CVC appointment

The Prime Minister and Home Minister recommended P J Thomas in spite of pending criminal case against him.The Opposition leader registered her dissent against the appointment in selection committee meeting.  So far Central Government defended the appointment as usual. Recently Attorney General G E Vahanvati told that Supreme Court that selection committee is not presented with the facts during their review. I am not sure whether AG things Supreme Court and Citizens are dumb.

It is unbelievable that selection committee will review the file without all the facts in front of them.It is common practice that Service Record of individual official will be reviewed for even a normal promotion. It is unbelievable this was not presented to the selection committee. In a ethical selection process, P J Thomas name should not even been considered for this position. The Home Minister and Opposition Leader confirmed they discussed this issue. Will Central Government will ask AG's resignation or court will condemn him for providing false information to SC? He should be punished for misrepresenting the court and larger public.

Home Minister confirmation of Opposition Leader dissent shows that Prime Minister and Home Minister was keen in appointing him to cover up 2G spectrum. From Nira Radia's tape and other sources clearly shows Dr. Manmohan Singh is a dummy Prime Minister controlled by Gandhi family. He was not able to make his own decision on any key issue which was obvious in 2G scam. Whether  Prime Minister and Home Minister acted on their own or not. They are responsible for the decision. They should resign for making this poor choice. At least they should fix the problem by asking P J Thomas to resign. In case if he refuses, the cabinet should recommend The President of India for his removal.

In the future to avoid this mistake and embarrassment, (should be followed in all constitutional appointments)

1. The selection process should be openly vetted before it goes to Selection Committee. This could be done by Group of Ministers or Parliamentary committee.

2. The Selection Committee (comprising of Prime Minister,Home Minister and opposition Leader) should select the individual on consensus basis. i.e. The decision must be unanimous.

3. When the unanimous decision is not reached, it must go to Parliament for confirmation for simple majority at least. This will give opposition leaders to register their concerns in open forum.

I hope someone pays the price for this mess.

TN Assembly - Opinion Poll

Loyola College conducts opinion poll around election time and publishes the result along with their analysis.  DMK Government using Police Intelligence Chief  M.S. Jaffar Sait to pressure Loyola College not to release the data. This news was reported by http://www.savukku.net/ .

The Tamil version of the website has this information and summary is provided below.

Center of Public Studies, Loyola College conducts opinion polls on various issues. In similar fashion, they conducted opinion poll related to Tamil Nadu Assembly Election in November 2011. It determined the AIADMK alliance will win the majority. DMK Government and Intelligence Department pressured Loyola College not to release the results then. Loyola College did not release.

Recently they conducted the similar opinion poll. The results indicate that AIADMK alliance will win 181-185 seats and DMK alliance will win 51-55 seats. They are again putting pressure not to release the results. This time Loyola College determined to release the data. If not the website assures they will find a way to publish the results.

DMK - Internal Family Politics Update II

DMK first family tried to force Rajathi Ammal and Kanimozhi out of political arena. Alagiri took the lead as usual but in my view he was doing it for his own hidden agenda. Karunanidhi understood this and supported Kanimozhi and her Sangam festival in open. This put the first family in defence. I am sure compromise is reached after that. Otherwise he wouldn't have met MK.  Alagiri is going to get what he wanted. This become obvious Alagiri met Karunanidhi in Gopalapuram and his interview after that. In the recent interview (after meeting Karunanidhi) he mentioned he will not ask for power and he will take it if it's given to him.

DMK general council is meeting on 3rd February. I expect Alagiri to get party post equal to Stalin. I expect him to be appointed as Deputy General Secretary (Stalin holds this title now) or Deputy President or Treasurer. He will also going to get more seats for his followers. I am sure Stalin is not going to like this. Now Maran brothers are trying to neutral between Stalin and Alagiri. It will interesting to watch them as they can tilt the balance.

As long as Karunanidhi is alive, Kanimozhi will be taken care. I do not believe Kanimozhi or Rajathi are a match to Stalin/Alagiri/Maran brothers combo. Eventually they will be out of DMK if not politics.

Dr. Manmohan Singh - Should he go?

I admire Dr. Manmohan Singh for his work as an Economist and Finance Minister. His policies during 1991-96 put us in the path of growth which we are benefiting for past decade or so. In my view he failed miserably as a Prime Minister. The difference is he was reporting to P.V. Narasimha Rao then and Sonia Gandhi now. Can we attribute his failure to his boss? I believe so. He was given enough freedom to fix the economy and which was his strength. Now he does not have that freedom and in that case he should step down.

