In an embarrassment to the Union government and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a serving Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer has written a scathing letter to President Droupadi Murmu, accusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of becoming an extended arm of the BJP. IRS officer B Balamurugan, holding charge as Deputy Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Chennai, has accused Nirmala of successfully converting the ED into a BJP policy enforcement directorate. He also demanded the dismissal of Nirmala as the Union Finance Minister.
In his letter written on January 2, the IRS officer referred to the case of two Dalit farmers from Attur, Salem, being summoned by ED after they accused a local BJP leader of trying to illegally grab their land. Citing this, he alleged that the Finance Minister was using the ED.
Balamurugan also said that the farmers had accused Gunashekar, the BJP’s Salem East district secretary, of attempting to unlawfully acquire their land and a civil and criminal case was pending against the BJP functionary in the local courts. “The above incident shows how the Enforcement Directorate has become an extended arm of the BJP. In fact, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, after taking over the charge, has successfully converted the Enforcement Directorate into BJP Policy Enforcement Directorate,” he accused in the letter to the President.
Read: Two elderly Dalit farmers fighting case against TN BJP leader, summoned by ED
Balamurugan also said that state government officers, unlike Union government officials, did not encounter pressure from local politicians in discharging their official duties, but that the situation had changed. “In my 30 years of service, I have never seen any local politician approaching or pressuring me for any favour. Generally, they will bring influence through Delhi. The situation has changed as seen from the above incident (referring to the farmers’ issue). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman is directly responsible for this state of affairs. She has become unfit to be the Finance Minister of India.”
He also urged the President of India to dismiss Nirmala immediately from the Union government to render justice to the poor Dalit farmers of Tamil Nadu and to save the ED.
Speaking to TNM, Balamurugan confirmed that he sent the letter to the President and said he belonged to an agricultural family and knew the difficulties of subsisting through farming. “ED officer Ankit Tiwari getting caught while accepting bribes is an individual act. Sending summons to farmers is not an individual act. An institution is being corrupted. The ED has been damaged as an institution and that is why I demanded the Union Finance Minister’s dismissal. I know the consequences of writing this letter, and I am not bothered about it. I am ready to face it,” he said.
Balamurugan is set to retire on January 31, 2024. He is also the husband of advocate Dalit Parvina, the counsel of Kanniyan and Krishnan, the two farmers summoned by the ED. Parvina had raised the issue of the farmers being summoned by ED in July and even filed a complaint with the police, but it was not followed up. In December, as things began to heat up between the Tamil Nadu government and the ED, Parvina once again drew attention to the plight of the two farmers, and her letter went viral on social media.
Also read: Call to invoke SC/ST Act against ED officers who named TN Dalit farmers’ caste in summons