Of the 30, 12 ‘Ayes’ are assured for Congress.(Con.-8,DMK -2,NCP-1,TMC-1).
Getting another 4 will be no problem.
Final decision of the JPC is not going to be the Truth.
Funny, the accused have 10 votes.
AIADMK which forced the Government to act has one vote!
Viva la Democracy!
The government sources said, “We have decided to have a 30-member panel to accommodate smaller parties which could not have been represented in a 21-member JPC.”
20 members of the JPC will be from the Lok Sabha while 10 will be from the Rajya Sabha. The seats given to each party are based on its strength in the two Houses. In a 30 member JPC, 38 members in the House entitle a party to one seat in the panel.
Congress will have eight members in the Committee from the Lower House and three from the Upper House.
BJP will have four members from the Lok Sabha in the committee, one of which it will give to ally Shiv Sena which is not getting any representation. The main opposition will also have two members from the Upper House.
The DMK will have two members and AIADMK will have one member in the panel.
On February 2, 2011,Schweizer Illustrierte sent me a comment as follows.
I again checked the link.
The information in German seems to confirm the information on Rajiv Gandhi.
May be I got my translation wrong.
If some one can confirm that the information on Rajiv Gandhi is wrong as per the magazine’s published Record,I hereby tender a Public Apology to Sonia Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi and Family.
I have a few questions.
Why did the magazine take 10 years to deny?
Why did not Sonia Gandhi keep quiet this long?
What is the stand of India Today, Subramanian Swamy , S.Gurumurthy and the Indian Express?
Also note that the magazine , in its communication, has not denied it out right.
It says ‘as we think you might have cited it wrong’
Typical statement which while not confirming also does not categorically deny it.
If Schweizer Illustrierte’s article is wrong ,has Sonia Gandhi received an apology from them?
Questions, questions every where , not an answer to blink.
Please examine the content carefully, as we think you might have cited it wrong.
Regards Schweizer Illustrierte’
Story.
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has apologised to Congress President Sonia Gandhi for a party—appointed task force report, which had alleged that she and her late husband Rajiv had accounts in Swiss banks.
BJP had appointed the task force on unravelling the amount of black money stashed by Indians in foreign banks and ways to bring it back.
The report had alleged that Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were among Indians who held Swiss bank accounts.
This had led Ms. Gandhi to write a letter to Mr. Advani denying the allegation.
Sources said in the letter, Ms. Gandhi had said that neither she nor her husband held Swiss bank accounts.
In his reply to the Congress President’s letter, Mr. Advani expressed regret of her name and that of her late husband being mentioned in the task force report.
However, Mr. Advani also stated in his reply that the Gandhis should have denied this publicly when there were murmurs that names of her family members could figure in the report.
How can one expect that Truth will come out in 2G and S Band Scam?
What is distressing is that the BJP has failed to unearth the sordid details.
It makes one wonder about the protestations by the opposition parties when they are not in power .
All seem to be in cahoots.
JPC or not, the show of inquiry will go on and nothing will come out of it.
Story:
The greed of Sonia Gandhi and her family has crossed all bounds of decency.
With just three weeks to go before the Congress-led UPA government’s term ends, Ottavio Quattrocchi, the lone surviving suspect in the Bofors payoff case, no longer figures in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s list of wanted persons.
The 12-year Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) against the Italian businessman has been taken off the “Interpol Notices” section of the agency’s website.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said it was a “farewell gift” from the Congress-led government to a “close friend” of party president Sonia Gandhi.
CONGRESS PARTY – SHOVING BOFORS AND “Q” CONNECTIONS UNDER THE CARPET
In an article written on March 18th 2009: INDIA has $1.4 Trillion of Illegal money stashed in Swiss Banks – Time to bring it home !, I wrote in the first para: “Rajeev Gandhi’s untimely death left Sonia Gandhi extremely wealthy. The true extent of her wealth became known only when the Soviet archives were thrown open following the collapse of the Soviet Union. KGB archives revealed that as far back as 1982, when Indira Gandhi was still prime minister, Soviet trading agencies were channeling funds into a company controlled by her son and future Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
This was also brought to light by Harvard Russian scholar Yvgenia Albats in her book The State Within A State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia. The Swiss news-magazine Schweizer Illustrierte (November 11, 1991) provided more details. Citing newly—opened KGB records, it reported that Sonia Gandhi, widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was controlling a secret account worth 2.5 billion Swiss francs (about 2 billion dollars at current exchange rates) in a Swiss bank in her minor son’s name.
“Dr. Yevgeniya Albats is a Soviet journalist who was appointed as member of the official KGB Commission set up by President Yeltsin in 1991. She had full access to secret files of the KGB.
