<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>PM, Sonia in 'Q' huddle </b>
Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi
Bharadwaj's fate hangs fire ---- Rattled by the snowballing Quattrochi controversy, the Congress party's core group met on Saturday night to take stock of the situation.
Though Congress leaders described the meeting as routine political interaction, it triggered fierce speculation as an impression was created by party sources themselves that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was extremely upset at the turn of events.
There were reports in a section of the media that the Prime Minister had even sought the resignations of Law Minister H R Bharadwaj and Minister of Personnel Suresh Pachauri. Congress leaders did not rule out the fate of these Ministers being discussed at the core group meeting. Apart from the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Ms Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel were present.
Congress spokespersons insisted that the top leadership examined the different resolutions prepared for the AICC plenary to be held in Hyderabad. Though this could have been the official agenda of the meeting, party leaders admit the Quattrochi issue might have dominated the proceedings. It is unlikely that the Prime Minister would cancel all his appointments to see the AICC resolutions.
Though what transpired at the meeting was not known, sources said the party would not like to be seen as acting under pressure and any decision on the fate of these two Ministers would be taken while the reshuffle-cum-expansion takes place later this month. But there's another opinion that dropping these Ministers in the reshuffle won't send a strong signal that the Prime Minister and the Congress president did not approve of the initiatives taken in the Quattrochi case. Sources said while the Law Minister's role had angered party leaders, Mr Pachauri's fault is that he did not properly brief the PM.
<b>Mr Pachauri works under the Prime Minister, who oversees the CBI's functioning, and he was supposed to have given the correct picture to Dr Singh about the mission of the Additional Solicitor-General. Senior leaders in the party are also alarmed by the impression in the media that the Prime Minister's authority could be compromised so easily. </b>The party has taken a grim view of the situation and the dominant view is that such an act would cause irreparable damage to the Government's image.
<b>There is worry that Ms Gandhi's image would also suffer if such controversies keep cropping up one after another.</b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â There is a section in the Congress which has now started talking about the competence of certain persons in key ministries. They are planning to mount pressure on the Prime Minister to address these issues when he undertakes the much awaited Cabinet reshuffle.
These leaders feel the PM has suffered enough embarrassment because of the wrong or motivated decisions of his Ministers in the last six months.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is no coincidence. ITALIAN MAFIA QUEEN B1TCH who is out to DESTROY India thought with active conspiracy of COMMIES and anti-Hindu/anti-Indian press who is doing everything to hide the truth to save SONIA and destroy NDA/BJP, she thought she can get away with anything. The channels such as NDTV led by Prannay Roy, Italian Express, Times of Islamabad are doing everything to hide the truth. When Volcker was about to explode, some COMMIE sympathetic channels put this CASH FOR Questions scandals just to divert the attention FROM the Volcker. Then there is Amar Singh episode. I believe that the ITALIAN SCUM has tapped more indivduals and blackmailing them to save the DIE-NSATY.
The SCUM MAFIA thought no one will expose Quattrochi incident. But fortunately, there are some patriotic people even in the press I guess. Some TV channel exposed it. The PM as usual pretends that he did not know anything. I have not ready a single news item on this in some news papers such as THE HINDU.
But now that the cat is out of the bag, they are blaming Bharadwaj and will get rid of him saving the MAFIA B1TCH and SCUMBAG family.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The Congress at Char Minar </b>
Pioneer.com
Chant of Rahul mantra speaks poorly of the party's faith in Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, writes Ajoy Bose
The weekend's Congress plenary session may well be a good opportunity to examine the successes and failures of the party ever since it came back to power in the summer of 2004. This is the first plenary the Congress has held after it surprised many, including itself, by managing to form a coalition Government at the Centre. It is time to take fresh stock of the country's oldest political party, which not so long ago was being buried as a fossil.
First the good news. The past one and a half years have been remarkably smooth for a party that was expected to make heavy weather of running a coalition Government. Indeed, if the script had run according to the gloom and doom scenarios painted at the advent of the UPA regime, the Congress-led coalition should have been by now on its last legs, if not totally knocked out. A few expected the party, despite its autocratic past, to have managed the contradictions arising out of ruling with support of such a motley group including Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Marxists.
Nor did anyone imagine that what had appeared to be the dubious and highly fragile partnership between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his mentor Sonia Gandhi would continue without too much fuss. Here again, political observers seem to have gone completely wrong having predicted serious breakdown between the two centres of power. After one and a half years - a period not without its challenges - there are hardly any signs of strain between the two leaders, which by itself is perhaps the biggest achievement for the Congress since it came to power.
As a matter of fact, compared to other ruling parties steering previous coalition governments at the Centre, the Congress has actually managed rather well. There is a not a small shade of irony in this considering that of all the political parties, the Congress had the least credentials and seemed most unlikely to manage a coalition. Similarly, the palpable lack of political experience or skill in the two leading lights of the party, Ms Sonia Gandhi and Mr Manmohan Singh, do not seem to have hampered its ability to keep the coalition together despite the many pulls and pressures that have come its way over the past one and a half years.
But, now the bad news. The current political stability of the UPA Government and the apparent success of the Congress in managing the coalition have made little difference to the dipping electoral stock of the party. The Congress continues to decline across the country and has clearly failed to revive despite its amazing political resurrection at the Centre.
