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Congress always in two minds
Posted on: February 7, 2024
- In: Media | Politics | Sonia Gandhi
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While Congress President Mallikarjun Khadge and other party leaders were congratulating veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani for the announcement that it had been decided to confer the country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, on him, the Congress leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Umang Singhar wondered how Advani had been chosen for the award of Bharat Ratna. He asked what Advani had done to deserve the Bharat Ratna. He said that the country “has not forgotten the religious frenzy” Advani had created in the country while taking out his Rath-Yatra which ultimately resulted in the destruction of Babri Masjid and killing of several hundred persons.
This is not the first time that the Congress has spoken in different voices. Its two-minded approach to important issues was better seen by its taking too much time to make its decision on the Ayodhya issue. A formal invitation was sent to Congress to attend the “inauguration” of the Ayodhya temple. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat were among the five persons who were allowed to be present in the sanctum sanctorum when the Ram temple was “sanctified” and declared formally open for the public.
From the declaration of the date of its inauguration to allowing the public to have the “darshan” of the “Ram Lala” (questions have been raised why an idol of child Ram has been installed there instead of grown up Ram) Congress has been most of the time in two minds. It was only a few day before the inauguration that the Congress leadership decided that the party should not participate in Ayodhya function. By that time many Congressmen had made up their minds. Some Congress leaders from Gujarat had openly communicated to the High Command that they would attend the Ayodhya function.
Addressing a rally in Bhubaneswar, Congress President Mallikarjun Khadge was said to have observed: “Like (Vladimir) Putin’s presidential election in Russia… the same will happen in India. There will be no election (after the coming one, if the BJP is voted to power)… they will use their might to rule the country… they will get elected and get 200, 300, 400 and 500 (seats)…” What is Congress party’s policy towards Russia? For all these years the Congress party has been a close friend of Russia knowing fully well that Russia (earlier a Soviet Union) did not have an India-type democracy while India was always sceptical about the intentions of America. Is there now a change in India’s perception of Russia? When did this occur? Why has it not been made public so far?
Congress has been in two minds ever since Sonia Gandhi became its President. It mobilised the partymen all over the country as had not been witnessed over several decades while collecting more than six crore signatures seeking paliammentary inquiry into what is known as “coffin scam” (in the armed forces). George Fernandes, who was then the Defence Minister, had literally gone mad while abusing Sonia Gandhi. Then about the date taken from the President for submission of the demand and signatures, Sonia Gandhi “accepted” then Prime Minister Atal BeGeorgehari Vajpayee’s invitation to go to America for givining an address. A senior functionary of the Congress office in Delhi took a few truck loads of signatures to the President. A few newspapers tucked a news item in a couple of paragraphs on inside pages. A geat anti-climax of Independent India. That, indcidentally, is not the only instance of Sonia Gandhi’s un-statesman and un-politician like behaviour.
