Kobad Ghandy
Two of our most powerful bureaucrats, the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, and our foreign minister, Jaishankar, are embroiled in a web of foreign dependencies. Probably a lot of their earnings go directly into offshore accounts abroad, or, more likely, in some tax haven. Yet not a single person or party has called this a security threat and the likely infringement of our sovereignty. This is at great cost to our country as we will have no access to the tax due from them nor will their huge wealth be invested in India which would help build our economy.
Ajit Doval’s sons run a web of companies including a Cayman Islands hedge fund even as father demands crackdown on tax havens. Vivek Doval’s hedge fund in the Cayman Islands is linked inextricably to businesses run by his brother Shaurya, a BJP politician who heads the India Foundation; also, a fishy organisation, comprising Jayesh Chitalia, Kamlesh Kotak, Anil Parikh, Dinesh Gathani (Dubai based) and others. That this fund is based out of the Cayman Islands is notable in light of Ajit Doval’s public call for crackdowns on tax havens!!!
And it is these agents who pretend to be great patriots. According to Caravan, Vivek Doval, a chartered financial analyst who is a citizen of the UK and resides in Singapore, is the director of the hedge fund, named GNY Asia Fund. In other words, he is not even a citizen of India.
According to a July 2018 document, Don W Ebanks and Mohamed Althaf Musliam Veetil are directors as well. Ebanks is named in the Paradise Papers as the director of two firms, both registered in the Cayman Islands. He was formerly employed with the Cayman Islands government, and advised its finance secretary and cabinet ministers. Mohamed Althaf is a regional director for the Lulu Group International, which operates one of the fastest growing chains of hypermarkets in West Asia.
The legal address of GNY Asia fund shows that it is under the care of Walkers Corporate Limited, a firm that finds a mention in the Paradise Papers as well as the Panama Papers, another leaked database that includes attorney-client information of millions of offshore entities.
Dhruva Jaishankar, son of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, is tipped to join the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a premier public policy think tank that is supported by Reliance. Grapevine has it that Dhruva could head the Washington office of the ORF, which is likely to be opened later this month. Jaishankar Jr. is a foreign policy operative in his own right. He is a fellow in foreign policy studies at Brookings India in New Delhi and the Brookings Institution in Washington. Congress leader Pawan Khera launched a veiled attack on External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar alleging that Organisation for which EAM’s son works received grants from the Chinese Embassy thrice.
All our top authorities seem to have such foreign links. What can be expected from them?? No wonder our country growth is so pathetic with such elements at the top.