PAYMENTS TO GANDHI FAMILY AUTHORIZED BY RESOLUTION IN RUSSIA:
Dr. Albats disclosed in her book that KGB chief Victor Chebrikov in December 1985 had sought in writing from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), ‘authorization to make payments in US dollars to the family members of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, namely Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Ms Paola Maino, mother of Sonia Gandhi.’
CPSU payments were authorized by a resolution, CPSU/CC/No 11228/3 dated December 20, 1985; and endorsed by the USSR Council of Ministers in Directive No. 2633/Rs dated December 12, 1985. These payments had been coming since 1971, as payments received by Sonia Gandhi’s family, and ‘have been audited in CPSU/CC resolution No. 11187/22 OP dated October 12, 1984.’
How precise must one get to book the guilty? These are official KGB records.
INDIAN ATTITUDE AT G-20: LUKEWARM TO FRENCH PROPOSAL
The Indian delegation attending G-20 summit did not seem at all keen on supporting the French demand to make tax havens transparent and create a new global financial architecture that has more regulation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s reaction to the growing chorus for getting back ill-gotten wealth, squirreled in tax havens, has been quite casual. This makes it quite clear that he would not back the demands of French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, and others to regulate and tame the global financial system ahead of any coordinated stimulus.
Indians, Swiss bank sources claimed in 2006, have more than $ 1.4 trillion squirreled in their bank vaults. This figure could reach astronomical levels if the funds of Indians in other tax havens are added up. Experts estimate that the total quantum of money that has flown out to safe vaults abroad could go beyond $ 2-3 trillion dollars. So substantial is this amount that if it returns to India then it could make a serious difference in alleviating poverty and transforming its inadequate infrastructure. More importantly, it will also bring out in the open the identity of those who perpetrated this organised loot for so many years. Most of the illegal funds are sourced from defence deals, corruption and large scale siphoning off from development programmes. If the details of the Swiss bank account holders ever come out in the open, it will be a fascinating story of how India has been pauperised by its ruling elite.
CURIOUS CASE OF BILLIONS IN PUNE STUD FARM:CLOSE RELATIVE WITH CLOSE TIES WITH RULING PARTY !
For more than three years now, INDIA have not been able to make much headway in tracing the $ 8 billion found in a mysterious Pune-based stud farm owner’s account in UBS, Switzerland. The money trail led to Virgin Island and to Saudi arms leader, Adnan Khashoggi, but the enforcement agencies have drawn no conclusions as one of the partners of the stud farm owner is a close relative of a big business family with close ties with the ruling party. This old business family, besides other interests, also serves as agents of some arms manufacturers. The belief is that pressure from this powerful group has prevented government to take its probe with the UBS to its logical conclusion.
However, after UBS wilted under US pressure to release the details of their nationals that evaded tax and parked their funds with them, there has been a flicker of hope in other countries too, that such details may finally see the light of the day. Indians have not shown much urgency in following up on US government’s enterprise- due a host of reasons.
This is election time in India and a wrong time to follow bad money. Indian elections are funded through black money and a lot of cash sitting in foreign bank accounts returns through the hawala route.
DOMESTIC POLITICS: CONGRESS MAKES MONEY HERE TOO (and so does all other political parties too!)
Even in domestic politics it seems the Congress Party (referred to as Palm party) has made money making an art. The article by Maloy Krishna Dhar clearly alludes to a chain of command of making money .Maloy Dhar writes: What you have given here is the darshan money ( BuA: Indian word meaning giving money to someone just to see a person). It qualifies you to be short listed and your name to be forwarded by the Pradesh party to the High Command (HC). The High Command (whosoever it might be) would be the final arbitrator. The HC is helped by A, B. C. & D (no name please).
Once your name is forwarded, go over to Delhi with a few supporters meet A, B, C, & D with adequate lubricants. Carry trunk full of money. Do not forget to meet X Patel. He is the conscience keeper of the HC. Satisfy him with the demanded amount. The final satisfaction lay with the HC. If you have any conduit to reach the HC, spend lavishly and reach there. The entire process may cost you rupees 10 million (= Rupees one crore).
(BuA: Mr X Patel – hmmm, who can that be – Sonia’s close confidante – AHMED PATEL??, HC = High Command a possible reference to SONIA GANDHI).
It’s India’s money that has been looted by foreigners and corrupt middlemen and most treasonously – by the executive branch of defense department of Govt of India. For every sub-standard defense procurement, look no further than the tax havens abroad where our politicians have stashed our hard earned money for their family. I will certainly not tolerate a flight of my country’s capital by foreigners – again !
