Finance minister Arun Jaitley has today shared a blog post titled “Agenda 2019 – Part – 3: Is Prime Minister Modi’s First Five Year Tenure a Turning Point on Corruption?”

In the blog post, Jaitley has discussed how political parties that had been in power in the past had crippled the country’s economy by indulging in crafty tactics of ‘phone banking’, corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering. He states that years of corruption had taken India’s credibility to rock bottom.

“From the Bofors gun deal to the HDW Submarine purchases, the Airbus transaction, the Augusta Westland deal, the fertilizer scam, the footprints of the Indian National Congress and its leaders were everywhere”, writes the Finance minister.

Jaitley discusses in his blog about how the ‘middlemen’ who acted as the tools of corruption to enrich their political masters have vanished from the corridors of power after PM Modi assumed office. He states that the corridors of North Block and Udyog Bhawan, once flooded with middlemen, are now vacant. Many of them had either been rendered jobless or have left the country in fear of prosecution.

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After discussing the financial reforms and policy changes that have all but removed the scope of middlemen working to steal from the poor and enrich corrupt politicians, Jaitley discusses the latest OpIndia expose´on Rahul Gandhi’s dubious deals that trace back to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari in the final section of his blog.

Jaitley highlights the issue of politicians and their ‘extended family’ living well without working. He states that instead of directly indulging in corruption through bribery, wheeler-dealers or fly-by-night operators are being used by corrupt politicians to get ‘sweetheart deals’. He asserts that not only these politicians use their power to influence decisions, the usage of middlemen also gives them an escape route from being directly held accountable. He ends his post by saying if the Congress party’s first family is subjected to a forensic audit, the facts will speak for themselves.

Earlier, Textile minister Smriti Irani had held a press conference where she had cited the OpIndia expose´to slam the Gandhi-Vadra family as a “Family package of corruption”. I&T minister Rajyavardhan Rathore has also cited OpIndia expose´on Rahul Gandhi’s deals linking him to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari to slam the Congress president.

In a Tweet, Rathore has asked Rahul Gandhi whether his links with Bhandari and meetings with Eurofighter officials was the reason he has been opposing the Rafale deal.

Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly asking questions on the Rafale Deal but is he ready for the answers? He must explain his links with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and his meeting with Eurofighter officials. Is that why he opposes the purchase of Rafale?https://t.co/S96IzrB5Z6 — Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) March 13, 2019

It is notable here that Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale jets, had refused to indulge Bhandari as an offset partner. After that Bhandari had allegedly tried to lobby for Eurofighter.