Three recent events in India have significance. First was Colors challenging I&B Ministry and going to court. I&B Ministry had asked Imagine and Colours to shift their 9.00 p.m. programmes to a time slot between 11.00 p.m. and 5.00 a.m. Imagine obliged. Colors went to court. It got a stay order. Second was Jaganmohan Reddy’s…
Tag: Indian Politics
Punish MPs
MPs have not allowed Parliament to function since 9/11/2010. A. Raja, telecom minister, resigned during the session. Opposition MPs wanted JPC. Congress MPs opposed JPC. Everyday there were disruptions and adjournments. Parliament is a forum for debate and discussion with dignity and decorum. Disruption is unjustified. MPs must be punished for non-functioning of Parliament. MPs…
Bihar elections
Bihar election results are out. JD(U)-BJP coalition has won. RJD-LJP, Congress and others have lost. Nitish Kumar had made development an issue in the elections and he won. Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in Bihar. They attacked Nitish Kumar. Their campaigns did not have the desired effect. Congress did not want…
Cursed be the corrupt
In India corruption has reached stratospheric levels. Thousands of crores of rupees are siphoned off. Criminals get away. An ordinary citizen can not do much in his fight against corruption. RTI activists are killed. There is one thing an ordinary citizen can do and that is to curse the corrupt and criminals. Cursed be every…
A Tale of Two Scams
After Commonwealth Games were over investigation into corruption in Commonwealth Games began by various agencies. There was lot of noise about raids. Contractors were raided. No raid on residence or office of any IOA official or minister associated with the Games.
Then Adarsh Society scam made news. Ashok Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, offered to resign. The scam reports exposed many ministers, bureaucrats and defence personnel. Ashok Chavan’s predecessors who wanted to replace him were also exposed. Media reported about Adarsh Society and forgot about Commonwealth Games.
Rugby stadium built for Commonwealth Games at the cost of three hundred crore rupees is dismantled. Money spent on it is a waste.
http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/a-tale-of-two-scams/ ?
Food Insecurity Bill
The government wants to bring Food Security Bill which in fact is Food Insecurity Bill. The bill is dictated by NAC which functions as super cabinet and should have no place in a democracy.
The members of NAC either do not know what happens in India or do not care. Both cases are unpardonable.
Food grains are acquired but not stored properly. They rot in godowns or outside godowns. Some godowns meant for stocking food grains stock liquor bottles. Food grains, that would have gone to people who die of starvation, rot. In Haryana food grains stored outside FCI godowns have rotten so much that they are not fit even for animal consumption and Haryana Warehouse Corporation wants to auction them at 62 paise per kg for those who want to use those rotten food grains as manure. Many starvation deaths would not have taken place if acquisition of food grains had been proper. When Supreme Court tells to distribute food grains free to prevent their getting rotten prime minister says it is not for Supreme Court to decide policy. Money is wasted on procuring food grains and food grains are wasted without proper storage and delivery.
Acts of sedition
Two persons made seditious speeches in Delhi on 21/10/2010 and the central government does not want to prosecute them. The excuse is they don’t want to give them publicity.
P. Chidambaram is good with excuses. Many years back when Shankaracharya of Puri made a statement that should have landed him in jail his excuse was that the Shankaracharya came perilously close to breaking the law.
The countries where rule of law prevails do what is necessary and do not hide behind excuses. Whether someone who has made seditious speech gets publicity or not is immaterial. Law has to take its course. There is equality before law. Whether the person who makes the speech is a politician, legislator or lonely figure is immaterial. People who announce reward for murdering someone don’t get arrested and that makes the target insecure. Such inaction on the part of government made M. F. Hussain give up Indian citizenship.
One speaker is from Kashmir and wants independence for Kashmir. Many young people in Kashmir want independence. If the central government is open to the idea of independence for Kashmir and is ready to let go Kashmir it should say so openly. If it is open to the idea of plebiscite in Jammu & Kashmir it must say so.
Shunglu Committee is an eyewash
On 15/10/2010 Shunglu Committee was appointed to probe into Commonwealth Games corruption. It was given 90 days time. Someone said it was cover-up. The corrupt people had two months for cover-up before Commonwealth Games and now they have three months. V. K. Shunglu was a CAG. He is out of country, no idea when he will return, may be after 90 days.
On 23/10/2010 on Big Fight on NDTV 24×7 a panellist said Shunglu Committee is an eyewash. It has no powers. Under what law it is appointed? Can it question Manmohan Singh? Can it question Sonia Gandhi? This is not the time for political correctness. Money has gone all the way to the top. Money has gone to Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dikshit, Jaipal Reddy. Money has gone to Manmohan Singh. Money has gone to Sonia Gandhi. A junior engineer will be punished. The panellist said that.
Article 356 for Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a fit case for imposing President’s Rule under article 356 of the constitution.
It is not for students to tell what should be the syllabus. A student tells the university to withdraw a book from the curriculum and vice chancellor obliges within 24 hours using emergency powers which were not used before. The chief minister justifies the withdrawal saying the book contains abusive language. His party’s spokesperson says “It may be his personal opinion but it was not the Chief Minister who ordered the withdrawal of the book. It was not the government’s decision. Mumbai University is autonomous. If anybody is aggrieved by the decision of Mumbai University, they can always take it up with the Senate or the Syndicate or the appropriate forum.â€
http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/article-356-for-maharashtra/ ?
Opinion Polls
Elections in Bihar are going on and Election Commission (EC) wants ban on opinion polls. It has written a letter to Law Ministry to bring out and ordinance banning opinion polls. EC thinks it can dictate terms to Law Ministry. It is for Law Ministry to decide whether it is subservient to EC.
http://go4quiz.com/vincent/2010/india/election-commission-opinion-polls/