<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Uttaranchal passes Bill amid noisy walkout </b>
Dehra Dun
Uttaranchal Assembly on Monday passed a Prevention of Disqualification Bill amid a noisy walkout by opposition, led by the BJP which earlier in the day moved the State High Court seeking removal of 18 Congress MLAs for allegedly holding offices of profit.
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<!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> Friday, March 24, 2006
<b>Office of Profit: Whose profit and whose loss?
Are we heading towards a Constitutional Crisis?</b>
A big political âGalataâ is going on in Delhi. There is so much of activity in the ruling party and the opposition. It is for the reason that has nothing to do with the usual ârulingâ of the country and the administration. It is on the issue of disqualifying Mrs. Jaya Bachan from the position of Rajya Sabha MP [1]. The President signed the notification of the disqualification of Ms. Bachan on the advice of the EC, which opined that she can be disqualified under sub-clause (a) of Clause 1 of Article 102, retrospectively from July 14, 2004.
Is this a political vendetta? The following observations could provide some insights. Mr. Amithabh Bachan was the close friend of late Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. SP and Congress are political opponents in UP. SP was the one which spoilt the chances of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi to become PM in 1998. Secular SPâs opposition influenced soniaâs position of relinquishing PMâs seat. Amitabh is closer to Amar Singh, the right hand man of Mulayam. He is a big crowd puller. His relationship with Sonia has soured. Targeting Jaya Bachan could hurt Mulayam. If you can hurt somehow, go ahead and hurt by some means! Everything is fair in political one-upmanship.
What this âoffice of Profitâ is? Article 102 says: 1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament - (a) if he holds any âoffice of profitâ under the Government of India or the Government of any State, other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder [2]. Firstly, it is actually connected with Article 101 which permits a member of the parliament to decide to take one of the offices when (s)he is (s)elected for two positions that are under the Govt. of Indiaâs purview including that of state Govts. Secondly, a valid interpretation of this article is to avoid the conflict of interest and duties when a person occupies two positions [3]. The last comment is about this âprofitâ that constitution talks about. After all we know that our politicians are there to serve us. Then what is the meaning of âoffice of profitâ?!
Now, ToI reports the ânewsâ about the promulgation of an ordinance [5] to some how stop President Kalamâs referral to the EC regarding the membership of around 44 MPs [4], including Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Somnath Chatterjee the speaker. The Budget Session has also been shortened to avoid the discussion in the parliament. Donât you think that Mrs. Indira Gandhi did work similarly when she was disqualified â by declaring emergency? Are we heading towards another emergency (if the ordinance is ruled to be unconstitutional by SC)? If Sonia has resigned [6], is it not the only way for her to save her face and her partyâs? If Sonia is morally the tallest politician [6], why did Manmohan tried to bring in the ordinance? Why Mr. Manmohan Singh panicked? Who is ruling the country? What is the basis for ruling the country â politics or the constitution and the moral authority? Sonia is no where near Mahatma [6], Mahatmaâs moral authority is unmatched! Sonia is trying to win âvotesâ even when caught red handed!
While the BJP is claiming victory over Soniaâs resignation, Congress is probably preparing for the promulgation of the ordinance or constitutional amendment to allow a person to hold as many posts as possible!
The ordinance could help if it restricts one person to one post. This should include the contest itself. A person contests two parliamentary positions and after winning one there will be elections again. Why should we pay for the âjob securityâ of our beloved politicians? The definition of âOffice of Profitâ should be broadly interpreted and guidelines to be provided to manage such an office. We should ensure that the guidelines are enforced through moral binding and not by political calculations.
That brings us to the morality of the BJP leaders which was loudly mocked at by Congress leaders debating the 'sacrifice' issue on prime time television.
Yes, the BJP does have its scoundrels but even its small record in public office has more morality than what Indira Gandhi displayed in burying the high court verdict against her election over 30 years ago, and what Sonia Gandhi's Congress has shown in the 22 months that it has been in power in Delhi.