The following things shows how he is compromised his integrity for the power. This is not a complete list of his failure anyway.

1. Nira Radia tapes revealed how UPA-2 cabinet was decided. It was big corporates, power brokers, media personnel, etc except the Prime Minister. As per consititution he has full authority for deciding the cabinet but we know what happened.

2. There was clear indication that things were wrong in 2G selling process. He himself indicated auction process should be followed. Law Ministry and TRAI recommended the same. In response to Prime Minister's letter, A.Raja responds (with the help of then Solicitor General) to Prime Minister, he was going ahead with his approach. Prime Minister ackonwledged his letter without any comment. Who forced him to stay away from this?  Why A.Raja was allowed to stay in Cabinet even after his officess were raided. Even after all this Raja was given clean chit by PM. why?

3. During the 2009 election, he promised to bring back the black money from foreign banks in 100 days. Now it is over 18 months from dead line. Nothing much happened. Contrary to his statement, they are protecting the names which they received from German Government using some IT rules. These individuals and Companies are not just tax evaders. They are criminals and parked their illegal money in those accounts. They must be exposed. Why he is hesitating?

4. His handling of Bofors is miserable. ITAT says there is enough evidence to prove that commissions were paid. CBI contradicts saying there is not enough proof. They are under PMO and he is responsible. Why he is supporting the coverup?

His job is not just to give pose with foriegn leaders. He is obligated to serve the nation and not just Sonia Gandhi family. He failed in these obligations and time for him to go. He must resign, otherwise he and his party must be voted out.

Nepotism in Indian politics

Founding fathers and our freedom fighters sacrificed so many things including their life and wealth to achieve the freedom we enjoy. It is slowly slipping out of our  hands. Corruption is every where. In my view Corruption and Nepotism are related.. Recently Nepotism reaching to a level where our democracy become mockery. Every politicians wants to bring in their kids into politics to protect their interest (meaning assets acquired illegally). It is become accepted phenomenon. It was started slowly when Nehru brought Indira Gandhi into lime light. I would not be surprised in the future over 75% of elected members of our Government are nepotist. It must stop. Otherwise we cannot control the corruption and looting.

I thought of covering  from Nehru Family at national level, YSR family in Andhra Pradesh, Pawar family in Maharashtra, Karunanidhi family in Tamil and list will go on.  We were waiting for leaders to come and fix our political systems. I think we lost our core value by copying the British system. We must revist our old democratic system put together by Chola Kings. We should incorporate the relevant ones in our constitution. That may be a challenge but not impossible.

During my research I stumbled upon this video. The video below gives a sample from one family (Sonia Gandhi) and how they control the puppet PM from behind and their cronies. It talks volume and it is worth watching.

Free Color TV - Receipients

 The electronic waste cannot be thrown out in garbage particularly television sets without proper care. This  could contaminate the environment and hazardous for individuals handling it (particularly if it is not properly handled). I was searching google on recycling television sets. I landed here.

The following paragraph in the article captured my eyes.

"By December, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu hopes that around 1.63 crore households would have received free colour TV sets, implying that more than six crore people would have benefited. This is nearly 90% of state's projected population of 6.8 crore". This costed exchequer Rs 4000 crore.

Typical life of the television set is 7-10 years. It will take at least Rs500/- (this is very conservative estimate and it costs over Rs 1500 in wester countries) to recycle each television set properly. This will cost Rs. 815 crores to recycle those television sets. Who is going to pay for this? Government or pubic? If it is not handled properly, we are waiting for huge environmental disaster in Tamil Nadu. The cost will be double if you consider the privately purchased TVs.

Over 70% of the cases, the Government distributed color Television is second TV to the family. The Times of India article highlights this. As per original plan, it was meant for people who did not have color TV. In reality, I have seen people who are Engineers in Government, Teachers (both Husband and wife work, kids are working in IT), Bankers who fall under upper middle class are receiving these freebies (BTW, they all have larger Color TVs or LCDs).

This money could have better spent if it was invested in power generation making electricity accessible to more people for more time, distributing energy efficient lamps which could alleviate demand, provide better education for kids, clean water, etc. It is sad to see Government spending money inefficient way to cause another environmental disaster.

Wake up Tamil Nadu. Otherwise your kids and/or grand kids will pay for this in terms of their health.

