The 86-year-old cunning, southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu politician, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, popularly known as Kalaigner, entered politics at the age of 14. He was inspired by Alagiriswamy of the Justice Party's speech, and has done nothing for the Tamil society for their empowerment, although he claims he is working hard for the Tamils' empowerment and to establish their rights. His real motives have been exposed through many events, but the latest one is through the drama that he was the saviour of Sri Lankan Tamils when they were facing genocidal war instigated by the Sri Lankan State, which ended grief stricken in May this year, with the loss of nearly 30,000 civilians, while incarcerating another 300,000 civilians in the barbed-wires camps where the Sri Lankan State prohibits visitors, including the UN agencies, with the exception to the ten-member Indian parliamentary delegation, who had the first opportunity to pay visit to the camps.
After the Indian MPs delegation returned to India, they submitted the reports to Karunanidhi, and later on, to Indian Prime Minister and Indian Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi. The latter two people who are, in reality, taking revenge on the LTTE for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister and husband of Italian-born incumbent Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.
Karunanidhi's DMK is an ally of the ruling Indian central government, led by Manmohan Singh. When the Tamils were dying, India allegedly provided weapons to Sri Lanka to launch military attacks against the LTTE. When the opposing parties in Tamil Nadu exposed the real face of Karunanidhi, he and his allies issued contradictory statements. One said India did not provide weapons to Sri Lanka. Then, they acknowledged that India provided the weapons to Sri Lanka on the plea that India wanted to maintain friendship with Sri Lanka, as if India's reluctance to provide weapons will force Sri Lanka to join hands with India's enemies, Pakistan and China.
Also, he held several demonstrations, including fast protest, which was nothing but to ease the tension that arose due to the ongoing suffering of Tamils in Eelam, and also to counter the chain of protests conducted by the opposing parties.
The Indian delegation's visit was nothing but a showpiece to hoodwink the international community in general, and Tamils around the world in particular, which would only serve Karunanidhi to show that he is doing everything for the welfare of the Tamils. He has the belief that the Tamils will celebrate his death when he dies in the future, as how the Tamils were celebrating the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the late M. G. Ramachandran, who broke out from DMK, and formed ADMK, and ruled Tamil Nadu without a break for 13 years, and did not even give a chance for Karunanidhi to become Chief Minister. Ramachandran was a great patronage of Tamils, who even gave money in the early 1980s to the LTTE from his pocket and allocated funds for the LTTE from the Tamil Nadu treasury to fight against the Sri Lankan State, as it was treating the Tamils as second class citizens. And Tamils all around the world keep Ramachandran in their hearts and souls. So, Karunanidhi is trying his best to show that he, too, helps the Tamils as Ramachandran did, but no one needs to be a rocket scientist to realize the Karunanidhi's real motives, because without a doubt, he will hoodwink the uneducated and poor Tamil Nadu people forever with his literature and dramatic talents. However, it is unlikely that he can hoodwink the Eelam and Diaspora Tamils. They will never be convinced by his speeches, arguments and actions.
Karunanidhi done enough damage to Tamil society
Karunanidhi had done enough for damaging the Tamil society, whether they live in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore, or elsewhere. The Tamils living around the world are grief-sicken after they heard the story of the demise of the LTTE and especially as they feel that they will be treated as slaves because they were having the dream of achieving an independent State for Tamils so that the State will represent them whenever they face any hardships elsewhere. Their desire is for the State to really stand up to support them if they face any hardships in any other country wherever they live.
Tamils around the world no longer trust the future State of Tamil Nadu, as the politicians do not really have the hearts and minds to stand up giving voice when the Tamils anywhere face hardships, and whenever their values are at the mercy of the majority community. Tamil Nadu, as a quasi-federal State of India, has been granted much less autonomy than any other federal system of governments existing, especially in the western countries. The Tamil Nadu State has no power to stand up to save their brethrens, even when the Tamils die in the other States of India. But, the Tamil Nadu politicians did nothing to save the Tamils, even though these politicians are influential and help the government to stay in power in New Delhi.
Unfortunately, these politicians support New Delhi just for power, because these politicians demand central government to allocate ministerial posts. A classic example is that Karunanidhi's nephew, the late Murasoli Maran, was holding a ministerial post in New Delhi for decades till his death. After his demise, Maran's son held the senior minister's post. Maran's another son, Kalanidhi Maran, runs the Sun Network, India's second largest television network. According to Forbes, Kalanidhi is among India's richest 20 with $1.9 billion. Karunanidhi cut the relationship with Maran's family members after three Dinkaran newspaper employees were killed by Karunanidhi's son, Azhagiri's supporters, for carrying out stories against Karunanidhi's real motive to bring another son, Stalin, who is now the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu, as the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The Dinakaran paper is also owned by Maran's family.
The Karunanidhi and Maran families gave money to the murdered members of the Dinakaran employees, but the accused Azhagiri, the prime who were also accused in the murder case of the former DMK Minister Kiruttinan, won the elections held recently and he is now a minister in Indian central government. It is no secret that Azhagiri functions as an extra constitutional authority in Madurai, though he has never held a party post, and is a liability to the party and is not yet expelled. Further, Karunanidhi's daughter, Kanimozhi, has been nominated for a Rajya Sabha post, even though she has done very little for the party, as pointed out by critics and many of his party members.
