New Delhi: Critics of previous finance minister Arun Jaitley within the ruling BJP and its affiliates — led by Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy — have now trained their guns on his successor, Nirmala Sitharaman.
Their grouse: The government’s decision to ‘compulsorily retire’ senior Income Tax Department official Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, along with 11 others Monday. Srivastava had spearheaded the investigation against NDTV and former finance minister P. Chidambaram.
Sitharaman, who is in the middle of consultations and preparations for the budget that is scheduled to be presented on 5 July, was criticised — tacitly and even directly — by Swamy, Ashwani Mahajan, co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, and S. Gurumurthy, who was appointed to the Reserve Bank of India’s central board of directors by the Modi government.
“If reports I hear are true that Sanjay Shrivastava a totally honest, courageous IT commissioner who exposed the NDTV fraud & fought PC Chidambaram for 15 yrs, bore all persecution, is being compulsory retired, it means Lutyens, PC & NDTV lobbies are still at work in this govt,” tweeted Gurumurthy.
If reports I hear are true that Sanjay Shrivastava a totally honest, courageous IT commissioner who exposed the NDTV fraud & fought PC Chidambaram for 15 yrs, bore all persecution, is being compulsory retired, it means Lutyens, PC & NDTV lobbies are still at work in this govt
— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) June 10, 2019
Srivastava was among 12 income tax officials who were forced to retire by the Modi government over allegations, including fraud, extortion and sexual harassment.
Also read: Five things that Nirmala Sitharaman left for Rajnath Singh to address urgently
Swamy joins in
Swamy too joined the chorus against Sitharaman, saying he will fight Srivastava’s case and also take the matter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I am taking up the case of S K Srivastava….who was investigating NDTV, since there is no new substantive case against him and Mdm Sitharaman has relied on PC time filed bogus cases, to terminate his services possibly to favour NDTV. First I will write to PM”, he tweeted.
I am taking up the case of S K Srivastava I-T Commissioner who was investigating NDTV, since there is no new substantive case against him and Mdm Sitharaman has relied on PC time filed bogus cases, to terminate his services possibly to favour NDTV.First I will write to PM.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 11, 2019
Swamy has been a known Jaitley-baiter, often disagreeing and questioning the latter’s decisions and intent as finance minister in the first term of PM Modi.
Mahajan alleged that Srivastava was framed under false sexual misconduct cases by Chidambaram. He added that the official “deserves support” of the current government to pursue cases against Chidambaram but he “has been removed unfairly”.
SK Shrivastava was framed under false sexual misconduct cases by PC and his stooges during UPA rule. It was done because he had established PC involvement in NDTV frauds.
Shrivastava deserves support of govt to pursue cases against PC but he has been removed unfairly. Why?? https://t.co/TzwCwLNlVA pic.twitter.com/MMA4zT3Gw3
— ASHWANI MAHAJAN (@ashwani_mahajan) June 11, 2019
The Swadeshi Jagran Manch has long opposed operation of e-commerce entities, arguing that they flout local regulations and adversely impact local traders.
Also read: Nirmala Sitharaman is India’s first woman FinMin but has little time to rest on that laurel
Subramaniam swamy is probably the only honest politician in this country. He may be not be politically diplomatic but he is a nationalist par excellence.
