Ramanisblog

Tag: Raja

  • Coal Scam Official Reveals Details,UPA Minister to be Arrested

     

    Early in December 2011, Dr.Subramanian Swamy sniffed the scam.

    ”

    Anti-corruption crusader and Janata Party (JP) president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday referred to a ‘mining scam’ in Goa and said that when present homeminister P Chidambaram was the finance minister between 2004 and 2007, he fiddled with export duties on mining ore so that mining companies like Vedanta reaped huge profits.

    On a visit to Goa, Swamy addressed mediapersons and said the scam is worth around 16,000 crore. When he gets more time from his present engagement with the 2G scam, he will pursue the issue against Chidambaram, Swamy said.

    The JP chief praised the movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare and expressed his willingness to join it, but said that Hazare and his team were focused totally on one piece of legislation – the Jan Lokpal bill.

    Swamy said that he has proved that even without the Jan Lokpal bill, his Action Committee Against Corruption in India (ACACI) can get results, as evident from the results in the 2G scam so far.

    He said the ACACI is now focusing on money stashed abroad. It has already given a 15-page complaint to the CBI asking it to file an FIR. “But the CBI has not filed the FIR even after one month. If and when it does, the ACACI will take the FIR to a criminal court and get a letter-rogatory. With that letter, the ACACI will go abroad and obtain details about the money stashed in foreign countries,” Swamy said.

    He said that while the ACACI has provided names of politicians who have such foreign bank accounts, the French government has provided 788 names of Indians and the German government provided 16 such names.

    “But the government of India is not prosecuting these people. If the CBI does not file the FIR by January 1, I will go to the Supreme Court asking it to direct the CBI to do so, like I did in the Raja case when the Prime Minister did not give me sanction,” Swamy said.

    He said he has filed 17 files corruption cases against Chidambaram. These include irregularities in stock market and various other cases. “But my busy engagement with present cases is preventing me from pursuing the case”

    http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/subramanian-swamy-sniffs-mining-scam-in-goa/

    Now, the scam that involves Rs.35,000 Crores is ,as expected growing involving Former UPA  Minister Union of State ,Santosh Bargodia( 2006),who is expected to be arrested.

     

    In the meanwhile, an Official in the Mining Ministry in Goa has revealed the details of the scam.This is being debated in TimeNow Channel to-night,Watch it.(24 September,2012)

    CBI has also ordered the widening of the scope of the scam involving the NDA period.

    Hope this does not detract the main case by mudslinging by the UPA and the NDA!

    And let not the arrests end at the level of the junior officials and political non entities.

    “The CBI has decided to expand its probe into coalgate bringing under its scanner all coal block allocations made since 1993 including the six-year NDA rule after a reference in this regard was received from the CVC on Monday.

    Last week, coal minister Shriprakash Jaiswal wrote to Central Vigilance Commission seeking a CBI probe into all the coal blocks allocated since 1993 when the government had started allocation to private players for captive use.

    Seeking the CBI probe, Jaiswal has also recently forwarded a letter written by seven parliamentarians to the CVC saying that blocks allotted between 1993 and 2004 including those given during the NDA rule should be investigated by the CBI, as allegedly favours were done to parties under political pressure.

    The letter of MPs also sought for enquiry as to what system the government of India put in place for selection of companies for coal block allocation between 1993 to 2004 and whether these guidelines were followed and how were joint venture partners selected.

    The CVC on Monday referred the complaints to the CBI to probe the matter and the agency will soon begin its investigation on it, CBI sources said.

    The allocation of coal blocks to private companies for captive use started in 1993 when Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973 was ammended with the objective of attracting private investments in specified end uses such as power, cement and steel because of growing economy.

    In its ongoing probe, CBI has so far registered seven FIRs against private companies and unknown public officials for alleged misrepresentation of facts.

    “Till March 2011, the ministry of coal has allocated 194 coal blocks for captive mining of which 142 were explored blocks and the balance 52 were either regionally explored or unexplored coal blocks,” Comptroller and Auditor General has said in its recent report on coal block allocation.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Coalgate-CBI-to-probe-coal-block-allocations-since-1993/articleshow/16529739.cms

     

     

     

  • Coalgate and 2G’ Similar If Not Identical Scam Operational Details

    'ManMohan Singh' jpg
    ManMohan Singh

    The similarities between the Coal Scam and the @2G are so similar that it can be safely assumed the that 2G was a trail run to perfect the art of stealing from the exchequer without being accountable, hiding behind ‘notes’ bypassing the channels and keeping the Committee on the auction of the  Coal for five years, while the allocation spree was indulged in.