This is the message that has come loud virtually every time the party's popularity has been tested in elections to local councils, State assemblies or by-elections to Parliament. This indeed will be even more underlined by the coming round of State Assembly polls in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Regardless of the power it wields at the Centre, the Congress continues to get marginalised across the country.
When the Congress first formed the coalition Government in May 2004, most party leaders privately described the gamble as a short-term measure geared to revive their own political outfit. Many saw Mr Manmohan Singh as an useful but dispensable stop-gap arrangement to facilitate the anointment of a member of the dynasty to the throne. They had expected the rise of Mr Rahul Gandhi either in the Government or the party, preferably both, to automatically usher in a new glorious era for the Congress.
In fact, <b>quite a few party leaders were inclined towards a mid-term poll when a revived Congress would shed most of its coalition allies and sweep towards if not a full but a working near-majority in the Lok Sabha.</b>
Almost exactly the opposite seems to have happened. The coalition gamble by the Congress has turned out to be far less troubled than most party leaders had expected. On the other hand, <b>there are no signs whatsoever of a new glorious era for the Congress spearheaded by Mr Rahul Gandhi. </b>If anything, the young scion of the Gandhi dynasty himself seems an extremely reluctant politician who has to be cajoled by the Congress plenary to take a more leading role.
Indeed, the very fact that the run up to the first Congress plenary after the party assumed power in New Delhi, was dominated by speculation on what it would do for 'Rahul Baba', does indicate the hollowness of the party. Leaders from top to bottom appear to have childlike faith in this unwilling political debutant as if he had any solutions to the steady decline of the Congress. In many ways, this obsession with Mr Rahul Gandhi is downright insulting to both Mr Manmohan Singh and Ms Sonia Gandhi whose joint leadership has not done too badly for the Congress over the past one and a half years. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The tragedy of the Congress today is that it represents nothing apart from an association with the distant past. It is perhaps this inability to articulate any concrete plans for future that compels the party to hanker after a youthful Rahul Gandhi whether he is inclined or able for the job. Interestingly, the young leader himself seems acutely aware of the utopian nature of the expectations from him and, not surprisingly, displays extreme reluctance in being hustled into any kind of new assignment.
It is still quite unclear which way the Congress and the UPA will turn in the coming years. At the moment, with the Opposition in utter disarray and the allies quite happy to keep going on, there is no compulsion on the ruling party to do anything drastic. At the same time, the dwindling electoral fortunes of the Congress cannot but pose a worry to its leadership and workers.
Sooner or later, the party has to come to terms with itself, and make a more realistic assessment of what its short and long terms goals should, and more importantly, can be.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
'Why does Priyanka have Govt house'
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Samajwadi Party on Friday questioned the grounds on which Congress president Sonia Gandhi's married daughter Priyanka Vadera has been allocated a government bungalow.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sycophancy INC. </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Ever since Jawaharlal Nehru ensured that the mantle of supreme leader of the Congress remained with the family, the party that has ruled India since 1947, barring the 10 odd years when it was forced to occupy the Opposition benches, has evolved into a remarkable organisation that cannot look beyond the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for inspiration and leadership. Irrespective of what individual Congress leaders may say in private during off-the-record discussions, they behave in the most fawning manner when it comes to declaring their loyalty to the party's first family.
As much was on display during the All-India Congress Committee plenary in Hyderabad where party elders, who have otherwise been rendered slothful by age, were amazingly energetic in demanding that Mr Rahul Gandhi be made a member of the Congress Working Committee. Other party leaders, who did not wish to miss the opportunity to demonstrate that there is nothing which distinguishes them from Nehru-Gandhi family retainers, refused to allow the plenary to proceed till<b> "the symbol of youth", the "chirag (lamp) of hope" </b>addressed the congregation of sycophants who had ostensibly gathered to take their party and supreme leader to greater heights of political and electoral success.
This despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi - the mother of their hope, their chirag - coyly asking her courtiers not to lavish praise on "individuals" but focus on the agenda of the jamboree. That was, of course, asking for too much; for, the main agenda item of any AICC session is competitive declaration of loyalty to the dynasty. Everything else - the resolutions, the speeches, the promises - is but an excuse for getting together for this appalling collective tribute to the reigning deity of India's oldest political party that was in the vanguard of the freedom movement.
Hence, the cloying, maudlin and, some would say, fulsome, praise heaped on Ms Gandhi by such able colleagues as Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Vyalar Ravi. Such is Mr Arjun Singh's concern for the future of India's youth, which he has single-handedly destroyed after taking charge as Human Resource Development Minister in 2004, that he repeatedly pleaded with Ms Gandhi to draft her son for big time politics and larger - as well as, presumably, greater - things in life.
<b>Mr Dasmunshi was so carried away by the urge to outdo Mr Singh that he described the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as "not just a family, but the beacon (of India), a flame of revolution..." </b>Mr Dasmunshi is welcome to speak for himself and his fellow flatterers; he would do well not to speak for India. Nor should Mr Vyalar Ravi labour under the belief that he speaks for the people when he genuflects so cravenly at the altar of the dynasty.
The icing on the cake of flattery that was the centrepiece at Sunday's proceedings came in the form of a special resolution, drafted and deposited by AICC delegates from Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur, seeking the immediate elevation of Mr Rahul Gandhi as a party general secretary.