| Once upon a time, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he constantly grumbled that too much of the state’s tax money was getting trucked off to New Delhi. He attacked the Centre for not sharing enough from the tax kitty for his state. He turned into a truly parochial satrap when he dared the Centre to stop its funds to the state and not collect any taxes from it in return. What he wanted was 50% share of central taxes for states. But when Modi became the Prime Minister, one of the first things he did was to hold secret negotiations to cut states’ income. The details of this unconstitutional backdoor negotiation are what Shreegireesh Jalihal and Nitin Sethi bring to you as part of our latest story. Immediately after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi held backdoor negotiations with the Finance Commission to massively cut tax funds allocated to states. You know the Commission is an independent constitutional body, which sits every five years to decide states’ shares from central taxes. Going by the Constitution, the government is not allowed to bargain with the Commission. But, Prime Minister Modi tried. No Choice The head of the Finance Commission, in his “good south Indian English” told the go-between in the secret negotiation: “Go and tell your boss (the Prime Minister) that he has no choice.” Modi had no choice but to back off because he had no authority to negotiate with the Finance Commission. This is one of the many startling revelations made by BVR Subrahmanyam, the current CEO of Niti Aayog and the go-between for Modi in the negotiation with Finance Commission head YV Reddy. Subrahmanyam even warned of a Hindenberg waiting to happen to the Union budget. The Modi government had built up its first budget under the assumption that the Centre would be retaining a greater portion of the central taxes. The Finance Commission’s refusal to cut state’s income punched a big gaping hole in the government’s budget calculations. Believe it or not, the Centre had to redo its maiden budget in 48 hours, arbitrarily paring down budgetary allocation to groups that are considered dispensable for most of the governments: the poor, women and children. And what did Modi say in Parliament? He said he welcomed with open arms what the Finance Commission had recommended as the legitimate share of the states.(Courtesy: The Reporters’ Collective) |
Journalists were invited to have tea (a Bhopal euphemism for an interaction with the Press) with Uma Bharati at her Civil Lines (Government-allotted) bungalow in the afternoon of October 18. She had decided to suspend her six-day-old campaign for removal of Chief Minister Babulal Gaur. Two versions were doing the rounds. One was that the party high command had assured her the chief minister’s gaddi after the Bihar elections. The other was that Atal Behari Vajpayee had conveyed to her in no uncertain terms that the party would have to act tough if she continued with her tantrums at a time when the party was engaged in the crucial elections in Bihar. The journalists reached her residence in large numbers.
First she picked up some journalists, one by one, to give them a piece of her mind for “biased” reporting (anything that does not extol Uma Bharati is biased reporting in her lexicon). The journalists stomached the humiliation without even a token protest. Then she asked them to switch off their tape recorders and video cameras and put the pens in their pockets as what she would say was going to be “off the record” (yes, it was the same Uma Bharati who had been displaying her pique in public at the “off the record” briefings by
other BJP leaders).
For a good part of an hour, Uma enlightened the members of the Fourth Estate on the sexual proclivities of 76-year-old Gaur, stressing that such a durachari and vyabhichari person should not be allowed to remain Chief Minister. After her “tea” with the media persons, the sadhvi delivered at Ravindra Bhavan a religious discourse in which she used mythological symbols and anecdotes to describe Gaur as a reprobate deserving destruction at the hands of the devout and pious.
It was perhaps too much for local reporters to sacrifice their day’s labour on Uma’s “off the record” altar. The following morning a detailed summary of what the sadhvi had said in her two discourses appeared in several
newspapers. It was mentioned in the reports that though Uma did not take any name, she left no one in doubt that she meant Gaur. Emphasis was given to her observation that whoever cast an evil eye on his daughter-in-law or sister-in-law should be butchered forthwith in the cause of justice and piety.
If Gaur took offence at Uma’s fulminations, he did not show. He continued to gleefully hop from place to place in the State. He described Uma as his didi (sister) for whom he had a lot of regard. On another occasion he remarked that his position was only strengthened (whenever such tirades were launched against him). It is not for nothing that the Yadav from the backward Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh wormed his way to the top political position in Madhya Pradesh.
A surprise choice
In fact, it had come as a surprise when Uma had acquiesced to Gaur’s name as her successor when she had to quit as Chief Minister in the wake of the Hubli court case on August 23 last year. The sadhvi had never trusted Gaur and had become particularly allergic to his name in the run-up to the Assembly elections. Gaur was what Uma could not be: hard working, consistent, polite, neither egoist nor egotist, easily accessible to the people and humble in front of the party rank and file alike. His greatest asset was his capacity to keep the media persons in good humour and never grumble about what they were writing or showing. He did take money (of course, in the name of party fund or election fund) but was never known to be greedy. Many of these traits he, though, gave up after becoming the chief minister, the most notable changes being his complete alienation from the media and his reportedly insatiable greed for money.
