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“The audit report does not directly indict the Prime Minister or his office. But during the time these mining blocks in question were allotted, the coal portfolio was held by him — between July 2004 and May 2009.” A Media spin…dated 21 August 2012

I recall, in August 1999 following the Gaisal Train accident, Mr. Nitish Kumar resigned from his job as Railway Minister owning his moral responsibility. He rejoined as Railway Minister from 2001 to 2004. He had observed, “…I told the prime minister I am resigning and the allegations against me should be probed. I am facilitating the inquiry by my resignation.” This was a case of owning a moral responsibility to safeguard his ethical standing; no doubt he stands vindicated till date for his stance in the eyes of his people leading to his current good standing in the contemporary murky political scenario.

With the backdrop of this simple paradigm, let us proceed to examine another dissimilar case, of involving our esteemed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also held the Coal ministry portfolio from 2004 to 2009, when these mind boggling bunglings in the coal distribution and allocation of licenses took the root.

Should Manmohan Singh owe a moral responsibility to his people on whose tax money he enjoys all the reputation as well as the material benefits as a Prime Minister? The money spent on his upkeep is beyond imagination. The accommodation where these clandestine leaders are housed today in New Delhi is a priceless site, which they pay a negligible rent for. It is a shame to see that a democracy is being molested and raped due to utter lack of safeguards against such ill and inapt misdeeds of the person holding a responsible top job.

India must be an exceptionally amazing nation, where everything is a saleable commodity including its highest hierarchical authority. As I write this indignant remark, I feel bad as I indirectly or directly, indict myself as well in this quagmire. However I cannot be dishonest to myself while coming down heavily on others. It certainly is a shameful state of affairs, when a Prime Minister of a country is directly involved into scams after scams, vicariously or directly, yet he remains steadfast in clinging to the ‘shamed job’ he undertook to protect and uphold the dignity of the people to the best or least of his ability.

What happens if he fails to do so?

In August 2012, India saw for the second time, after Loknayak Sri Jayprakash in 1970s, a true uprising unexpectedly as its front face – Anna Hazare alongwith his powerful coteries raised a slogan and rightly so, “It is the second fight for independence…” 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…

They asked satirically:

“We have just one question. Prime Minister, please tell us, where should we go to register an FIR on the basis of these reports. All the agencies are under the PM’s control and that is why we keep demanding a strong Lokpal,” Kejriwal said.

Bhushan said they decided to fight corruption on a political front after it became clear that those in the political arena were not interested in addressing the issue at all.”

UPA II is studded with a huge necklace of diamonds, sapphires and precious rubies earned trough their ill-gotten money from the taxpayers; shamelessly addressed as fiscal scandalous scams – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… As Arun Jaitley rightly observes, ““In the 2G scam, the PM was politically and vicariously liable,” Jaitley told reporters. “In this case, for a substantial period from 2004 to 2009, he was himself the minister. Thus, he is politically, morally and directly liable. If he is directly liable, he has to introspect that he should own up responsibility and impose on himself the moral sanction of quitting his office.””

Sushma Swaraj adds further, “Coming heavy on the UPA-led government, Swaraj said: “A new chapter has been added to the UPA graft story. This is the biggest (scam).””

All this was going on last August 2012, soon after the revelations made by Kejriwal during their agitation in Delhi 2012. It was soon followed by the opposition leaders including the BJP and others.

On Thursday, 22 March 2012, Dr. S. Swamy, President of Janta Party had remarked:
“Taking on the UPA Government over a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on coal block allocation that reported a loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crores (this initial figure was later on revised and estimated to be 1.86 Lacs Crores – Author), … a few more scandals are yet to come out, and added that the total loss to the nation would be more than the GDP of the country.

Swamy, who is the chief petitioner in the 2G spectrum scam, took potshots at the UPA Government for looting the country.

“There are few more scandals which are yet to come out and the total loss to nation would be more than the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country and it will be roughly about 10 times the foreign exchange reserves that we have,” he said.”