Thus, records will show that when charges were framed against him in the Jain hawala case, L K Advani lost no time in resigning not only from his position as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, but also from Parliament itself. He also vowed not to enter Parliament until he was fully exonerated of the charges. That truly was a 'sacrifice' or 'renunciation' or whatever word and phrase that Congress is now using.
Similarly, Yashwant Sinha resigned as Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar assembly and also from the membership of the assembly itself. Madanlal Khurana stepped down as the chief minister of Delhi as soon as charges were framed against him. By the way, those two were, like Advani, cleared of the charges against them in the Jain hawala case.
As far as dealing with ministers facing charges of corruption is concerned, in the period between 1998 and 2004, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee set high standards of probity by asking Buta Singh to resign from the Cabinet when charges were framed against him. Similar action was taken in the case of Harin Pathak, Gingee Ramachandran and Dilip Singh Judeo, as soon as a judicial shadow was cast upon them. </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The cat is out of the bag: BJP </b>
Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi
"The cat is out of the bag," was the main Opposition BJP's response to the Government's decision to reconvene Parliament session from May 10.
"Both the Houses are being convened from May 10 to consider the balance agenda. If this has to be done, why the Parliament had to be adjourned sine die instead of adjourning it till May 10 as was planned earlier.
<b>"The cat is out of the bag. It is clear the Government wanted to bring an ordinance on the office of profit issue by abruptly adjourning the Parliament sine die,"</b> party general secretary Arun Jaitely said.
<b>"Now that the issue has become hot property, they have convened the session again,"</b> he said. Asked whether the BJP would support any legislation aimed at exempting MPs holding office of profit from disqualification, he said,<b> "Let them show the Bill. We will consider it."Â </b>
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Sonia is saying whole opposition was against her so she sacrificed her seat, now why she is seeking to reelect again. Her so called sacrifice is so short and she is expecting poor people to sacrifice funds allocated for needy through Indians tax money to be wasted on Sonia's election.
Damn!! Sonia and her cronies call it sacrifice.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nation
<b>Sonia should not seek re-election: Amar Singh</b>
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 1611 hours IST
Tinsukia (Assam), March 30: <b>Congress President Sonia Gandhi should not stand for re-election to the Parliament if her resignation from her seat in the Lok Sabha was a "sacrifice", </b>Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said on Thursday. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>"Instead she should direct all her MPs against whom there are allegations of holding office of profit to resign," </b>he told an Asom Gana Parishad election campaign rally in Tinsukia.
<b>"Gandhi is now posing that she has sacrificed. Fearing her disqualification, she resigned," he alleged</b>.
He also alleged that Sonia had to resign as her party had filed false and fabricated complaints against his party MP Jaya Bachchan about her holding an office of profit.
Asserting the rule of law was the same for all, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, who also addressed the meeting, said, "we are not attacking Sonia Gandhi."
"We only referred the matter to the Election Commission through the President as she was holding two posts in violation of the Constitution," Naidu added.
Samajwadi Party member and film actor Jaya Bachchan spoke in her mother tongue Bengali.
She urged the voters to cast their ballots for AGP as their future lay with the regional party. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Self-flagellation is still considered an easy route to martyrdom among certain African tribes. Whether it will keep up the tempo in Rae Bareli is doubtful. Sonia Gandhi has no doubt learnt a lot from Indira Gandhi's grand-standing posture. But Indira Gandhi also knew to adjust it to the changing audiences, views and political climate.
Whether Sonia Gandhi has come that far in manipulating crowd psychology is a moot point. She has gone to her constituency to seek re-election which, in the absence of any unforeseen accidents, will come through. So it is no use posing as a martyr or enemy no. 1 of the opposition or being targeted by one and all in parliament and outside in order to seek the protection of her constituency. It sounds like furious anger against all those who misled her to resign.