    Consider these facts.

    Like Telecommunication, Coal is a Union Subject.

    2 G had an ally heading the Ministry, with Congress holding the Minister of State slot.

    2 G had Murasoli Maran ,later A.Raja as the Telecom Ministers.

    Coal had Shibu Soren as the Union Minister of Coal and Dasari Narayana Rao as Minister of State.

    As in 2G,  ” the draft Cabinet note proposing auctioning of coal blocks, prepared on the instructions of the PM, was amended about half-a-dozen times, ostensibly to address the concerns of those who were opposed to auctioning. But each time the note was amended, a new litany of objections were raised”.

    A convenient ploy for the Prime Minister to defend himself later by saying he ‘instructed’ to follow the rules!

    In the case of the 2 G there was no objection to allocation from the States, while there were objections from the BJP ruled States,from Vasundhare Raje Scindia and Chattisgarh, which of course, were ignored.

    So was the objection by Murli Manohar Joshi  in his letter dated 2 December 2007 and later as the Head of The Joint parliamentary Committee ,just as Sushma Swaraj has done in 2G.

    Not that the Regional satrap Soren was The Minister for Coal and stooges of Karunanidhi of DMK for Telecom.

    In the early days of 2G, TRAI and Ministry of Telecom advised for auction , pointing out the market value of the Service.

    In the case of Coal.it was , then coal secretary PC Parakh 9at the time of UPA-I)

    Following Parakh’s vehement opposition to this method, the UPA announced the auction policy in 2004 but didn’t operationalise it until 2010

    “Parakh had informed the PM that the extant system under which a screening committee headed by the coal secretary with representatives from various ministries, State-owned corporations and state governments allocated captive coal blocks, was arbitrary, opaque and prone to corruption. More importantly, he told the PM that there was a substantial difference between the price of coal supplied by Coal India Limited and the cost of coal produced through captive mining, and thus, parties with captive blocks were making windfall gains.’

    On 28 June 2004, Parakh, in a consultative meeting with stakeholders, including industry and consumer forums, made a strong pitch for linking the allocation of coal blocks with a market-driven economy. Between 1992 and 2004, on an average, three or four captive coal blocks were allocated to major steel, cement or power companies every year through the screening committee system.”

    Non serious players, as in 2G, had entered the field like Jagathrakshakan’s J’R’Power P.’ltd which was five days old when it signed an MOU with Puduchery Investment Corporation(please read my blog on this).

    As in 2G . the Coal Blocks were allotted at a fraction of the market price.

    “while between 2004 and 2009, the UPA kept deferring the auction policy, it also went on an unprecedented allocation binge. As many as 155 precious coal blocks with billions of tonnes of coal reserves were allocated at a fraction of their true market worth in a span of five years (76 were allocated to private companies, and the rest went to public sector enterprises). The circumstances, as we will later see, suggest that this was done as per an elaborate conspiracy hatched between decision-makers and coal allottees.”

    In 2G ,the BSNL was made to suffer while these shady Companies were brought in to make money ,in Coal

    ‘More than 80 percent of the allottees have not yet started producing coal from their respective blocks. This led to a bizarre scenario where on the one hand, the government acted with unprecedented haste in allocating these blocks, and on the other, it did precious little to ensure that the allottees started producing coal from their respective mines and used it for the designated end use like producing power, steel, cement, etc. The government has now set up a committee to identify how many operators have deliberately defaulted in starting the coal production work and how many got stuck on account of bona fide delays in land acquisition, forest and environmental clearance or approval of mining plan. The biggest rationale of the government behind captive coal block allocation was to enhance domestic coal production capacity.”

    “The draft report of the CAG has pegged the total loss of revenue from this misallocation between Rs 6.31 lakh crore and Rs 10.67 lakh crore. While the windfall gain made by private companies stands between Rs 2.94 lakh crore and Rs 4.79 lakh crore, TEHELKA has learnt from its sources that the final CAG report has pegged the undue gain made by private operators between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh crore.”

    The difference is the  size of the scam.

    http://www.tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne110812Coverstory2.asp

    Couple of things we noticed in 2G seems to be missing as i had indicated in my earlier blogs.

    -Radia type operator.

    -CAG Report came later ,after Radia tapes.

    -Middlemen details

    -the money  trail.

    I am sure it will follow.

    .

