Lack of Policy Clarity Led to Corruption Charges, UPA Handled Cases Badly—Montek Singh Ahluwalia

The Interview with Karan Thapar - Supported by The Glenlivet Books

In an exclusive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire on the eve of the launch of his new book, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission during the UPA’s decade in office, reveals that he advised both the then prime minister and the then finance minister not to implement one of the most controversial decisions taken by the Manmohan Singh government—the proposal to retrospectively amend the Income Tax Act 50 years after it was passed. He says that in 2012, he separately advised Pranab Mukherjee and, thereafter, Manmohan Singh, against doing this to overturn the Supreme Court’s Vodafone judgement. Unfortunately, he says, they did not heed his advice.

Asked whether this meant that Dr. Monmohan Singh agreed with the proposal to retrospectively amend the Income Tax Act and didn’t think it would send out a damaging message about India’s attitude to investment and the rule of law or that Dr. Singh was weak and unable to overrule the finance minister, Ahluwalia said that he couldn’t answer because he was not privy to any discussions between the two of them. However, he did say that at no point thereafter (during the last 8 years) has Manmohan Singh told him that the decision to retrospectively amend the Income Tax Act was a mistake. He said this has not been discussed between them.

Montek also said the UPA had a credible defence on the 2G and Coalgate issues, but accepts that this was not effectively made.

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