The party's chirag, who spoke to a spellbound audience on Monday, made bold to wonder why the Congress has been virtually wiped out in north India. Actually, the Congress is a spent force in most of India, but we shall let that detail pass, given his knowledge of and grasp over politics. Mr Rahul Gandhi need not look beyond the sycophancy at the AICC plenary for an answer to his question.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->By OMER FAROOQ, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jan 23, 6:36 PM ET
Rahul Gandhi, heir to India's pre-eminent political dynasty, told supporters Monday he hopes to lead the country but urged them to be patient as he builds a following.
Gandhi, 35, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers of the giant subcontinent nation, has kept a relatively low-profile since being elected to parliament in 2004, focusing on his constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
But he spoke of his aspirations in response to demands from backers of the ruling Congress party at the party's annual convention in this capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
"I assure you I will not let you down," Rahul said.
"There is no fast track to success in creating a leader. You are the first to know that the leadership cannot be created. It has to be built brick by brick."
When the party's convention began on Sunday, several participants tried to storm the dais, demanding that Gandhi occupy the center stage.
Rahul belongs to the Gandhi dynasty â unrelated to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the pacifist and independence leader â which has governed India for 38 of its 58 years as an independent nation. Rahul Gandhi's mother, Sonia, now heads the Congress party.
His father, Rajiv, was prime minister from 1984 until 1989. His grandmother, Indira, ruled twice, from 1966 until 1977, and then from 1980 until she was killed in 1984.
And his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India's first prime minister, governing from 1947 until his death from natural causes in 1964.
The Harvard-educated Rahul blossomed into an outspoken and charismatic candidate on the campaign trail last year, once stunning his bodyguards Saturday by climbing over the barricades and leaping into the crowd to shake hands with supporters.
Rajiv was killed by a Sri Lankan suicide bomber in 1991, and Rajiv's mother, Indira, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
01-25-2006, 08:35 PM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2006, 02:27 AM by acharya.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Servants of Sonia Society session in Hyderabad</b>
V SUNDARAM
    After the Poorna Swaraj Session of the Indian National Congress at Lahore in December 1929 and the Quit India Resolution Session of the Congress at Bombay in August 1942, the most historic session of the Congress was held at Hyderabad on 20 â 22 Jan, 2006 under the inspiring and unmatched leadership of Sonia Gandhi. At the Lahore Session in December 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Congress president.
    In that session Nehru declared: 'Success comes often to those who dare and act regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the timid'. At the Hyderabad session of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, the legitimate scion of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, who chairs the session, has replaced the message of Nehru with the following burning words: 'Success often comes to those who creep and crawl regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the brave and spirited'.
    The Indian National Congress today has degenerated into what I call the SOSS. Are you getting confused? <b>I mean the Servants of Sonia Society.</b> In the glorious days of the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi was the supreme leader. In Biblical fashion we can say: 'At the beginning was Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was with the Congress. Congress was Mahatma Gandhi'. Today Sonia Gandhi is in the place of Mahatma Gandhi in the same Biblical quotation.
Mahatma Gandhi was trying to throw out the foreigners supported by his Congress party, which was fully behind him. <b>Today we have an IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Leader) who is fully supported by the Congress party. Arjun Singh is the decorated bugle-boy of the party.</b>
In this sad and disgraceful situation, I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi said: 'Bad self government is better than alien good government'. Dr Manmohan Singh government has reversed this position. <b>Today the collective motto of the UPA government is that a foreign-led secular government is better than a local /national /saffronised self-government!</b>
    I have referred to the SOSS. I am not using this term out of my wild imagination. Gopal Krishna Gokhale established The Servants of India Society in 1905 at Pune. I looked at the prospectus of the Society issued by Gokhale: 'Much of our work must be directed towards building up in the country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally available at present: And the advance can only be slow. Moreover the path is beset with great difficulties. One essential condition of success in this work is that a sufficient number of our countrymen must now come forward to devote themselves to the cause in the spirit in which religious work is undertaken. Public life must be spiritualised. Love of country must so fill the heart that all else shall appear as of little moment by its side. A fervent patriotism which rejoices at every opportunity of sacrifice for the motherland, a dauntless heart which refuses to be turned back from its object by difficulty or danger, a deep faith in the purpose of Providence which nothing can shake?equipped with these, the worker must start on his mission and reverently seek the joy which comes of spending oneself in the service of one's country. M K Gandhi, who did such excellent service in the struggle with the South African Government for justice for the Indians in Africa, has signified his intention of becoming a worker under the Servants of India Society'.
    The thousands of Congressmen who have assembled in Hyderabad like flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are imbued with a different spirit. <b>In the place of men like Bhagat Singh, we have men like Arjun Singh.</b> All of them are declaring: <b>'Let our public life be Soniaised, Rahulised, Priyankaised with a fervent patriotism for Italy and Quaottrocchi</b>. Love for Sonia must so fill the heart that all else should appear as of little moment by its side. Let us rejoice at every opportunity of sacrifice for Sonia and her family'. I have it on journalistic authority that thunderous cries of secular 'Jai Akhand Sonia' (mind you not communal 'Jai Akhand Bharath') rend the air in Hyderabad.
