Former CBI Director and retired IPS officer M. Nageswara Rao has sparked a fresh wave of debate by repeatedly making corruption allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rao, who has been posting such remarks for several months, earlier described Modi as “the most corrupt Prime Minister,” a statement widely criticised as baseless and sensational. Continuing this pattern, he has now referred to alleged black money in Swiss banks and linked it once again to Modi, attempting to portray him as corrupt.
Rao has been raising questions about how corruption occurs, how political corruption grows, and why those in power get more opportunities to engage in wrongdoing. He then gives his own explanations and tries to connect various dots to argue that Modi fits into this system. Many observers note that these claims rely more on interpretation than on verifiable facts.
He has also described demonetisation as the biggest failure of Modi’s political career, and he frequently brings it up to intensify his criticism. As Parliament is in session, Rao highlighted the government’s claims of having curbed black money and countered them by pointing to the amounts held by Indians in Swiss banks, using it as fresh ammunition in his allegations.
However, experts point out that after demonetisation, a significant portion of previously hidden cash entered the formal banking system. From that perspective, demonetisation did help expose unaccounted money to some extent. They also emphasise that not all funds in Swiss accounts can be labelled as black money; Switzerland now shares financial data with India, unlike earlier when secrecy was the norm. Many argue that corruption opportunities have reduced in Modi’s tenure due to systems such as increased digital payments and expanded Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
In a nation of over 140 crore people, no one can claim that corruption has been completely eradicated. But technological reforms have visibly helped reduce it. Critics say that merely connecting random dots on social media and projecting them as corruption proofs is something any netizen can do. Coming from a former CBI Director, such claims appear even more surprising. If Nageswara Rao wants the public to take his allegations seriously, many believe he must provide solid evidence instead of relying on social media assumptions. Without proof, his remarks risk being seen as attention-driven rather than fact-based.