India's foreign funding hits ₹9.85 lakh crore in 13 years

This year, the Indian government is set to borrow ₹1.12 lakh crore from foreign sources.

Currently, there is a movement demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar before the Election Commission of the country, which has been alleged to receive foreign funds. Such allegations are made without any evidence. Moreover, if it is indeed true that foreign funds are coming in, it is the responsibility of the country's government to catch them.

There is a law regarding money laundering. Its name is Prevention of Money Laundering Act, PMLA. This law was enacted in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. However, he remained in power for two more years after that, yet he did not implement it. This means he was merely pretending to stop money laundering.

In 2005, the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh began to implement it. If the CJP's movement is indeed receiving foreign funds, then the government should investigate it and take action against it. But instead of taking any such action, only allegations are made and spread on social media.

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The question is, if CJP or its movement is receiving foreign funding, then what is the ED, which works day and night to intimidate opposition leaders and supporters in the country, doing in this matter? The ED operates under the Ministry of Finance. Additionally, there is also a Financial Intelligence Unit in the Ministry of Finance that works against money laundering. Why are these two agencies unable to trace the foreign funds received by CJP?

Whenever there are movements against governments in the country, allegations have been made that such movements receive money from abroad. It has also been alleged that countries in America or Europe want to destabilize India by funding these movements. This is not surprising. When common people express large-scale protests or movements against the government, to say that they do so only with foreign money is akin to insulting their patriotism.

Look, receiving money from abroad is not a new thing in India. Recently, the government sold its shares in IDBI Bank to a Canadian company named Fairfax, and IDBI Bank, which was under the Indian government, has now become owned by a foreign company.

Fairfax will now hold 60.72 percent of the shares in IDBI Bank. Thus, IDBI Bank has now become a foreign bank. The government has sold its 30.48 percent shares, and it will receive crores of rupees. The amount received by the government insurance company LIC is separate. In this deal, more than ₹52,000 crore will be received by the Government of India and its company LIC, which is foreign money. Will this be called foreign funding or not?

Every year, the Government of India takes foreign loans. Will this be called foreign funding or not? This year, the Government of India is set to take a foreign loan of ₹1.12 lakh crore. In 2014-15, the Government of India took a foreign loan of ₹34,000 crore. This means that the Government of India has increased its foreign funding by more than three and a quarter times!

On one hand, the government raised the slogan of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' during the COVID period in 2020-21, but even after that, the Government of India’s foreign funding has continued, and not only that, it has increased. For instance, in 2020-21, the foreign funding or foreign loan of the Government of India was ₹63,000 crore, but it is estimated to rise to ₹1.12 lakh crore in the current year.

Thus, after the slogan of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' was raised, the Government of India's foreign debt has nearly doubled! This means the Government of India has become increasingly dependent on foreign loans. The budget for the current year is ₹53.47 lakh crore, and if there is a foreign loan of ₹1.12 lakh crore, it constitutes about two percent of the total budget. This amount is significant, without a doubt.

The Government of India has taken a foreign loan of ₹9.85 lakh crore in its budget from 2014-15 to now! Will this be called foreign funding or not?