Shibboleths and scamdemic in corporate India

Shibboleths are words, customs or behaviours that distinguish members of a particular group from outsiders. The term originates from a story in the Hebrew Bible, where the Gileadites used the pronunciation of the word shibboleth (meaning 'ear of grain' or 'stream') to identify their enemies, the Ephraimites, who could not pronounce the initial 'sh' sound and said 'sibboleth' instead.

Shibboleths could act as group identity markers, signalling insider status: today in subcultures, professions or online communities, Shibboleths are being associated with digital tribalism.

Since the return of RSS to power in India in 2014, the entire ecosystem has been erected around the concept of Shibboleths. Whether these are the bhakts of RSS's shakhas marauding the countryside or godi media blabbers spewing Islamophobic hate and venom on almost an hourly basis, one finds the use of Shibboleths in almost every walk of life.

Cybercrime Magazine suggests that over $1 trillion is annually lost to online fraud and corporate malpractice, terming it as 'scamdemic'. Some experts suggest that most of the global scamdemic has some direct or indirect link to corporate India. Corporate India has become infamous because of scamdemic; especially the pampered Gujarati businesses who now monopolise the Indian economy and have built a façade of grand empires of Adanis and Ambanis, courtesy of Mr Modi. The latest is Mr Rajesh Mehta of Rajesh Exports.

The journey of Rajesh Exports started from a jeweller's shop which grew into the largest gold refinery in India, and by 2019, the world's largest - especially after acquiring Switzerland-based gold giant, Valcambi. Rajesh built his reputation as a humble guy who would not use smart phones, would travel in normal Corolla cars and would wear local stitched suits, but this ploy was part of the 'scamdemic' that has penetrated every business house in India.

The allegations against Rajesh Exports centre on a claim by India's market regulator, SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), of misrepresentation of nearly 99.8% of its consolidated revenues over a five-year period, amounting to approximately $158 billion.

On June 3, 2026, SEBI issued an interim order against Rajesh Exports Ltd (REL) and its Chairman, Rajesh Mehta, highlighting a series of grave financial irregularities including massive revenue misrepresentation. Between FY21 and FY25, 97-99% of REL's consolidated revenue was attributed to its overseas subsidiaries, particularly Switzerland-based Valcambi. However, Valcambi's own audited standalone accounts showed revenues of only a few hundred crore rupees, creating the massive discrepancy that SEBI has flagged as potential fraud.

REL claimed to have a ?1,035 crore investment in 'gold mines in Africa', but was unable to provide any documentation or linkage in its financial statements. Rajesh Mehta also used non-cooperation and obstruction as delaying tactics and incidentally the state appeared helpless in taking him to task. The notorious ED (enforcement directorate) which has been extensively used to break opposition members and force them to join BJP was also found missing in the case of Rajesh Mehta. Whether it was Modi's connection or BJP's patronage, only time will tell.

These actions allowed REL to portray an "inflated and misleading picture" of its financial health, resulting in an estimated wealth erosion of ?12,726 crore for shareholders. Rajesh Exports has denied all charges of wrongdoing. However, SEBI has taken strong interim regulatory actions, including barring Rajesh Mehta from buying, selling or dealing in securities until further notice.

The fallout has been immediate and severe: the company's shares hit the lower circuit on the BSE, and the shareholder base, which had expanded to over 200,000, has seen a significant loss in market value.

From Adani's money laundering scams published by the Hindenburg reports to Mehul Choksi's and Nirav Modi's fraud in the diamond business, and from Vijay Mallya to Rishi Agarwal, there is a laundry list of scams and shibboleths reflecting the weak links of Indian economy. As projected by Rahul Gandhi, India is staring at a catastrophic economic tsunami in coming days, and it's entirely up to the people of India to heed the call.

The exposure of a fraudulent company like Rajesh Exports would have profound implications for India's economic standing and credibility. A fraud of this magnitude would not only trigger a statistical shock but also erode the foundational trust that underpins the nation's economic reputation. The immediate effect would be a significant downward revision of India's historical GDP growth rates. The key link is that India's official GDP estimates have, since 2015, relied heavily on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the same database containing the financial reports of corporate entities like Rajesh Exports.

The National Sample Survey Office had found that 36-45% of companies in this database were "untraceable or wrongly classified", calling into question the reliability of the entire dataset used for GDP calculation. The Rajesh Exports fraud would confirm the presence of intentionally falsified data within this system. If the database used for GDP calculation is significantly contaminated with non-existent or "shell" companies, the growth numbers for the private corporate sector, and thus India's overall GDP, could be overstated.

Any value added from Rajesh Exports' inflated revenues would have been included in the national accounts for multiple financial years. Removing this fictitious value would result in a one-time, downward revision of GDP figures for those years, effectively forcing India to publicly admit that past economic growth was overstated.

The fraud recalls past crises like the Satyam scandal (2009) and the multiple high-profile bank loan defaults involving diamond and aviation tycoons which already placed India in a higher "risk perception" bracket. The exposure of the data gap for a top 5 Indian company by revenue would be seen as a massive governance failure, potentially diverting future investment flows to countries with more transparent accounting systems.

At an international level, partners and multilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank would demand greater methodological transparency before using Indian data in their reports and projections. India's ability to benchmark itself in global indices on ease of doing business would be severely undermined.