At a time when our poor farmers are languishing in debt burden and economic crisis is hurting the average Indian – this illegal money stashed abroad is making us seethe in anger.
Unwinding of tax havens, MANY OF THEM UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE UK GOVERNMENT, would ensure that the development funds marked for the poor in Africa, Latin America and Asia do not find their way to the safes of banks in foreign countries. After all, many of the multinational banks have been recipient of drug money and kickbacks. History would bear testimony that some of the money in these banks have origin in opium. The world would be a different place when arms dealers, mercenaries and war-mongers, drug dealers have no place to hide their cash. Surely, this would impact terror funding, covert wars and so much of misery that this unaccounted wealth heaps on the poor of the world.
Tip of the iceberg,more to follow in these columns.
Taking note of reports that CAG is investigating the loss of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore in the allotment of scarce S-band spectrum, BJP on Monday asked Prime Minister to clear the air, initiate an inquiry and take steps to recover the lost revenue.
“This whole affair is vitiated by fraud. And as a result, this country is facing not only loss of revenue but frittering away of valuable national asset which is a rare spectrum,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
A newspaper report claimed CAG is investigating the allotment of 70 MHz from the available 2500 MHz of S-band spectrum to Devas multimedia for 20 years. The company is owned by M G Chandrasekhar, former scientific secretary at ISRO.
BJP demanded this agreement be immediately nullified and the spectrum space given to the private user be recovered.
“Secondly, we demand a comprehensive inquiry to establish the criminality in the whole matter. We also demand recovery of the lost revenue,” Sitharaman said.
The party alleged this is a “very serious scandal” as it involves a “very unique and rare” spectrum. It also said since the department of space is directly under the Prime Minister, he should immediately clarify his stand on the whole issue.
“The spectrum we are talking about is 5-G which relates to GHz. Recently, BSNL and MTNL were alloted only 20 MHz for Rs 12,487 Crore. But for allocation of 70 MHz to this private operator, the government is charging only Rs 1,000 Crore,” Sitharaman said.
Meanwhile, the office of CAG has clarified that its investigations into the issue are at a preliminary stage and the media reports should not be treated as findings of this department.
BJP also questioned the manner in which the spectrum was allocated without bringing the issue to the public domain.
“This is the first time the allocation for this band has taken place. It is a very unique band. Relates to a very high MHz frequency. And this allocation was done very quietly, without any public auctioning or bringing it in the public domain. And given to a private operator,” Sitharaman said.
She maintained that only 190 MHz of the S-band is available. Of this, 150 MHz is with the Department of Space and 70 MHz of this was alloted to Devas multimedia.
“2-G spectrum is much inferior. But 2-G spectrum related to only 4.4 MHz. CAG said here the loss was 1.76 lakh crore. 3-G is 50 MHz. Here due to media and public pressure, it went for auction. And the government’s revenue earning here was Rs 67,719 Crore,” Sitharaman said, drawing a comparison.
She alleged the loss due to this allocation of 70 MHz was Rs 2 lakh crore.
“From mid-2011, the commercial use of this spectrum is going to commence. The process of allocation was violated. Moreover, Devas Multimedia has also been given two custom-made satellites and 10 transponders for use.
Terming as “very serious” reports alleging that ISRO benefited a private firm through allocation of scarce S-band spectrum without a bidding process, Left parties on Monday demanded a thorough probe into the “new scam”.
“This is a new issue. The ISRO is under the department of space which is under Prime Minister ( Manmohan Singh). This is also a new scam,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.
CPI national secretary D Raja said the new revelations were “very serious”, a view echoed by senior RSP leader Abani Roy who demanded a JPC into the matter.
“The revelations have added a new dimension to the 2G spectrum scam. The ISRO is directly under the control of department of space headed by the Prime Minister. It is very serious as ISRO deals with space and it has implications on our security,” Raja said.
He said the issue will be discussed among the four Left parties.
Another scam in the making, this one too deals with out-of-turn allocation of the S-band spectrum by Antrix to Devas without going through a formal bidding process. The CAG has questioned this move of the Department of Space of granting the spectrum to Devas, a private player that held immense potential commercially.
Devas enjoying the S-band gave the company unlimited leverage in the telecommunication space in terms of high speed mobile communication. It has to be remembered that the auction of just 15 Mhz of similar airwaves for 3G services led to the government gaining a whopping Rs 67,719 crores to its coffers. This is when the freebie deal 70 MHz enjoyed by Devas as part of satellite launch deal with ISRO comes under the scanner for a megre 1000 crore. This happened when industry bigwigs like MTNL and BSNL had to pay Rs. 12,847 crore for 20 Mhz.
