Strong Arm Of The State

As the enforcement directorate goes after high-profile opposition leaders, the government faces charges of mounting a political witch-hunt. India today investigates

- Kaushik Deka

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocked his adversaries as the ‘Khan Market gang’, in a damning reference to their supposed love of the tony market complex in central Delhi’s Lutyens Bungalow Zone, home to the national capital’s high and mighty—politicians, government officials, judges, businessmen… In other words, the power elite. Some of the politicos in this line-up are now squirming, as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) ‘gang’—operating from, ironically, the very same Khan Market—goes after them for alleged financial misdemeanours. They allege it is a witch-hunt at the behest of the Modi government.

The allegation is that the ED, which investigates foreign exchange violations and money laundering, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launch investigations and slap cases against leaders of BJP rivals just ahead of elections to threaten opponents. The charges are neither new nor novel. In fact, in May 2013, during the Congress-led UPA’s rule at the Centre, the Supreme Court called the CBI a ‘caged parrot’, an all-too-obvious reference to its lack of real autonomy. The ED, in its present avatar, is vying for the same honour, claim Modi’s rivals.

The ED, which works under the jurisdiction of the Union finance ministry, was set up in 1957. It acts as per the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) of 1999, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 and the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) of 2018. The agency directly recruits at the level of assistant director and also inducts officers from the customs, income tax and police departments.