    Another thing which has become a big international joke is that the Congress president sits on a gaddhi while Dr Manmohan Singh leans on a takia on the floor. All the other Congressmen lounge in the same manner on the floor. Whom do they want to defraud and cheat in the Year of the Lord 2006? The whole world knows that they are either Western or wholly Westernised non-Indians in their culture and day-to-day patterns of living. Let them not put on a farce or facade of bumptious simplicity. I cannot help quoting the following lines of poetry by Yevgny Yevpushenko:
 'Where does it live, the face behind the face Everyone ought
To know all that there is About the face that is his. The worms climb arrogantly upwards  The coward rejoices to be up in the clouds
    Only the free man Thinks:
    'I am a slave'
    When the leaders in the BJP sit on the same gaddhi with takia on the floor, it becomes an act or gesture of communal saffronisation. When Sonia wears a tika on her forehead it becomes a symbol of truly international secularism. But when Advani or Vajpayee sport the same tika on their forehead, it becomes a lurid symbol of aggressive Hindu fundamentalism!!
    In the days of Mahatma Gandhi, there was ample room for men of brains and character in the Congress party. Very unfortunately today men who conspicuously <b>lack both brains and character only are able to make it to the apex slots in the Congress</b>. Only the shallowest and the most ignoble men are able to triumph easily over the most brilliant and high-minded in the party. In other words, the more character and capacity a candidate for office possesses the greater is his handicap. This is the solid message given by the Congress party and its President to the teeming millions of India today.
    Am I not being verbose? Perhaps, the fear of writing down eternal words is the real reason for my boisterous verbosity. But you should not forget that eternal verities rest on the precise truths. Precision consists in sacrifice. The price of brevity is blood. Mahatma Gandhi became immortal by insisting on such a precision. Sonia Gandhi's ways are different. Her political primer to all Congressmen is:
    'New thoughts excite
    The voter's dread
    Be sure you're trite
    And go ahead'
    (The writer is a retired IAS officer)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The constitution is getting subverted on a daily basis. This stinging indictment against the UPA government should see the Substitute PM Manmohan Singh quit office. If he doesn't do so voluntarily, HE President should ask for his resignation letter. Manmohan cannot stick to the figleaf of his past bureaucratic performance in UNDP or IMF as an international civil servant. He cannot be a party to the denigration of democratic and ethical norms. It is a-dharma, against every tenet of Rajadharma for him to continue to cling to his office as Hon'ble PM.  The word honorable itself is being put to ridicule. Amar Singh of SP has, rightly, called for Manmohan's resignation. Has NDA done so?
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
The Supreme Court judgment is most welcome. It is a salutary check on the arbitrary exercise of power of dissolution of legislative assemblies under Article 356, provides an invaluable safeguard to our federal structure and is an affirmation of democratic principles. In a sense it is also an affirmation of constitutional morality and a strong disapproval of the impropriety of midnight dissolution of assemblies in indecent haste. <b>Above all, the judgment vindicates the faith of the common citizen in the independence and courage of our Supreme Court. </b>
<i>Soli J. Sorabjee is a former attorney general for India </i>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->1/27/2006 12:22:45 PMÂ HK Correspondent
NEW DELHI : The Republic Day parade of 2006 was conspicuous by the absence of any investiture ceremony. The President, during the Republic Day parade, honour the soldiers of the country with gallantry awards like Ashok Chakra, Keerti Chakra and Showrya Chakra. <b>The announcer used to read out a citation extolling the great works done by the winners of these medals. Most of the times, the awards used to be posthumous since the infiltrators and terrorists would have finished off our brave jawans by ambushes and claymore mines. It goes without saying that the terrorists are all funded by the ISI and the Pakistan Army.
There were no gallantry awards announcements during the 2006 Republic Day parade.</b> There is no need to probe further since the reason lied in the presence of this yearâs Guest of Honour. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was the royal guest of honour for this yearâs Republic Day parade. Since he happens to be the protector and preserver of Muslims all over the world, the Indian authorities thought it fit not to honour the Indian soldiers who has to fight only the Pakistanis, blood relations of the Saudi King. How can the âinfidelsâ be honoured in the presence of the monarch who is the protector of the Holy Shrines of Mecca and Medina. Since the United Progressive (or is it Profiteers) Alliance government does not have self respect of any kind, they might have skipped the announcement of the awards.
Since secularism happens to be a one-way traffic (this was what Pinarayi Vijayan, the great secularist of Kerala declared the other day), the skipping of the investiture ceremony will be ignored by all the media in the country. The stance of the government too is to substantiate the one-way traffic theory of secularism. While all other sovereign nations depute persons belonging to all religions as Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, the one and only secular nation (read India) appoints only Muslims as Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia. One need not explain much about the impotency of the rulers of our country. All we can say is âCry Beloved Country, Cry..âÂ
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A democratic constitutional arrangement is predicated on mutual respect among various institutions. We appear to be entering a phase where the assumption is the elected representatives cannot be trusted with the public interest.
AT THE height of the Quattrocchi controversy last month, the Central Vigilance Commissioner told an Indian Express reporter that he had written to the Central Bureau of Investigation for "a complete factual position on the [Bofors] case." He wanted to "have a better understanding of our own rules and see if changes need to be made." Presumably Mr. Shankar deemed it necessary to go public with his own bit because every television channel and every newspaper was indignant over the defreezing of the Quattrocchi accounts. In the process Mr. Shankar displayed the creeping penchant of all our institutions to play Savonarola, the medieval preacher who zealously took it upon himself to cleanse public life.
The incumbent CVC is a wise man and having served in the Indian bureaucracy for three decades can be presumed to know the limit of his institutional authority. When he was told that the existing Supreme Court guidelines did not permit the Commission any say in the matter of an on-going investigation, he quietly let it be. This admirable restraint is not easily imitated by others. Everyone seems to be eager to practise a bit of institutional encroachment.
