Account-holders' list

October 30, 2014 01:19 am | Updated May 24, 2016 10:56 am IST

The topmost temple of justice in the country has rekindled the hope of retrieving the much-talked-about stash of black money (“SC orders govt. to submit all black money names today,” Oct 29). The court has rightly pulled up the government over its vacillation. It is time the government realised the gravity of the situation and tackled this social malaise.

Deepak Garg,Bellary

I always wonder what the position of this country would be were it not for timely interventions by the Supreme Court. We have a right to know who the people responsible for our plight are.

T. Anand Raj,Chennai

The black money chase under way, prodded along by the process of judicial monitoring, seems destined to be an exercise in futility in terms of getting the money back. The accounts would have been closed and the money trail gone cold. Unless we have instant access to information on Indian account- holders abroad and transactions therein, complete cooperation from all foreign banks and the power to get these accounts frozen on request, the outcome of attempts may be limited to the revelation of names, causing embarrassment to the account-holders, providing ammunition to the sensation-hungry media and satisfying national curiosity. These accounts represent only a fraction of the ill-gotten wealth. There are more complex avenues such as front companies in tax havens. For instance, the spoils of the 2G scam cannot be in Swiss bank accounts in the names of people we suspect!

A.N. Lakshmanan,Bangalore

It is vastly amusing that the electronic media seem to be in a tizzy over a few names. Can we believe that the “guilty” number less than 1,000? Do 627 bank accounts hold the $1-trillion that we are often told is the quantum of India’s black money? For a country where it is widely believed that virtually every rich or powerful person is a crook, as being crooked is sewn into the national ethos, should not the list run into a thousand pages or more? Should it not contain the names of some of the most revered and fawned upon across the political, business, bureaucratic, showbiz, sports, and arts communities? Those who are said to be account-holders must be amused. Let us remember that not one person in all the names and numbers in the Jain diaries case of the 1990s was convicted.

Kapil Kitchlu,Bangalore

The Congress need not be delighted by the way the Supreme Court has pulled up the Modi government. The government has at least attempted to find the names. In contrast, the UPA government was quite adept at concealing the names.

A. Srikantaiah,Bangalore

As someone who does not have a grounding in economics or the intricacies of the law of the land, I am unable to appreciate the sentiment which indicts those holding accounts in certain banks abroad. Of course, the government should worry about its agreements with foreign states and the right to privacy of all individuals, including those holding foreign accounts. It will be fair to term those accounts as holding “black money” only after a legal investigation and not before or even during the exercise. Much of the criticism in this case reeks of a feeling of moral superiority and appears intended to drive attention away from the issue of an exploitative and inegalitarian economic order within the nation itself.

Firoz Ahmad,New Delhi

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.