Tamil Nadu Assembly Election - Alliance in Making

Tamil Nadu election around the corner in May 2011. Except in 1989, political alliance played a critical role in deciding the winner for past three decades. This time will be no different. DMK is spending lot of money on welfare programmes. In my view those were not welfare programmes instead freebies for luring the vote. Opposition is taking the corruption in their hand particularly 2G spectrum scam.

In Tamil Nadu, AIADMK and DMK are the two major parties. Each is having about 30% vote. One of the two party can pull about 5% more (about 35%) based on various factors. I believe anti incumbency and 2G spectrum scam will be advantage to AIADMK this time around. Last assembly election, free Television set tilted that advantage to DMK. I would not discount DMK yet as four months to election and trend could change. It is clear that, these two parties will be leading their respective alliance.

AIADMK already brought in CPI, CPI-M, MDMK and other small parties in their alliance. DMK currently has Congress and VC and I expect them to stay.

DMDK and Congress are two other major parties has some significance throught the state. DMDK already made stance against DMK. With this backdrop DMDK can join AIADMK camp or form a third front. Forming a third front will be sucidal unless it brings Congress onboard. Even with that, they cannot win the majority but can play spoiler role in splitting anti-DMK vote. Based on Vijay Kanth speech, this is unlikely. This will also discredit him in the future. He is likely to join AIADMK alliance and may be trying get maximum seats from them. My sources are confirming this.

Congress did not contest election (except in 1989) on their own in past three decades. During this period, its cadre base is eroding. It is party of more leaders and may have relatively stronger  presence in southern districts. If they go alone or put together its own alliance, it may be a repeat of Bihar in 2010. Considering DMK strength in paraliment, it is unlikely to break away from DMK. DMK support is more important in the backdrop of Andhra Pradesh crisis. Their were indications from local congress leaders that there may be breakaway from Congress to support AIADMK like 1996. I do not beieve that will happen. I do not expect smooth relation between their party cadres at local level though. Congress and DMK need each other in post election whether they win or not. Having said that, Congress will use its 2G scam to get more seats and cabinet positions if they win.

PMK is another force which could poll about 3% vote in northern Tamil Nadu. They were loosing their base because of frequent switching of side. They lost all the seats they contested in 2009 election. Karunanidhi said, they signalled PMK to join DMK. In return Ramadoss, PMK leader said he did not receive any signal. As per sources, they are keeping the channel open from both sides. It will be difficult to predict where they will be at the end. My gut feeling is, they will be with DMK or left out (which I prefer to teach them a lesson).

As expected, DMDK joins AIADMK alliance and barrning any unforseen event, I beieve they will win 150-170 seats. DMK alliance can win 40-60 seats. DMK alliance expected to project "Election Manifesto" as their hero and spend lot of money. DMK government started pushing their welfare programmes beyond the needy people to get the votes. We need to see whether it can be converted to vote at the end. Inspite of all this, there is anti-incumbency trend but can change as we near the election.

Fisherman killing - Government inaction

India wants to be a developed nation and one of the super power by 2020. It is excellent ambition and every Indians should work towards it. It should be recognized, we are growing our economy which will help us to get there but not without any risks. Indians should recognize we cannot achieve leadership position just with the help of economy. We should develop our diplomatic influence and power. Unfortunately we are lacking in that.

We are having border issues with China such as giving stapled Chinese visas for Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh residents. Recent Chinese incursion into Kashmir played down by our military and Government. I am not suggesting we should go for a war but we need to make our position clear. If needed, we should issue similar visas to Tibetans for the same reason. We need not say about Pakistan. Sri Lanka is being added to this list.

It became very common for Sri Lankan Navy to shoot at Indian fishermen particularly Tamil fisherman. They arrest and torture them for months before deporting them. Indian Government has responsibility to protect its citizens. Our Ministers both in Central and State made comments such that putting onus on the fishermen (One such comment was fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters to catch large amount of fish and paying their price). These fishermen are not sophesticated carrying high tech gadgets to know the borders. It is International law that these fishermen should be treated with dignity and returned to their mother land. Instead they shoot at fisherman for threating eventually killing some. They used LTTE name (In my view LTTE should go but Tamil interest must be protected) in the past for this. We cannot accept those excuses anymore. It must be firmly dealt with.