If this trend is not reversed, new experiments in institutional autonomy are sure to produce chaos and worse. This desire on the part of almost every authority-person to redefine and expand his or her institutional limits is bound to become the enemy of good governance.
A democratic constitutional arrangement is predicated on the principle of mutual respect among various institutions. The Indian polity has been at its creative best when it has been able to produce a dynamic balance between autonomous institutions while retaining a collective capacity for listening to and addressing the democratic voices and aspirations from below. Whenever the elites displayed respect for the masses and tried to channel popular energy into a positive and constructive force, the political system moved forward. Whenever one section of the elites â be they from the political or judicial or corporate arena â overplayed its hand, the result has been paralysis and conflict.
Of late we appear to be on the verge of entering a dangerous phase. There seems to be a new arrogance: the government does not deserve to be respected, and it is deemed a legitimate exercise to question not only policies but also motives. The assumption is that the elected representatives of the people cannot be trusted with the public interest, and that it is up to the unelected gods â in the judiciary, the media, civil society, the private sector â to step in and to "save the nation."
Part of the problem, of course, is within the political domain. Disparate political parties come together to cobble together coalitions at the Centre and in the States without the leaders being sufficiently anchored in the responsibilities of power and restraints of authority.
Since political parties and leaders choose to bargain and negotiate in the full glare of round-the-clock television cameras, the system gets choked with one "crisis" after another. Bargaining among unappetising political players produces images of haggling and unethical deals, generating disrespect for the politician. Entitlements claimed â and claimed brazenly â by allies and supporting parties in a coalition government end up eroding public confidence in and respect for governing institutions.
Unfortunately, the principal opposition party in the country is most guilty of unrestrained behaviour. The Bharatiya Janata Party has perfected the art of accusing its political rivals of the worst offences while using the same presumably undesirable tactics when it suits its internal needs. For instance, the BJP has come close to instigating the President to act independently of the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
At the drop of a hat, senior National Democratic Alliance leaders troop to Rashtrapati Bhavan to demand dismissal of this Cabinet Minister or that Governor, as if the Constitution stipulates any kind of voice for the President in such matters. In the context of the Supreme Court judgment on Bihar, there have been mischievous suggestions that the President should resign because he was "misguided" by the Prime Minister in signing the Proclamation.
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, the BJP was watchful â and correctly â of the institutional respect of his office; now its leaders merrily deploy a less than respectful tone for the current Prime Minister. Out of office, the BJP invites supervision by other institutions of the working of the executive. When the political leadership is unable to know and respect the limits of power and powerlessness, it becomes an ideal setting for encroachment by other institutions.
The Indian judicial system operates under a comforting but unexamined assumption that the judges are absolute servants of the Constitution without any personal biases â ideological or intellectual. This too has been taken in our collective stride but now there seems to be a new itch to regulate the disputes among the political players as well as to penalise political players who do not pass some mythical (mostly middle class) test of public probity. It should be a cause for concern when a verdict gets influenced less by constitutional arguments and legal reasoning and more by a disapproval of the ways of the political class.
Any reminder of institutional boundaries is sought to be seen as a "confrontation." It is the job of the courts to scrutinise and strike down, if necessary, laws passed by Parliament, just as it is the duty of the executive to find ways and means of meeting the courts' objections while still exploring the possibility of carrying out its political and legislative priorities within the constitutionally prescribed procedures. An attempt to get around a judicial pronouncement need not be seen as an essay in confrontation.
Stalemating of authority
The cumulative impact of various kinds of institutional excesses is the stalemating of authority at the Centre, which in turn invites further testing and encroachment from all kinds of players at home and abroad. When an executive authority is made to be seen as subject to all kind of pressures and counter-pressures, it becomes open season for one and all to poke their nose in others' business.
Take, for instance, the extraordinary gumption of the American Ambassador in New Delhi. While an envoy can legitimately claim a right to explain his government's policies, he has no business commenting on the correctness or otherwise of our domestic disputes. Yet David Mulford can be said to be the victim of the same set of calculations that motivated the Chief Vigilance Commissioner to overshoot his brief. What is reassuring is that political leaders across the spectrum have closed ranks against the American envoy's transgressions.
Our collective fortunes seem to be hostage to two kinds of infirmities: a fragmented polity, as no political party is capable of commanding the confidence of the majority and, second, a new itch for institutional over-reaching.
The first infirmity not only necessarily produces a less efficacious governing arrangement but also aggravates elite conflicts, played out by the middle classes. The second infirmity becomes an antidote for any kind of working synergy at the national level, as each and every player wallows in a "me-too" self-importance, unrelated to public interest or national purpose.
The basic axiom in democratic thinking all over the world has been that a strong executive must be restrained by various devices like the doctrine of separation of powers or theory of judicial review. In the ideal Indian context, the need for countervailing institutional force suggests itself when a political party commands a runaway majority in the Lok Sabha, when the Opposition is weak and fragile, or power gets centralised in the Union Government.
Now we seem to be saddled with the worst of both worlds. Because of a breakdown in the norms of self-restraint among those who fancy themselves as guardians of the constitutional order and public interest, we have produced a script for paralysis.
