Narendra Modi who normally has figures to back him up seems to have slipped up this time.
He alleges the Government had spent Rs.1880 Crore on Sonia Gandhi’s Foreign jaunts and medical expenses by The Government of India.
He is right in demanding that the Government reply.
He quoted an RTI application filed by one Mr.Ramesh Verma from Hisar.
Mr.Ramesh denied that he received the information from the Government.
The status, according to him is that he is yet to receive a reply though he filed the application in February 2010 and
“I did not get any information following which I moved the Chief Information Commissioner. The CIC directed the Prime Minister’s Office to furnish this information, but my file only moved around places but the information was never furnished. I have now filed another complaint stating that the information has not yet been furnished,” added Verma.
On how he managed to get information that a sum of Rs 85 lakh was spent on her foreign trips, Verma informed that this was based on his contacts. He said that he had got this information from some of his contacts abroad. “However, at no point did I mention the sum of Rs 1,880 crore as mentioned by the Gujarat chief minister,” Verma pointed out.”
He says the news about the the amount 85 lakhs spent on Sonia Gandhi’s trips abroad was from his ‘contact’.
As of now,his statements seem to be speculative and it does not suit the person of Narendra Modi’s stature to make allegations on the basis of an unverified information, if this is the source he is speaking about.
If Modi’s present out bursts prove to be founded on inaccurate information his future statements are easy for the Congress to rebut.
Modi is a man one respects for his governance, honesty, integrity and Culture.
He need not ape Digvijay Singh
“Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi criticised theUPA government for questioning his government for spending money on festivities and celebrations, saying that central government has itself spent Rs 1,880 crore for UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi’s foreign trips and treatment abroad over three years.
Modi said the state should not be questioned when the central government has itself spent Rs 1,880 crore for Sonia Gandhi‘s foreign trips.
Modi alleged that the Congress president was getting all facilities like special flight, which were meant only for the prime minister and president of India.
It seems that Salman Kurshid has taken over from Digvijay Singh to shoot off the remark.
In a scathing attack on the Opposition on 2 G, Coalgate scams, he used this opportunity to mount an attack on the CAG.
“Khurshid, writing in the latest issue of the party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, accused the CAG of computing losses in a “callous manner” and noted that the Rs 1.86 lakh crore figure of undue benefits to private players in coal block allocation arrived by the audit body will stick in public mind.
Coming down heavily on the CAG, Tewari in his article “Why The CAG Is Wrong” said “the CAG does not have the constitutional or legal mandate to make its own policy prescriptions and then utilise them to compute notional or even mythical loss or gain”.
“Even when it chooses to do so, it ends up getting it grievously wrong. Headline hunting is a volatile vocation –perhaps it is time to end this parody”.
In the editorial, too, the journal says that the CAG has not taken the trouble to highlight that these are notional figures of possible profits that the government could have made if an alternate process had been followed.
“Actually the CAG’s report on coal block allocation is hypothetical. Nowhere has the CAG quantified the actual loss or even presumptive loss,” it said.”
Yes,CAG is Wrong,whatever is says is Notional.
But what is certain is that the Congress has endless Departments to make money.
.
Congress has also questioned the Election Commission,CVC and The Supreme Court in the past.
Election Commission does not have the legal authority to enforce Election Laws.
CVC can not investigate Corruption cases.
Supreme Court can not intrude on the powers of the Judiciary.
The only one whose Constitutional Authority can not be questioned is Sonia Gandhi‘s!
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.
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.”
I have, here below, provided some Links and information on Sonia Gandhi,the De facto Queen of India, about whom hardly any negative news is reported by The Indian Media.
It is in the internet that one comes across information provided one knows what to look for.
I have blogged on her passport details.her Swiss bank connections, her involvement with the KGB.
The following information is available at the Links provided below.
Draw your conclusions.