Even on Thursday last, her minister of parliamentary affairs could have contacted all the opposition leaders and come to a workable MoU, as he has done now. Where Sonia overstepped her limits of power and prestige is when she hustled people (or agreed with her claque) to get ready with an ordinance. And the proroguing of Parliament is one of the costliest blunders that she can commit.
Which clearly shows that she can do anything with Parliament and get away with it. It is astonishing that not a single flatterer at 10 Janpath saw the utter unparliamentary nature of the ordinance. Their presumption that a President like Abdul Kalam would sign on the dotted line is outrageous.
Now even some members of the Congress think-tank feel that the National Advisory Council is superfluous. It merely served to foist Sonia Gandhi over the Prime Minister. Supreme power without any responsibility. Where were all her pangs of morality when she or her advisers sent the law minister's men to defreeze Ottavio Quattrocchi's bank account in London?
How did she react to the Volcker report? Why did she hold a watching brief to install her son as the de facto successor to her at the Hyderabad AICC? What happens to more bright young MPs who have done something for the country?
Does Sonia know anything about the unseating of Jaya Bachchan, the ramifications of which are swirling the Congress? Moral indignation is not a one-way street. Nor moral challenge. Let her know that nobody is targeting her exclusively. It is all part of the rough and tumble of politics. Some you win. Some you lose. Sonia Gandhi should learn to take the rough with the smooth in her stride.
However, if she thinks that her antics in Rae Bareli would change Congress fortunes in UP, she is mistaken. A clear indication of this emerged from the kind of people who were seated with her on the platform. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<i> An office of profit does not stop being so by mere legislation. It still remains an office of power and patronage. The best option before Parliament to define the office of profit, is to ensure that no member of Parliament should occupy any office of profit. The MPs should devote time and energy to do jobs for which they are elected by the people....</i>
But seeing that the elected representatives, increase their own salaries, lap up all privileges and perks with all alacrity whenever an opportunity comes their way, will they listen to him?
<i>All</i> the parties are waiting for May 10th only to perpetuate the positions
already got by them
An MP had gone on record suggesting that reforms proposed by George be implemented in NDA first !
<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> msg recd from Gen chauhan
Apropos your cover story Sonia's Sacrifice.
We are either a nation of fools with a political circus constantly engaged in amusing the world with clowns in its driving seats or are in dire straits heading for cataclysmic plunge to disintegration and balkanisation. Sonia or any one else hardly matters. While the pots keep calling the kettles black in alleys of power we are becoming a laughing stock outside while inside the mayhem of loot and anarchy gathers pace and the common man loses his sense of belonging to a nation.This is lootocracy no democracy.
MAJ GEN APS CHAUHAN
<b>Politics reeks of vendetta</b> --Arun Nehru
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The institutional systems are being destabilised in order to settle personal scores. (Ms Sonia Gandhi and Ms Jaya Bachchan were best of friends at one point of time.) I think it is time both these ladies enlightened us about the reason for the break-up of their friendship. <b>Tax payers' money is being squandered on fresh byelections and crores of rupees will be spent on re-electing both to Parliament in the coming months</b>. In its panic to save Ms Sonia Gandhi from disqualification from the Lok Sabha, the Congress adjourned Parliament which was in session. This was done to clear the ground for issuing an ordinance. We must be grateful to the Left and the other allies of the UPA, besides the NDA, who forced her and the Congress to back track. In any case she had little option but to resign to maintain personal credibility.
Dual and triple power centres create chaos and confusion and even to people with limited political intelligence it is obvious that to invoke memories of the Emergency would be suicidal and result in terrible Opposition reprisals. The politics reeks of vendetta and violence. This is neither good for the party nor any individual.<b> What is more, things are deteriorating by the day. The Congress president who faces dwindling crowds at 10, Janpath will soon come to terms with this reality. In fact, I doubt whether she will go beyond Rae Bareli to campaign for her party.</b>Â <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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<b>Excellent example of short term "So-called Sacrifice" and waste of Indian tax money by Sonia Gandhi.</b>
Compare her scarifice with Bhagat Singh and other freedom fighter.