Sir, I am also one of the 12 officers who are given compulsory retirement under 56J. I am only promotee IRS officer in the list of 12 officers. I have completed 27 years of service and till date there is no charge of corruption against me. Even in the case about which it is mentioned in the news item, there is no charge of corruption. The charge levelled against me in the news item is that I had attached loan account of Jitendra kumar shaw with the bank. The charge is factually incorrect, first his loan account was not with the bank, his account was with HDFC ltd who is financing entity. And I had given ITCP 16 to the HDFC ltd to protect the revenue. As per ITCP16, the HDFC was restrained from transferring the ownership of property mortgaged with them against the loan given by them to Jitendra kumar shaw. I have given my detailed explanation to the department on March 22, 2019 and also requested that opportunity of being heard given to me. But till date the deptt has neither given me opportunity of personal hearing nor given me any counter questionnaire on the reply filed by me. When I find that deptt will not reply then I had filed a case in CAT and CAT had stayed the departmental proceedings and called for the counter affidavit. The CAT had also given directions that the name of the applicant shall be considered in DPC held during pendency of OA. But the department did the contempt of orders CAT and not considered the name of the applicant in Promotion orders passed on 16.5.2019. I thereafter filed contempt in the court against chairman CBDT. Notice has been issued to chairman CBDT , by name for contempt of court orders. Thereafter, I had filed RTI applications to CVC, PDGIT(vigilance), chairman CBDT, CCIT lucknow and CCIT Kanpur for inspection of concerned records. The concerned record of vaijanti gupta which is root cause is not available with the department and department has denied inspection of complaint folder of the applicant. It seems department felt offended by the case filed by me in CAT and also by issue of contempt notice to the chairman.
In 27 years of service there is no adverse remark in any of my ACR/APAR. My integrity column has always remark of “beyond doubt”.
Sir, its a huge injustice to me. Kindly also take up my case.
It is neither unusual nor surprising, they want some alibi to show their presence.
Nirmalaji Met Sasi Tharoor at hospital , Congress candidate in the Trivandrum Constitancy , while she was there to Campaign for BJP Candidate kummanam Rajasekharan. This Create diന്നinishing The bright chance of kummanam. She had Created unnecesary sympathy towards Sasi.
NDTV and Chidambaram have long been on the BJP’s hit list. It therefore defies logic that such a person is removed from office unless there are really compelling reasons.
Also we need to understand that Income Tax officials have too much discretionary power. It is also a department that can appeal against its own orders leaving too much room for corruption, which really needs to be weeded out.
Mr. Subramaniam, Mr. Gurumurthy. Please be wise and discuss the merits or demerits of case with FM first and understand her/ministry’s version too. After that you should derive any conclusions. Your deriving conclusions are one sided and half cooked, if you don’t discuss with FM on this first.
You people are wise enough. How can you Mr. Subramaniam and Mr. Gurumurthy make such half cooked issues to public and create confusions in public.
Mr. Subramaniam and Mr. Gurumurthy, though you don’t have mass following but you have some respect that you have earned in some corners (atleast I and like me many do have respect for you two). Please don’t bring down respect earned by bringing out matters half cooked as this one of Mr. Shrivastava’s retirement case.
Ms sitharaman is a dedicated person. Please have a proper discussions with her.
Such conspiracy theories Only serve to further highlight the entrenched vested interests which appear to be the enduring legacy of our entire ” democratic ” political process. As citizens, after the initial hopes, given the “stable and strong ” government ,
are already unravelling.
The cynicism of incipient ” fixing and setting” in the corridors of power which has given mandates to parties or coalitions to govern was and is Always, inalieably for a better and brighter future, for better life and to realize aspirations. The nervousness and anxiety in the current unequal playing field is now again denegerating into the predictable despair. The disconnect remains palpable that the citizens are discharging their constitutional obligations which appears one-sided. Once the battle of the hustings is over, it’s business as usual for all. The current controversy is another leaf plucked from the tree of Hope.
Totally irrelevant and unwarranted as well as avoidable. The ” matured ” democracy is drunk on the barrels of……. The electoral process appears to and Will remain in the cellar as something to be dusted out during the next election. Wasting the opportunity to govern, to live up to the promises made, to be patriotic in the service of the motherland. By the way, the Faujis too are watching, waiting…
Whatever happened is totally unfair. You need to dig deep before taking taking action against such senior people
With this act of removing honest officers ,as we read from magazines it appears Modi is going fail again in bringing economic offenders to books.
When we hear from two great erudite,honest Indians like shri.Gurumurthy and shri.Dr.Subramanyam Swamy that this new cabinet is faltering again ,this country has no hopes.This time Modi won because of very bad,self centred family parties like CONGRESS,DMK,TRS,TDP,RJD,RLD,SP,BSP, NCP,NC,PDP etc.