“Sonia Gandhi was born as Edvige Antonia Albina Maino on December 9, 1946. A naturalized citizen of India, she has become a very powerful figure in Indian politics. She is the President of Indian National Congress, one of the major political parties of India. She is Italian-born daughter-in-law of the late Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi She is the wife of Rajiv Gandhi who is a former Prime minister of India and an accused in the Bofors scam
The Indian media rarely publishes articles on Sonia Gandhi. This article is based largely on the exposes by Dr. Subramanian Swamy on websitehttp://janataparty.org/sonia.html
Sonia Gandhi doesn’t have a valid degree. She was a waitress when Rajiv Gandhi met her. Her formal education is (i) Three years course in foreign languages (English & French) completed in 1964 at Istituto Santa Teresa, Turin, Italy (ii) Certificate in English from Lennox Cook School, Cambridge, U.K. completed in 1965
Prime minister episode
Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, Sonia Gandhi was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On 16 May, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The President APJ Abdul Kalam reportedly had communicated to Ms. Gandhi on the afternoon of May 17, 2004, that if she insisted on being invited to form the government, he would want first to clarify, on a reference to the Supreme Court, whether in view of this proviso her appointment as PM could be successfully challenged in the court.
In India naturalised citizens are not barred from becoming the Prime minister. But President has correctly acted on a proviso to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act[1955] which requires the Union Home Ministry to lay down conditions to Indian citizenship acquired by foreigners by registration, condition based on the principle of reciprocity . In Ms Gandhi’s case, such of those conditions that apply to Indians on becoming citizens of Italy, would apply to her.
Falsification of personal details
First, her real name is Antonia not Sonia. This was revealed by the Italian Ambassador in New Delhi in a letter dated April 27, 1983 to the Union Home Ministry which letter has not been made public. Antonia is Sonia’s real name as stated in her birth certificate. Second, Sonia was not born in Orbassano as she claims in her bio data submitted to Parliament on becoming MP, but in Luciana as stated in her birth certificate. Third, Sonia Gandhi has not studied beyond High School. But she has falsely claimed in her sworn affidavit filed as a contesting candidate before the Rae Bareli Returning Officer in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, that she qualified and got a diploma in English from the prestigious University of Cambridge, UK.
Earlier, in 1999 in her biographical data given under her signature to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and which was published in Parliament’s Who’s Who, she had made the same false claim. But later she wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker, after Swamy had pointed it out to him in a written complaint of a Breach of Ethics of the Lok Sabha, that it was a “typing mistake”. Strange but true.
Scindia episode
Madhavrao Scindia and a German by name Stiegler are worth mentioning as other good friends of Sonia. Madhavrao’s friendship continued even after Sonia’s marriage to Rajiv. In later years, Madhavrao had become privately critical of Sonia, and told some close friends about his apprehensions about her. It is a pity that he died in mysterious circumstances in an as yet uninvestigated aircrash of his private plane in the year 2001. Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shiela Dikshit were to be on that flight too, but were asked to stay behind at the last moment.
Swiss bank accounts
A stunning exposure on Sonia Gandhi’s secret billions in Swiss banks came, surprisingly, from Switzerland itself, where the world’s corrupt stash away their booty. In its issue of November 19, 1991, Schweizer Illustrierte, the most popular magazine of Switzerland, did an exposé of over a dozen politicians of the third world, including Rajiv Gandhi, who had stashed away their bribe monies in Swiss banks. Schweizer Illustrierte, not a rag, sells some 2,15,000 copies and has a readership of 9,17,000 — almost a sixth of Swiss adult population. Citing the newly opened KGB records, the magazine reported ‘that Sonia Gandhi the widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was controlling secret account with 2.5 billion Swiss Francs (equal to $2.2 billion) in her minor son’s name’. The $2.2 billion account must have existed from before June 1988 when Rahul Gandhi attained majority. y any calculation the present size of the $2.2 billion secret funds of the family in Swiss banks seems huge — anywhere between Rs 43,000 plus to some Rs 84,000 crore!
KGB records
Another expose emanating from the archives of the Russian spy outfit KGB, is far more serious. It says that the Gandhi family has accepted political pay-offs from the KGB — a clear case of treason besides bribe. In her book The State Within a State: The KGB and its Hold on Russia-Past, Present, and Future, Yevgenia Albats, an acclaimed investigative journalist, says: “A letter signed by Victor Chebrikov, who replaced Andropov as the KGB head in 1982 noted: ‘the USSR KGB maintains contact with the son of the Premier Minister Rajiv Gandhi (of India). R Gandhi expresses deep gratitude for the benefits accruing to the Prime Minister’s family from the commercial dealings of the firm he controls in co-operation with the Soviet foreign trade organisations. R Gandhi reports confidentially that a substantial portion of the funds obtained through this channel are used to support the party of R Gandhi’.” (p.223). Albats has also disclosed that, in December 2005, KGB chief Victor Chebrikov had asked for authorisation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “to make payments in US dollars to the family members of Rajiv Gandhi, namely Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Ms Paola Maino, mother of Sonia Gandhi.” And even before Albats’ book came out the Russian media had leaked out the details of the pay-offs. Based on the leaks, on July 4, 1992, The Hindu had reported: “the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service admits the possibility that the KGB could have been involved in arranging profitable Soviet contract for the company controlled by Rajiv Gandhi family”.