It is widely known that we provided arms and funds to eliminate LTTE. Later we promised crores of rupees for Tamil Rehabilitation. No progress so far. Sri Lankan Governments is not keeping its promises on rehabiltation. China and Pakistan now has larger interest in Sri Lanka which  is not good for India. It is time for India to use its diplomatic power to achieve our goals. Indian Government should make it clear that it is not acceptable to kill or torture Indian citizens. We need to protect the fishermen livelihood by providing proper protection through our coast guard and navy. This is mechanism used by China in South China sea and other developed nations elsewhere.

Tamil Leader Karunanidhi sent a telegram to PM for his intervention. In his world, this is very urgent otherwise he would have written a letter. In this electronic world, email and Fax is much faster. I hope some one around him will explain about these technology (He has foremer IT/Communications minister around him for that). For Karunanidhi, this is not as imporatnt as getting a Cabinet position or threat to his family bussiness empire. In that case he would have deputed DMK ministers or leaders to meet Sonia Gandhi or Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Jayalalitha should not stop just issuing a statement. She should fight for people rights. I do not believe retaking "Katcha Theevu" is the solution. Rather we should come up with safe zone for fishermen. In cases they sail out of the zone, we should have proper mechanism to deal with this.  It is time to unite (across political spectrum) and protect our interest.

Doctorate like Freebies in Tamil nadu?

Traditionally Honorary Doctorates are awarded to the distinguished people for contribution in their field or for the public service. In Western countries it is also awarded for individuals who made significant contribution to the institution which awards it. Now it is being awarded to individuals who do not fit any of the above criteria.

We started seeing this degree being awarded to political leaders couple of decades back.  In my view it was not correct but can be justified to some extent. I would say individual likes Anuradha Koirala , Narayanan Krishnan and many others deserve this. They were changing life of many individuals for good. Our Indian Politicians public service is typically self service or family service and would not meet stricter rules.

The recent recipients of Honorary Doctorates took it to another level. Dr.  MGR Medical University conferred honorary degrees on seven doctors, including the CM and Governor's physicians. The Madras High Court questioned the manner in which it was decided. Chief Justices observed  "Merely because one person is a private physician of the governor or a private physician of chief minister, he cannot be awarded the degree. We can't accept that," when hearing public litigation petition filed by advocate G.Velu.

I do not know how to say this other than cronyism. Appropriate regulatory authority such as UGC should implement tougher rules. Otherwise, ministers, MLAs, MPs, mayors, councilors, ward members, their doctors and others should able to get the Honarary Doctorates like freebies.

Kapil Sibal statement on 2G spectrum

Kapil Sibal issued a statement today saying CAG Rs 1.76 lakh Crore figure is erroneous and went on to say there is no loss to exchequer. This clearly shows Congress intention to coverup. In my view, Mr. Sibal owes answers to the Citizens for the following questions.

1. Why Raja changed "first come first served" to "first payed first served"?
2. Why Raja overruled PMs advice? SC made some adverse comments against Raja on this.
3. How come the letter pad companies got the licenses and are able to sell it for huge profit in few months? How come those companies able to get the necessary documents/DD ready while others scrambled? Dr. Subramaniyam Swamy presented compelling case/documents against those companies and their political ties.
4. When there is nothing wrong, why CBI raided Telecom Ministry?
5. Why Delhi HC observed that it sees prima facie in Dr. Swamy's case against Raja?
6. Pranabh Mukerjee mentioned that BJP also used similar process and presented some large number as loss during BJP period as well. Why this contradiction between two senior ministers? One of you must be wrong at the least. Can you or Finance Minister apolgize for providing wrong information to the public?
7. Why SC did not believe in the Central Government and wanted to monitor the CBI investigation? If there is no loss why Government and CBI agreed for investigation?
8. Why Mr. Thomas is appointed as CVC overruling Opposition leader concerns?
9. Why Mr.Thomas is continuing as CVC even after the SC adverse comments on his appoinment?
10. Why Congress is hesitant on appointing JPC if there is nothing to hide? Why would Pranab Mukerjhee counsel against PM's offer to appear before PAC?

There may be a dispute on how the final figure is arrived. However it is very clear that there is a loss to exchquer and individuals benefited from the transaction. It is sad to see educated and intellectuals like Mr. Sibal trying to cover up Himalayan Scandal. I am afraid that next time, Government will pick their cronies for CAG as they did in case of CVC. They learned from Bofors how to stop additional investigation and coverup things. That is being used now. Probably this learning will be useful in sometime in the future.

