Corruption Watch

[Guest]

http://www.politicsparty.com/spectrum_scam.php



Enjoy drip - drip death of Congress party.



Corrupt Singh trying to save his behind.

[ravish]

The Congress has been voted out of power many times in the past. However, it had no impact on corruption in public life.No political outfit in contemporary India is free from this problem.The only remedy is the formation of a new political party with new faces. It should consist of dedicated individuals who can stand up against corruption and can stand up against the temptation of misuse of official power and position . In this context, one needs to take note of the movement started by Anna Hazare. The movement needs to be sustained and the media has also a major role to play in mobilising public opinion. It is not an easy task, as today corruption has become a part of public life in India.

[sumishi]

[size="3"][url="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2488753.ece"]When the RTI ‘Basmasura' chased the government[/url]: The Hindu, September 27, 2011

-- Vidya Subrahmaniam



[/size][indent][size="3"]

When the controversial Finance Ministry note to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on P. Chidambaram's role in 2G spectrum allocation was traced to a Right to Information application, there was surprise — and some concern — both within the government and in RTI circles.[/size][size="3"]The government's discomfiture was understandable: The RTI Act, which was its proud creation, recoiled on it much like the boon that Lord Shiva granted Basmasura. In the fable, Basmasura seeks and gets the power to reduce to ashes anyone on whose head he places his hand. The Lord agrees, only to be chased around by Basmasura, who wants to test the boon on Shiva himself. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> From the Commonwealth Games to 2G, there has been an RTI angle to many of the scams and scandals that have emerged in recent times from the corridors of power. In the old days, a Finance Ministry note like the one that surfaced last week would have been a closely-held secret. Yet this document, used by the Bharatiya Janata Party as a weapon against both the Home Minister and the Prime Minister, was among a sheaf of papers released by the PMO itself. The irony is compounded by the fact that of the two applicants who sought the papers, one was R.K. Garg, convener of the BJP's RTI cell. The other was RTI veteran Subhash Chandra Agarwal.[/size]



[size="3"]The release of the note obviously placed the government in a quandary: It could hardly argue against its own decision. So while Pranab Mukherjee lauded the transparency of the RTI process in distant Washington, Veerappa Moily struck the first cautionary note. In a newspaper interview, he called for a national debate on the RTI, arguing that the Act could not be allowed to interfere in official decision-making. [/size][size="3"][/size][size="3"] He also wheeled out the old chestnut of RTI amendments. RTI activists began to press the panic button. Activist Lokesh Batra sent out a message that said: “alert, is this another attempt to dilute the RTI Act?”[/size]



[size="3"]The former Chief Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah, who led the fight against amendments to outlaw file notings, told The Hindu[/size][size="3"] that the RTI Act had acquired too much momentum for it now to be rolled back by the government. He said the Act provided for exemptions which the government could have used to deny information to the applicants. “Section 8 provides immunity from disclosure on grounds of national and economic security, privacy and commercial interest. The law does not become bad because the government chose to disclose information.”[/size]



[size="3"]Mr. Habibullah pointed to the vital role played by the RTI in digging out many of the recent scams. The CWG exposure started with a plea by the Organising Committee that it be kept out of the RTI. However, the Central Information Commission ruled that the OC was a public authority which allowed its spending to be scrutinised. This brought out a deluge of damning documents. Similarly, there were RTI queries on the procedure followed in spectrum allotment. [/size]



[size="3"]Nikhil Dey, convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, said if the government attempted to roll back the RTI or bring in amendments, it would be an admission of its guilt: “That will immediately raise questions about its motives.” To Mr. Moily's charge that the RTI allowed normal inter-departmental discussions to be misinterpreted as dissensions, Mr. Dey said: “The best and most accurate interpretation can come only from full disclosure. It is only through full disclosure that you get a perspective of what happened. Leaks are far more selective and damaging.” He also argued that laws could not be enacted to make the government comfortable: “If the government feels some discomfort because of disclosure it is not a bad thing.”[/size]



[size="3"]Mr. Agarwal, who has brought out hundreds of secret documents from the vaults of the government, including correspondence between the Prime Minister and the President and between the Prime Minister and the Congress president, salutes Manmohan Singh and the PMO for upholding transparency: “With Ms. Gandhi and civil society watching, a rollback is almost ruled out. If despite this, the government dilutes the Act, it will have to pay a heavy price for it.”