The recent controversy over Union minister Renuka Chowdhury writing to the defence minister against awarding a contract to Denel â a South African firm trying to sell artillery to the Army â seems to have its genesis in the caste war in her home state of Andhra Pradesh.
The controversy appears to have been generated by vested interests worried about the minister's proximity to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. And according to her supporters, it has the blessings of the powerful Reddy lobby, which is trying to neutralise the influence of the equally powerful Kamma community. Renuka is a Kamma.
First the facts. Renuka didn't write a fresh letter to the defence minister after she assumed office as MoS; she merely forwarded a letter she'd written as MP in the 13th Lok Sabha to the then defence minister, George Fernandes, raising questions about Denel and why a Russian gun was being overlooked.
A letter to a senior ministerial colleague, in any case, doesn't amount to impropriety. And in her case, it was an old letter forwarded to draw the senior colleague's attention to possible anomalies committed during the NDA regime.
But the matter has apparently been blown out of proportion to target her, even when there seems to be no basis. Similar letters were written by other senior Congress functionaries during the tenure of the NDA regime and while forwarding it, Renuka had warned that the Bofors scandal had hurt the Congress and the consideration shown to Denel by the NDA government could do the same to the NDA.
Now, the minister finds herself smack in the middle of a power struggle within the state Congress. What has happened is that the delimitation committee looking into the re-structuring of assembly and Parliament seats in the state has recommended that 22 Kamma-dominated seats be classified as either reserved seats or be totally reorganised, so that the community loses its hold. In the last polls, too, Kamma seats were sought to be given to alliance partners in order to eliminate representatives of the community from the party. The Reddys have the upper hand at present but the Kammas still enjoy considerable influence.
Renuka's supporters plan to serve a notice in this regard to the Election Commission. It is learnt that even Purandeshwari, NTR's daughter who was recently sworn in as MoS and is a Kamma, has complained to the poll panel.
The political reasoning being given by the Reddys is that the Kammas are supporters of Chandrababu Naidu and should be cut down to size. What is being forgotten is that if the Kammas hadn't voted in great numbers for the Congress this time, its victory wouldn't have been so complete.
As for Renuka, the charge is that she being the most prominent Kamma in the Congress (she won from Khamam Lok Sabha seat for the second successive time, a feat no other Congress leader has achieved), she has to be contained. Powerful government functionaries are reportedly briefing the Telugu media with the aim of creating a controversy around the minister, so that she is dropped.
This is allegedly being done at the behest of the Reddy lobby. If this charge is correct, the Congress leadership must sort out this mess before it snowballs into a major inter-caste confrontation in the only southern state dominated by the party.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Go buy a hammer, public figures to be told </b>
Rajesh Kumar / New Delhi
MCD told to go after big offenders, others gustakhi maaf ----- Public figures must raze their unauthorised structures to save themselves the embarrassment of demolitions. This appeared to be the general consensus at a 75 minute meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
The meeting also directed the MCD to ply its bulldozers as of now on structures which have encroached Government land rather than target residences with minor violations of the building bylaws.
The Ministry of Urban Development (UDM) has been asked to submit a firm proposal on the matter after taking into account opinion of political parties, experts and citizen groups.
The Prime Minister directed the UDM to constitute a high-powered committee to come up with practical solutions to end the current "uncertainty". The committee, which will be constituted in the next few days, will submit its report in three months time.
After the meeting, Mr Reddy said: "Prime Minister Singh has desired that the current uncertainty in the Capital's ongoing drive should be brought to an end. After taking various factors into consideration, it was decided that Urban Development Ministry should appoint a high-powered committee of eminent people, experts and representatives of Congress and BJP to look into various violations that have gone on in Delhi for years and come out with a practical solution."
Maintaining that all sorts of building and land law violations cannot be clubbed together indiscriminately, Mr Reddy said the MCD should focus on more grave violations and the ongoing unauthorised constructions in the Capital.
The Urban Development Minister said that MCD would inform the court that the Government has constituted a high-powered committee to find a solution to the matter. Observing that the MCD will seek instructions from the High Court, Mr Reddy said that it would submit a plan of action and obtain necessary instructions from the court.
Asked if it meant that MCD should stop demolition of private properties and those in Lal Dora areas till the findings of the committee, the Urban Development Minister parried the question and only said MCD should concentrate on encroachment on public land, which was a more serious violation.
On the Delhi Government demand for an ordinance along the lines of Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra, Mr Reddy said that the "objective behind such a measure was to provide relief to the people. These measures (constitution of a committee) are also towards that."
The Chief Minister did not comment on the meeting, saying only Mr Reddy would speak on the matter. But she did say that she was hopeful that the Government would find a viable solution to the ongoing crisis after the fruitful discussion with the Prime Minister and other senior leaders. The Delhi Government had earlier written to Urban Development Ministry to bring an act on the lines of Ulhasnagar to find a practical solution to the demolitions. A source in the Government said that there was consensus in the meeting that land mafiosi who have encroached on the public land should not be spared. The proposal of the ordinance on the line of Ulhasnagar was shot down by the UDM due to the multiplicity of land owning agencies in Delhi and the impending Budget session in Parliament.
"If the Government brings ordinance, three Acts - DMC, NDMC and Delhi Land Reforms would automatically get nullified, so the proposal of Ordinance was rejected," the source said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This issue can bring down government. Every sector is affected by current demolition drive. Those who are from Delhi know very well how MCD works. Previously BJP lost Delhi because of demolition drive by JagMohan in Lajpat Nagar area. Congress made big issue and won election.