Even during the prolonged election campaign, Uma had seen a potential and dangerous rival in the septuagenarian politician who had been representing the same Govindpura constituency in the Assembly since 1974. At a lunch for media persons and party leaders hosted by Uma in the middle of election campaign, Gaur remarked before a group of reporters that even he could become chief minister one day. Uma came to know of this a few days later at Betul, where the party leaders had assembled. She was livid with rage and summoned Gaur, who was having his meal on the other side, and berated him in full public view. She had manoeuvred hard to ensure that Gaur was denied the ticket, at least from his Govindpura constituency. Gaur could get it only through the last-minute intervention of Atal Behari Vajpayee.The campaign for removal of Gaur, with a lot of dirt and muck thrown in, was launched by the Uma camp soon after she was freed by the Hubli court in September last year. He has survived so far. Will he now? The fight has reached a crucial and interesting phase. (28 October 2005)
A forgotten Chambal saga
Posted on: December 29, 2023
- In: Crime | Police | Politics
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On March 28, a gang of armed bandits stopped a video coach near Sheopur (once a part of Morena but now a separate district), asked the passengers to get down, set the coach on fire and took wealthy-looking eight of
the passengers with them away to the Chambal ravines. The gang was later identified as that of Rambabu Gadaria.
Two days later Madhya Pradesh Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh (Cabinet Minister of Home is Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself) visited the area and returned after issuing a warning to the police
officers to arrest the Gadaria gang members or be prepared to face the music. Now, Gadaria is a deeply religious person — almost as religious as the present Chief Minister, or his predecessor, or even his predecessor. According to the accounts given to the local media by the video coach passengers who
were let off, the gang leader had touched the feet of the girls and women and given them Rs 500 each.
He has an abiding faith in the Goddess Durga. He offers, so say the locals conversant with his habits, a metal bell at one of his favourite temples of the Goddess in the Chambal on the ashtami (the eighth day) of the Navaratras.
He, along with his band, reached the “Berar-Wali-Mata-Ka-Mandir” in the forests of Pahargarh in Morena district in the morning of April 6, hoisted a huge bell, weighing around 38 kg, onto the roof of the temple, and performed pooja for nearly an hour, the reports say. He did not forget to offer dakshina to
the pujari of the temple before returning to the ravines. Naturally, you don’t expect the police to interfere with the performance of religious activities of a person, even if he happens to be a bandit. But the
police did not forget its duty. Once the gang members were safely away in the ravines, the police party reached the temple and pulled down the bell which, it is said, is kept at the Pahargarh police station.
The Gadaria gang is responsible for numerous killings, kidnappings and extortions and the leader carries on his head an award of Rs 15 lakh. But isn’t killing part of a dacoit’s dharma? The State’s politicians and police officers know this. The noise that they create about killing or eliminating the Gadaria gang (or other dacoit gangs, for that matter) appears only to soothe the frayed tempers of the people whenever a dacoit gang has performed its dharma.
There was such a hue and cry across the State and beyond when the Gadaria gang had shot dead 13 persons at Bhanwarpura village of Gwalior district in October 2004. Then Chief Minister Babulal Gaur reached the village the very next day and issued all the appropriate statements which would keep the senses of the people numbed for some time in anticipation of something happening to the dacoits.
The police headquarters followed the Chief Minister’s directives with commendable alacrity. The police chief constituted 13 special teams to comb the forests in search of the Gadaria gang members. A very senior officer was posted in the area to coordinate the search operations. He had later come out with a brilliant idea of constituting suicide squads of police personnel and sending them to the forests to track down and kill the Gadaria gang members.
Quietly, everything was forgotten, as was the December 2001 operation when 200 officers and jawans of the police were thrown into the Shivpuri forests to nab the Gadaria gang members. Killings and kidnappings and extortions notwithstanding, Rambabu Gadaria is a phenomenon which the politicians and police force of Madhya Pradesh would not like to disturb. He was “killed” by a party of Shivpuri district police in an encounter in January 1999. The members of the police party who had “eliminated” the scourge of the Chambal were felicitated at a public function at Shivpuri by no less a person than then Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh and were given out-of-turn promotions. Now it is a different matter that Gadaria surfaced and surrendered to the Gwalior police a few months later — but only to escape from the police custody with a substantial quantity of arms and ammunition.
