Why was the Delhi Chief Minister arrested?
Is there a deeper expose behind Liquorgate?
How did the messiah of the anti-corruption movement fall into the deep ditch of corruption?
The Shloka
सत्यं हि धर्मवृक्षस्य मुलं साखासहश्रीनः।
Meaning – Truth is the root of the Dharma tree with its thousand branches!
This shloka is from Bharata Manjari, Verse – 1-25-1119. Bharata Manjiri is a poem in the form of Mahabharata written by Ksemendra Adi.
Sanatan Sanskriti has believed since time immemorial that truth, the immortal truth—the truth that benefits the last man standing, the truth that protects the weakest, the truth that enables changes in the conditions of the common man’s household—can not be withheld, suppressed, or quieted.
The truth spreads, and thus, the Dharma, the righteousness, the right path, the eternal truth with its thousand branches maintain the equilibrium, the stability and the purity of the Universal natural system.
Hence, what happened on the fateful day of March 21 2024, when the honourable chief minister of Delhi was taken into judicial custody of the Enforcement Directorate for six days until March 28 2024, under the Liquorgate Scam, was the reinforcement of the same Dharma.
The Prologue, the Past, the Prelude
Allegations and counter-allegations in the Liquor Scam started in 2021 when the pre-existing Excise Policy of Delhi was altered.
Before November 17, 2,021, the Delhi government controlled the Liquor retail business in the Union Territory of Delhi. In other words, the government shops retailed and sold Liquor in the City and fully controlled the business.
The Promise
In November 2021, the Delhi Liquor Excise policy was amended with the noble view of curbing the Mafia in the Liquor business, stopping the black-marketing of Liquor, increasing the revenues from the sale of Liquor for the government, improving the customer experience for those who buy or consume Liquor, and finally ensuring an equitable distribution of Liquor through the City of Delhi.
The idea’s origin was sane; however, the intention dwindled. With the New Excise Policy, the distribution of Liquor was privatised. Unlike the previous policy, the new policy passed the baton of Liquor business from the city government to the private vendors. Delhi was divided into 32 zones to execute it, and each zone was permitted to have 27 liquor shops.
Furthermore, licensed shop owners were allowed to fix their MRPs (Maximum Retail Price) on alcohol and offer discounts according to their economics.
The Peril
Bars, Pubs within hotels, clubs, and restaurants in the National Capital Territory of Delhi were allowed to serve Indian and foreign Liquor within their licensed premises, including terraces or balconies, as long as the alcohol was being served away from the view of the general populace.
The policy allowed the promotion of microbreweries to supply draught beer to bars. It allowed the people of Delhi to fill their bottles with freshly brewed beer from any microbrewery in the City.
Earlier norms of alcohol retailing were revised, ensuring that bars, restaurants, and shops were allowed to sell Liquor until 3 a.m. as against the earlier limitation of 10 p.m. If this was not enough, a few establishments were issued licenses to sell alcohol round the clock.
Delhi has previously experienced serious night crime and safety challenges. However, the government has focused on promoting its interests rather than the community’s social interests.
The Fallout
FY 22 saw Delhi Government revenues shoot up by 27 per cent due to heightened alcohol consumption. This led to the adulteration of Liquor. Bottle seals were opened and adulterated with water and other spirits, and then heavy discounts were given.
As the sale of Liquor in the National Capital Region of Delhi was swinging up, the real intentions of the government, those associated with the Delhi government, and the political people behind it were also being unearthed.
Under the grab to improve the customer experience of the one drinking alcohol, the parallel phenomenon of greed, kickbacks, and misappropriation of funds was being hatched.
Within eight months of the New Excise Policy, Delhi was abuzz with misdeeds of the new policy. Murmurs of huge irregularities started surfacing in the allocation of licenses, especially those denied this golden opportunity. Resistance picked up momentum from various social bodies of society, as well as schools, colleges, etc., who found this policy to be hazardous for the future of the capital as it led to major distraught in the lower income families where significant sums of money were wasted on the consumption of alcohol.
Furthermore, the Delhi Government’s move to allow the opening of Liquor vends inwards with non-conforming areas, largely unauthorised colonies, added fuel to the fire. Sensing an upcoming furore, the Delhi government rolled back the new policy in July 2022.
To everyone’s surprise, the new policy was rolled out and implemented without the permission of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi (LG), which made this implementation entirely illegal.
In addition, the wrong information regarding the requisite permissions was provided to the Delhi High Court in one of the hearings, for which the Court reprimanded the Delhi Government for violating the GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR) 1993, Delhi Excise Act 2009, and Delhi Excise Rules 2010.
The Monetary Plot
In August 2022, LG, after receiving multiple complaints, ordered a CBI probe into the case. The CBI found an unholy nexus between license holders, their proxy owners, and sleeping partners in the businesses owning licenses, hidden investments, politicians, and ministers of the Delhi government involved in the swift and hasty execution of the new excise policy.
The CBI registered the case of criminal conspiracy and corruption, and thus, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was involved.
After a detailed investigation, the ED found that several cartels were formulated to facilitate the smooth execution of Delhi Excise Liquor Policy 21 -22. The same people controlled the manufacturing, wholesale, and retailing under various anonymous, disguised, or proxy names, with sleeping partners using their illicit money.