A Rs. 600 crore deal, wherein the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) leased 60 Mhz of spectrum to little known Devas Multimedia five years ago is now under the scanner, reports the Economic Times, citing sources. We had written about Devas in the past, in 2008, when it received an approval from India’s FIPB for raising $75.75 million from German major Deutsche Telekom, thus valuing the company at $443 million. At that time, the company didn’t even have a website, and very little could have been ascertained about them, and what they were planning to do.
The legitimacy of the deal is being questioned. Devas seeks to offer data services to mobile terminals – streaming video, audio, web access, on PC data cards, mobile phones, and vehicle-mounted devices.
ET quotes anonymous executives offering two opposing sides to this issue of allocation of spectrum:
– That ISRO was not authorized to lease out the spectrum, and a probe into the Devas deal began when demands were made for broadband spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to be auctioned.
– That Devas took a risk by leasing this spectrum, when no one else was willing to, and invested close to $300 million in order to launch services, and one can’t penalize the company just because the value of its spectrum as appreciated.
According to Devas’ website:
– It was founded by MG Chandrasekhar, and ISRO veteran
– Has been funded by Deutsche Telekom, Columbia Capital and Telcom Ventures.
– It has on its board of directors, Kiran Karnik from NASSCOM and Satyam Computers, as well as executives from ISRO / Antrix Corporation, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Warburg Pincus.
Our take on this deal is that if a deal was inked by an agency not authorized to license spectrum, then it is invalid from the very beginning. That’s what the government and courts will have to determine. A lot of money – $300 million according to an ET source – has been invested over a long period of time. Either this deal will be legitimized (if it is indeed not legit), or heads will roll.
The other, perhaps more important point to note, is that according to the ET report, Devas is on the verge of launching services. Telecom operators have paid a lot more money for 3G and BWA spectrum, so perhaps there may be a move to delay or prevent Devas’ launch by questioning the legitimacy of the deal.
With BJP planning to hoist national flag in Srinagar on the Republic Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said parties should desist from scoring “political points” or “promoting divisive agendas” and peace should not be disturbed in the “sensitive” Jammu and Kashmir.
Observing that the Republic Day is “a solemn occasion”, he said, “It is not an occasion to score political points, to embarrass state and local administrations, to create situations that could lead to entirely avoidable problems, or to promote divisive agendas.”
“It is my hope that all our citizens and political parties will heed this call and will do nothing that will disturb peace and harmony, or detract in any way from the dignity of Republic Day,” Singh said in a statement.
He said it was “all the more important to observe maximum restraint particularly in a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir.”
Though he did not name anybody, he was apparently referring to BJP’s‘EktaYatra‘ which is planned to proceed to Srinagar to hoist the national tricolor at the historic Lal Chowk, because of which the government is apprehending trouble.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has made it clear that it will not allow hoisting of the national flag by BJP on that day but the party is adamant on going ahead with the plan.
Singh observed that over the years, the states have devised their own time-tested and publicly-accepted procedures for the Republic Day celebrations within a common national framework.
Here’s the situation. This republic day, the nationalist party BJP wants to hoist the Indian national flag in Lal Chowk, a troubled area in Kashmir. The spot has frequently been witness to struggles between Indian forces, Kashmiri separatist forces, and Pakistan-aided militants. The J&K government calls this attempt by the BJP a provocation to violence. The BJP and its supporters say it is a shame to say that hoisting the Indian national flag on Indian ground is a cause for trouble. The central government, curiously, has remained silent on the matter.
Following is a TV discussion on the matter hosted by the NewsX channel.
Here’s the situation. This republic day, the nationalist party BJP wants to hoist the Indian national flag in Lal Chowk, a troubled area in Kashmir. The spot has frequently been witness to struggles between Indian forces, Kashmiri separatist forces, and Pakistan-aided militants. The J&K government calls this attempt by the BJP a provocation to violence. The BJP and its supporters say it is a shame to say that hoisting the Indian national flag on Indian ground is a cause for trouble. The central government, curiously, has remained silent on the matter.
Following is a TV discussion on the matter hosted by the NewsX channel.
Here’s the situation. This republic day, the nationalist party BJP wants to hoist the Indian national flag in Lal Chowk, a troubled area in Kashmir. The spot has frequently been witness to struggles between Indian forces, Kashmiri separatist forces, and Pakistan-aided militants. The J&K government calls this attempt by the BJP a provocation to violence. The BJP and its supporters say it is a shame to say that hoisting the Indian national flag on Indian ground is a cause for trouble. The central government, curiously, has remained silent on the matter.
Following is a TV discussion on the matter hosted by the NewsX channel.
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