Karunanidhi has married three times. His wives are Mrs. Padmavathy, Mrs. Dayalu Ammal, and Mrs. Rajathiammal. His sons are M.K Muthu, who was born to Padmavathy and passed away. M.K. Azhagiri, M.K. Stalin, M.K Tamilarasu, and his daughters are Selvi and Kanimozhi, who were born to Dayalu Ammal. Kanimozhi is the only daughter from his third wife, Rajathiammal. Karunanidhi is fostering his children slowly in politics, and they secure high profile posts immediately after they are introduced into politics, because Karunanidhi is giving prominence to his children rather than working for the betterment of the Tamil society. Karunanidhi, during most of his political career, at the expense of the ignorance and poverty of the Tamil Nadu people, and through corruption, built up his own empire of a near-dynasty of enormous wealth and nepotism.
One of the 10-member MPs who visited the camps in Vanni in the second week of October, this year, is the leader of the Dalit Panthers of India, Thirumavalavan who, while speaking to the Tamilnet newswire on October 23 said, "There was a total violation of human rights in the Sri Lankan government's camps for Internally Displaced Persons."
He further said: "The people are stashed away like cows and dogs and pigs in barbed wire camps. There are about 45,000 to 55,000 people in the six main camps. In some cases, where the overcrowding is simply unbearable, they have created additional camps for about 5,000 to 15,000 people...One of the major problems that people face is to get water for drinking and bathing purposes. The water supply is extremely irregular and insufficient. I heard the people tell me that they had to keep awake for a whole week in order to get five liters of water, which is supposedly their daily ration... I also observed that people were not allowed to move from one concentration camp to another. Every camp was within a barbed wire. People were not able to meet their relatives in another camp"
He said: "People are also afraid of speaking freely since they were being photographed. The fear of monitoring has certainly silenced them...Overall, I feel that the Government of Sri Lanka will not follow the six-month deadline which it assured to New Delhi for letting these people return. I feel that even ten percent of the people are yet to be sent back, and no effort seems to have been taken in that direction...In my opinion, Tamil Eelam is the only solution. Thousands of civilians and more than thirty thousand fighters is the price we have paid so far in this struggle. The Tamil people cannot live as second class citizens in Sri Lanka. Hence, Tamil Eelam is the only solution."
But, the other nine MPs, comprising the DMK and the Congress Party, maintain silence about the plights of Eelam Tamils. Karunanidhi comes out strongly to say that the Sri Lankan President is doing everything possible to release the Tamils from the camps and he trusts the President. Karunanidhi said in the Tamil Nadu assembly in July, this year, that achieving 'Tamil Eelam' was no more a realistic possibility. He said Tamils should henceforth work for their livelihood rights in the island nation and struggle for equal rights, equal status for the language, and devolution of powers at the regional level. "Only this is possible, not Tamil Eelam," he said, responding to views of members from various parties on a special mention on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. He asked the parties not to make provocative remarks against the Sinhalese as that could further affect Tamils in the island nation. Hence, Karunanidhi has done enough damage to Tamil society, and Tamils should be aware that they should not trust Karunanidhi anymore for obtaining their rights.
Karunanidhi: A hero of corruptions
The Tamil Nadu population are still living in poverty, mostly while Tamil Nadu becomes the State of opportunists who hail from other parts of India and are taking control of the major leading industries, most commonly the pawn brokers who are non-inhabitants of Tamil Nadu and own and operate the pawn brokerage stores, which are a leading money making industry. And hundreds of thousands of Tamil Nadu inhabitants work in the industries owned by people who come to Tamil Nadu in search of greener pasture. But, these poor employees make less than a dollar per day, the minimal living expense of a large family. Many other economic and political oppressions are taking place in Tamil Nadu, but the people who hailed from other States in India have entered Tamil Nadu and dominated the economic and political powerhouses, taking few actions to empower the locals of Tamil Nadu, enabling legislations for the betterment of outsiders while almost nothing is done to the locals. This oppression of locals negates any progress for Tamils since British rule. Karunanidhi, too, is from such a clan, and he does not take actions for the welfare of locals who made him a greater political and economic successor. And in return, he is contributing enormously to the destruction of the Tamil society for which he remains thankful, but in reality, does not observe.
Karunanidhi did not rise to this merit through economics and politics, but rather through his corruption and other forms of malpractices. He was indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam project. Former Indian Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi, dismissed the Karunanidhi government, based on charges of possible secession and corruption. Earlier, Karunanidhi, the former chief secretary, K.A. Nambiar, and a host of others, were arrested in the wee hours on charges of corruption in the construction of flyovers in Chennai. He and his party members where charged under Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 420 (cheating), and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 13 (2), 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. But, he is a cunning politician who comes out clean after proving that he is innocent. It is no doubt that he is a great administrator and he is one of the living political legendaries. He is a highly respected man in India. But, his words and actions have double meaning. In reality, he and his supporters claim that Karunanidhi is a leader of world Tamils. But their such claims have no ground because he is actually the primary cause for the deaths of nearly 30,000 Tamils in Eelam, and to the destiny of nearly 300,000 Tamils, in the barbed-wire camps, in Vavuniya.