But Modiji lacks the vision of larger picture of how to take the country forward.If he does not take the likes of Dr.Swamy on board then certainly Modi will fail again.Simply can not understand what takes him this long to catch the illegal money of he likes of Sonia who is bleeding the country.
Sadness fills the heart to see the politicians looting our nation and even when people like Dr.Swamy are offering their services,can not understand why Modi is ignoring them.Not good for our country.
Who told you Sonia has illegal money, is it just your imagination & personal hatred or do you have any proof. If you have proof why can’t you show them to PM Modi??
Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman is intelligent and honest. However, she is new to the job. She probably didn’t have the time to check the details and merits on an individual basis, and authorized an en masse removal via retirement of all officers with cases against them. The courts, and eventually the supreme court, will sort it out.
Nirmala Sitharaman is not powerful enough to remove these officials without the approval of higher up..
”It is so sad and outrageous that men of eminence and knowledge as Sri Swamy and Sri Gurumurthy are defending and supporting this compulsorily retired officer.
While political and adversarial revenge or retribution is one aspect, supporting a man who could pen the kind of obnoxious statements as he did that can be seen in the judgement below, is inexcusable.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/99051061/
Shri swamy is a member of Rajya Sabha and shri Gurumurthy is on Reserve Bank Board or something, by virtue of their connections to ruling party.
Despite whatever political philosophy bjp rss and nda have, it is outrageous that the defenders of a man as obnoxious as this are permitted to be associated with the ruling dispensation in any manner.
While the action against the man is appreciable, continuing to allow men who support such a man to be associated with the ruling dispensation in any manner will drastically bring down whatever respectability and social acceptability Shri Modi and and his government has in public mind, if only the public know about the kind of behaviour exhibited by a man as despicable as this.
While the ignorance of Indian people may allow them to continue in power winning elections, actions as these of accepting support Of men like Sawney and Gurumurthy will call into serious question, the very fundamental legitimacy of rule of law and basic decency of men involved with political system in India.
How even congress allowed this saga to go on And did not use the powers available under law to deal drastically with a man of this nature and allowed him to deal with public that are innocent of his nature and personality is un understandable.
Congress has too much Of sinful record like this.
They must come out and apologise to the people of India for all the obnoxious things they have done in the past by their actions and non actions.
What a shame, what a shame!”
Jokers should know that the Bhaktas are defending murderous criminals and even giving them constitutional positions. Was the Chowkidar was sleepy during his previous five year rule?
Politicians entered in governance body with power of absolute majority must not use autocraticity & above constitutional provisions in our democratic structure. Such action of force retiring needs to be reversed immediately to propagate honesty among honest govt administrators.
If the story is True, then srivastav must be retained.
It’s a daring decision of Nirmala Seetharaman. One or two mistakes might occur in such decisions. I’m sure she will correct such mistakes, if any.
Two penny socialist country and her two penny ’finance ministers’ only deserve to be pooh poohed.
He always has something to criticise
Why cant he then take up some critical post and become productive instead.
Sitaraman should explain on whose behalf she took action. She should understand that she is not a mass leader. Any erratic decision would be trolled in social media and bring down her image drastically.
There are Lutyens media continuously targeting S.Gurumurthy,,Subramanian swamy is also not surprising.People now today never and ever believe the words of Lutyens media.NDTV a popular Lutyens media and its news are unreliable,and its debates are always one sided.
I don’t think Nirmala ji doesn’t have finance exposure. Her knowledge of economics and experience is sufficient as the budget is done was a group effort and economists discussion. The final verdict is of hers.so it is possible for her to make the best of her efforts in the discussion, election mandate frame work and people and economy centric will be a best budget.
Even before a month of formation of the government finance minister is seen to have removed a honest official of the IT department sends a very wrong signal.Mrs NirMala sitharaman must answer to the accusations.