Some people say that the police personnel posted in the dacoit-infested Chambal region have become rich and made properties beyond their means. This is sheer cynicism. Does it really matter if the dacoits take a little care of their brethren in the khaki and the latter show a little brotherly concern about their welfare?
(9.4.2006)
- In: Crime | Police
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Can a person, who pulls the trigger to kill, be made an Approver in a murder case?
Yes, if it is a high-profile case, the CBI is the investigating agency and there is an obliging judge. This has happened in the Shehla Masood murder case
The CBI submitted the charge-sheet before Special CBI Judge at Indore on May 25, 2012. The charge-sheet said: ‘On August 16 (2011) at around 11-20 hrs Shehla Masood walked out of her house and sat in her car. When she was searching for something in her bag, Irfan jerked open the door on the driver’s side and shot at Shehla with country-made weapon after thrusting the weapon in her neck.’
Later the CBI made Irfan the Approver in the case which the court allowed under the provisions of Section 307 of Cr P C.
In his new role as Approver, Irfan told the court that trigger was squeezed by Tabish.
Special CBI judge at Indore B K Paloda accepted the CBI argument that Zahida Parvez, an interior designer, was jealous of Shehla Masood’s closeness to BJP MLA Dhruva Narayan Singh and had hired contract killers through Saqib. The judge sentenced to life imprisonment both of them as well as Zahida’s associate Saba Farooqi and Tabish. The fifth accused, Irfan, was naturally shown clemency as he had turned approver.
- In: Bhopal Gas | Bureaucracy
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Sodium thiosulphate, injected intravenously, had started providing relief to those affected by the sudden massive gas leak in the night of December 2-3, 1984 from the pesticide factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal. Just as the victims were showing improvement, the State government ordered the doctors to stop it, because Union Carbide wanted administration of sodium thiosulphate stopped immediately.
This is revealed by Dr N R Bhandari in his book “25 Years of Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Inside Story and Untold Truths”. The 264-page book, priced at Rs 300, has been published by Lalwani Publications, Bhopal. Bad editing does not lessen the importance of this eye-witness account of the tragedy and its aftermath.
Dr Bhandari was the Medical Superintendent of the State-owned Hamidia Hospital (attached to Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal) and Professor and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at the time of the gas leak disaster. He was very closely involved, as he himself says, from minute one of the tragedy, directly as an administrator and clinician. “I witnessed the death of the victims from the midnight of 2-3 December, gasping, collapsing and dying due to respiratory problems and severe eye injury, in front of my very eyes. We did not know what was happening, the impact was so sudden and unexpected”.
Dr Bhandari received the first phone call about some gas having leaked from the pesticide factory of Union Carbide from the Bhopal Commissioner a little before midnight of December 2; soon thereafter the casualty medical officer of the Hospital informed him that some patients had arrived with the complaints of watering, irritation and redness of eyes. He hurriedly got ready and had just emerged on the veranda of his official residence, some 200 metres from the casualty department, when he “suddenly became breathless with severe cough. I could not move. I went inside, put the fan on (in) that wintry night and took some medicines. The medical officer was ringing me again (and again) and I was not in a position even to talk to him. Fortunately within half an hour, I felt better and rushed to the casualty section. I found hundreds of people all around.” The first dead body arrived around 3 am.
Dr N R Bhandari
After the initial confusion about the source and chemical properties of the gas, Dr Bhandari came to know that some 40 tonnes of poisonous gas had leaked out from the Union Carbide pesticide factory and the people who had inhaled it or came in its contact were taken ill. His first information was that it was phosgene, which is a toxic gas. The information either about the effect of the gas on human body or its antidote was not available. Several hours later, the doctors at the Hamidia Hospital were informed that it was Methyl Isocyanate (MiC) “which is highly toxic and can kill a person instantaneously”. Only later it became clear that it was not only MiC but a mixture of about 20 gases. “Immediately after exposure thousands of children and adults died of acute pulmonary oedema, respiratory failure, toxic effects on various systems including CNS (central nervous system), congestive heart failure and other complications”.