[/size]



[/indent]

[dhu]

“With Ms. Gandhi and civil society watching, a rollback is almost ruled out. If despite this, the government dilutes the Act, it will have to pay a heavy price for it.”

So now Ms. Gandhi is the leader of civil society!

[sumishi]

[quote name='dhu' date='27 September 2011 - 04:34 PM' timestamp='1317121006' post='113035']

So now Ms. Gandhi is the leader of civil society!

[/quote]

Mr. Agarwal, obviously, is under the die-nasty spell, as was (is?) Anna ji. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='<_<' />

Clearly they should be frequenting IF and BRF.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Advani-Jaitley-meet-cash-for-vote-scam-accused/H1-Article1-751157.aspx"]Advani, Jaitley meet cash-for-vote scam accused[/url]

Senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley on Wednesday visited Tihar Prisons to meet Sudheendra Kulkarni and former party MPs lodged at the jail in connection with the cash-for-vote scam.

......

Kulaste and Bhagora along with their colleague Ashok Argal had created a sensation by displaying wads of currency notes worth Rs one crore in the Lok Sabha during the July 2008 trust vote and alleged that the money was given to them to buy their votes.



They had alleged that Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had offered them the bribe on behalf of the ruling Congress party to save the UPA-I government. Singh was granted bail on health grounds which has been rejcted by the trial court.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Amar-Singh-s-bail-plea-rejected-to-remain-in-AIIMS/H1-Article1-751200.aspx"]Amar Singh's bail plea rejected, to remain in AIIMS[/url]

Rajya Sabha MP and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's bail plea was rejected by a Delhi court Wednesday in the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal. He will, however, continue to stay in hospital where he is being treated for a kidney-related ailment.

....



The 55-year-old leader, who is a patient of diabetes, underwent a renal transplant in September 2009 and intestinal surgery 10 years ago. Besides, he is also a patient of hypertension, tuberculosis infection, chronic kidney disease and urinary tract infection.

Sonia can relax now, she can avoid jail by staying in AIIMS

and MMS can relax claiming mental illness and can live in Prime Minister House.

Mera Bharat Mahan.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Ambani-brothers-meet-Chidambaram-separately/H1-Article1-751240.aspx"]Ambani brothers meet Chidambaram separately[/url]

Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother Anil on Wednesday met home minister P Chidambaram separately, at his North Block office within a span of 50 minutes. Mukesh, along with the chief executive of Europe's second biggest oil company BP Plc, Bob Dudley, first had a 15-minute meeting with Chidambaram. However, it was not immediately known what transpired in the meeting.



After 50 minutes, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group chief Anil Ambani had a 10-minute meeting with the home minister. Anil, too, did not speak to waiting journalists.



[size="5"]He is a regular visitor of the home minister and normally comes on every Wednesday, while Mukesh came to meet Chidambaram after a gap of several months[/size].

[sumishi]

[size="3"][url="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2512796.ece"]RTI information sought by whistle-blowers, since killed, to be made public[/url]



[/size][indent][size="3"][quote name="THE HINDU" date="October 5, 2011"]



All pending information sought by a Right to Information (RTI) activist, who has subsequently been murdered, will henceforth be placed in the public domain. This decision was taken by the Central Information Commission (CIC), which has been under pressure to do its bit to stem the mounting casualties of RTI activists and applicants. The nature of information sought, the CIC believes, will reveal the motive for the murder.



In a resolution passed recently, the CIC said if it received “a complaint regarding the assault [on] or murder of an information seeker, it will examine the pending RTI applications of the victim and order the concerned department(s) to publish the requested information suo motu on their website as per the provisions of law.”



Surge in killings



The CIC noted the surge in the assaults on and killings of RTI users. “The Commission strongly believes that it is the duty and responsibility of the respective governments to safeguard the life and liberty of RTI users for which purpose they should invoke the relevant penal provisions for the prevention and detection of such heinous crimes.”



Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who moved the resolution, told The Hindu that complaints could be filed before the CIC at the Centre and in the State Information Commissions. “The families would be aware of the RTI applications filed by the victims, and once they complain to us with the details, we will track the applications and ensure that the information sought by the victims is made public.”



Mr. Gandhi said the information would give clues to the identities of the assailants which, in turn, would act a deterrent against attacks. “In my opinion the fear of exposure would work to stop the attacks and murders.”