    Related articles

  • India’s ‘silent’ Prime Minister-Washington Post. He is culpable.

    Manmohan Singh jpg.
    Manmohan Singh

    That ManMohan Singh is’.an Honorable Bureaucrat’ is a media creation.
    Another myth is that he is the author of Indian Economic liberalisation.
    The Economic liberalisation was initiated by Late.P.V.Narasimha Rao who was the then Prime Minister of India, who appointed Manmohan Singh as Minister Finance and he implemented the economic Reforms as a Bureaucrat would.
    The Government wanted the credit for economic liberalisation and at the same did not want to alienate the people who were with the Congress because of its then professed socialist Policy.
    The used ManMohan Singh as a front.
    Later Man Moahn Singh was selected as the Prime Minister subsequent to the forced refusal of Sonia Gandhi to become the Prime Minister because he was/is perceived to be a man with no political base.
    It is worth noting that Manmohan Singh has never contested a direct Election till date.
    And he has no political base.
    This is the Man who gave a clean chit to A.Raja, ,the master mind of the rs.1,86,000 crore scam , as’ an honest man’
    He declared he did not know what was happening in the Telecom Ministry when the scam papers were forwarded to him excepting to state that he had advised the ministry to be transparent.!
    On the ISRO scam, he said there was no impropriety involved.
    He had conducted a ‘paperless discussion’ with the 2G scam accused Raja and the then and current Finance Minister P.Chidambaram.
    On the CWG scam he studiously kept quiet.
    When the then Home Ministry under P.Chidambarm tapped the telephone of the then Finance Minister Pronob Mukherjee( now President of India), Singh declared he knew nothing of the affair.!
    You name any problem, Singh is eloquently silent or his refrain is ‘I Know not what’
    The assessment is right and Singh is not only an acquiescing Prime Minister and a culpable one in various scams.
    He shall go down as a sad ,criminally negligent and an indifferent bureaucrat who loves his post.

    Story:

    India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helped set his country on the path to modernity, prosperity and power, but critics say the shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old is in danger of going down in history as a failure.

    The architect of India’s economic reforms, Singh was a major force behind his country’s rapprochement with the United States and is a respected figure on the world stage. President Obama’s aides used to boast of his tremendous rapport and friendship with Singh.

    But the image of the scrupulously honorable, humble and intellectual technocrat has slowly given way to a completely different one: a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.

    Every day for the past two weeks, India’s Parliament has been adjourned as the opposition bays for Singh’s resignation over allegations of waste and corruption in the allocation of coal-mining concessions.

    The story of Singh’s dramatic fall from grace in his second term in office and the slow but steady tarnishing of his reputation has played out in parallel with his country’s decline on his watch. As India’s economy has slowed and as its reputation for rampant corruption has reasserted itself, the idea that the country was on an inexorable road to becoming a global power has increasingly come into question.

    “More and more, he has become a tragic figure in our history,” said political historian Ramachandra Guha, describing a man fatally handicapped by his “timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty.”

    The irony is that Singh’s greatest selling points — his incorruptibility and economic experience — are the mirror image of his government’s greatest failings.

    Under Singh, economic reforms have stalled, growth has slowed sharply and therupee has collapsed. But just as damaging to his reputation is the accusation that he looked the other way and remained silent as his cabinet colleagues filled their own pockets.

    In the process, he transformed himself from an object of respect to one of ridicule and endured the worst period in his life, said Sanjaya Baru, Singh’s media adviser during his first term.

    Attendees at meetings and conferences were jokingly urged to put their phones into “Manmohan Singh mode,” while one joke cited a dentist urging the seated prime minister, “At least in my clinic, please open your mouth.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-silent-prime-minister-becomes-a-tragic-figure/2012/09/04/a88662c4-f396-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html

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  • 2G Supreme Court Refuses Swamy’s Plea on Chidambaram

     

    In what can at best be described as funny logic The Supreme Court refused to entertain the plea of Dr.Dr.Subramanian Swamy to include the present and the then Finance Minister P.Chidambaram in the 2G Spectrum case where the Government has been defrauded to the tune of Rs.1,86,000 Crore.

    The gist of the developments.

    Palaniappan Chidambaram (1)
    Palaniappan Chidambaram (1) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

    “1) The top court has found the petitions not maintainable and dismissed the requests of petitioners Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan that Mr Chidambaram be investigated for his alleged role in the telecom scam. Mr Chidambaram was Finance Minister in 2008, when then Telecom Minister A Raja allegedly gifted mobile network licenses and frequency to ineligible companies.
    2) Mr Swamy’s petition said that Mr Chidambaram must be made a co-accused in the 2G scam case. His contention was that the minister must be held responsible for allowing the telecom scam on his watch as Finance Minister.

