Tag Archives: Elections
Posted on 21 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The Indian Media is on trial. A young intern alleged that a retired Judge had made an improper advance towards her. The media reported it extensively. The Chief Justice of India appointed a three Judge inquiry to examine the issue and report its’ finding. A Section of the media is outraged that the police in Gujarat was protecting or allegedly keeping an eye on a young lady even with her and her family’s consent.
The Goa incident involving Tarun Tejpal and a young journalist is in a different league altogether. The victim’s complaint makes out a clear case of rape. The definition of rape was amended by the parliament subsequent to the Justice Verma Committees recommendations. The ingredients of an offence of rape as amended by parliament are squarely made out in the victims e-mail. Why was the offence not allowed to be reported forthwith? Were any pressures brought on the victim not to lodge a complaint? How can an offence of rape be compromised by an atonement that the guilty will not attend office for six month? It is unheard of that a private treaty between Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Choudhary wipes out the penal consequence of rape. How can Shoma Choudhary so definitely say that the victim will not depose before the police? Is she not guilty of tampering with evidence in a rape case by pressuring a young employee to conceal the offence?
The grievance of the of the citizens’ movement after the gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi was that sexual assaults are alway under reported. Is this what is happening in this case? Just because the assailant has connections in the Congress party the nation is deprived of the sage advise of P Chidambram, the caustic comments of Kapil Sibal and the exaggerated tweets of Manish Tiwari.
Manish Tiwai was in Goa recently. He discovered Hitler there. What a pity that he could not discover a serial rapist in Goa. Additionally we will all await if the outrage in the media is proportionate to the offence. Or will journalistic pressures e brought on the young journalist to conceal the truth. May be secular philandering is to be dealt with a different standard. We all wait to see if the young lady testifies to the truth or not.
Posted on 18 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
Yesterday, 17th November, 2013 was a defining moment. Shri Narendra Modi addressed lakhs of prople who had assembled at Bengaluru. His speech was coherent, powerful and one which connected with the people. The response of the audience was electrifying.
Shri Rahul Gandhi addressed a well publicized Congress rally at Dr.Ambedkar Nagar in New Delhi. Dr.Ambedkar Nagar is a Congress stronghold. The Congress Party usually wins that constituency comfortably. Despite the build-up by the Delhi Chief Minister and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee the audience was missing. Shri Rahul Gandhi delayed his arrival at the meeting so that the organizers could mobilize more people. These efforts did not succeed. When Sh. Gandhi arrived, the thin audience became thinner. People started leaving. Smt. Sheila Dixit’s appeal to them to listen to Rahul ji eventually did not cut ice. Sh. Rahul Gandhi eventually addressed a few people and empty chairs. The high point of his speech was to credit the UPA with building a great airport in Delhi. Oblivious of the grievance of the local people, he highlighted the success of the Delhi government in providing electricity and water to the people. The crowds had come from Ambedkar Nagar and Sangam Vihar—the two assembly seats where they have to buy water from private tankers. The electricity bills in Delhi have sky rocketed 300 percent during the Congress rule. The water bills have increased by 1100 percent. The Congress votes in Delhi will be inversely proportionate to the hike in electricity and water tariffs.
Posted on 17 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The Congress party’s Vice President Rahul Gandhi has referred to the BJP as ‘Chor’ and a ‘Lotera’. He needs to introspect.
Has the Congress party forgotten that the scams in the purchase of Bofors guns and HDW submarine had taken place when Congress was in power.
Two congress Prime Minster’s won a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha by buying Members of Parliament.
Surely the party could not have forgotten the JMM bribery case and the cash for vote’s scandal.
The three mega scams of the UPA Government are the 2G spectrum allocation, the Commonwealth Games and the coal block allocations scam.
The Congress runs a ‘kleptocracy’ and not a ‘democracy’.
Posted on 16 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The campaign for the five State Assembly elections has peaked. The election results for Mizoram will be influenced by the local politics of the State. The other four elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi will have a major impact on India’s politics. They will lay down a road-map for next year’s General elections for the Lok Sabha.
Madhya Pradesh under Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan Ji has been a turn-around story. In 2003, the Congress was defeated. Its two term government led by Digvijay Singh failed on the development front. Bijli, Sadak, Pani were the issues. Today Madhya Pradesh has evolved out of the ‘Bimaru’ status. Its’ road network has hugely improved. It is in a position to provide a near 24 hour electricity in all districts of the State. It will soon be power surplus. Irrigation has improved substantially. It has a record agricultural growth rate. It is now competing with Punjab as the principal food grain producer of India. The State Budget has increased several times over. The social welfare schemes in the State have been successful. Shivraj Ji enjoys a tall image in the State and is benefiting from the pro- incumbency in governance.
The PDS system, the health welfare schemes, the bonus paid to farmers to enhance rice production has immensely succeeded in Chhattisgarh. The State has waged a battle against Maoism. It has hugely benefited from the NDA’s decision to carve out a smaller separate State. Dr. Raman Singh is perceived as a pro Aam Admi legend.
The Congress in Delhi and Rajasthan suffers from a double anti-incumbency. As a national capital , the Delhi election is influenced both by local issues and national politics. The several Lokayukta reports against the Delhi government, the 300 percent increase in power tariff, the 1100 percent rise in water bills, inflation and a series of scams have all dented the Congress image in Delhi substantially.
