Ram Jethmalani shoots 12 stinging questions to Arun Jaitley on black money!

Rajya Sabha MP and senior criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani published an article in the form of an advertisement in The Indian Express, criticising the Narendra Modi government for its stance on the black money issue. In the ad published on April 28, the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member posed 12 stinging questions to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asking his view on bringing back the money from foreign bank accounts into India. ”Whether it was the previous government or the present one, my battle for the return of our national illegally parked in foreign banks continues unabated,” Jethmalani wrote. Earlier on April 26, the reputed lawyer had asked the same 12 questions to Arun Jaitley on microblogging site Twitter, demanding answers about his performance as a minister on the black money issue. Here are the 12 questions that have caused a furore:
1- Have you read the judgment of the SC, and the directions it gave to your predecessor in office,Mr. Chidambaram?
2- Did you as MP and Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha care to see whether the judgment was being followed?
3- Are you willing to admit that socially, politically and economically you have more than normal cordial relations with Chidambaram and the NDTV Mgmt, and U had no occasion whatsoever to find fault with the manner in which Chidambaram performed his national duty to recover Black Money?
4- Do you admit that after becoming Minister of Finance all that you have done as disclosed in your reply in Parliament on 08.07.2014 is entering into ‘Amended Double Taxation Avoidance’ treaties?
5- Do you really understand the meaning and implications of the ‘Amended Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty’ contemplated under Section 90 of the Income Tax Act? Note that this amendment is the first of its kind in our country, and the motives are not far to seek. Do you know that the DTAT only applies to legitimate businesses which according to laws of more than one State are liable to pay tax on .the same income? Do you realize that obtaining information under the amended DTAT completely abandons the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which is specifically drafted for obtaining information about money launderers? Do you know that under the ‘amended double taxation .treaty’ only prospective information can be asked for, and not information prior to signing of the treaty?
6- How many amended double taxation treaties have you entered into till date after becoming the finance Minister?
7- Why have you not availed of the German offer to share information about the 1400 Liechtenstein Bank account holders, which the Supreme Court has dealt with in paragraphs 64 and 65 of its judgment? This disclosure has nothing to do with the double taxation avoidance treaty. .Do you know that the USA has used this information and collected penalties from a bank & the disclosure of mere names as part of the punishment?
8- Have you learnt by now that the SC has ordered the correspondence between the GOI and Germany about the Liechtenstein Bank names to be disclosed?
9- Do you know that only recently about 17 letters were disclosed by Solicitor General to the Supreme Court, and these letters, .both incoming or outgoing have names of the authors and addresses blacked out in an irretrievable manner? Have you taken any steps to find out who these forgers are, and do you realise they are the ones who should be interrogated and almost certainly arrested?
10- Have you read the Supreme Court’s interpretation about the so called confidentiality clause in the DTAT with Germany, explaining the restricted nature of the prohibition of disclosure?
11- Have you read the report ‘Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens’, 2011, by the BJP Task Force which included Prof. Vaidyanathan and your friend Gurumurthy, which clearly advised that recourse to DTAT is wholly useless and futile?
12- Was the statement of the new BJP President, Amit Shah, that the promise of repatriation of black money was a mere election ‘jumla’, made with your concurrence? You have never disowned it, and neither has anyone else in the government. This is confession enough of an intentional fraud on the nation.
This is not the first time that Jethmalani has slammed Modi government and Jaitley for not taking enough effort to recover the black money stacked abroad. “I have gone and met the Germans, they said that no effort has been made to take the money back,” he had said, accusing the government for not being serious about the issue.
In October 2014, Jethmalani had written a fiery letter to Jaitley and accused him of misleading the Supreme Court of India over the black money issue. “Your action in approaching the Supreme Court with the kind of Petition that you have filed is one of the most ill advised steps taken,” Jethmalani had written. Now all eyes are on Jaitley to see if he replies to the 12 questions posed by Jethmalani.