Sacrifice and sycophancy
Surjit S Bhalla
Business Standard
April 2, 2006 http://www.business-standard.com/common/st...N&autono=220768
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Yesterday, it was a non-democratic Ordinance; today, it is a resignation. Sorry, but where is the sacrifice?
There are some things I would like to understand, but am unable to. Ms Sonia Gandhi recently resigned from her Parliament seat amid much acclaim and felicitations for her "sacrifice". But it was just yesterday when her government was planning to bring in an Ordinance at the midnight hour (tried quite successfully by her mother-in-law, Mrs Indira Gandhi, when she imposed the Emergency some thirty years ago) just to protect her from her "sacrifice". Having resigned, she claims to have been a victim of unfair practices of the Opposition! Now you see why I find it difficult to understand these exciting times.
There are three possibilities about the planned but not implemented Emergency-type act of an Ordinance. First, Ms Gandhi knew about it. Second, she came to know about it only at the midnight hour. Third, she came to know about it when she read about the government's planned draconian measures in the Indian Express, the enterprising newspaper that broke the story.
Is her relinquishing a hip pocket parliamentary seat from the ancestral home of Rae Bareilly an act of sacrifice, as the Congress party functionaries, and its sycophants in the media, portrayed it? Or is it plain old-fashioned political expediency, i.e. you claim the butler did it. Only if Ms Gandhi obtains her news about activities of a party of which she is a leader from the Indian Express would her resignation begin to be construed as one of sacrifice, defined as "forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim".
If Ms Gandhi came to know about "it" only from the newspapers, then the question arises: who's in charge? Shouldn't somebody be fired? Should we also assume that in the Quattrochhi case Ms Gandhi knew nothing about it until she read about it in the papers? Was the request to the President for signature, on the dissolution of the Bihar assembly, sent at midnight while Ms Sonia Gandhi was sleeping? And in Jharkhand, was the minority government of charge-sheeted UPA minister Shibu Soren installed without Ms Gandhi being aware of what her minions were up to?
There is a pattern here. In the oil-for-food scam, the Congress party was named as a beneficiary of Saddam's largesse, as several other socialist/communist parties in the world and individuals like Natwar Singh, who had to resign. Better that he, trusted soldier, trusted loyalist, Congress Working Committee member for generations, hang separately. Or Buta Singh and Bihar - better that the Supreme Court censure Buta Singh rather than the Congress leadership, which issued the
instructions, take any of the blame.
Is Ms Gandhi a hostile witness? Yesterday, she was part of a party doing democratic crimes; today, she says she did not witness any misdemeanours, let alone murders.
With apologies to Paul McCartney, "How she came to know of it, she wouldn't say, She just found out about it. Yesterday". One can go on, and on, but let us fast forward to the punch line: <b>Is there a single domestic, political act that Ms Gandhi's government has undertaken in the last two years that makes one proud to be a democrat, and an Indian?</b>If not, then shouldn't the Congress refrain from using words used for genuine sacrifices, as practised, co- incidentally by another Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi. Is there a subliminal Madison Avenue type of advertisement going on: Gandhi = Gandhi, so sacrifice is equal to sacrifice?
People have a right to know whether Ms Gandhi was privy to prior knowledge of the UPA's many non-democratic acts. If she did, then the media may have reached even its own extraordinary supplicant self by anointing a very cynically political, and expedient act as a moral act. If she didn't, then either Ms Gandhi should ask for various resignations from her various advisers for acting not in her interest, or herself resign permanently from politics because she did not know of several political acts done in her name. The buck has to stop somewhere.
It is true that Indian politicians resign only in name, and so a resignation is an act different than others. But really, to compare like with like, isn't Ms Gandhi's resigning from the parliamentary seat exactly the same level of "sacrifice" as Mr Vajpayee's many resignations from the BJP party? And, thinking aloud, wouldn't Ms Gandhi's sacrifice be a bit more of one if she did not have a hip- pocket constituency and/or if she were running without the Gandhi name, say Ms Shah?