DMK - Internal Family Politics Update

Tamil Nadu is gearing towards assembly election in less that five months. DMK looked stronger until Parliament was  stalled by 2G spectrum scandal and A.Raja was forced to resign. This along with Nira Radia tapes brought the simmering family feud to open. End of December,  I blogged about how the Karunanidhi's first family was teaming up against Kanimozhi. It was proved to be accurate from recent Media reports.

M.K Alagiri eldest son of M.Karunanidhi and Dayalu Ammal reportedly submitted his resignation as Organization Secretary of DMK and from Union Cabinet to MK. It is also reported that the following conditions should be met to withdraw his resignation.

1. A. Raja should be suspended from DMK
2. Kanimozhi should be kept out of Politics and DMK
3. Sangamam organized by Tamil Mayyam (raided by CBI and Kanimozhi is one of the director) and funded by State Government should be stopped.

Alagiri and Stalin do not want to carry the extra baggage through Assembly election. It was obvious from the meetings organized by DMK in support of Raja. Brothers do not support this and asked their men to stay away. Karunanidhi on the contrary don't want to accept the fact and possibly by pressure from Kanimozhi and Rajathi.

Kanimozhi is not significant figure within DMK. The intention (by Alagiri) may be to remove Kanimozhi from their equation and gain more political power in the state for himself. He was sent to Center by Karunanidhi to keep him away from state politics which was reserved for his younger brother M.K.Stalin. It was clear he was not comfortable in Delhi due to his lack of knowledge in English and Hindi. It is natural to go back where he is comfortable meaning returning to state politics.

Alagiri returning to state politics is not straight forward. His brother Stalin is not going to be happy since he is currently Deputy CM and Deputy Secretary of the DMK.  Alagiri's return will weaken Stalin's position within the party. Alagiri may be doing this to gain more seats for his men in up coming assembly election and to get powerful post within the party. He boycotted the DMK working committee meeting which confirmed the media reports.

Karunanidhi is not yielded to his pressure yet. He made it clear by saying,  Kanimozhi's service is needed. The game is not over yet. It is expected Dayalu will mediate between Alagiri and Stalin. If that works out he will get considerable seats for his men and party posts like Deputy President of DMK. If the deal is not ironed out, we will see statement from Karunanidhi saying he is going to retire from politics after this term. This will put Alagiri in tough situation. Alagiri may not want to loose his current clout and Karunanidhi's statement will force him to accept the deal.

In DMK, party leadership is powerful. This will help his men to get the plum post both in party as well as in the Government. It will also enable him to control DMK trusts as a trustee. On top of that, he do not want to get kicked out of party and loose control within party as in the earlier election. It is more of tactics to get what he wants and Karunanidhi understands that.

It may be interesting to see who Maran brother's going to support. They burned their fingers earlier by publishing the poll results. May be they wait out on this one. Next few months will be interesting to watch DMK and MK family.

Dharmapuri and Madurai - two different outcomes

These are two similar incidences and two different outcomes. The clue is in the title. I am talking about burning of three students alive in Dharmapuri after J.Jayalalitha was convicted in Pleasant Stay Hotel case by special court in 2000. The next one is three employees of Dinakaran (Tamil Daily owned by Maran brothers) at Madurai office after publishing the poll result (which one of M. Karunanidhi kid is popular).

In the first case, AIADMK men from Dharmapuri district burned down the Agriculture University bus killing three students. This is in reaction to J.Jayalalitha's conviction in Pleasant Stay Hotel case (later it was over turned). This is violent attack on innocent people. The culprits must be punished and there cannot be different view on this. The CB-CID enquired this and prosecuted the culprits (Jayalalitha wanted CBI investigation which never happened). The Salem court sentenced death penalty for 3 people, seven years of rigorous imprisonment for 25 individuals and two were acquitted. It was disappointing that it took 10 years to get the culprit punished. There were lot of hurdles thrown on the way. However Supreme Court confirmed the sentencing and victims Families can have some relief at last. This is typical in Indian court system particularly in cases involving politicians. Justice delayed is Justice denied.

