 India has said that it has independent evidence of Indians having black money in Swiss accounts and Switzerland has promised expeditious sharing of information in this regard. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this after meeting with his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in Davos yesterday. Mr Jaitley said, he discussed with Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf, the parameters based on which Switzerland can provide details on unaccounted money parked in their banks once independent evidence is furnished. In October last year, India and Switzerland had inked a joint statement of understanding with regard to co-operation on tax matters. However, Switzerland has a clear position that the information would not be shared with another country, but such requests would be looked into in case of independent evidence being made available. On ways to prevent the menace of black money in the future, Mr Jaitley said the global community is moving towards automatic exchange of information. He said, India will sign bilateral pacts with Switzerland and other nations in this regard. Mr Jaitley also said that the Swiss Minister also discussed economic co-operation. |
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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