Karunanidhi's real motives have been exposed, but it is unlikely that the poor peasants in Tamil Nadu will realize this soon. And definitely, he will be kept to the heir as the leader, even after he is dead, in Tamil Nadu, because he is leaving behind his family members to remain in power, and they will keep the pride of Karunanidhi. But in reality, since he came to politics at 14 years of age, he did everything to secure the DMK leadership from ways of manipulating others, and he got the good certificate from founder and leader of the DMK, Annadurai, who, rather than brining his family members to politics, passed the party into the hands of Karunanidhi, with the belief that Karunanidhi would work hard to the empowerment of the Tamil Nadu people. But Karunanidhi, after capturing the DMK, did nothing to the empowerment other than empowering himself, his children, and relatives into politics, and made a fortune in entrepreneurships, which could never come to an end for at least the next century. What is pathetic is that Tamils cannot come out of this powerful established network, a network of nepotism, that will always join hands with the powerful elites, just for the sake of their own fortunes, uncaring and unmindful of the people they lead. Hence, Indian Tamils, Eelam Tamils, and the millions of Tamils who live across the world, should realize the real motives of Karunanidhi and his associates.
Source: http://knol.google.com/k/anonymous/karunanidhi-s-real-motives-exposed/1jj3b6wo1k64x/1#
Articles in this blog are copied and pasted from various other sites. I want to create at least a minimum awareness among people to understand our politicians and religion. This will help our nation to weed-out corruption at all level
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Jayalalithaa or Karunanidhi – for whom Rajinikanth told the story in the Endhiran audio release?
Rajinikanth's speech is always watched keenly to know his mind on the political scenario of Tamilnadu. In his recent speech on the occasion of the release of the audio CD of his film Endhiran, he revealed a couple of ideas that was running in his mind.
Initially Rajini was all praises for Kalanidhi Maran to an extent that it irritated the viewers. Rajini and his Endhiran team had a reason to be thankful to Kalanidhi Maran. Because when the film was running into financial trouble, it was Kalanidhi Maran who chipped in time and funded the film liberally.
But the excessive praises on him reminded us of the numerous industrialists of this country who also risk their money through which the employees get a safe job but never were praised like this. Only these employees make the films run successfully in the theaters.
It also reminded me that this country gave a paltry sum of 100 crores to the ISRO to do the real science project of Chandrayaan whereas more than 100 crores were spent on making the science fiction film, Endhiran! Here they praise Kalanaidhi Maran for the cost he invested as though that was the life-saving investment. It might have been so for them in the team. So I find no offence with that. This venture coming under the showbiz industry gets all the attention, but let people not forget that the risk and contribution by numerous other industrialists have made our economy what it is today.
Rajini also indicated how quickly Kalanidhi Maran grew from 1993 to 1999 to become one of the top industrialists of the country. When your father is the Union Industry Minister, you can also become a top industrialist of the country – everyone knows this. Rajinikanth reminded us of this !!
Initially the speech by Rajinikanth was available in Youtube in 2 parts. The 2nd part of the Youtube has Rajini touching vaguely on some political issues. This 2nd part was not accessible due to copyright issues. So until the event was shown on the Sun TV on last Sunday, no one had a clue on what he talked towards the end of his speech. After seeing the show in the Sun TV, it was understood why the 2nd part alone was banned for viewing while the same copyright issue did not bother the first part. After the event was shown on Sun TV, the 2nd part has been posted as a recorded version from the TV programme. It can be viewed here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcQ3FG5SOkQ
First part here:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMqxGTIqZIQ
Rajini talked about team work that went into the making of Endhiran. That far, it is fine. Then he went on to say that if proper 'koottani' (coalition) is made, all the 234 seats can be won. For whom he told this kanakku (calculation)? Who is in need of making 'koottani'? One thing is clear. He need not give this 'idea' to Karunanidhi nor remind him of that. Karunnaidhi already has a firm koottani. So it is someone else that Rajini is having in his mind when he made this observation!
Then before winding up his speech, he told a story. It was about a group of people going together to the top floor of a building. The climbing by steps was a tiresome experience that each one of them would tell a story while climbing the floors to reduce the feeling of tiredness. When they reached the penultimate floor – 69th floor and it was the turn of the one to tell a story to reach the last floor, that person told that he had forgotten to bring the key to open the door of the last floor. They all have to go together to the ground floor all the way to fetch the key. Only if they go together, they can get the key. Rajini told that one can not remain in the top for ever. One has to come down to achieve again.
Why did he say this? This story looked abrupt and not jelling with what he spoke until then. All his team members were humble beings and not the ones who gloated for being on top. Rajini himself told like this about them. Then for whom Rajini told this story? Who is sitting on top? Who is not aware of ground realities? Who has to come down and start afresh?
If you want to probe Rajini's mind, you can read this along with his 'koottani' talk. If 'koottani' was meant for Jayalalithaa, this talk on non-permanency of the top post seems to be meant for Karunanidhi.