    3) Mr Swamy said that Mr Chidambaram was aware of Mr Raja’s actions. On matters like the pricing of spectrum, he should have intervened to protect the country’s interests, Mr Swamy has argued.

    4) A special CBI court had rejected Mr Swamy’s request in February this year and he had appealed to the Supreme Court against that verdict.

    5) The other petition had been filed by leading lawyer and anti-corruption activist Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, a non-governmental organisation. It sought a CBI investigation into Mr Chidambaram’s alleged role in the 2G scam.

    6) Mr Bhushan’s petition alleged that Mr Chidambaram as Finance Minister overruled his officers who favoured the auction of spectrum. Mr Bhushan also said that Mr Chidambaram allowed two companies that were allegedly shown undue favour by Mr Raja, to sell stake to foreign investors at massive profits on the basis of licences that they had got at hefty bargains. The companies – Swan and Unitech Wireless – have said no rules were violated because they did not sell their stake but created additional equity. Swan partnered with UAE-based Etisalat and Unitech with Norwegian company Telenor. The government has said that both companies operated within the parameters of the law in those partnerships.

    7) Early this year, the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licences issued by Mr Raja and said that spectrum should have been auctioned instead of being given at no extra cost along with licences. 2G or second generation spectrum will now be auctioned this year on the court’s orders. A Raja spent about a year in jail before being granted bail. ”

    http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/2g-scam-supreme-court-dismisses-petitions-seeking-cbi-probe-against-chidambaram-258533

    The Supreme Court seems to have stated in its Judgement(as reported by Times Now TV to-day), is that the mere fact that there might be some evidence here and there, it is not sufficient, to implicate Chidambaram in the 2G case.

     

    It may be a fact that Chidambaram might have met the DoT officials.

     

    It does not amount to Criminal Conspiracy.

    The repeated use of the term,’Criminal Conspiracy’- does it mean that there is conspiracy, though not Conspiratorial in nature?Yes, when a meeting involves a scam, the Finance Minister discussed among other things the 2 G in the passing, thereby Chidambaram , the astute Lawyer that he is has provided himself with an excellent alibi.

    I wrote on July 12, 2011 that

    ”

    The Finance ministry was aware that there was something amiss in granting of licenses of 2G.

    This is proved by the fact that the MoF had written to telecom ministry.

    This was not followed up.

    When suitable reply has not been received from the Ministry,Chidambaram should have taken it up with the GoM or the PM.

    Now we find that there are ‘Non paper Decisions’(new term for unlawful decisions), and that there were no records kept for the meeting of Raja and Chidambaram.

    All tis point out to acquiescence if not active participation of Chidambaram.

    As I have noted in my earlier blog,is this a quid pro quo for manipulation of  last Parliament elections, about which a case is pending.

    2G scam runs deep.

    It appears to lead towards PMO as well as Sonia Gandhi.

    Despite clear indications the media is shy of mentioning either name .

    Worse still PM is considered Honest and even called as ‘hands on PM’!

    http://ramanisblog.in/category/radia-tapes-2/

     

    The Honorable judges must be aware of these facts and there were leaks in the Media on the ‘Paperless Discussions’ among Raja,Chidambaram.9 the leaks were from the PMO )

     

    Probably they discussed what they would have for Lunch.

     

    Now the Government has shredded the entire Tapes of Radia.

     

    It is much easier for the Supreme Court to declare there is no evidence of 2 G linking to politicians and the Corporates.

     

    Raja will be laughing heartily, as this opens new doors for him.

     

    Viva la Justice!

    “the trail of those who leaked the Niira Radia tapes could have been lost forever had not the Supreme Court decided to keep a copy with itself. The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it has destroyed the entire Radia tapes, publication of excerpts from which threw the spotlight on ways of doing business as well as the tendency of security agencies to violate privacy of citizens.