While the people were dying in Bhopal, not only the medical officer of Union Carbide but all its officials were telling lies about the gas and its effects. J.Mukund, who was the works manager and the top man in the factory, told reporters that “its effect is like teargas, your eyes start watering; you apply water and you get relief.” A few days later Jackson B Browning, director of health, safety and environment affairs of the Union Carbide, referred to the poisonous chemicals that had till then killed over 8,000 people in Bhopal as “nothing more than potent teargas”.
Dr Bhandari says that while Union Carbide had all along maintained that MiC had nothing to do with cyanide and that the effects of MiC on living organisms were completely different, the very first communication received from UCC on possible medical effects of MiC poisoning stated: if cyanide is suspected, use amyl nitrite; if no effect, use sodium nitrite 0.3 gms and thiosulphate 12.5 gms. This, according to Dr Bhandari, clearly suggested that UCC was aware that MiC could decompose into cyanide once it entered the body.
Dr Bhandari writes: “after studying the literature, I felt the drug (sodium thiosulphate) should not have adverse effect; if it does not do any good, it will not do any harm. It was worthwhile taking the chance and we used the drug in many patients. Ten days after the disaster, Union Carbide Corporation’s medical director first supported mass administration of thiosulphate and, in another telex message three days later, forbade it. Soon after, Union Carbide’s ally in the State bureaucracy, director of health services Dr M.N.Nagu, sent a circular to all doctors in the city warning them that they would be held responsible for any untoward consequences of thiosulphate administration. In the prevailing situation of medical uncertainty, this circular effectively stopped any administration of thiosulphate.”
Dr Bhandari adds: “however, in Medical College (and Hospital), the use of this injection was continued. We did not find side effects. A number of patients felt better after receiving the injection”.
The State government had stopped administration of sodium thiosulphate even though Dr Max Daunderer from Germany and Bhopal’s eminent forensic specialist, Dr Heeresh Chandra, both had found that sodium thiosulphate, when administered intravenously, led to improvement in the patients affected by the gas. Clinical trials carried by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) from 1985 to 1987 confirmed the efficacy of this drug in relieving exposure induced symptoms.
What BJP promised before coming to power completely forgot after it tasted the power at the Centre
#Ensuring minimisation of black money and setting up of a task force for this purpose.
# Putting in place strict measures and special courts to stop hoarding and black marketing.
# Setting up a Price Stabilisation Fund.
# Unbundling FCI operations into procurement, storage and distribution for greater efficiency.
# Evolving a single National Agriculture Market.
# Promoting and support area specific crops and vegetables linked to food habits of the people.
# Developing high impact domains like labour intensive manufacturing, tourism, and strengthening traditional employment bases of agriculture and allied industry.
# Harnessing opportunities provided by the upgradation of infrastructure and housing.
# Encouraging and empowering youth for self employment and transforming employment exchanges into career centres.
# Eliminating corruption through public awareness, e-governance, rationalisation and simplification of tax regime.
# Harmonising Centre-state relations by evolving model of national development driven by the states.
# Setting up a Team India initiative which will include the PM and CMs as equal partners.
# Ensure fiscal autonomy of states and creation of regional councils of states of common problems and concerns.
# National Development Council and Inter-state Council will be revived and made into active body.
# Involving state governments in promotion of foreign trade and commerce.
# Greater decentralisation through
# Complete all pending fencing work along the India-Bangladesh and India-Myanmar border.
# Dealing with insurgency with a firm hand.
#BJP to draft a Uniform Civil Code drawing upon the best traditions and harmonising them with the modern times.
# Foreign policy will be guided through pragmatism and doctrines of mutually beneficial and interlocking relationships.
# Launching a massive Clean Rivers Programme with people’s participation.
# Pursuing friendly relations with neighbours and at the same time not hesitate from taking strong stand when required.
# Reviving the anti-terror mechanism which has been dismantled by the Congress and putting in place swift and fair trial of terror-related cases.