The ED findings established that the wholesale margins in the liquor business were increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent with a clear objective of giving 6 per cent out of 12 per cent (meaning 50 per cent of the earnings of the Wholesaler) to be passed on as kickback or bribe to the political party concerned. Even retailers’ margins rose 185 per cent on liquor sales to facilitate the diversion of additional profits to the political party.
Since 2022, the ED has searched 245 locations, arrested 16 people, filed six chargesheets, and attached assets worth over INR 128 Crores.
ED estimated that the loss to the Delhi exchequer due to the new policy would be 540 Crores in 8 -9 months.
ED has proof that key people in the political party, including the Delhi CM and Deputy CM, received over INR 100 Crores in bribes and kickbacks, and a large part of this money was used to fight the Punjab elections.
ED also established that INR 45 Crores were received by the political party to fight the Goa elections from the beneficiaries of the New Excise Policy in Delhi.
It’s estimated that by paying these sums, the group which benefitted from the change in liquor policy made an unholy profit of INR 600 crores, as reported by ED to the Court.
After this, the Deputy CM of Delhi, who was also the Excise Minister of Delhi at the time of implementing the New excise policy, was arrested in 2023.
ED post then followed up for answers from the Delhi Chief Minister and sent nine summons between October 2023 and March 2024, but the Delhi CM did not cooperate with the investigation and remained elusive. Finally, he was arrested in March 2024, the first chief minister arrested in office.
The Conundrum
It also comes as a surprise that on March 22 2024, the day after the arrest, the Delhi chief minister urged the Honourable Supreme Court to hear the case against the arrest and then suddenly withdrew the case from the top Court once the Court decided to reconvene the Special bench for the Chief Minister. Also, the arrest came in when the Delhi High Court rejected the anticipatory bail, refusing to give protection from the arrest.
The Snooping Side
In 2023, 8-9 months before the arrest of the Chief Minister, the CBI accused the Party leadership of snooping its very own ministers, ministries, bureaucrats, their families and rivals. The political party’s leadership was, in consideration, gathering political intelligence against its people and people at high-level ranks through the Centre, judiciary, and bureaucracy.
Shockingly, the ED has found documents indicating that the Delhi CM and his people were spying on some of the ED’s officials.
The Khalistani Angle
In one of the media clippings, Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun claimed that the political party to which the Delhi CM belongs has received USD 16 million from Khalistani terrorist groups and their supporters between 2014 to 2022. Pannun has also claimed that the Delhi CM proposed releasing the convicted terrorist in the Delhi Bomb Blast case – Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, in return for financial support.
In January 2024, Pannum accused the Delhi CM and Punjab CM of accepting USD 6 million in donations from Khalistan supporters in the US and Canada.
Media reports and various documents suggest that Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is very close to senior officials of the CIA, and they see him as an important asset in managing activities in the Indian Subcontinent region.
The Unholy Past
Before one jumps to a conclusion, it’s important to delve into the Delhi Chief Minister’s past. In 1999, the Delhi CM, still in the Income-tax service, founded a Social organisation or movement called “Parivartan” along with the ex-deputy CM of Delhi, who was then working as a News Reporter.
Since then, the Deep State has identified these two and decided to invest in these assets against Bharat.
By 2000, the present Delhi Chief Minister took a sabbatical from the Income Tax department and started focusing on the work of the Parivartan. The duo unearthed many scams in Delhi then under the administration of the Grand Old Party regime, predominantly a PDS (Public Distribution System) Scam in which ration shop dealers siphoned off food grains in collusion with civic officials.
The same party is today responsible for the entire episode that is unfolding in front of the Delhi CM as the Delhi Pradesh Chief of the Grand Old Party of India filed a complaint letter to the Delhi Police in June 2022, after which the proceedings and events started to shape for the present CM.
Circling back in 2006, Parivartan was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award, established by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family.
Many Western media have accused rich philanthropies like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, and Gates Foundation of pushing their agenda in underdeveloped and developing nations to ensure their economic interests remain intact, irrespective of the nation’s progress. The poorer the country becomes, the more influence these rich philanthropies have on it.
In 2005, the Delhi CM and the ex-deputy CM of Delhi created another social organisation, Kabir, focused on RTI (Right to Information) and participatory governance. The social organisation “Kabir” was funded by the Ford Foundation from day one, when not even a single project existed.
The Delhi CM has admitted in the past that his NGO took money from the Ford Foundation, which is closely linked to and associated with the CIA. Steven Solnick, the Ford Foundation’s representative in India, confirmed that the foundation gave USD 15 million to the Delhi CM’s NGO.
The most amusing part is that prominent funding for the “War against Corruption” campaign that shook Bharat in 2013 came from abroad and mainly from the United States.
The ulterior Ultimate Motive and the man behind
It’s intriguing to note that in August 2023, an organisation known as OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) declared that it was planning another expose of a particular big corporate house in Bharat after the Hindenberg attack so that NatioNaco’s financial stability could be pierced. OCCRP was funded by George Soros, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, and others.
A few lines about the billionaire George Soros. He is the same man who, through his Social Organisation called Open Society Foundations, popularly called agents of disruption, has played a key role in purported plots to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, tried to destabilise Europe through mass migrations and even funded the Arab Springs Mass movements amongst many other notorious activities. Mr. Soros is accredited to have been the major influence in causing the 1997 Asian crisis that led to the collapse of major economies in East Asia and South East Asia.
With this backdrop, Delhi Liquorgate is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are more questions than answers that the country needs to ask –
The drama and Dharma will unfold in the next few weeks and months.
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