One final point. How much of the Teflon nature of Ms Sonia Gandhi-led Congress is due to the nature of the Indian media? There are two forces at work here. First, several media "leaders" have TV shows with which they, as individuals or their firms, are associated with. So there is a built-in compulsion to be "nice" - be nice and thou shall have Congress guests at your show. Be honest, and .
Doesn't it bother our intellectuals to call a politically expedient act a sacrifice? Is it just a co-incidence that the first part of sycophancy is also a major Hitchcock movie? Do these media dons not know any better or is it the case that they are desperately seeking a government job, or a committee appointment, or is it the Rajya Sabha seat that they really aspire to? If they so want to get into Parliament (as several of us, and I will confess, I myself do) then why not do it the sacrificing way: run for Parliament. But if they do that, they will have to spend some money, possibly lose face, and pay some price for their achievements. I realise that most of us do not have a dynastic name, but hey, worth trying, no? Much better sometimes to have run and lost than to always play the sycophant's game? Much easier, though, of achieving goals the new-fashioned way.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Do these media dons not know any better or is it the case that they are desperately seeking a government job, or a committee appointment, or is it the Rajya Sabha seat that they really aspire to?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sonia Gandhi is a media created image. HT owner got paid this year by Sonia in form of Padma Shree. Same is with others. For media dons/political whores, individual is more important than country.
Low life journalist always looks for short term goal. In India, journalistic ethics are down into drain.
<b>SC declines permission to EC for LS bypolls</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Supreme Court on Monday declined to grant permission to the Election Commission to hold polls in May for 10 Lok Sabha seats.
The ten seats fell vacant following expulsion of MPs in the wake of the 'cash-for-query' scam.
A Bench of Chief Justice YK Sabharwal and Justice CK Thakkar observed that the issue whether Parliament has power to expel MPs for reasons other than those contemplated under the Constitution has been referred to a Constitution Bench and allowing the Commission to hold polls to these seats would further complicate the issue.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why EC is rushing for 8th May for Sonia?
[right][snapback]49361[/snapback][/right]
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So that she may be back in business by May 10th when Parliament meets, and when <i>all</i> the results are expected to be out.
<b>Sonia resigns as Chairperson of Jallianwala Bagh Trust </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The appointment of Mrs Gandhi then came in for a lot of criticism <b>per the rules the Prime Minister of the country has always been the Chairman/Chairperson of the Trust</b>. According to the rules the Congress President along with the Punjab Governor and Chief Minister are members of the Trust.
......
When Mrs Gandhi was appointed Chairperson, the Lok Sabha member from Amritsar was senior Congress leader R L Bhatia who is currently the Governor of Kerala. Mr Bhatia was considered instrumental in appointing Mrs Gandhi as Chairperson in place of the then PM, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>AG gives Chawla 'clean chit' as PM ignores Constitution </b>
Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
In a brazen attempt to skirt the charges of impropriety levelled by the Opposition BJP-led National Democratic Alliance against Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, the UPA Government appears to be working towards giving him a "clean chit" by short-circuiting the laid down Constitutional procedure.
On March 16, the NDA had submitted a petition to President APJ Abdul Kalam, seeking his intervention under Article 324(5) of the Constitution for the removal of Mr Chawla, who was appointed Election Commissioner on May 16, 2005, from office on the ground that he cannot play a non-partisan role given his partisan background.
In the petition, signed by 205 Opposition MPs, NDA had recalled Mr Chawla's role as a bureaucrat during Indira Gandhi's Emergency and pointed out his proximity to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her family, as well as the fact that trusts run by him had received substantial donations from the local area development funds of Congress MPs and were allotted land at discounted rate even while he was in service.