Tamilnadu will be going to the polls in the near future. Going by past records, it will not be a free and fair election. The people on top will not allow the people on bottom to vote according to their conscience. Anything can be tolerated but not subversion of Democratic process. That is why we need a fresh 'koottani' (coalition) and the people on top must be grounded to the democratic system of fair polling. In my opinion, Rajinikanth succinctly touched on these two issues in his speech.
In the days to come, I expect him to voice his opinion openly and help in the restoration of fair polls. Let Karunanidhi face the free and fair poll and come back to power. But when he chokes the very life-thread of democracy, he must be stopped. Let all right thinking people voice their opposition to this subversion done and expected to be done by Karunanidhi.
Looking at Karunanidhi's horoscope, I strongly think that he can retire gracefully from public life now itself. Let his sons or party face the polls in honest ways. Allow the people to choose whom they want. If they choose DMK in a non-tempting environment, we will welcome DMK.
As of now, what Rajini told in the story suits Karunanidhi more than anyone else. He is riding his peak time now. But one can not remain in peak at all times. By intuition or by some advice, Karunanidhi originally wanted to retire in July – while in peak- after the World Tamil Conference. This is the right time. But he chose to stick on – due to pressure from his children. This is not a wise decision.
The planets in dasa or bhukthi that were running in his life when MGR and Jayalalithaa were in power are making a reappearance next year when the polls are due to take place! He will be facing the next elections in Venus- moon period. Venus will behave like Jupiter in his horoscope as it is in the asterism of Jupiter. He knows that his Jupiter is weak. (That is why he wears the yellow shawl). In addition it has no bindus in its house in Martian Ashtakavarga. One more information – Jupiter is the 6th cuspal sub-lord. It will not give him 'nimmadhi' – a term Rajini wished him in the meeting where he spoke about Sarvajya.
I personally appeal to Karunanidhi to be content with what he has got so far and retire gracefully from office. Let him know that he has come this far due to the exemplary "Sreekanta yoga" – that comes to a person of devotion to Shiva. But that yoga had been maligned by a retro Jupiter which has gone into debility in the 6th house in Navamsa. A worst offence to the teacher in his last birth had afflicted the Sreekanta yoga as a result of which he gained prominence but reversed all that a sincere devotee would do.
He glorified the one as Guru who can not be glorified by any right thinking person.
He did everything to reverse the glory of Hinduism.
The inner Athma of Karunanidhi would be crying at all the reversal it was made to do as a puppet in the hands of destiny.
The power of destiny or Kaala purush is such that it had used him in its scheme of furthering Kali.
But Karunanidhi would come back –
in a future birth as an ardent devotee – of Rama – not Shiva as he is showing every sign of moving towards Vishnu.
He has gloated on everything he has done – but not on one thing.
That was the help he had silently done – and doing for writers.
Writing, writers, books and publishing come under the influence of Mercury or Vishnu.
Karunanidhi shows a genuine interest in these and had not sought to make a fuss out of it.
This shows he is coming under Vishnu's blessings.
It is probable that he would be re- born as an ardent devotee of Vishnu and who knows - he may even build the Ram Sethu that he wants to destroy now.
His present life is a reversal of what he was in the previous birth.
His future birth would be a reversal of what he is now.
Such is the game that Kaala purushan plays.
Let Karunanidhi understand this uncertainty and make a wise decision of putting a stop to adverse karma caused by unholy subversion of democracy and retire from politics now while he is still in peak.
Thanks to: http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/08/jayalalithaa-or-karunanidhi-for-whom.html
An LTTE-Sonia family link?
An LTTE-Sonia family link?
S. Gurumurthy
In its interim report the commission did exceedingly good work to bring on record evidence about the political forces involved in promoting the LTTE in Tamil Nadu that made the crime possible. Yet it made a mockery of its main work, the conspiracy angle. It floated dubious and wild theories, involving Mossad! CIA! Besides adding confusion, it ended up trivialising a very serious exercise. This also robbed the commission of its credibility.As the commission's final report proved a flop, the Vajpayee government appointed a Multi- Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) in 1998 to unearth the conspiracy angle.
But the person who first demanded, but, ultimately made, investigation into the conspiracy to murder Rajiv Gandhi irrelevant was none other than his widow Sonia Gandhi. Her attitude to the investigation and suspected actors in the murder dramatically changed. Her conduct in 1997 when she was working to enter active politics was a stark contrast to her attitude after taking over the congress leadership on the Jain Commission issue.
In 1997, she demanded that the DMK which, the Jain commission had said, was part of the conspiracy, be sacked as a partner of the UF alliance and pulled down the government when the demand was not met. Her party insisted the entire facts about the conspiracy be investigated and revealed.
Addressing a meeting at Amethi, Sonia hinted that the DMK was a fan of the LTTE and charged that those who doubted the Jain commission report were diverting the attention from the investigation into the conspiracy to murder Rajiv and demanded that the probe be completed expeditiously (Indian Express 2.2.1998). But, once she took over the party leadership, she not only ceased to evince any interest in pursuing the Rajiv Gandhi murder conspiracy, but also began allying with the alleged conspirators themselves. The developments, put together, reveal a shocking picture.