Meanwhile, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav held the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, former Coal Minister Shibu Soren and the present Coal Minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, responsible for the scam.

“This is very dangerous. Three people, the Prime Minister, then Shibu Soren and then Sriprakash Jaiswal ran the Coal Ministry during this period. The information I have received over the last few days is that the actual amount is even more than what the CAG has estimated. I will not spare anyone and nail the culprits,” he said.

This is unfortunate that the Prime Minister being directly involved in a scam and still evades his moral, political and social responsibility apart from its legal implications, which could be certainly disastrous, both for him as well as to the credibility of nation as a whole in international perspective. Mr. Manmohan Singh cannot sit idly on these far fetching fiscal scams in silence. He must either resign or come out of them clean. He cannot afford to beat his own bush of Mr. Clean image under such sizzling reports directly leading at his own doorsteps.

Manmohan Singh has never been out of the glare for his suspected role in misappropriation of monetary allocations under his supervision as a vicarious responsibility and liability.

Mr Yashwant Sinha of BJP again raised an issue to call Prime Minister to interrogate him before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to clear his name. The 2G case is being heard and monitored in the Supreme Court.

The coal scam involving Manmohan Singh directly resurfaced today following a report in the Indian Express of the alleged government interference in CBI investigations and the BJP demanding an SIT probe into it.

The Indian Express report had it that the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar summoned CBI Chief and the report was changed and toned down after the meeting. The party has firmly rejected the charge and also ruled out the resignation of the Law Minister.

“There is no question of resignation of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar. Supreme Court has already asked CBI to file an affidavit in this regard. CBI will file its affidavit and truth will come out,” party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said.

Since this report, the Indian press and media have gone wild and berserk. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16….Contd

Shall the largest written Constitution of a largest democratic Country of the world will also wake up to create a smallest safeguard against its crafty manipulative leaders; who lynch its trustworthy voters – who are still very ignorant of the very philosophy of its written pages, while being hounded by the utter lack of basic infrastructure amenities even in the ghettos of the urban dwellings?

Who can or will….???

Nobody else but yourself…

Wake up the Youth of India.

Your nation is calling you…

For the Freedom you never got in 1947…

Dr. M M Singh is virtual Prime Minister of India as a head of UPA II coalition partners since they came back in power in 2009 elections. But the decision making force lives in 10, Janpath where the UPA Chairperson viz. Ms Sonia Gandhi lives and everybody has to flock to her for each issue. During the first tenure of UPA I after 2004, initially he (MMS) was watched for his performance and thus followed the orgy of loot and pillage apprized with his mettle. Obviously DMK saw great opportunity of making hay before the sun sets. A young South Indian dalit leader four times MP and been Minister in various capacities did show his mettle beyond imagination of what they call it an Indian Watergate scandal. Unfortunately this is not the first or last in its right.

“Watergate has entered the political lexicon as a term synonymous with corruption and scandal, yet the Watergate Hotel is one of Washington’s plushest hotels. Even today, it is home to former Senator Bob Dole and was once the place where Monica Lewinsky laid low. It was here that the Watergate Burglars broke into the Democratic Party’s National Committee offices on June 17, 1972. If it had not been for the alert actions of Frank Wills, a security guard, the scandal may never have erupted.”

Even though he (Nixon) was reelected in January 1973 after the breaking out of the scandal in 1972, he ultimately had to resign on 8/9 August 1974 following impeachment proceedings alongwith the Supreme Court order. It was not easy as Nixon was no superhuman. One Watergate led to fall of US President, India has faced one scandal after another that has shamed the US Watergate many times more, yet its PM is still holding his head steadfast without any remorse and repentance. Nothing seems to deter or persuade him. Head doesn’t roll but heads rolled sardonically.