Curiously, official sources say that the file relating to Mr Chawla seeking permission in 1994 from the Personnel Department to run a trust has "gone missing". This bizarre fact has come to light after the Home Ministry sent a query to the Personnel Department, wanting to know whether Mr Chawla was given official permission to run these trusts and solicit funds for them while serving the Government as an IAS officer.
The NDA had sought Mr Chawla's immediate removal on the ground that he could not be expected to act in a fair and non-partisan manner under Article 324 (5).
The Article stipulates that the Election Commissioner can be removed by the President; that grounds on which the Election Commissioner can be removed should be grounds, which otherwise disentitle him from functioning effectively and independently as Election Commissioner and render him unfit to discharge functions as an Election Commissioner; and, that this decision to remove should be based on the recommendations of the Chief Election Commissioner.
The President had forwarded the petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for further action, essentially to seek the recommendations of Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon.
It now transpires that instead of seeking Mr Tandon's opinion on the complaint lodged by the NDA, Mr Singh forwarded it to Attorney-General Milon Banerjee. According to sources, Mr Banerjee is understood to have given a "clean chit" to Mr Chawla.
These sources say that Mr Banerjee is believed to have informed the Prime Minister that Mr Chawla had "not indulged in any misconduct as Election Commissioner". The Attorney-General's 'opinion' has nothing to do with the Opposition's complaint.
The NDA's petition was not about Mr Chawla's conduct as Election Commissioner, but his antecedents as a bureaucrat with a pronounced political bias and declared association with the Nehru-Gandhi family, especially his proximity to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Mr Chawla's background, in effect, the NDA had argued at length in its petition, disentitles him from functioning effectively and independently as Election Commissioner and renders him unfit to discharge functions as an Election Commissioner with impartiality.
Reacting to the reported "clean chit" given to Mr Chawla by Mr Banerjee, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told the Pioneer: "The matter has to be sent to the Chief Election Commissioner for his opinion, not the Attorney-General. The petition filed with the President was under Article 324(5) which clearly lays down the guidelines for action."
Mr Jaitley insisted that the Attorney-General has no role to play in this matter.<b> "If he has given a clean chit to Mr Chawla who has a partisan past, then he has acted as an interloper... he has usurped the role of the Chief Election Commissioner."</b>
The UPA Government, he said, <b>"is blocking the matter from going to the Chief Election Commissioner... This Government is guilty of parking a partisan official in the Election Commission."</b>
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Another senior Opposition leader commented, "Mr Milon Banerjee is a retainer of 10, Janpath and he has given a clean chit to a fellow retainer. This is extremely strange and totally unacceptable."</span>
If the Prime Minister were to decide against forwarding the NDA's petition to the Chief Election Commissioner on the basis of the Attorney-General's misplace and uncalled for 'opinion', then not only would the UPA Government be guilty of committing yet another gross Constitutional impropriety, but also of blatantly disregarding the Opposition's complaint of stuffing the Election Commission with partisan officials.
It would further reinforce the Opposition's stand that the Prime Minister is not his own master and is forced to do 10, Janpath's bidding. After all, this is precisely how the decision to defreeze Mr Ottavio Quattocci's London bank accounts, allegedly containing part of the Bofors payola, was covered up.
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Another Judge Banerjee in action <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Natwar <!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> likely to get show cause notice
- NDTV Correspondent
Friday, April 7, 2006 (New Delhi):
Former foreign minister Natwar Singh who was forced to resign because of the Volcker controversy is now likely to get a show cause notice from the Enforcement Directorate.
There are reports that investigating agencies have key evidence against him.
Sources have told NDTV that the evidence against Natwar Singh includes three letters written by him to Iraq's former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
NDTV has not seen these letters yet, but their existence has been confirmed by top sources.
According to the sources, however, only two of these letters were actually delivered to Tariq Aziz who is currently an American prisoner at Guatanamo Bay in the United States.
