Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed his party leaders and BJP MPs to declare to the authorities before 31 December all unaccounted cash and assets that they or their relatives may have stashed, or else face the consequences. PM Modi has also given a free hand to investigative agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to go after black money hoarders, including top businessmen and industrialists.
In his first interaction with his party MPs after demonetisation was announced on 8 November, the PM is believed to have told the MPs that this is the best time to declare the unaccounted cash and assets if they have any, as after 31 December no one would come to their rescue, a senior BJP MP, who was present at the meeting told The Sunday Guardian. The MPs met the PM at the BJP parliamentary party meeting.
The MP said that the PM has issued the same “warning” to each and every MP he has interacted with ever since 8 November. According to an official in the Prime Minister’s Office, a top officer with the Enforcement Directorate, who had come to meet the PM, was given the clear message to go after black money hoarders. “This senior ED officer, after handing over a bouquet to the PM and having tea, showed him a list of 32 individuals who had the maximum unaccounted cash. The PM while glancing over the list told him that he had a free hand to act against the corrupt and that he need not worry about any pressures from anyone,” the official from the PMO stated.
The PM has also given the message to his colleagues that they should not try to build pressure on the authorities who are acting against black money hoarders and any such incident will have repercussions. “He has clearly said that if any black money is found from us or our relatives, he will not help us,” said the BJP MP, who has huge business interests.
After getting signals from the PMO, the ED and CBI started acting intensively against the hoarders of black money all over the country and even arrested officials of the Reserve Bank of India and some other banks who had collaborated with black money hoarders.