Indian democracy has produced leaders of every hue—from grassroots politicians to nominated dilettantes unsure of their role. By and large, they carried themselves with humility and respect for the intelligence of the masses. Recent weeks, however, have exposed an emboldened new political class—arrogant, brazen and secure in their upper house berths—who repeat untruths on television.
American financier Jeffrey Epstein was investigated by the FBI for sex abuse and trafficking of minors, and indicted in 2008. He pleaded guilty to two charges, served 18 months in prison and was registered as a sex offender. Lawsuits and investigative reports continued over the next decade. Arrested again in July 2019 for sex trafficking, he killed himself in jail a month later.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law on November 19, 2025. The US department of justice released initial documents and, on January 30, followed with 3 million pages, 2,000 videos and 1,80,000 images. Additional files remain accessible to members of Congress. The material reveals a global network of the super-rich connected to Epstein.
AP
The names appear in the files in a variety of contexts and there is a fundamental distinction between those merely referenced in documents or news articles contained in the files (such as the Dalai Lama or Kapil Sibal) and those who had extensive direct contact over a significant period of time with Epstein. It is in this unsavoury category that the Union Minister Hardeep Puri belongs.
A search of the DoJ files reveals 430 results for Hardeep and 163 for Hardeep Singh Puri. In a series of interviews, Puri has lied repeatedly and brazenly about his relationship with Epstein. He first claimed he had only exchanged one or two emails with Epstein. In fact, he had exchanged 62 emails from June 2014 to June 2017. Puri claims he met Epstein ‘only three-four times over an eight-year period and always in a delegation’. In truth, Puri met Epstein 14 times during 2014-2017 of which nine meetings were in the five-month period of June-October 2014 alone. These were meetings at Epstein’s residence in New York and most were private one-on-one meetings.
Puri bizarrely claims that he did not even know whom he was going to meet at the first meeting and found out it was Epstein only upon googling the address in the car! He says that he “felt a sense of unease” upon meeting Epstein first and that he was not aware of his activities. Yet in another interview he ludicrously claims that Epstein had been only “charged” with prostitution and sex with “underage women”. No, Mr Puri, there are no underage women—they are children and in India it is a POCSO offence. Puri shamelessly says that he had doubts whether it was true. Epstein had pleaded guilty and been convicted and sent to jail. He was also a registered sex offender. What exactly about all of these verified facts did Puri doubt?
Puri’s nauseating banter with Epstein—“Have fun. Not that you require any encouragement for that”, “Are you back from your exotic island?”—makes it clear that Puri knew everything about Epstein. Puri was a former diplomat moving in New York’s exalted circles during 2009-2017, when victims such as Virginia Giuffre filed a much-publicised lawsuit saying Epstein arranged sexual encounters with “royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen”, when in 2011 the Daily Mail published an interview of 17-year-old Giuffre’s travels with Epstein to cavort with Prince Andrew.
Anyone who used Epstein’s network cannot claim they are blameless simply because they did not physically participate in his crimes. The Epstein Files have resulted in resignations—of people way more high profile than Puri.
Tom Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt Hotels, resigned saying there was “no excuse for not distancing himself sooner”. Puri’s erstwhile boss at the International Peace Institute, Norwegian diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen, stepped down and his wife, Mona Juul, resigned as ambassador. Peter Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to the US, was fired. Lawrence Summers, former US treasury secretary, has stepped back from public life. Kathryn Ruemmler, Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, resigned. All of them stepped down not because they were involved directly in Epstein’s sexual abuse and trafficking but because they, like Puri, used his tainted network despite knowing who he was.
Pritzker said he resigned to protect his company from his association with Epstein. It beggars belief that not only does Puri fail to realise his responsibility to protect our country from his association with a convicted paedophile but that he lies and gaslights anyone who points this out to him. He owes it to the nation to apologise and resign.
The author is a member of the Lok Sabha.