In the second case, DMK family feud turned violent. Dinankaran published poll results showing M.K.Stalin has larger support than his elder brother (M.K.Alagiri) and step sister Kanimozhi. This was published due to internal family politics inspite of M.Karunanidhi's opposition (He confirmed it). This sparked violence in Madurai and Alagiri's supporters violently attacked Dinakaran's office killing three employees. Kalanidhi Maran vowed culprits will be brought to justice. Dayanidhi Maran forced resign as cabinet minister from Central as aftermath. Tamil Nadu Government headed by Karunanidhi ordered CBI enquiry. CBI prosecuted Alagiri's supporters. During that period Karunanidhi's first family patched up the differences and called truce. Dinakaran backed off and eyewitnesses turned hostile. All the accussed were acquitted. It is important to note that Sun Network had video tapes showing the culprits in both the cases.

Kalanidhi Maran who promised his employees that he will bring the culprits to justice whoever it may be. Sun Network (also owned by Maran) directly accused Alagiri's involvement. The family patch work conviniently erased them from his memory. Where is the justice for the victim and their family? This also shows how CBI can be politically manipulated.

Justice system is very important pillar of our constitution. Weakened justice system may end up in lawless country. It is time to find out what we are doing wrong and fix them.

Law of the land should prevail. Justice must be served without any discrimination.

Indian Politicians - Justice bought or delivered?

I hardly know any Indian politician convicted on corruption charges. We have seen that in cases like Bofors, Fodder Scam, Pleasant Stay Hotel, Cremation Shed Scam, dhoti scam, etc. and various disproportionate wealth accumulation cases. It is unblievable that most of the cases politicians were acquitted (at the most censured). It is true across the political spectrum. The reason could be either the case is politicaly motivated or weakened by the people who are in power. As I mentioned earlier, this pattern fits across the political spectrum. I am trying to highlight the few to show the pattern but no means a complete list.

Bofors: This is one of the largest scam before 2G spectrum. It costed Rajiv Gandhi's job. JPC was setup and it did not go far enough. Later Media exposed the links between Rajiv Gandhi's family and brokers. CBI started its work late, filed the FIR, frozen the assets and tried to extradict Quattrocchi. During the process many of the accussed died. Congress came back to power, during UPA-1 it slowly dismantled the case systematically. Released Quattrocchi's assets. Yesterday ITAT determines there were kick backs. Government is in limbo and cannot recover the money now. Who is going to take responsibility? It is important to note that Quattrocchi is close to Sonia Gandhi defacto PM.

Cremation Shed Scam: T.M.Selvaganapathy DMK MP and former AIADMK minsiter and others involved in this case were acquitted. He joined DMK in August 2008 and he was acquitted in lower court in Jan 2009. In Jan 2010, he and others involved in this case were acquitted by CBI court in Madurai. Remember this is 15 year old case.

Dhoti Scam:  This was considered by lawyers one of the strong cases against AIADMK ministers. Former AIADMK minister Indira Kumari joined DMK in 2006. She also was acquitted from this case in October 2006.

The list goes on.  The following are the some of the former AIADMK ministers who are with DMK (some of them joined back AIADMK after their acquittal). It is important to point out DMK brought the cases against these people when they were in opposition and got them acquitted after they joined DMK.

1. Sedapatti Muthiah:Speaker. Property acquisition case.  (He was force to resign from Vajpayee Cabinet because of this. He abstained from no confident motion vote against the party whip. He was sidelined in the party after that)

2.  S. Kannappan: Minister for public works and electricity. Rs 117-cr coal import case. (He floated his own party after quitting AIADMK. Later joined DMK and elected to Tamil Nadu assembly through DMK ticket. In 2009, just before Parliamant election he joined back AIADMK)

3. S. Muthuswamy: Minister for health. Property acquisition case and fraud in giving the nod to set up 261 private paramedical institutions  (He is currently in DMK however he was acquitted from those case before he joined DMK)

4. K.P. Krishnan: Agriculture minister. Land acquisition, contractor scam.  (He floated his own party and allied with DMK. Later he joined DMDK and recently joined back AIADMK)

5. V. Sathyamurthy: Commercial tax minister. Placing orders with nonexistent industrial cooperative societies for supply of steel doors under Indira Awaas Yojna Scheme. (He joined DMK in Feb 2010)

6.  R. Indira Kumari: Social welfare minister. Rs 100-crore scam in the distribution of footwear and clothes to schoolchildren. (She joined DMK in Oct 2006)

Other former AIADMK figures like Anitha Radhakrishnan (CBCID was enquiring about disproportionate asset case when he joined DMK), Jyothi and others joined DMK for various reasons but certainly not based on ideology. This could mean only one of the two things.