The year after taking over the Congress, Sonia Gandhi makes a secret move. In the year 1999, she told then President Dr K R Narayanan privately that 'neither she nor her son and daughter wanted any of the four convicts' sentenced to death for Rajiv's assassination 'to be hanged', and pleaded that no child should be orphaned by an act of the State. Noted the Indian Express (Nov 20, 1999) that before her plea for mercy to the Rajiv killers the Congress party was the leading opponent of mercy to them. This silenced the party once and for all. What transpired at her private meeting with the President was revealed not by Sonia, but by Mohini Giri (the former chairperson of the National Women's Commission) and on that basis Nalini's death sentence was commuted to life. (Frontline Nov 5-18, 2005).
Then, in February 2004, there were reports, editorially commented by the Island newspaper in Colombo on Feb 20, 2004, that Eduardo Faleiro, her emissary, had a secret meeting with the LTTE chief Prabhakaran at Killinochi. Island had also referred to reports that Sonia's mother Ms Paula Maino had met Anton Balasingham, LTTE's point man in London, in connection with the electoral alliance between the DMK and the Congress. While Eduardo Faleiro at least made a feeble attempt to deny the meeting, Paulo Maino would not even deny that.
Third, the Paulo Maino meeting preceded, and the Faleiro meeting succeeded, the unbelievable U-turn of Sonia Gandhi to forge alliance with the DMK which was accused by her own party in 1997 of being part of the conspiracy to murder her husband. The DMK-Congress alliance seems to have been agreed upon sometime in December 2003. In January 2004, Sonia met the DMK chief and concretised the alliance. The coming together of one of the alleged conspirators and the victim of the conspiracy made a mockery of any further investigation into Rajiv Gandhi murder. For the last four years there is not a single word spoken by Sonia on pursuing the Rajiv Gandhi murderers and on unearthing the conspiracy or for the extradition of Prabhakaran or Pottu Amman.
This is despite the fact that, when, on April 10, 2002, Prabhakaran met the press at Killinochi, he did not even deny that LTTE was involved in Rajiv assassination. Fourth, the LTTE too responded favourably to signals from Sonia that she was not against LTTE. On January 27, 2006, Anton Balasingham, told an Indian TV news channel that the Rajiv killing was 'monumental tragedy' and asked the people of India to be 'magnanimous to put the past behind' and deal with the LTTE.
Fifth, Sonia did not object to the inclusion of the DMK woman MP in whose house Sivarasan the main killer of Rajiv Gandhi had stayed for which she was detained under the TADA, as a minister in the UPA government. Sixth, the MDMA which was appointed by the NDA government after Sonia rejected the Action Taken Report on the Jain Commission, has virtually become defunct under the UPA regime. Since 2004, she has not uttered a single word asking what the MDMA is doing. And finally now in March 2008, Priyanka Vadra, Sonia's daughter makes a secret visit to Vellore jail and meets the first accused in the murder of Rajiv, for over an hour.
Media reports say that they sat by each other's side, cried and professed goodwill towards each other! No one knows what transpired between them. The meeting clearly illegal, looks almost a conspiracy, would have remained a secret had the media not exposed it. Priyanka said that neither Sonia nor Rahul or Priyanka believe in hate or anger, and that the visit was her way of coming to terms with the Rajiv Gandhi murder.
Moral high ground seems to be a cover for undisclosed political strategies. But where was this high moral ground when Sonia angrily pulled down the UF government on the ground that DMK, a suspected co-conspirator with LTTE, was part of the alliance? Is Rajiv Gandhi's assassination a personal affair between the Sonia Gandhi family and the LTTE for the former to punish or pardon the latter? LTTE has neither confessed nor regretted its action for the Gandhis to pardon. The LTTE is even today unrepenting.
The prosecution case is that the LTTE supremo decided to avenge Rajiv Gandhi for sending IPKF to Sri Lanka and betraying the LTTE. But that was no personal decision of Rajiv Gandhi. The assassination was an act against the state of India.
This is how it should be seen and pursued. Neither Sonia nor Priyanka nor the Congress has the right to pardon the criminals who have challenged the sovereignty of India.
QED: Sonia Gandhi family and the LTTE connection is mysterious. Is the maverick Dr Subramanian Swamy right after all in his theory that LTTE and the Maino family have had links before?
Source: http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2008/04/ltte-sonia-link-dravidian-nexus.html
Bofors: What India does not know
The columnist, who is writing on condition of anyonymity, is a retired senior Government of India officer with extensive experience within and outside India.
I have never been involved in the investigation of the Bofors case. I have never had -- and do not have even now -- much inside knowledge of the goings-on in L'Affaire Bofors.
What then is my qualification for having the pretension to write this article? I happened to be living in Europe when the Bofors bombshell struck New Delhi one evening atn the beginning of 1987, triggering off a panic meeting convened by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi late in the night after dinner to discuss damage control.
The meeting was attended, amongst others, by the then heads of the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation, the acting head of the Research and Analysis Wing -- since its head was out of New Delhi on tour -- and some of Rajiv Gandhi's close political and bureaucratic advisors.