Breach of Indian laws
As insurance agent
Sonia Gandhi, was acting as an insurance agent of a public sector insurance company[Oriental Fire&Insurance] during tenure of Indira Gandhi, giving the Prime Minister’s official residence as her business address, and using undue influence to get insured the officers of the PMO, while remaining as an Italian citizen[thus violating FERA]. There was an uproar in Parliament, but Mrs. Indira Gandhi had no alternative but to cut her losses. She made a rare admission in a written reply a few days later that it indeed was so, and that it was by mistake, but that Sonia had resigned from her insurance agency
A C Gupta Commission
The Supreme Court Justice A.C. Gupta Commission set up by the Janata Party government in 1977 came out with a voluminous report on the Maruti Company then owned by the Gandhi family, and has listed eight violations of FERA, Companies Act, and Foreigners Registration Act by Sonia Gandhi. She was never prosecuted, but can still be prosecuted because under Indian law, economic crimes are not subject to the statute of limitation.
Enrollment as voter while being an Italian
In January 1980, Indira Gandhi returned as Prime Minister. The first thing Sonia did was to enroll herself as a voter. This was a gross violation of the law, enough to cause cancellation of her visa [since she was admittedly an Italian citizen then]. There was some hullabaloo in the press about it, so the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer got her name deleted in 1982. But in January 1983, she again enrolled herself as a voter even while as a foreigner [she first applied for citizenship in April 1983]
Subramaniam Swamy has alleged that Sonia’s mother, Paola Maino, and sister Anushka Winci owned the shops, Etinica in Rivolta and Ganpaty in Orbassano, the Mainos’ hometown in Italy. The CBI had to seek Interpol’s help after the Italian foreign ministry refused to part with the information, saying the matter should be taken up by the “Indian judicial authority directly with (the) Italian judicial authority”.
Scams
Bofors scam and freeing Quattrocchi
After the Congress under Sonia Gandhi came to power in 2004, Quattrocchi was quickly relieved of all hardships.
In June 2003, a London branch of the Swiss bank BSI AG was found by the Interpol to have two accounts held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million. These accounts were then frozen upon the request of the CBI. However, on December 22, 2005, the Indian government position changed rather suddenly. The law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj deputed the additional solicitor general of India, Mr. B. Dutta, to London to specifically request release of these accounts. However, it appears that the law ministry never consulted the investigating agency, CBI in this matter
Even though On 6 February 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of the Interpol warrant, the CBI let him go free by seemingly deliberate errors on its part.
In April 2009, The Interpol removed the red-corner notice issued against Ottavio Quattrocchi after a request from the Central Bureau of Investigation
A major chapter in the 25-year-old Bofors saga was closed with a Tis Hazari court here discharging Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi from the payoffs case after allowing the CBI to withdraw prosecution against him.
After the UPA came back to power in 2004, ENI Italy started exploration of oil along the west coast of India and Andaman islands to name few. The company had links with Quattrochi and is rumored to have Massimo Quattrochi in senior advisory position. ENI is the owner of Snamprogetti which got many contracts during the Rajiv Gandhi regime.
2G scam
As per Subramanian Swami, a large part of the 2G bribe went to the hands of Sonia Gandhi. More details and evidences are awaited.
A 22-year-old IT professional Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid from Gurgaon, Haryana was arrested by the Pune police for his remarks on about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on an orkut community named — “I hate Sonia Gandhi”. Vaid was charged under section 292 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act because he created a profile and then posted content about Sonia Gandhi in the community. Amol Bhokare, a Congress activist from Pune had lodged a complaint with Deccan Gymkhana police station against unknown persons in December 2007.
The police team nabbed Vaid at his residence brought him to Pune by flight and produced before the Shivajinagar court. Vaid has been remanded to police custody till May 21. If proved guilty, Vaid could be imprisoned for up to five years and may have to pay a fine up to Rs one lakh.
The CBI is awaiting information from Italy on the ownership rights to two antique shops in Rivolta and Orbassano, allegedly owned by Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s family, after Janata Party chief Subramaniam Swamy filed a petition in Delhi High Court.
