India should look within the geographical boundaries for the elusive black money and not abroad, if one takes Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s assertion in surge in cash flow . He has estimated about Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore in cash increase with public as a result of polls in four states and a Union Territory adding that the matter should be looked into. One can imagine how much money is in hands with political parties. Country has seen much bigger elections in earlier years but not the increase in cash flow in such big quantities. In fact this phenomenon was witnessed earlier when Punjab and Uttar Pradesh went to polls. Rajan said the surplus currency with public would not be limited to the poll bound states but also in the neighbouring states. A report in a national daily highlighted how political parties distribute cash among people ahead of elections in places like Tamil Nadu, which is among the states going to the polls. Estimates of the amounts of cash distribution vary. The report quoted a top Tamil Nadu Government official familiar with elections saying some 60 per cent of the electorate would get cash of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 each from various parties. For a 5.8 crore voting population, this means some Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 9,000 crore will be distributed as currency notes or gifts just before the polling day. Some put the figure at a few thousand crores less. Others a little higher. These are operations monitored and directed from the very top of parties. As per Election Commission data, police have seized Rs 3.34 crore, Rs 9.12 crore, Rs 46.88 lakh, Rs 8.75 crore, Rs 20.40 crore till 3rd April in pollbound West Bengal, Assam, Puducherry, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. More recently, the European Union has successfully pressured Switzerland to change its laws to make it easier for the EU to catch people engaged in criminal tax evasion. Though up till now not much has come to the front for Modi government which harped on bring back the stashed money in Swiss banks. The search should be within the country and not outside.