The meeting claimed its first victim shortly after the bombshell. The acting head of RAW, who had already been designated by Rajiv Gandhi before the bombshell to take over as its head on the retirement of the then head, found himself shifted out to another organisation for having been unaware of the coming bombshell.
I continued living in Europe for nearly two years after the bombshell and had the opportunity now and then of observing from close quarters the comings and goings between India and Europe of investigators, crisis managers, damage control experts, political leaders, journalists and many others, who took a benign or malign interest in the scandal and its cover-up.
CBI may quiz Quattrocchi in Italy
Immediately after the first news of the scandal came out of Stockholm, I was asked from New Delhi what I thought of it and whether I had any advice to give.
I said, "I don't know Sweden. I have never been there. I have no contacts there. But, I understand the people who are making the allegations enjoy a high level of credibility there in governmental and non-governmental circles. Take them seriously. Don't try to discredit them through disinformation."
Unfortunately, that was exactly what the Government of India did.
Its damage control strategy had two tracks. First, overtly give the impression of taking the allegations seriously and investigating them thoroughly. The law should take its own course, as every lawbreaker is fond of saying and then preventing just that.
Second, covertly try to discredit those disseminating the allegations in India and abroad through disinformation and dirty tricks.
Even now, after nearly 19 years, this is what the government led by Dr Manmohan Singh seems to be doing.
The famous Hinduja brothers played an active role in the pursuit of both tracks. They were suspects in the case and yet managed to emerge as discreet advisors of the CBI on how to investigate the case and of the Prime Minister's Office as to how to control the political damage.
How many times senior CBI officials visited Geneva, London and Stockholm for secret confabulations with the Hindujas and their high-level European contacts.
Just who is Ottavio Quattrocchi?
The Hinduja brothers were and continue to be fascinating personalities. No other Indian origin business family abroad has done so much for India and in the process for itself.
They had one working principle in life -- never put all your eggs in the same basket.
How close they were to the Shah of Iran and his family and how close they are to the Iranian ayatollahs. How close they were to the Democratic Party in the US and how close they are to the Republicans. How close they were to Margaret Thatcher and John Major and how close they are to Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, who takes their advice for buying saris! How close they were to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and how close they equally are to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jyoti Basu.
Their annual Diwali receptions hosted in London and Geneva have to be seen to be believed. There, you meet everybody who is somebody in India and Europe.
Major political parties in India and the UK consider it to be in their interest to depute someone to attend these receptions on their behalf.
When the Hindujas hosted one of the Diwali receptions in 1987, P V Narasimha Rao, then a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, was in Europe. The Hindujas were keen he should attend. Because of the raging controversy over Bofors, Rao declined. Prompt came the instructions to him from the PMO to attend, since the Hinduja brothers were supposedly helpful in the investigation of the Bofors case.
Another fact witnessed while living in Europe was that many political leaders, bureaucrats and others had no qualms in accepting not only the Hindujas' invitations for fabulous parties, but also other facilities such as free hotel rooms for themselves or their families, limousines for sightseeing, etc.
Sheela Bhatt: This is not about Bofors
Some memories of the Hindujas and our political leaders: They hosted then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah during a visit paid by him to Geneva at the height of the Bofors controversy.
An official accompanying him advised him not to accept their hospitality because of Bofors. 'It might be raised in the state assembly,' he whispered into Dr Abdullah's ears.
'So what?' replied Dr Abdullah loudly. 'Let it be raised. I will admit it. I have known them for years. I am not going to avoid them just because of this scandal.'
After the bombshell exploded, R Venkataraman, then the President of India, visited Geneva and Berne, the Swiss capital, to inaugurate an Indian cultural festival. One of the Hinduja brothers rang up the Indian diplomatic mission in Geneva and said the President's office had requested him to arrange a discreet check-up of the President by a ear expert in Switzerland.
He wanted the Indian mission to provide a time slot for this in the President's programme without indicating that the timeslot was for a medical check-up.
Pritish Nandy: The Hindujas again!
A senior diplomat of the mission sent a message to the President's office for confirmation of what the Hinduja brother had said. Prompt came a phone call from the President's office strongly denying any such request to the Hindujas.
Another phone call went to the Hindujas pulling them up for mentioning this to the Indian mission in Geneva.
They organised a check-up at Berne without the Indian mission's knowledge.
H K L Bhagat, then the minister for parliamentary affairs in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet, visited Geneva to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The wife of the head of the Indian mission was away in India. His servant was not available. So, he requested the Hinduja brother living in Geneva to host a dinner for the minister and invite senior political personalities from Geneva and Berne as well as senior diplomats of the Indian mission and members of an important Indian delegation, which was in Geneva to attend a UN meeting.
The Hinduja brother happily agreed and invitations were issued. I was one of those invited.
In view of the Bofors scandal, I was surprised the minister accepted the invitation. I rang up the ambassador and asked him how Bhagat accepted the invitation. The ambassador replied: "I have not yet informed him about the Hinduja dinner. I will tell him after his arrival."
'CBI playing neutral role'
"Won't the minister be angry that you asked the Hindujas to host this dinner without consulting him?" I asked.
