Former IPS officer M. Nageshwar Rao has once again ignited controversy with a series of posts accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government of corruption. His statements sound dramatic and are backed by eye-catching graphics, but when examined closely, the claims fall apart. What emerges instead is a pattern of selective arguments and assumptions presented as facts.
A Decade of Repeated Claims, Still No Evidence
For years, Rao has made sweeping allegations against PM Modi. His latest posts from December continue the same theme. He declares that Modi is “India’s most corrupt Prime Minister,” yet he does not present a single court verdict, investigation report, or document to support this. PM Modi’s personal integrity has remained unquestioned even by critics. Without credible evidence, such accusations become political rhetoric instead of meaningful commentary.
Numbers Without Context Tell Only Half the Story
Several images shared by Rao list taxes on fuel, cars, income and GST, suggesting they are proof of corruption. These are statutory taxes collected by every government for decades, not a sign of wrongdoing. He also points to rising FCRA inflows under the BJP. Yet his own chart shows that foreign contributions had been increasing steadily for twenty years even before Modi took office. When data is presented without context, it creates confusion rather than clarity.
Rao dismisses demonetisation as a failure because most currency returned to banks. But black money has never existed only in cash. Shell firms, fake invoices, and layered transactions have always played a bigger role. He also ignores the impact of GST, Aadhar-linked systems, real-time tax trails, and digital payments. These reforms have made generating unaccounted income significantly harder compared to the pre-2014 era.
The “BJP Washing Machine” Theory Is Only One Side of the Picture
Rao highlights the cases of opposition leaders who received relief after joining the BJP. Some examples may be true, but the larger picture shows that the Enforcement Directorate has filed thousands of cases in the last ten years. Most of them are against businessmen, officials, and financial networks, not politicians.
Rao argues that the RTI Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act were weakened. But he overlooks the massive expansion of digital transparency. Direct benefit transfers, online property records, faceless tax assessments, PAN-Aadhar linking, and GST e-invoicing have reduced human interference. Systems with less manual control leave less room for corruption. Rao ends his argument with a fictional story to imply that governments often hide their corruption. It is engaging but irrelevant. Fiction cannot replace evidence, and dramatic storytelling cannot prove wrongdoing.
A Clear Difference Between Opinion and Proof
In the end, Rao’s allegations read more like opinion pieces than factual assessments. He used selective facts, emotional framing and rhetorical questions, but provides no hard proof. India’s progress over the past decade, from infrastructure to digital systems, points to a functioning system, not a corrupt one.