In the past two years, as many as 13 RTI activists have been murdered and countless more attacked for seeking to expose corruption.

[/size][size="3"] The last murder in the series was of Shehla Masood, who had filed RTI applications on a range of subjects from political corruption to illegal mining and destruction of forests. [/quote][/size][/indent]

[Guest]

[url="http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/goa-mining-scam-worth-rs-25000-crore-bjp/"][size="5"]Goa mining scam worth Rs.25,000 crore: BJP[/size][/url]

[sumishi]

[size="3"][url="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2519416.ece"]Let RTI debate play out: Congress[/url] : The Hindu, October 8, 2011



[/size][indent][size="3"]

The Congress has decided to adopt a cautious approach to suggestions coming from within the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government that the Right to Information (RTI) Act be re-examined as it affects government functioning. On Friday, party spokesperson Manish Tewari — in response to a question whether changes were being contemplated in the seminal Act — stressed it was important for the ongoing debate on the issue “to play itself out.”



Mr. Tewari said there was a vigorous debate on, with the entire spectrum of views on display. “There is no denying that the RTI has been an instrument of empowerment,” he said, adding, “but people are also beginning to ask whether its efficacy is being blunted by the way it has begun to impinge on governance. So let's wait for the debate to play out.”



The debate in the Congress comes in the wake of concerns expressed by Union Law Minister Salman Khursheed and, before him, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily, at the way the RTI was beginning to adversely affect governance. Mr. Khursheed, while clarifying that there was no proposal to amend the RTI Act yet, recently said it needed to be looked at afresh. For, misuse of the Act was affecting “institutional efficacy and efficiency,” with even the bureaucracy becoming reluctant to record its opinion.



A “balance,” therefore, needed to be maintained between transparency and accountability and institutional efficiency, he had said, adding that, for instance, it was not right to claim under the RTI papers “which are part of internal communications ahead of a Cabinet decision until such time that a decision is finally taken.”



With these statements coming after the recent controversy over documents accessed from the Prime Minister's Office on the 2G spectrum through the RTI, plunging the government into a crisis, the Congress is concerned about how to put the genie back into the bottle, but is clearly loath to make any pronouncements on it, given that it counts the enactment of the law as one of its great achievements.

....

[/size][/indent]

[Guest]

Mr. Tewari said there was a vigorous debate on, with the entire spectrum of views on display. “There is no denying that the RTI has been an instrument of empowerment,” he said, adding, “but people are also beginning to ask whether its efficacy is being blunted by the way it has begun to impinge on governance

Yes, why to empower people when one family can rule forever? One foreigner is able to change rules. This is called tyranny.

[Guest]

Looks like the corrupt people (read Congress Party) have started their own blog on 2G Scam!



[url="http://www.2gscam.co.in/law-minister-on-supreme-c0urt"]http://www.2gscam.co.in/[/url]

[Guest]

In India arresting BJP men for corruption is easy and swift. Will the Supreme Court have the guts to order arrests of Chidambaram, Sonia, Raul, Vadra et al?



[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Yeddyurappa-surrenders-before-Lokayukta-court-arrested-/H1-Article1-757476.aspx"][size="4"]Yeddyurappa surrenders before Lokayukta court, arrested [/size][/url]

[sumishi]

[size="3"][url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aruna-Roy-blasts-PM-Manmohan-Singh-for-RTI-remark/articleshow/10370887.cms"]Aruna Roy blasts PM Manmohan Singh for RTI remark[/url] : TOI, Oct 16, 2011



[/size][indent][size="3"]

PANAJI: Transparency advocate Aruna Roy on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement saying that the Right To Information Act was adversely affecting deliberations in the government and deterring honest officials from expressing their views on file.



"The Prime Minister has made a statement that I completely disagree with. My seven-year period in the government was fraught with corruption," said Roy, considered by many as one of the architects of the RTI Act. The founder member of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), who resigned from the IAS in 1974, was speaking at a seminar on 'Strengthening participatory democracy: Role of RTI' at the International Centre Goa, Dona Paula.



Countering the PM's reasons for bureaucratic inefficiency, the Magsaysay award winner said the killings of RTI activists was of more concern than the RTI affecting government functioning. "I'm much more concerned about the lives of RTI activists being killed. What have you done to protect our lives?" she sought to know from the Prime Minister.