# Insulate intelligence agencies from political intervention and interference.
# Strengthening DRDO and encourage private sector participation including FDI in selected defence
# Strengthening physical infrastructure with expediting work on freight and industrial corridors.
# Setting up of gas grids and national optical fibre network upto the village level.
# Launching of diamond quadrilateral project of high-speed rail network (Bullet trains).
# Setting up of agri rail network catering to needs of perishable farm products.
# Launching of 50 new tourist circuits for the development of tourism.
# Universalisation of secondary school education and skill development and establishment of national e-library.
# Implementation of national education policy.UGC to be restructured and transformed into higher education commission.
# Ensuring urgent steps for safety of migrant workers and communities from Northeast and other states.
# Pursuing an agenda of equal and rapid development of all three regions of Jammu and Kashmir – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
# Return of Kashmiri Pandits to the land of their ancestors with full dignity and security.
# Evolving further the PPP model into a People-Public-Private Partnership (PPPP).
# Strengthening self-governance and empowering Panchayati Raj institutions with a devolution of functionaries and funds.
# Consolidating Gram Sabha institutions, involving people, in policy formation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has concentrated on former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s constituency, Chhindwara, in the style he adopted in Gujarat in the last Assembly elections there. He aims at defeating Kamal Nath this time. It is a straight contest for Kamal Nath. BJP has fielded Vivek Bhanti Sahu, who had contested against Kamal Nath in a by-election in 2019 and lost by 25,827 votes. Sahu is a former BJP Yuva Janata Morcha,Chhindwara, President.While Kamal Nath is a devotee of Hanuman and has got 102-ft idol of Hanuman installed in Chhindwara, Sahu is a devotee of Shiva and was instrumental in installing an 84-ft Shiva idol there.
Modi has adopted a strategy for the defeat of Kamal Nath, like the one he had chalked out for Gujarat vidhan sabha elections in 2022 –,of overwhelming the rival. In addition to blaring of loudspeakers to vote for BJP, several party leaders from other states have been moved in Chhindwara to overwhelm the voters. A member of Ahmedabad Deputy Mayor Bipin Ramswarup Sikka’s team told PTI that they will leave only after November 17- the day of polling.
In 2022 a confident Modi was shaken by the unexpected victory of AAP in Punjab Assembly polls — by getting 92 seats out of 117 — and AAP President Arvind Kejriwal’s declaration that “Gujarat will be our next target”. A nervous Modi ‘forgot’ the rest of India and concentrated only on Gujarat. He started devoting roughly 2-3 days every week in Gujarat, laying foundation stones of new projects. He promised projects worth Rs 3050 crores to the State on June 10, worth Rs 21000 crores on June 18; over worth Rs 8000 crores and worth Rs 2900 crores on October 30 to November 1; Rs 15670 crores; 5860 crores; 4260 crores; 3580 crores; and 1970 crores on October 19-20. This is not an exhastive list but gives an idea.
Courtesy:NDTV.COM
Modi arm-twisted Maharashtra (as it was ruled by break-away group of Shiv Sena which had formed the government with BJP) getting Air Bus project worth about Rs 21931 crores. Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor chip project with a total investment worth Rs 1.54 lakh crore was also taken from Maharashtra. Gujarat has bagged projects worth Rs 2.62 lakh crore in the first half (April-September) of the year, pipping Karnataka and Maharashtra. Of the total fresh investments Gujarat attracted during April-September 2022, the share of the private sector was 21.5 per cent; 224 private sector projects were announced involving an outlay of Rs 1.96 lakh crores.
Courtesy: The WIRE.IN
Before the polling days on December 1 and 5, several ministers and other party leaders from various States, in addition to those in Gujarat, were called in and given duties in various parts of the State. Their duties included to tell the people, particularly their castemen, how Modiji is the best Prime Minister the country has had. But more important was persuasion, purchase and threatening the people with a view to creating an atmosphere of fear all-around. Few were spared, some in ignorance, and others who defied the BJP dictates. Muslims were ‘forced’ to remain at home on the polling day.
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