‘La casa de papel’ inspires political row in India amid corruption accusations

The successful Spanish series ‘The Money Heist’ This Tuesday inspired a political row in the India with the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following the recent seizure of US$42 million in cash in businesses belonging to an opposition parliamentarian.

“In India, who needs a fiction like ‘Money Heist’ when we have the Congress Party, whose thefts have been legendary for seventy years and counting!”Modi launched on the X social network, while the proximity of the general elections scheduled between April and May 2024 clouds the already tense Indian political scene.

In multiple raids over the past week, the Tax Department found around Rs 3.51 billion in cash in businesses linked to Congress Party (INC) member Dhiraj Sahu, according to the Indian Express newspaper.

The leaked images of wad after wad of bills kept in bags and closets belonging to this parliamentarian, accused of corruption, made headlines and were widely shared on social networks.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took the opportunity today to double down on the accusations with a video that shows the seized bundles and the face of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi superimposed on the character of Denver, one of the robbers of the series, when he pounces on a mountain of money after managing to open the vault of the Bank of Spain.

INC Secretary General Jairam Ramesh, for his part, took to social media to demand explanations from Modi on suspicions of tax irregularities committed by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, which he described as India’s biggest robbery since its independence from the Empire. British in 1947.

“Your close friend Adani siphoned US$2.098 billion out of India by inflating the prices of imported coal and energy equipment,” Ramesh accused.

Crossed accusations of corruption and cronyism continue while political parties warm up for the 2024 general elections.

Modi’s BJP came out stronger this month in the last regional elections held in the Asian country, in which it took control of three of the four states in contention, before the general elections.