Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the Lok Sabha on Monday, asserted that unlike during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) reign, investigative agencies under the BJP government are independent.
In his Motion of Thanks reply to the President’s address, PM Modi highlighted the increased vigilance under the BJP government, saying, “During their (UPA) tenure, investigative agencies were used for political purposes only. Let me shed some light – under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), we registered twice the cases than earlier.”
The Prime Minister drew a comparison between the UPA government and the current administration, stressing on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) confiscation of properties.
“During the Congress tenure, ED confiscated properties worth ₹5,000 crore only. However, during our tenure, the ED has confiscated properties worth ₹1 lakh crore. You will have to shell out the plundered money,” he declared.
PM Modi attributed the reduced influence of middlemen on the poor to the government’s initiatives such as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and mobile phone integration.
“Now middlemen are finding it difficult to loot the poor. We have identified the power of DBT, Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and mobile phone. We have directly transferred more than ₹30 lakh crore to the people’s bank accounts,” he stated, challenging a past Congress Prime Minister’s claim that only ₹15 out of every ₹100 reached the poor.
The Prime Minister’s comments came as a counter to allegations from the Opposition regarding the misuse of central probe agencies for political gains.
Opposition parties have consistently accused the BJP-led Centre of employing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against political opponents.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a recent interview, supported the government’s stance, stating that investigative agencies are professional and take ample time to prepare their cases.
“It is very well to use that as a whip to hit at the ruling party to say you’re using ED or CBI. These are professional agencies and take ample time to prepare their cases because everything is being monitored by the court,’ she was quoted by a national news broadcasting channel as saying.
