colour of black money - West Bengal hour of shame ! - பாடுபட்டுத் தேடிப் பணத்தைப் புதைத்து

 

What is the colour of black money ?  Often the talk dwells on ‘black money’, nay not the colour of money.  Corruption, hoarding of money, black money and stashing money in foreign banks have been haunting the Nation and have been the themes of many blockbuster films where the incidence of black money is very high ! -  the  2007 Rajinikanth movie ‘Sivaji- the boss’  had a great narrative on converting black money into white and how it could help those in need of money. In another Rajinism -   “The rich get richer and the poor, poorer.”- Rajni utters  first in Tamil and then repeated for the punch in English. For those who have seen the film, the plot would unravel and show how stacks of money stashed away was brought out.

Kanthaswamy, (Vikram)  a CBI officer in the Economic Offences Wing,  groups with his friends, collects money with his friends,  grants the wishes of the needy, who write letters and tie on the tree at Thiruporur Kandasamy temple – in the disguise of  an anthropomorphic rooster superhero known as Kanthaswamy. In one of his raids,

he discovers a stash of black money owned by Pallur Paramajothi Ponnusamy aka Ponnusamy, a rich and corrupted entrepreneur and his partner Rajmohan. Ponnusamy pretends that he has a stroke to escape questioning by the police.  

நல்வழி - அவ்வை மூதாட்டியின் நன்னூல்.  அதில் ஒரு பாடல் :

பாடுபட்டுத் தேடிப் பணத்தைப் புதைத்து வைத்துக்

கேடுகெட்ட மானிடரே கேளுங்கள் - கூடுவிட்டிங்(கு)

ஆவிதான் போயினபின் யாரே அனுபவிப்பர்

பாவிகாள் அந்தப் பணம்.

இந்த பொன்னான உலகத்தில் நாம் அனைவருமே - பணம் மென்மேலும் ஈட்ட அலைகின்றோம்.  தேடிய பணத்தை யாருக்கும் தெரியாமல் புதைத்து வைக்கின்றனர் சிலர்;  அனுபவிக்காமல் மறைத்து வைக்கின்றனர். இவர்கள் கேடு கெட்ட மனிதர்கள். இப்படிக் கேடுகெட்ட மனிதரே! ஒன்று சொல்கிறேன் கேளுங்கள். உங்கள் உடம்புக் கூட்டை விட்டுவிட்டு உங்கள் ஆவி போன பின்பு அந்தப் பணத்தை யார்தான் அனுபவிக்கப் போகிறார்கள்? பாவிகளே! சொல்லுங்கள் என கேள்வி எழுப்புகின்றார் அவ்வையார் ??

The question is not only on corruption and black money – also on how such people stash the money !  - will some one just bury it in their premises, just as people did centuries ago !

In denial mode, a Trinamool spokesperson had to announce that they have officially striped the Minister of all his posts including that of Party’s General Secretary as he had brought disgrace to all !!!   - the act :  as ANI and other media reported – cash of Rs 27.9 crores; , gold, and jewellery worth Rs 4.31 crores were  recovered  from the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee.  Another report suggested that another 41 crore and 3 kg of gold was found in her   Belgharia flat.  If being ‘close aide’ of TMC minister Partha Chatterjee had this money of hard cash, imagine what higher-ups and their families own.  Bengal seems to have outsmarted many other States in the corruption race !!

The beginning was usual claiming that she would cleanse the corrupt WB and chase those Commies out of power.  .. .. . after  being a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) for over 26 years, Mamata Banerjee quit the INC and established the TMC in 1998.  In December 2006, the people of Nandigram were given notice by Haldia Development Authority that a major portion of Nandigram would be seized and 70,000 people be evicted from their homes to make way for a chemical plant.  There were violent protests and that formed the last straw to remove  the CPI(M) government, and were a major factor in the TMC's success in the elections that followed. It was a steady rise to power for TMC and Mamata Banerjee  - whose minister is got in the cash row now.

The Trinamool Congress has finally stripped arrested senior leader Partha Chatterjee of his ministries and all posts within the party amid mounting pressure to act. He’s also been suspended from the TMC until the probe against him gets over. Chatterjee was holding the portfolios of commerce and enterprise, industry, information technology and electronics, as well as parliamentary affairs in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal government. In the TMC, he was secretary general, a member of the disciplinary committee and several other committees, and state vice president.

Sources said Trinamool had to make this decision as there was pressure from inside as well as outside the party. Chatterjee is accused of irregularities in the recruitment of teachers and staff in state-sponsored and aided schools, being called the “SSC scam”.

During the first raid by the Enforcement Directorate about Rs 21 crore in cash was recovered from Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee’s residence, the TMC tried to gauge the situation. Party leader Kunal Ghosh tweeted that the money recovered and Arpita were not connected to the TMC and Trinamool will not take any responsibility for them.  Now after the arrest of  Partha Chatterjee and his alleged link to the cash haul started to tumble out, murmurs emerged inside the party.  The visuals of the stash were spreading on social media and messaging platforms, along with the news of Partha’s alleged links to it and Arpita. The issue became the talk of Bengal and the nation.

Stash of currency found, and Minister stripped of his post – will anything happen next !! – or everyone would forget as has happened before ! 

With regards – S. Sampatkumar
28^th July 2022.