1. The casees were brought based on ploitical vendetta with no merits.
2. Government did not fight well to prove the allegations which has merits.


In either case, Government has some explanation to do. We haven't heard any comment from TN CM and Opposition don't want to talk since the accused switched party.

I let you decide whether justice is bought or delivered based on the above facts.

One thing is for sure. Our politicians claim against fighting corruption is not credible. Particularly AIADMK, DMK, Congress and BJP do not have moral authority. In fact corruption become epidemic. The people in power get this infection quickly and letting them stay longer does not help. It is high time for citizens to vote based on their consicous and policies. It may mean selecting  lesser of an evil.

Corruption - Congress true color

Today, Pranabh Mukerjee said "PM made his offer on his own" and he would have advised against it if he was consulted. This is in response to Prime Minister's offer to appear before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC). This signals the mood of Congress inner circle to Sonia. Congress wants to put this to rest after discussing in Parliament. They can steer  Parilmant discussion with the rules to their advantage and close the chapter.

Congress does not want JPC or Supreme Court involvement in this case even though it is Himalayan Scandal. They want CBI, ED and IT to do the investigation. These entities are controlled by PMO and Finance Ministry which can be manipulated and close the case in their favor. Congress does not want any of its ministers to appear before PAC and it was clear from Pranab's statement. This vindicates opposition argument why JPC is needed. They installed their CVC (Mr. Thomas) and he is sticking to its post even after SC questioned its appointment in the back drop of pending corruption case against him. This is the pathetic state of the country.

This raises serious questions why Congress hesitant in appointing JPC. They might have benefited as accused by Dr. Subramanya Swamy. They do not want the truth to come out. Some people may question the JPC's effectiveness considering its political backdrop. I am confident it will have better independence than CBI/ED/IT. JPC's power will bring things out which will help public to make their own mind on this. We have seen that in Bofors case. The Hindu confirmed that JPC documents in Bofors case helped in their own ivestigation. Congress may not want to take any chances based on their past experience. We know CBI's role in Bofors and  in releasing the frozen funds to Ottavio Quattrocchi (Sonia Gandhi's friend).

There are news claiming that UPA is coming up with new law to fight corruption. This is nothing more than deflecting the critism. In June 2009, Dr. Manmohan Singh announced that they will bring back all the illeagal assets from Swiss Bank in 100 days. We know what happened so far? In my view Congress is not credible on this issue. Public expectation is to cancel  2G spectrum allotment and reauction it. We already started seeing weakening of the case by fining the telecoms with smaller amount.

Sonia's call to fight corruption is to deflect oppsitions call for JPC not to fight corruption. (We need understand her own credibility is at stake). My request to opposition leaders is "STICK TO YOUR JPC STAND". It is opposition parties responsibility to bring the truth out on this.

Where Growth can go wrong?

In the past decade (and still), India was one of the fastest growing economy in the world. It increased number of people in the middle class category and per capita income went up as well. This growth comes with the cost and Government should focus on mitigating them.

The growth spurred real estate boom. This real estate boom shrinks the cultivable land and lakes. This reduces the food production and eventually result in food shortage. Government should work with scientists to produce more with lesser cultivable area and it should be multi faceted approach. I do not see this happening. We are reactive rather proactive in this aspect. The shrinkage of water storage system like lakes negatively impacts ground water. The construction boom created huge demand for river sand and we are using them at much faster rate from river beds than we can replenish. This will significantly reduce Ground water as well. It is time to look for alternative construction material which are green and cost effective.

The growth spurred the usage of technologies. For example, Mobile phones, Televisions and other electronics usage grown exponentially. These waste ends up in the land fill or at smelters. Either one is not a good option. In fact Smelters engage children in the smelting process. Smelting Electronics produce many toxic gases. This pollution will create health issues among the public. Many developed nations puts limitation on amount in those products through regulation and have a Waste Management plan. (I am planning to blog in detail about this later)

We all got used to power cut. The focus so far on electricity production. No doubt we need more capacity. We can focus on consumption side as well to get quicker result. We should encourage people to use energy efficient lights (Government can subsidise and better than freebies) and electronics. I do not see any promotion in this regard from the Government.

The infrastructure plans are short sighted. We plan the capacity 5-10 years in mind, by the time the project is complete, the capacity will be reached We should spread that 25-50 years in mind. Many of the British constructions are still functional exactly because of that.

I pointed very few major issues but there are lot more. I hope someone from Government takes it seriously and work on it.