Now Congress is trying to ignore Court, involvement of PM and special committee is hilarious. Major violators are VVIP and their families but current demolitions are hitting common people. Initially Sheila Dixit was able to hide her file and later it appeared mysteriously.
Why MCD was sleeping when these people were building houses?
Andhra Pradesh Congress minister had recently completely changed his official residence design in protected area. Even media raised issue but PMO and MCD ignored.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> AHMEDABAD: The PM's committee for Muslims found Gujarat the least sympathetic among other states it toured, towards problems of its minorities.
Gujarat is the eleventh state among the 13 toured by the high level Committee for Muslims. Concluding its four-day tour on Thursday, the panel found Gujarat, was "most challenging because, it was the only state that did not show sympathy towards its victimised people", a member said pleading anonymity.
In fact, Justice Rajinder Sachar was shocked to know that Gujarat did not have a state human rights commission. He said during his interaction with Muslim intelligentsia on Thursday, "Why don't you go to court for that?"
When human rights advocate Girish Patel told them that it's usually meaningless to approach the Gujarat High Court, the astonishment and dismay on the faces of the Committee was visible.
The Committee has toured 10 states including BJP-ruled ones like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh , which turned out to be an "outstanding example", said Dr TK Oommen, noted sociologist and member of the Committee, in an exclusive interview to TOI.
"Governments have tacitly supported communal riots, as in Delhi in 1984, but never so openly as in Gujarat. The three Rs â rehabilitation, relief and reconciliation â from the state and its people, are missing. It seems the state is against its victim," he said.
Calling Gujarat a "forerunner of a Hindutva state in India" and the 2002 riots a "symptom" of a bigger problem, Oommen said that communalisation in Gujarat has seeped to an extent where an anti-Hindu government will be unacceptable to its people. Is that the freaking goal ? To install anti-hindu govts in all states ?? <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
"If a non-BJP government comes to power and adopts a secular agenda, there could be a change. But with the extent of attitudes which are now entrenched in its people, anyone who takes an anti-Hindu stance, will never come to power.
"The Congress' soft Hindutva no longer works in Gujarat, only hard-liners do," he added.
However, it is economic interdependence that is holding the state together, the Committee observed.
"Muslims in Gujarat occupy a prime position in the informal sector like artisanry, kite-making etc.
The government needs to make them indispensable by making their presence in the informal sector stronger," he said.
During their four-day visit to Gujarat, the eightmember committee interacted with NGOs, social workers, intelligentsia and also bureaucrats of the state, including chief minister Narendra Modi who, rubbished the majority-minority divide in the state.
The committee was formed in May 2005, to prepare a comprehensive report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India.
The members will now be making a visit to Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Muslims in Gujarat occupy a prime position in the informal sector like artisanry, kite-making etc.
The government needs to make them indispensable by making their presence in the informal sector stronger," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is hilarious.
These guys only objective is to make money for themselves, damn country.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Justice Rajinder Sachar<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sanjay's lap dog.
Eye on Assam polls, UPA govt to amend law on whoâs an illegal
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->With an eye on the Assam polls and on the eve of Congress president Sonia Gandhiâs scheduled visit to the state, the UPA government today decided to amend the Foreigners Act to ensure âfair hearingâ to a person before he or she is declared a foreigner.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whoâs himself a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, decided on the move after the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act last July.
Advertisement
The SC ruling had caused concern among parties wooing minorities in Assam who account for some 30 per cent votes and hold the key in 40 of the 126 Assembly constituencies.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
SONIA is laying all the ground work to destroy India with the help of CONmen, chamchas , traitors and totally stupid journalists.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->At a time when Kashmir is in the thick of a peace process and the leading separatists are talking an inclusive, secular solution, Jammu and Kashmir State is at the verge of total fragmentation on communal lines. And the ruling Congress party is at the centre of this polarization. In total disregard to its earlier political blunders in the state, the largest secular party of the country has unleashed a divisive agenda in Ladakh and Jammu provinces, where the communal politics is now accepted as a norm and not an exception. And in both cases, senior cabinet colleagues of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are at the forefront to inflame communal passions for electoral gains.
Advertisement
Ad Network by Sulekha
Ladakh is on fire and the civilian administration has called in the army to help restore order despite the imposition of curfew in both Buddhist-dominated Leh and Muslim-majority Kargil.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
SECUALR FORCE CONGRESS dividing people on COMMUNAL LINE. Can you believe tha? <!--emo&:blink:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
How many Muslims do you have, Govt asks armed forces
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->This controversial Muslim-specific survey, ordered last March by the Prime Ministerâs Office, is on despite objections raised by the Army that such an exercise could send the wrong signal to what is, by tradition, a secular, apolitical organisation. But this objection was overruled.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sudheendra Kulkarni All IFS of history are flights of imagination. Yet, despite their implausibility, their use is permissible when a reasonable argument is sought to be made. So here are two ifs about the history of the Congress party, and both involve Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhiâs estranged husband, between 1942 and 1960 (when he died of a heart attack at age 48).
