On My Radar: Lawyer’s song adopted by BJP

LAWYER’S SONG ADOPTED BY BJP

A patriotic song, “Hamara Hindustan”, written and sung by a senior Delhi tax lawyer, Sunil Kapoor, in support of India’s fight against the corona pandemic is breaking records on social media after its release on 25 April. It has been conceptualised and directed by Sujoy Mukerji, son of the late veteran actor Joy Mukerji.

The BJP has “adopted” this song for its fight against coronavirus. It has been filmed on the party’s Delhi Lok Sabha MP and Delhi Pradesh BJP chief, Manoj Tiwari, and Bollywood’s noted music director, Anandji bhai, amongst others. The BJP has posted the song on its Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Sujoy Mukerji and Sunil Kapoor said that they created it in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal. “We wanted to instil hope in the hearts of the people.” Sunil Kapoor said, “I sang the song keeping in mind the contributions being made by not only the frontline warriors in war against corona but also the common man from every walk of life.”

The song features, besides Manoj Tiwari and Anandji, Sujoy, Supriya, Vikas Bhalla, Sudhir Kapoor (Sunil Kapoor’s twin brother), Avneet Kaur, Deepak and Rajiv Thakur and former Bigg Boss contestants Somi-Saba and two children, Joyneel Mukerji and Aarav, and some film/TV personalities. Sunil Kapoor said, “I and my twin brother, Sudhir, met PM last year along with Anand ji to present him a copy of our book Peacock Feather. The PM had expressed a desire that the film industry must create more patriotic songs.”

WHY INTERVIEW RAJAN?

On Thursday, there was a “live telecast” on a national TV channel of Congress “prince” Rahul Gandhi “interviewing” former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Many in the party and outside are wondering who gave the idea to Gandhi to “interview” Rajan and for what purpose. It was quite intriguing and unprecedented in the sense that a nearly political head of a national party interviewing an ex-bureaucrat who was once the RBI Governor, appointed when the Congress was in power.

Was it to use the brand value of Rajan as an economist or for a personal intellectual uplift of Gandhi? It was an ill-designed attempt; rather, it gave a larger than life image to an ex-subordinate by his “ex-boss”. The “show” should have been designed as “Rajan in conversation with Gandhi”. Rajan’s “interview” has reinforced the propaganda of the BJP that Gandhi is still an amateur.

Gandhi was seen putting his views and words into Rajan’s mouth as if seeking confirmation. Contrary to his “rock star” image, Rajan was modest and non-aggressive.

A STRANGE FORCE

When the tax commissioner and his 50 men (young deputy commissioners) decided to utilise their lockdown time fruitfully for the larger good of the government, they must have thought that their initiative would earn them kudos. Instead what they got was a slap on their face and their 44-page report was consigned to the dustbin. In the report titled FORCE, or Fiscal Options and Response to Covid-19 Epidemic, the officials who referred to themselves as

“Team Force” had made a series of suggestions for revenue generation.

The three officers have been suspended: Sanjay Bahadur, the Principal Director (Investigation) of the Northeast region, Prakash Dubey, the Director of Department of Personnel and Training and IRS Association’s joint secretary, and Prashant Bhushan, the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi and IRS Association’s general secretary.
It is difficult to guess the motive of the IRS Association in commissioning such a report. The fact that the report has been put together after budget and lockdown is because it has devoted considerable space to ‘PM CARE Fund’ and pitches strongly for 100% tax deductible provisions for donation to the fund. This would require notification and possibly legislative support for deduction to be available to the new category of returns filers. So, it would appear to be a case of “sycophancy gone wrong”. Nothing new in other recommendations like higher tax rates for high income groups or inheritance tax. These are old chestnuts pulled out of mothballed reports of the National Institute of public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and even Department Committees. What must have disturbed the government was the suggestion to levy surcharge on foreign companies when advisers want India to woo foreign companies which may be leaving China.

One is not sure how they selected the 50 Deputy Commissioners for inputs. Most of the group seems to be west zone based. Surprisingly, there were no joint CIT/Additional CIT and Commissioner (Appeals) who will be of 20 to 30 years’ seniority. The general drill is that when the Central Board of Direct Taxes wants to constitute a Committee, it goes through a process and more often than not take approval of FM. Such reports are internally processed by tax planning division. Organisations such as the NIPFP are engaged.

The release of the report to the press was obviously not an innocent act. It may be some kind of internal rivalry in the Association. The three officers must be having about four years’ services left. They will come up for consideration for Chief Commissioner post in two years. Any pending disciplinary proceedings will mean they will miss it, affecting their pension in the event a major penalty is levied.