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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said revenue department acts objectively and conducts search operations only on the basis of material evidence. In a way Jaitley dismissed the allegations of political vendetta levelled by the opposition parties.
Jaitley, who is in the US to attend the IMF-World Bank meetings wrote a facebook post titled ”Legitimate action against corruption is not vendetta”.
“It has become a routine practice to call any action against corruption as political vendetta. Claim of vendetta has never been a legitimate defence in corruption. Those who commit such large acts of corruption have to be judged on the merits of the action itself,” he said.
The Income Tax Department has carried out raids on people linked to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, a JD(S) minister in Karnataka, and a senior DMK leader in Tamil Nadu in the recent past. The searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing polls season and tax evasion.
The opposition parties, including the Congress, have dubbed the raids as politically motivated.
Taking note of these raids, the Election Commission in its letter to Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey had “strongly advised” that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be “neutral” and “non-discriminatory” and officials of the poll panel should be kept in loop about such actions.