Prompt came the reply from the ambassador: "No, no. I know our politicians. They like to wallow in the house of the Hindujas."
A couple of hours later, after Bhagat arrived, I got a call from the office of the ambassador stating that Bhagat would not be attending the dinner. His office intriguingly added: "The ambassador said it would be up to you to decide whether you would attend or not."
My Indian friends in Geneva, who had also received the invitation, told me they had received a similar intriguing message from the ambassador's office.
I rang the ambassador and asked him what happened. He replied: "You were right. The old man blew up when I told him I had accepted an invitation from the Hindujas on his behalf and asked me to cancel the dinner. I couldn't cancel the dinner since the Hindujas are the hosts. So, I asked my office to tell all Indian invitees about it and say it was up to them to decide whether they would attend or not -- in view of the minister's decision not to attend."
I did not. I was told most of the Indian invitees dropped out. The guests at the dinner were mainly foreigners. Even though the Hindujas told the guests that the minister was unwell, they all guessed it must have been due to Bofors.
Bhagat went up in my estimation.
Another Indian leader who spurned the Hindujas was V P Singh, commerce minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet. This was long before the Bofors bombshell. Singh used to visit Geneva often to attend General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade meetings.
Once, the Hinduja brother living in Geneva came to know of the hotel where Singh was staying and tried to contact him over the phone in order to invite him for dinner. Singh refused to take the call and pulled up the Indian diplomatic mission for telling the Hindujas which hotel he was staying in.
They did not have to tell him. The Hinduja brothers were much better informed of the comings and goings between New Delhi and Europe than any Indian diplomat. Often, the Indian diplomats got the first inkling of the intended travel programmes of our political leaders from the Hindujas.
I came into the investigation peripherally when the Joint Parliamentary Committee to enquire into the Bofors scandal sent a team of senior officials from the CBI, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and other agencies to Europe to make field enquiries on behalf of the JPC.
'Fresh freeze on Q's accounts will take time'
I received a request from New Delhi to help the team in any way I can in view of my supposed knowledge of Europe.
I received only two requests from the team. The first was to have an informal meeting with persons figuring on a list of possible witnesses, which had been given to them by the Prime Minister's Office, and report to them on my impressions of them before they formally met them for recording their statements.
They formally met only those whom I said had no knowledge or denied the allegations. They refrained from meeting those who, I said, seemed to have some knowledge.
The second request was to check the addresses of some people, which had been given to them by the PMO. I did not find anybody by those names in the addresses given by them. But I did find them in other addresses. When I gave the correct addresses to the team, they did not try to go there and meet them. They said the instruction to them was only to meet them in the addresses given to them.
I got the impression that the team was unhappy that I took some initiative to find out their correct addresses. They informed Delhi that no persons by those names were found in the addresses given to them, without mentioning that I had traced them in other addresses.
Not all journalists covered themselves with glory. I know of some who did excellent investigative reporting. I know of others who helped the government in the cover-up and in discrediting V P Singh. A journalist of a leading national daily let himself be used by the PMO in the psywar to have
V P Singh discredited through the so-called St Kitts' affair.
Even the hands of V P Singh were not as clean as he would have liked the nation to believe. He and some of his close advisors like Vinod Pande, his Cabinet secretary, did not hesitate to stoop to questionable means in order to have the credibility of Rajiv Gandhi and his family damaged when he was the prime minister.
Pandey did something which I considered highly objectionable. He ordered the hiring of the services of a West German private detective by an Indian agency to make enquiries about the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi and his family in the Bofors scandal.
Imagine the prime minister of India or his chief adviser hiring a foreign private detective to enquire about his leader of the Opposition and his family. Had an American president or his aides done a similar thing, knowledge of it would have led to an impeachment.
Many of the reports carried by sections of the media after V P Singh became prime minister about the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi and his family in the scandal were based on information collected by this West German detective and passed on by Pandey to journalists close to him.
I found it difficult to believe that Pandey could have done all this without the knowledge, if not the approval, of his prime minister.
The Bofors saga goes on like a Greek tragedy -- never ending, with the audience watching excitedly though knowing there would be no end to this tragedy.
National scandals bring out the best and the worst in a nation. We saw it in the United States' Watergate. It brought out the worst in American society. And also the best.
The Bofors saga has brought out only the worst in our society, our political class and our bureaucracy so far, despite 19 years of the drama.
Source: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/18guesta.htm
I have never been involved in the investigation of the Bofors case. I have never had -- and do not have even now -- much inside knowledge of the goings-on in L'Affaire Bofors.
What then is my qualification for having the pretension to write this article? I happened to be living in Europe when the Bofors bombshell struck New Delhi one evening atn the beginning of 1987, triggering off a panic meeting convened by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi late in the night after dinner to discuss damage control.
The meeting was attended, amongst others, by the then heads of the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation, the acting head of the Research and Analysis Wing -- since its head was out of New Delhi on tour -- and some of Rajiv Gandhi's close political and bureaucratic advisors.
The meeting claimed its first victim shortly after the bombshell. The acting head of RAW, who had already been designated by Rajiv Gandhi before the bombshell to take over as its head on the retirement of the then head, found himself shifted out to another organisation for having been unaware of the coming bombshell.
