Pranab Mukherjee is the president of India. He could not become prime minister, even caretaker prime minister, home minister and missed becoming president in 2007. There was suspense about his candidature. When during Congress Working Committee meeting he proposed authorising Congress president to nominate candidates for president and vice president he seemed out of equation. Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav said they did not want him or Hamid Ansari and proposed A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee. It seemed all over for Pranab Mukherjee but Mulayam Singh Yadav turned around and supported him. JD(U) and Shiv Sena supported Pranab Mukherjee. There was split in Left Front. CPI(M) supported him. CPI abstained. At the end Mamata Banerjee also supported him.
Tag: manmohan singh
Presidential candidates
On 12/6/2012 Election Commission announced the dates for presidential election. Strange are the ways of Election Commission. They announce elections for Legislative Assemblies six months before the expiry of the term and club various state elections together though announcement before 40 days is enough and clubbing elections together is not necessary and right. In case of presidential election the law provides for announcement 60 days before the expiry of the term and Election Commission announced the dates 43 days before the expiry of the term. Soon there will be vacancy of vice president but Election Commission has not clubbed together elections of president and vice president. S. Y. Qureshi was CEC when 60 days were left i.e., on 25/5/2012. He should have announced the election but did not do so and retired on 10/6/2012. Perhaps he was waiting for Congress to announce its candidate. On 11/6/2012 V. S. Sampath became CEC and next day at 5.30 p.m. he announced the election.
SBI and Hotel Leela
SBI did not get back the loan it gave to Kingfisher. Kingfisher was bailed out by converting the loan into shares. Now comes the news that SBI has referred 4,300 crore rupees loan taken by Hotel Leela to corporate debt restructuring (CDR). It is said that Hotel Leela has not defaulted. It wants interest rate reduced from 14% to 11% and longer schedule for payment. Perhaps the owner of Hotel Leela thinks he can default and get away just like Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher did.
Corruption at top and bottom
There are people who say Lokpal Bill targets corruption at top and does not make any difference to corruption at bottom. They do not know corruption at bottom is very often due to corruption at top.
A home minister takes four crore rupees as bribe to appoint a police officer as commissioner. The commissioner recovers that money from his juniors who in turn recover money from their juniors and so it reaches the level of constable. This also results in criminals going scot-free due to acts of commission and omission by police.
A chairman of a Public Service Commission takes 75 lakh rupees as bribe to appoint DSPs and judges. They recover it from their juniors and others.
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.
IPL controversies
IPL was started to crush ICL. BCCI used its clout to get ICC ban players taking part in ICL. ICL had players from different countries. It was unfair to ban players taking part in ICL.
IPL got franchisees and sponsors. Players were auctioned. ICL suffered loss and disappeared.
Media gave good coverage to IPL. The telecast of matches was in the evening or at night. The matches provided entertainment and an alternative for movies and TV serials. People were fed up of K serials and they watched IPL.
Services team and Srinagar
Everything is not all right in Jammu and Kashmir. Pre-paid mobile service that was prevalent in J&K was banned from 1 November 2009. J&K government asked the centre to reconsider the ban. That shows the situation is not normal. However the reason given for banning pre-paid is not convincing. It is said that for pre-paid connection one document is required and for post-paid three documents are required. In that case the requirement for pre-paid should have been made three documents.
Two mysteries: Death and Destiny
When Robert Clive was a clerk in East India Company twice he tried to commit suicide. Both times pistol got jammed. Later he founded the British Empire in India. After some years he tried again to commit suicide and he succeeded. There are many who do not die a natural death. Why they die unnatural…