The issue of possession of wealth conspicuously disproportionate to income, particularly by many resorting to unlawful means which figured in the columns of dailies for a while in recent past triggering people at large to talk excitedly and anticipate measures to channelise the booty for the benefit of society seems to have got sidelined amidst other events in public domain across the country involving the offending individuals in public life as well as the land’s administration and the corporate sector. The ongoing raids on the premises of the high and the mighty in the country’s political world by Enforcement Directorate (ED) staff followed by incarceration of some of them has given a dramatic twist to the Government’s battle against black money. In the meanwhile, cash stashed by Indians yet to be identified for the sake of information to the public, in banks abroad, such as the Swiss Banks which maintain accounts of their customers said to be with numbers has faded from public memory. Readers of dailies had to be content raising their eyebrows on how the amount of tainted money estimated in astronomical proportions moved out of the country without the knowledge of the Government.
India’s lay people may not have heard the expression money laundering until media started flashing reports with graphic details including names of society’s prominent individuals charged with indulging in the offending act amounting to fraud. No small surprise if the spurt in Government’s dramatic action to contain the unrelenting offenders tapers off in days ahead.
