 33 lakh in old notes was recovered from them.

J V R Arun, BJP’s youth wing secretary from Salem, Tamil Nadu, who actively campaigned in support of demonetization was arrested by Tamil Nadu Police after being caught with several bundles of currency notes worth Rs 20.55 lakh.

Rs 91 lakh in demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 was seized from a private vehicle owned by to BJP leader and Maharashtra Cooperative Minister Subhash Deshmukh, in the second-week after demonetization.

On November 9, one day after the announcement, Pinky Sahu, BJP leader and the chairperson of Chhabra Municipality in Baran district, Rajasthan was caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh in old Rs 1,000 notes, it has been reported.

 A video released by Aam Aadmi Party raised questions whether the country’s corporate giants Adanis and Ambanis knew about the announcement beforehand. In it, Bhawani Singh Rajawat, BJP MLA from Rajasthan’s Kota in the conversation says, “Adani, Ambani and others knew about it (demonetisation) beforehand. They were given a hint and they had made arrangements accordingly. You (government) should have printed the new currency as per requirement” reported New Indian Express.

Gali Janardhan Reddy, a former leader of BJP in Karnataka, and one of the kingpins of the mining scam, spent Rs.450 crore on his daughter’s wedding right at the time when all over country people were desperately trying to get hold of a few rupees to survive and to exchange their meager savings in old notes to new ones. Similarly, Nitin Gadkari’s daughter got married in extravagant style during that period. Both weddings were attended by bigwigs of BJP. Gadkari reportedly hired 50 aircraft to ferry guests. People have long wondered - how were such lavish weddings were organized and paid for when currency was not available?

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