Swamy alleged in the petition that Sonia was smuggling antiques from India to Italy and getting them auctioned abroad at hefty prices.
In an affidavit filed before Justices Usha Mehra and Pradeep Nandrajog, the CBI said it had sought information through Interpol about the legal owners of the antique shops in the Italian districts.
Swamy alleged that Sonia’s mother, Paola Maino, and sister Anushka Winci owned the shops, Etinica in Rivolta and Ganpaty in Orbassano, the Mainos’ hometown in Italy.
“It is submitted that at present since no criminal case relating to the subject matter is pending investigation, it may not be feasible to send a letter rogatory to the Italian judicial authority for seeking information,” the CBI affidavit said.
The CBI did not register a case against Sonia owing to the Centre’s pressure, Swamy alleged.
“Nevertheless, the CBI has again elicited the desired information from Interpol, Rome, whose reply is awaited,” the bureau’s affidavit said.
It has been more than two months since the CBI wrote to Interpol in Rome, requesting information on the shops. Reminders, too, were sent.
SONIA GANDHI, the daughter of an Italian housebuilder, is likely to become’s India’s new Prime Minister this week — the culmination of a political career that had its beginnings in a Greek restaurant in Cambridge.
Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, making ends meet by working as a waitress in the Varsity restaurant, when she met a handsome young engineering student.
That first encounter with the future Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, has remained imprinted on her mind as the most romantic moment of her life.
“As our eyes met for the first time, I could feel my heart pounding . . . as far as I was concerned, it was love at first sight,” she wrote later in a rare moment of self-revelation.
“I had a vague idea that India existed somewhere in the world with its snakes, elephants and jungles, but exactly where it was and what it was really all about, I was not sure.”
The man she had met in Cambridge belonged to India’s greatest political dynasty — the son of Indira Gandhi and grandson of Nehru. She, on the other hand, was Sonia Maino, the daughter of a modest Roman Catholic family from Orbassano, near Turin.
But as well as being the source of happy memories, her time in Cambridge has in recent weeks created some political difficulties for Mrs Gandhi.”
Waitress to Empress.
‘
By Glen Owen and Nick Meo
SONIA GANDHI, the daughter of an Italian housebuilder, is likely to become’s India’s new Prime Minister this week — the culmination of a political career that had its beginnings in a Greek restaurant in Cambridge.
Mrs Gandhi was an 18-year-old student at a small language college in Cambridge in 1965, making ends meet by working as a waitress in the Varsity restaurant, when she met a handsome young engineering student.
That first encounter with the future Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, has remained imprinted on her mind as the most romantic moment of her life.
“As our eyes met for the first time, I could feel my heart pounding . . . as far as I was concerned, it was love at first sight,” she wrote later in a rare moment of self-revelation.
“I had a vague idea that India existed somewhere in the world with its snakes, elephants and jungles, but exactly where it was and what it was really all about, I was not sure.”
The man she had met in Cambridge belonged to India’s greatest political dynasty — the son of Indira Gandhi and grandson of Nehru. She, on the other hand, was Sonia Maino, the daughter of a modest Roman Catholic family from Orbassano, near Turin.
But as well as being the source of happy memories, her time in Cambridge has in recent weeks created some political difficulties for Mrs Gandhi.”
Source:
Thanks Hindu Idf,India
Related:
The issue the government has been dodging,the names of Indians in Swiss Bank is out in the open.
* I have posted direct in my blog the same information minus the text as the image portion of the document goes off quite often.
English: Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician, president of the Indian National Congress and the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. Français : Sonia Gandhi, une femme politique indienne, présidente du parti du congrès indien, et veuve de Rajiv Gandhi, ancien premier ministre de l’Inde. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There is constant clamour for reservation for women in all walks of Life.
India witnessed National Shame when a young girl was molested in Public in a busy locality in Guwahati,Assam.
Strangely there is a deafening silence from The Women in Power in India.
Sonia Gandhi, the de facto Empress of India, who runs India,Sushma Swaraj,Leader of The Opposition in The Lok Sabha,Prathibha Patil,The President of India,and Meira Kumar,Speaker of The Lok Sabha.
And the Chief Ministers West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,Mamata Bannerjee,Jayalalithaa.
Would the status of women improve if women were to be given more power, when they can not use their power at least in support of their Gender.
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