The lackluster image of Congress leadership in Rajasthan coupled with the non-performance of the State Government is going to add to the Congress woes.
I won’t be surprised if the Congress gets a drubbing in all the four States. If that were to happen, the Central Government will be reduced to a lame duck.
Posted on 15 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The Delhi Police has arrested three private detectives and three policemen in connection with illegal procurement of call data records of several persons in Delhi. It is alleged that my mobile phone call data record were amongst those which were being accessed by these persons. Earlier some others including a private detective and a policeman who was engaged at the behest of this detective had been arrested.
If call data records of citizens can so easily be procured it is a serious infringement of the right of privacy. Every citizen has a right to be left alone. Nobody can snoop on him as to whom he contacts and speaks to. In addition to this violation of the right to privacy in the case of a Member of Parliament such snooping also includes violation of his right of Privilege since the identity of individuals who contact the Members of Parliament if disclosed or found out would expose their sources and jeopardize their right to get information in future.
The private detectives and the policemen engaged by them appear to have been identified. But who was the client that these persons were acting for. Obviously such details were not being sought without a purpose or a motive. There had to be a client who engaged them to get these details. Investigations have so far failed to identify this client.
Posted on 14 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
Shri Naresh Aggarwal is a Samajwadi party member of the Rajya Sabha. I have seen him acquire the membership of four different political parties during the past few years. He serves them all with equal conviction.
Yesterday he asserted that Shri Narendera Modi is unfit to become a Prime Minister, since he started his career as a tea vendor. Surely, this statement coming from, a ‘Samajwadi’ is surprising. ‘Samajwad’ stands for equality and equity. It represents equal opportunity. It is only in India that a so called ‘Samajwadi Party’ can be controlled by a feudal mindset comprising of a Netaji, his son, brothers, cousins and nephews. The idea of a ‘little man’ in the crowd making it big appears repugnant to the Indian Samajwadis.
Dynasties are destructive of the real strength of a democracy. They replace talent and merit with family charismas. Dynasties virtually own political parties. They prevent inner party democracy. No mass leaders in dynastic parties can emerge without the tactical nod of the dynasties. Narendera Modi’s large acceptability is precisely because he has defied the shackles of this conventional system and communicated directly with the people. His emergence is on account of proven merit. He represents the rejection of a dynastic mindset. No wonder the ‘new India’ accepts him.
Posted on 13 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
“THE INDIAN EXPRESS” today has quoted from the book authored by Dr. A.P. Mukherjee the former CBI Director. Dr. Mukherjee claims that the then Prime Minister Sh. Rajiv Gandhi told him that middlemen needed to be eliminated from the Defence deals. Instead the money collected from these deals should be used for politically funding. This would clean the lower level of politics and dispense with the need to collect funds through political cadres and local methods.
Curiously this is exactly what happened in the 1980’s. The kickbacks in Bofors, HDW, submarine deals, airbus purchases all surfaced during that period. Was it the then government’s intention that commercial middlemen be eliminated and substituted with political middleman. Those occupying the seats of power replaced the hanger on’s in the corridor of power as defence agents.
Corruption follows Newton’s gravitational principle. It flows from the top to the bottom. An unclean top can never clean up the mess at the bottom.
Posted on 12 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The Prime Minister has strongly argued that policy formulation is in the Executive domain and that the CBI should not investigate policy. What if the policy formulation is for collateral and corrupt purpose? The UPA Government’s policy was for a national resource, the 2G spectrum, should be allocated in 2008 at the 2001 prices. The policy was intended to cause loss to the national exchequer. The UPA Government’s policy was to allocate spectrum on a ‘first come first pay’ basis. The favourites were informed in advance about the change of policy. If the policy is intended to promote corruption, should there be immunity from the Prevention of Corruption Act?
The UPA’s policy was to allocate coal blocks not through an auction, not at the market price but through a discretionary screening mechanism. Coal blocks were allotted to a favourite few including Congress Party politicians. Should such a policy be immune from investigation ?
Posted on 11 November, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
The Prime Minister today spoke at an international conference on “Evolving Common Strategies to Combat Corruption and Crime”.
The conference was organized by the CBI. He understandably spoke on the CBI.
Merely stating that autonomy in investigations is already guaranteed to the CBI is not enough. In actual practice, the UPA government has consistently interfered in the investigative process and made the CBI pliable.
However, the further comment of the Prime Minister sounds a danger. He said “We should be able to clearly distinguish between operational autonomy and the rules of oversight, supervision and control in organizational and institutional matters that are normal for public bodies and the executives funded by the public money”.
Does this supervision and control extend to a discretion in sanctioning the budgets required for investigations ?
Does it extend to selecting pliable officers before posting them in the CBI ?
Does it extend to recalling their deputation and removing inconvenient officers ?
Additionally, the UPA government by offering post-retirement jobs to all CBI Directors is influencing the pre – retirement conduct of the Directors.
Has it left any scope for operational autonomy ?
Posted on 20 September, 2013, No Comments Comments admin
“Faced with both the crisis of governance and a lack of leadership, the UPA ‘s desperate strategy appears to be to deflect the agenda. Under no circumstances must the destruction of ‘The India’s story’ by the UPA be allowed to occupy the centre stage of the electoral agenda. The UPA has therefore only one option left. Communalize the polity in the country and change the electoral agenda. All those who want to throw the UPA out of office must understand that their focus must remain on the issues of governance which the UPA will try to duck.”