Ashok Bagriya wrote on Nov 20, 2010 at 11:21pm IST in CNN-IBN:
“PM’s affidavit to SC explains his alleged inaction and silence over Subramaniam Swamy’s petition in 2G scam.” He further continues:

“Various letters written by Swamy — from the first in November 29, 2008 to the last in October 2010 — have been dealt with in accordance with the procedure in the PMO, the affidavit said.

The affidavit has given in detail how various letters written by Swamy since November 29, 2008 to October 5, 2010 have been dealt with by the Prime Minister’s office and advice sought from the Law Ministry.” This is at best the example of delay for denying justice technique. Nothing could move the Mr. Honest Prime Minister until the Supreme Court of India made shameful admission and interference by cancelling the 2 G allocations leading to widespread infamy that involved a lot of international players and its resulting disastrous loss of credibility. However it still hasn’t proved their nemesis, neither for UPA nor for their satrap PM MM Singh. Wishing against the wish, India Today observed enthusiastically on October 2, 2011, “If the 2G scam is the UPA-II’s nemesis, it is because of Swamy.”

“”Who got the licences… how FCFS was implemented…this was never discussed with me nor was it brought to the Cabinet. This was exclusively Telecom Minister’s decision,” Singh said in an interaction with the editors from the electronic media. (Watch: Prime Minister’s Q&A with Editors)” NDTV wrote and continued further on February 16, 2011 14:39 IST:
“The government’s auditor CAG had estimated a presumptive loss of up to Rs. 1.76 lakh crore due to sale of spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices. (Read: What is 2G spectrum scam?)
This had forced Raja to resign from the Union Cabinet in November last year and was followed by his arrest on spectrum 2G scam charges subsequently. (Read: Who is A Raja?)”

On an excuse of coalition dharma (watch a video) of forming a government, MM Singh gives his (un)pardonable excuse of rapacious glib explanation, “On retaining Raja as the Telecom Minister in the UPA-II, the Prime Minister said in a coalition government, the choices of the leaders of the alliance partners have to be accepted and that the DMK had suggested Raja and Dayanidhi Maran for the Union Cabinet.”

Mr Singh is pretending himself as indispensable like our late Chacha Nehru who had succeeded in creating an aura around him, “Who after Nehru (1, 2, 3, 4)”? 1964 on, India is still running strong but who will convince our proxy Prime Minister (inefficient)? Why does he have to continue if the wheels are not moving at a desired pace? Is holding on a job is above the individual priority of integrity and pride of the nation?

“At that moment, there was no reason to feel that anything wrong had been done”, the Prime Minister said. It seems that the word ‘wrong’ needs to be redefined!

Despite all these brouhaha in the media, which also led to subsequent arrest of several persons, ministers, bureaucrats, industrialists with indicting of several media personalities, yet The Prime Minister remained unfuzzled and unfudged.

Mr A. Raja was arrested by CBI on 2 February 2011; On 9 May 2012 he applied for bail for the first time since his arrest and was granted bail on 15 May 2012. Besides Raja, M K Kanimozhi (daughter of DMK supremo Karunanidhi); bureaucrats like Siddharth Behura, R K Chandolia; corporates like Sanjay Chandra, Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara, Vinod Goenka, Shahid Balwa, Asif Balwa (younger brother of Shahid Balwa), Rajiv Agrawal, Sharat Kumar, Ravi Ruia, Anshuman Ruia, Vikas Saraf, I P Khaitan, Kiran Khaitan; film and entertainment personalities like Karim Morani; corporations involved were like Unitech Wireless, Reliance Telecom, Swan Telecom. Other companies named in the chargesheet are: Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd, Essar Tele Holding, Essar (Parent group of Essar Tele Holding).

For the first time in India since 1947, a very unthinkable role of media personalities was made publicly known undermining the very foundation of its so called fourth pillar of democracy.

