No Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts – BJP’s poll promises on black money remain a dream

It is a real anti-climax – the admission of the CBDT that only 638 people have come out in open and declared an amount of Rs 3,770 crore as a part of the one-time compliance window for disclosing black money is far removed from the poll promises of BJP that they would bring back all black money stashed abroad within 100 days of taking over office. This has been revealed in zeenews.india.com dated 2 October 2015.

Obviously, the common man’s dream of getting Rs 15 lakh credited to his bank account sound hollow now and will remain a dream. In this connection, excerpts of report published in financialexpress.com dated 29 October 2014 is relevant – ‘ … the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were declaring from the rooftops that the black money stashed abroad will be brought back within 100 days. (But) when it came to declaring the names, they just released three. … Ramdev had said that more than 50,000 people have stashed money away in foreign banks and (prime minister) Narendra Modi had said during the election campaign that Rs 15 lakh will be deposited in the bank accounts of all Indians once the black money is recovered… ‘ Incidentally, there are 442 crorepatis in the 16th Lok Sabha with the BJP leading the crorepati club with 237. Its ally Telugu Desam Party has the richest member, whose assets cross Rs 683 crore. As to other parties, the Congress has 35 crorepatis, the AIADMK 29 and the Trinamool Congress 21. The figures speak for themselves – very seldom is one born a crorepati. It takes plenty of guile to create the crores and, stashing them in foreign banks is the solution. Therefore, trying to unearth and bring the defaulters to book would be a really uphill task. (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Baba Ramdev disillusioned with BJP within one year - lauds Rahul Gandhi

Yog Guru Baba Ramdev has always been a staunch supporter of the BJP but, as the Modi government is celebrating its one year in office, Ramdev has expressed his disillusionment. He made the comments while talking to a TV new channel and it has been reported in indiatoday.intoday.in dated 19 May 2015.
He has lauded the efforts of Rahul Gandhi to revive the Congress party, which suffered a major setback in the 2014 Assembly elections. He has also said that Rahul has injected new life in congress and has shown up the Modi government as anti-poor.

Ramdev has gone to the extent of saying that some of the BJP leaders have become arrogant after their landslide victory in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Of course, he has praised PM Narendra Modi, but has also emphasized that the central government is gradually getting stuck with an anti-farmer image which needs to be coerced.
On the issue of black money, his enthusiasm appears to have been dampened because he, like so many others, had harbored an impression that bringing the stashed black money was a simple affair and that the earlier governments had not put in proper efforts.
The Baba is now a more wise man – he has realized that it is not that easy and simple affair and he has indicated that he would wait till June and then decide on the future course of action on black money.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the Iron Man of India who India forgot

Long before Narendra Modi came to power, he had visions of a statue dedicated to Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India on the lines of the Statue of Liberty in the United States and, on coming to power in Delhi, he has set the ball in motion by announcing that 31st October be henceforth be celebrated as National Unity Day dnaindia.com.
Many may not know why he earned the sobriquet of the Iron Man - he was a man of principles as well as a fierce nationalist. His philosophy always was ‘nation first’. His success in integrating around 565 princely states after independence earned for him the sobriquet of ‘Iron Man’. His policy ensured that the princely states had no other option but to merge with India.
This day was, till last year, identified as the day Indira Gandhi was shot dead.
There is no dispute that both the names of Vallabhbhai Patel and Indira Gandhi bring up memories and the Nation owes a lot to them but, dedicating a statue to the Sardar would be a fitting tribute to one of the founding fathers of our country who had direct roles to play in our freedom.
It is strange that no political party has, so far, harbored any idea to honor the Iron Man who had been entrusted by Mahatma Gandhi to organize the historical Dandi march which he successfully did.
Full credit should now go to Narendra Modi to revive our glorious past.
Building such a monument would take decades and would need crores of rupees and, the necessary funds could come from the uncovering of black money stashed away in foreign banks by the rich and famous.