Stating that even earlier, bureaucrats were not making file notings, Roy said, "No one wanted to take the onus (to make a noting) if it was a critical issue."



Stating that transparency benefits the system, Roy said, "We reject the suggestion that transparency makes bureaucrats inefficient. The government has always been inefficient. Papers accessed by us through RTI have proved this."



She said that transparency actually helps honest bureaucrats and felt that due to RTI, clean babus can make notings in the confidence that disclosure of the file notings under RTI would vindicate the stands they take.



"In the last six years, information received by the people has created upheaval in governance. What has upset the system is the scams. Instead of welcoming transparency, the persistence for amendments is wrong," she added.



Nikhil Dey, co-convener of NCPRI, too, was critical of the proposal for amendments. "We completely oppose amendments in RTI. The Prime Minister is saying the RTI affects bureaucratic functioning, but it is the opposite. It is a great benefit for honest officers as earlier their notings were being hidden."



"The government has consistently said that amendments will be done only after putting them in the public domain. It should not slip in amendments like it did the first time," Dey added.



Roy also lambasted the removal of the CBI from the purview of the RTI. "How can the government talk of a Lokpal on one side and remove the CBI from the purview of the RTI?" she wondered. "Eighty per cent of cases investigated by the CBI are corruption cases," Roy added.



"The chairman of the Planning Commission has said all public-private-partnerships will also be outside the purview of the RTI. How can this be done when the state provides facilities like electricity and water to these projects?" she asked.

[/size][/indent]

[ravish]

At a time when BJP had been most vocal against all the current scams: Advaniji is undertaking a Rathyatra to mobilise public support against corruption; the arrest of the former Karnataka Chief Minister has once again highlighted the point that all politicians once in power falls in the same trap.Some unfortunately get exposed and some do not. The BJP for the present has taken a public posture that it will stand by the former CM in fighting out the issue legally.

This may be the public posture of the BJP but internally leaders both at Central and State level are of the view that the developments are not good for the party and has come at a very bad time as its intensity of attack on the Congress on corruption issues will get weakened.

[ravish]

The Times of India Reports

Quote



Advani on Yeddyurappa arrest: We should keep our house in order

PTI | Oct 18, 2011, 05.03PM IST

NAGPUR: Virtually admitting embarrassment on account of BS Yeddyurappa's arrest in an alleged land scam, L K Advani today said it will be difficult to win against the "corrupt" Congress if his party too is bedevilled by similar weaknesses.



However, he asked the Congress to see the writing on the wall in the wake of Monday's rout in byelections and said the UPA government could be pulled down if any of its allies chooses to do so.



Addressing a press conference here, Advani initially parried a question on Yeddyurappa but later admitted that the party suffered embarrassment on account of former Karnataka chief minister's arrest.



"We don't take our internal weaknesses lightly. This thing was vindicated in Karnataka clearly. We had cautioned him but once the report (of Lokayukta on illegal mining) came, he had to quit. Small mistakes by others is embarrassing the party leadership. There may be chances of a slip up so I am telling every one in the party to remain vigilant," he said.



Advani went on to add that the party was fully conscious of the fact that "no party can win the confidence of the people against the present corruption of the Congress party if it's own house is bedevilled by similar weaknessses."



He also described the present political situation as "very uncertain" and said no one can predict what is likely to happen. Someone in the government may say they will continue in power for another two years and someone in opposition may affirm that the government will not last long.



"I cannot say either way. The uncertain political situation depended essentially on the government and whatever remains of the UPA if one of them wants to pull it down... But the Opposition by itself cannot pull it down," he said.



Advani said while in the case of Rajiv Gandhi's government VP Singh pulled it down, Congress is fortunate that "there is no VP Singh now".



Unquote



Shri Advani has been honest enough to admit that there is some truth in the allegations against the former CM of Karnataka. He has also indirectly hinted that BJP is also facing the same problem of corruption as other political parties. Unfortunately, as in other political parties there are elements within the BJP who try to put corruption under the carpet, to prove that BJP is very clean. In the process they are doing great harm to the party itself.Today in India with a free electronic and print media it is next to impossible to keep anything under the carpet. As a result of this the public is becoming aware of new scams one after the other in quick succession.