What if Feroze, a Parsi patriot who went to jail for Indiaâs freedom, had a surname other than Gandhi? What if his name were, letâs say, Feroze Batliwala? Surely, it would have deprived Indira and her progeny of a profitable surname that evoked, and continues to evoke, a subliminal association in the Indian psyche between Mahatma Gandhi and the Nehru Parivar. For Sonia Gandhi, it would have meant a double handicap since her metamorphosis from Sonia Maino to Sonia Batliwala would have made her far less familiar to the ordinary Indian than she still is. Hence, she must be grateful to Feroze Gandhi for giving her family a trophy surname.
There is, however, another legacy of his that Sonia Gandhi would be distinctly uncomfortable with. What if her father-in-law were to confront her in Parliament in the same way that Feroze Gandhi challenged his father-in-law on the issue of corruption and cover-up in the late 1950s? The Congress party probably has several reasons to downgrade his name in the annals of the dynasty, but chief among them is that he was ââgutsy and self-respectingââ (this tribute comes from Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Mahatmaâs grandson and currently the Governor of West Bengal) enough to expose the biggest corruption scandal in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruâs tenure.
The Mundhra scandal involved then finance minister T T Krishnamachari, who pressured the government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India into bailing out Haridas Mundhra, a Calcutta-based industrialist, by buying shares worth Rs 1.24 crore in six companies owned by him. LIC did so dutifully, bypassing its own investment committee. Mundhra was swindling the companies and, simultaneously, rigging up their stock prices to camouflage his fraud. TTK, as the FM was popularly known, least expected that this shady deal would be exposed by the PMâs own son-in-law.
Although Feroze Gandhi belonged to the ruling party, he did not hesitate to speak out against the government because he argued that corruption in high places was a betrayal of the ideals of the newly independent nation. To be fair to Pandit Nehru, he quickly appointed a one-man commission headed by Justice Mahommedali Currim Chagla, one of the most respected legal luminaries of the time.
The speedy and transparent manner in which Chagla conducted the inquiryâit was all over, and the guilty were punished, in less than two yearsâought to have been a model for all such probes. All its hearings were public and the proceedings were aired on loudspeakers. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and TTK lost his job. Chagla wrote later: ââThe inquiry has been an education for the public. It should also act as a corrective to administrators all over the country because in future they will act with the consciousness that their actions may be subjected to public scrutiny.ââ
The Mundhra scandal is now history, but of immense contemporary relevance are the principles that Justice Chagla enunciated as the outcome of his inquiry: (a) The government should not interfere with the working of autonomous corporations and agencies and if it does, it should not shirk responsibility for directions given; (b) The minister concerned must take full responsibility for the actions of his subordinates.
Sonia Gandhi would not like to know how Chagla praised, in his autobiography Roses in December, her father-in-lawâs role in busting the Mundhra scam. ââHe fought the battle for probity in public administration,ââ writes Chagla, ââwith all the zest and persistence of which he was capable.ââ If Feroze Gandhi were alive today, would he have been a silent spectator to the official cover-up and sabotage of the Bofors probe? His poser to his daughter-in-law would probably run like this:
⢠ââYou told some Left MPs who met you on January 18 that the government had no knowledge about the defreezing of Quattrocchiâs bank accounts. How do you explain the fact that your government dispatched its senior law officer, B Dutta, to London to tell the Crown Prosecution Service to defreeze Qâs account? That too without the concerned investigating officers of the CBI accompanying him? And, moreover, when the CBI had all along been opposed to defreezing of Qâs account?
⢠Since Q proudly claims to be your family friend, why have you done nothing so far to assist the Indian authorities to bring him to India for trial? Why have you encouraged the public perception that you are defending a fugitive, especially one who has said that he has no faith in Indian justice?
⢠Since the CBIâs chargesheet against Q mentions the close ties that he had with you and my late son Rajiv, why havenât you offered to be questioned by the CBI to clear our familyâs name?
⢠I was both pained and astounded by the answer, in response to a question on Q, given by your nominated Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, during his press conference on February 1. He not only reiterated what you had said, but also added that the CBI acted on its own as per âthe right legal adviceâ it received. Isnât it outrageous that the Prime Minister of India should be calling Additional Solicitor General K P Pathakâs dubious opinion on the Hinduja matter (in which he gave the unsolicited advice that Q should be discharged from the Bofors case) âright legal adviceâ?
⢠Lastly, when almost every single newspaper in the country called for the resignation of Law Minister H R Bhardwaj in the wake of the defreezing scandal (I consider it to be a scandal within a larger scandal), why didnât you ask the PM to drop him in the recent cabinet reshuffle?
In view of all this, I am afraid you have not proved to be my worthy daughter-in-law. Judged by the standards that my father-in-law and I set in our time, you are much less worthy of being the de facto ruler of India. How I wish I could ask you some tough questions in Parliament.ââ
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> With the Iran vote ironically becoming subject of domestic vote-bank politics at the hands of its own ally, PM Manmohan Singh has put the point across to CPM general-secretary Prakash Karat that Indiaâs interests were not served by clandestine nuclear proliferation in the neighbourhood â from Beijing to Islamabad to Tehran.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Man! CONmen think it is their only prerogative play COMMUNAL CARD.
see! THEY THINK ONLY DYNASTY SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME!!
This Human garbage want to play the COMMUNAL MUSLIM CARD to an extent where they are not even afraid to DESTROY the ARMY. But When MULYAM plays that card, suddenly our moralistic PM is angry.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â There is a section in the Congress which has now started talking about the competence of certain persons in key ministries. They are planning to mount pressure on the Prime Minister to address these issues when he undertakes the much awaited Cabinet reshuffle. 