“Media sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that two senior journalists Barkha Dutt (group editor of NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi (editorial director of Hindustan Times) knew that corporate lobbyist Nira Radia was influencing the decisions of appointment of telecom minister. Radia wanted A Raja to be appointed as the telecom minister. The two magazines made public the telephone conversations between Nira Radia, Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi. Radia’s phones were being tapped by the Income Tax Department. Critics allege that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew about the nexus between the government and the media industry but still they supported this corrupt activity and suppressed news reporting the discovery of the corrupt practice.” Wikipedia details elaborately

Raja must have his point to dare say, “Jailed former telecom minister A Raja Tuesday told a Delhi court that he would get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then finance minister P Chidambaram and present telecom minister Kapil Sibal summoned as witnesses to prove government did not incur any loss in the 2G allocation.” live mint reported on Wed, Aug 24 2011. 01 21 PM IST

Now The Hindu broke the ice further where Shalini Singh boldly asserted in her multiple columns that Prime Minister was definitely aware of Raja’s conduct. “New papers show PMO analysed and agreed with Raja’s actions before 2G scam”; “Will Manmohan distance himself from PMO officials as he did from Raja?” This story was carried in other media also, 1, 2. Even in the midst of all this PMO kept issuing denials (1, 2) instead of Mr Singh reacting to shave his dignified exit.

How much more evidence does an Indian Mr Clean Prime Minister need to accede and join Mr Richard Milhous Nixon to go away even after so much of indignity, public outrage giving rise to NGOs like India Against Corruption, Aam Aadmi Party led by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal.

If one shame couldn’t inspire to relinquish the lust of power and chair, could even bigger scam of smouldering “Coalgate” do the trick? This is a big question. Firstpost described it, “…the CAG’s draft report that the government has lost Rs. 10.7 lakh crore by not auctioning coal.”

Can Indian lawmakers act to enact similar impeachment proceedings on the Western module to try to get rid of their indolent dishonest leaders? It is time to think seriously, but unlike the Lokpal Bill!

Afghan-Sikhs are faced with the problem of not having proper burial places for deaths of Sikhs

By Tan Ong

Afghanistan (CHAKRA) — On a two day visit to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met members of the Afghan-Sikh minority community in Kabul. He listened to their issues with regards to obtaining Indian citizenship and other problems the Sikh community was facing such as threats and killings in Muslim-majority Afghanistan.

To hear the problems, the Prime Minister met members of the community in the presidential palace complex.

The community members stated their concern about their community’s population decreasing because of migration out of the country, including India. Over 90 percent of the Sikh Afghan community has migrated out of the country.

The lack of a proper cremation ground in Kabul and constant attacks by Islamic extremists has caused an issue for the Sikh community to complete their funeral rites.

In total there are 531 Afghan-Sikh families in Afghanistan of which 143 families reside in Kabul.

An orange-coloured “robe of honour” was presented to the prime minister, know as a siropa. Thereafter, the prime minister was introduced to members of the Indian embassy, the Indo-Tibetan border police, as well as to the Indian Medical Mission.

Manmohan Singh praised the community for staying strong during hard times. He saluted their courage and was pleased to see the community creating goodwill for India.

Statue of Lord Buddha

(CHAKRA) In March, India will hold an international Buddhism conference in Kandy to celebrate the 2600^th year of Lord Buddha’s enlightenment.  A meeting was held between a visiting Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar and President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the upcoming conference as well as the commissioning of the 16-feet high Buddha statue of Lord Buddha for the International Buddhist Museum in Kandy. 

Prime Minister, Manmohan Singhs plan to arrange an exposition for the sacred Kapilvastu relics in Sri Lanka, were also discussed at the meeting.  He was personally invited to the exposition by the president of Sri Lanka, according to a statement made by the High Commission of India.

During the meeting, future parliamentary exchanges between the two countries were also discussed.  Meira Kumar said that she is looking forward to the future meetings that will be held in India in the next several months.

Rajapaksa happily welcomed these initiatives and is also looking forward to many developmental projects in Sri Lanka including the housing project as well as the rehabilitation of the railway network in the north.