Belated publication of the list of Indians holding secret accounts in LGT Bank in tax haven Liechtenstein (in Wednesday’s Indian Express), which the government has refused to make public on the plea that it would violate confidentiality clause signed with Germany, throws up an interesting fact. And that is, 18 Indians holding secret accounts have salted away a mere Rs 39.66 crore – a far cry from Rs 400,000 crore that Baba Ramdev claims to have been stashed in tax havens.

The timing of the publication would indicate that the black money menace is not such a big issue after all and that Baba Ramdev and the BJP are making mountain out of a mere molehill. But that would be quite erroneous. Firstly because nobody claims Indians have put most of their black money in Germany; there are more lucrative places like Switzerland about which the government is not doing anything. Secondly, the Liechtenstein kind of black money is generated by our neighbourhood builders without requiring the services of the tax havens. 

Does it not look more like a red herring to publish the Liechtenstein List now?