Middleman's claim
The news of the third letter has emerged in the form of a claim by a mysterious middleman who has told investigating agencies that a third letter was written by Natwar Singh to Tariq Aziz, but was never delivered.
The middleman has informed investigating officers that the letter was apparently handed over in January 2001.
The letters reportedly make references to oil transactions and Andaleeb Sehgal.
Unconfirmed reports say that the letters were essentially written to introduce Andaleeb Sehgal to Iraq's political establishment so as to facilitate meetings to help with the eventual oil transaction.
The letters talk of historic ties between the Congress party and Saddam Hussein. They were written during the time Singh headed the Congress Foreign cell.
Questions will be now raised over whether Singh was speaking for himself or on behalf of the party. On her part, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, when going public on the Volcker report, had said she believed that Congress name had been misused.
Volcker findings
The Volcker report had named Natwar Singh and the Congress among what it called non-contractual beneficiaries of the oil for food programme that was run under deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The accusation in the report was by a company called Hamadan Exports on behalf of both Natwar Singh and the Congress.
Hamadan Exports is owned and run by Andaleeb Sehgal, a friend and relative of Natwar Singh's son Jagat Singh.
Both father and son have refused to comment, saying they are answerable only to Justice Pathak, head of the commission looking into the scandal.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sonia, Congress insult "Kali Matha"
4/7/2006 10:49:10 AM HK Correspondent
Source:
haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx?PageID=848&SKIN=B
NEW DELHI: <b>In an unprecedented move with far reaching ramifications, Congress president Sonia Gandhi posed for posters in the role of Hindu goddess "Kali Matha". </b><b>The posters released by the Congress party which is bent upon liquidating the Hindu religion portrays the Italian born Sonia as "Kali Matha:</b> whom the Hindus hold in high esteem. Adding insult to the wounded feelings of the Hindus in the country was <b>a garland on Sonia's neck which has the severed heads of LK Advani, AB Vajpayee, George Fernandes and a host of venerated Hindu leaders.</b>
<b>The poster was released immediately after the move by Arjun Sing, the Union Human Resources Minister, to keep nearly 50 per cent of the seats in IITs, IIMs and IISc for the Muslims and Christians of the country. </b>The fact that Arjun Singh has been converted to Christianity since he married Saroj Kumari in 1948 came to light only recently. It was to incapacitate the Hindus from all fields of society that Arjun Singh, son of a criminal turned politician was made the union minister though he was defeated in the 2004 General Election. Though Arjun Singh was born the son of a corrupt politician of Madhysa Pradesh, he opted to be a domestic servant to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Dr Subramanian Swamy, President, Janata Party, was the first person to come out with a severe attack on the move by Sonia to project herself as "Kali Matha". "This is the height of blasphemy and intolerable insult to Hindu religion," Dr Swamy said in a statement released to the media on Thursday morning. He also demanded a public apology from the Congress president who is a born Catholic. " To portray a semi- literate foreign woman of Catholic religion as the Hindu goddess Kali, and degrading opposition leaders in this despicable manner, is the height of blasphemy and intolerable insult to Hindu religion," said Dr Swamy. He also warned that if Sonia, whose real name is Antonio Maino fails to tender a public apology, then the Janata Party workers would demonstrate against her during her election campaigning in Tamil Nadu.
Dr Swamy also asked Sonia Gandhi to be careful while filing her nomination papers for the Rae Barelli bye election. Sonia is quite notorious for distorting facts connected to her educational qualifications. She used to file in the forms that she had her education in Cambridge University." Sonia should frankly admit that she has never passed even high school, and that she is only semi- literate, knowing two languages learnt for employment purposes in U.K," Dr Swami said in the statement. <b>Sonia who hails from Italy was planted in the Nehru-Gandhi family by a deep rooted conspiracy hatched by the Vatican. It is to be noted that all leading members of the family were killed mysteriously after the arrival of this woman. </b>The deaths of Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi asns Rajiv Gandhi remain a mystery even years after their deaths. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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