There are media reports today that two members of Team Anna have resigned.This is in addition to the controversy created by Shri Prasant Bhushan's remark on Kashmir and subsequent developments.All these events may eventually derail the movement started by Anna Hazare against corruption. The need of the hour is for Anna Hazare to control his core group and ensure that there is no deviation from the original agenda fo fighting corruption. The one upmanship of individual members needs to be stopped at the earliest, if the original movement is to succeed.

[sumishi]

[size="3"][url="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2560987.ece"]Paid news claims its price[/url]: The Hindu, October 22, 2011



[/size][indent][size="3"][quote name="The EDITORIAL"]The Election Commission of India's disqualification of Umlesh Yadav, sitting MLA from Bisauli in Uttar Pradesh, is a landmark order that notches some firsts for India's electoral democracy. Ms Yadav was disqualified on Thursday under Section 10-A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 for a period of three years for failing to provide a “true and correct account” of her election expenses. She had failed to include in her official poll accounts the amount she spent on advertisements, dressed up as news, in two Hindi dailies, Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala, during her 2007 election campaign. The case arose out of an adjudication by the Press Council of India on the complaint of a losing candidate against the two dailies for publishing paid news. After holding the newspapers “guilty of ethical violations” and issuing a caution to them, the Council sent its adjudication to the ECI “for such action as deemed fit by them.” No sitting MP or MLA before Ms Yadav, wife of a liqour baron and strongman, has ever been disqualified by the ECI on grounds of excessive expenditure — and certainly none on account of paid news. This is also the first verdict in the paid news saga — a scandal that has hurt the credibility of the Indian news media and demoralised journalists — and it comes just after the Delhi High Court's dismissal of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's petition challenging the ECI's jurisdiction in probing the truth or falsity of his 2009 poll expenses. The High Court affirmed the ECI's powers to do so.



The potential ramifications of Ms Yadav's disqualification are enormous. In the pipeline are the paid news cases of Mr. Chavan and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda. There will be others coming up too, as the public realises that it now has recourse against the abuse of money power, where earlier it felt helpless. The verdict should, hopefully, act as a deterrent to obscene spending in elections. In its 23-page order (http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/recent/Disqua..._Yadav.pdf), the ECI makes the wider and vital observation that “by suppressing expenditure on ‘paid news' and filing an incorrect or false account, the candidate involved is guilty of not merely circumventing the law relating to election expenses but also of resorting to false propaganda by projecting a wrong picture and defrauding the electorate.” The ECI deserves the highest praise for functioning without fear or favour as the upstanding institution of Indian democracy that it is. The question does pop up, though: what about the newspapers and television channels that enable “defrauding the electorate”?[/quote][/size][/indent]

[ravish]

One after another financial irregularities have surfaced in respect two important members of team Anna.It only indicates the extent to which corruption has become part of normal life for any active Indian.However,it will be wrong to say these members should leave team Anna. They may have a change of heart and work for erradicating corruption from public life.In case past activity of each and every member is investigated upon, a situation may arrise when no one will be left to continue the movement.

[Guest]

[url="http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/the-muslim-harasser-of-yeddyurappa-is-a-fraud-and-fabricator-arrested-for-faking-documents/"][size="4"]The Muslim harasser of Yeddyurappa is a fraud and fabricator. Arrested for faking documents[/size][/url]



October 29, 2011 by janamejayan



Next guy to be booked should be Hans Raj Bharadhwaj who probably induced the fabricator



BANGALORE: Advocate Sirajin Basha, on whose complaints former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has been arrested for alleged illegal denotification of land, was on Saturday booked by police for allegedly submitting fabricated documents relating to the complaints to the Lokayukta court.



On the direction of sixth additional chief metroploitan magistrate, city police registered an FIR against Basha for submitting ‘fabricated evidence’ relating to land scam charges against Yeddyurappa, police said.



One Ganjendra had approached the ACMM court on Friday and filed a complaint against Basha, police said.



An FIR has been filed against Basha under Sections 193 (fabricating false evidence) and 466 (forging records) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.



Basha was not available for comments on the development. The Lokayukta court had on October 15 remanded Yeddyurappa to judicial custody. Basha has filed two complaints against him.



In all, Basha has filed five complaints comprising 15 cases before the Lokayukta Court against Yeddyurappa and others including his family members alleging illegal denotification of government lands.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india...533861.cms