    The government said under Rule 419(A) of Indian Telegraph Rules, the intercepting agency was mandated to maintain and safely keep the intercepts for six months and thereafter destroy them if no action was required to be taken on the basis of the contents of the intercepts. The Radia intercepts were destroyed as no action was required to be taken on the tapes.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Government-shreds-entire-Radia-tapes-tells-Supreme-Court-its-difficult-to-find-who-leaked-excerpts-to-media/articleshow/15625554.cms

    Please refer for the Tapes under’ Radia Tapes and details of the scam filed under ‘Corruption,India’,

    Related.

    http://ramanisblog.in/2010/12/25/2g-spectrum-scam-full-storyorigingrowth-and-modus-operandi/

     

  • 2G Government questions Supreme Court Judgement

    The Supreme Court of India has started hearing th arguments on the Presidential Reference in the 2 G scam where the Governmentwas swindled to the tune of Rs.1,76.000 Crore.

    English: The supreme court of india. Taken abo...
    English: The supreme court of india. Taken about 170 m from the main building outside the perimeter wall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    While replying to th argument by th counsel for the NGO who has argued thus a Judge of the bench stated…

    “We have no doubt about the correctness of the verdict on the spectrum (2G) but if the judgement is extended to cover other natural resources don’t you think there is a doubt over interpretation of law in the judgement and are we not entitled to go into the Presidential Reference?”

    Precisely the point.

    The issue is not one of allocation of Natural Resources per se , on first come, first served, but the issue of swindling the exchequer,underselling,favouring a few by placing impossible conditions to Bidders in terms of time frame to remit EMD,,keeping GOM out of the orbit,receiving kick backs from the companies etc.

    The Government is deliberately side tracking  the issue by calling in the Natural Resources  tune.

    The Government’s arguments runs on the line that the first come, first served was followed to facilitate the market and is for the improvement of Telecommunication.

    The  2G judgement did not say anything on this.

    It found the allocation of the 2G Licences as arbitrary and seem to have been taken to enrich a few.

    That is the point.

    The Supreme Court may bear in mind the tactic of the Government to escalate this issue by making this out as’ Executive Vs Judiciary’ by bringing in irrelevant arguments or as Perry Mason would say ‘immaterial, irrelevant’

    ” The Supreme Court was today told that under the garb of “malafide” Presidential Reference, the Centre was “questioning the correctness” of its 2G spectrum case verdict that natural resources in all sectors should be allocated through auction.

    The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation ( CPIL), said the apex court should refuse to answer the questions raised in the Reference which was “not maintainable” as the February 2 judgement for the 2G spectrum attained finality and the review filed against it was subsequently withdrawn by the government.

    “Under the garb of the Presidential Reference, you (government) are seeking to question the correctness of the judgement and seeking to overrule the judgement which has reached its finality,” senior advocate Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the NGO, told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.

    However, the bench clarified that it was not on the question of correctness of the judgement and repeatedly said it wanted to know whether it was entitled to entertain the Reference or not if there was any doubt over “interpretation” of law in the judgement.

    “We have no doubt about the correctness of the verdict on the spectrum (2G) but if the judgement is extended to cover other natural resources don’t you think there is a doubt over interpretation of law in the judgement and are we not entitled to go into the Presidential Reference?” said the Bench, also comprising justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Mishra and Ranjan Gogai.

    The bench also wanted to know if it was not entitled to answer to the President those aspects of natural resources which have not been dealt with in the judgement and could be allocated in future like pricing of oil and gas.”

    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/2g-scam-supreme-court-commences-hearing-on-presidential-reference/articleshow/14807415.cms

    ” Former Telecom Secretary Siddarth Behura, a key accused in the 2G scam, today told the JPC that he had found advancing the cut-off date to grant licenses as unusual and had raised the issue with the then Telecom Minister A Raja.

    Behura, who appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G issue, told the panel that he had found the decision to change the cut-off date from October 30, 2007 to September 25, 2007 taken before he joined the department, as unusual and had taken it up with Raja.

    He is also learnt to have told the Committee that major decisions like revision in cut-off date, acceptance of the TRAI recommendations by the Telecom Commission and re-interpretation of the first come first serve policy took place before he took up the postin 2008.

    Behura, who is out on bail, said that during his meetings with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary he got the impression that the 2G license issue had been settled.

    He is also learnt to have said that no major policy decisions were taken during his tenure.

    Behura was the Telecom Secretary between January 1, 2008, and September 30, 2009. He had appeared before the Public Accounts Committee examining the CAG report on 2G on December 7, 2010.

    The JPC had decided to summon Behura and Raja on March 21. It is yet to decide on Raja’s appearance to give oral evidence.

    Behura was arrested on February 2 last year by CBI along with Raja and his personal secretary R K Chandolia on charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.

    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/2g-scam-change-in-cut-off-date-unusual-siddarth-behura-to-jpc/articleshow/14805241.cms