I continued living in Europe for nearly two years after the bombshell and had the opportunity now and then of observing from close quarters the comings and goings between India and Europe of investigators, crisis managers, damage control experts, political leaders, journalists and many others, who took a benign or malign interest in the scandal and its cover-up.
CBI may quiz Quattrocchi in Italy
Immediately after the first news of the scandal came out of Stockholm, I was asked from New Delhi what I thought of it and whether I had any advice to give.
I said, "I don't know Sweden. I have never been there. I have no contacts there. But, I understand the people who are making the allegations enjoy a high level of credibility there in governmental and non-governmental circles. Take them seriously. Don't try to discredit them through disinformation."
Unfortunately, that was exactly what the Government of India did.
Its damage control strategy had two tracks. First, overtly give the impression of taking the allegations seriously and investigating them thoroughly. The law should take its own course, as every lawbreaker is fond of saying and then preventing just that.
Second, covertly try to discredit those disseminating the allegations in India and abroad through disinformation and dirty tricks.
Even now, after nearly 19 years, this is what the government led by Dr Manmohan Singh seems to be doing.
The famous Hinduja brothers played an active role in the pursuit of both tracks. They were suspects in the case and yet managed to emerge as discreet advisors of the CBI on how to investigate the case and of the Prime Minister's Office as to how to control the political damage.
How many times senior CBI officials visited Geneva, London and Stockholm for secret confabulations with the Hindujas and their high-level European contacts.
Just who is Ottavio Quattrocchi?
The Hinduja brothers were and continue to be fascinating personalities. No other Indian origin business family abroad has done so much for India and in the process for itself.
They had one working principle in life -- never put all your eggs in the same basket.
How close they were to the Shah of Iran and his family and how close they are to the Iranian ayatollahs. How close they were to the Democratic Party in the US and how close they are to the Republicans. How close they were to Margaret Thatcher and John Major and how close they are to Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, who takes their advice for buying saris! How close they were to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and how close they equally are to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jyoti Basu.
Their annual Diwali receptions hosted in London and Geneva have to be seen to be believed. There, you meet everybody who is somebody in India and Europe.
Major political parties in India and the UK consider it to be in their interest to depute someone to attend these receptions on their behalf.
When the Hindujas hosted one of the Diwali receptions in 1987, P V Narasimha Rao, then a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, was in Europe. The Hindujas were keen he should attend. Because of the raging controversy over Bofors, Rao declined. Prompt came the instructions to him from the PMO to attend, since the Hinduja brothers were supposedly helpful in the investigation of the Bofors case.
Another fact witnessed while living in Europe was that many political leaders, bureaucrats and others had no qualms in accepting not only the Hindujas' invitations for fabulous parties, but also other facilities such as free hotel rooms for themselves or their families, limousines for sightseeing, etc.
Sheela Bhatt: This is not about Bofors
Some memories of the Hindujas and our political leaders: They hosted then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah during a visit paid by him to Geneva at the height of the Bofors controversy.
An official accompanying him advised him not to accept their hospitality because of Bofors. 'It might be raised in the state assembly,' he whispered into Dr Abdullah's ears.
'So what?' replied Dr Abdullah loudly. 'Let it be raised. I will admit it. I have known them for years. I am not going to avoid them just because of this scandal.'
After the bombshell exploded, R Venkataraman, then the President of India, visited Geneva and Berne, the Swiss capital, to inaugurate an Indian cultural festival. One of the Hinduja brothers rang up the Indian diplomatic mission in Geneva and said the President's office had requested him to arrange a discreet check-up of the President by a ear expert in Switzerland.
He wanted the Indian mission to provide a time slot for this in the President's programme without indicating that the timeslot was for a medical check-up.
Pritish Nandy: The Hindujas again!
A senior diplomat of the mission sent a message to the President's office for confirmation of what the Hinduja brother had said. Prompt came a phone call from the President's office strongly denying any such request to the Hindujas.
Another phone call went to the Hindujas pulling them up for mentioning this to the Indian mission in Geneva.
They organised a check-up at Berne without the Indian mission's knowledge.
H K L Bhagat, then the minister for parliamentary affairs in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet, visited Geneva to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The wife of the head of the Indian mission was away in India. His servant was not available. So, he requested the Hinduja brother living in Geneva to host a dinner for the minister and invite senior political personalities from Geneva and Berne as well as senior diplomats of the Indian mission and members of an important Indian delegation, which was in Geneva to attend a UN meeting.
The Hinduja brother happily agreed and invitations were issued. I was one of those invited.
In view of the Bofors scandal, I was surprised the minister accepted the invitation. I rang up the ambassador and asked him how Bhagat accepted the invitation. The ambassador replied: "I have not yet informed him about the Hinduja dinner. I will tell him after his arrival."
'CBI playing neutral role'
"Won't the minister be angry that you asked the Hindujas to host this dinner without consulting him?" I asked.
Prompt came the reply from the ambassador: "No, no. I know our politicians. They like to wallow in the house of the Hindujas."
A couple of hours later, after Bhagat arrived, I got a call from the office of the ambassador stating that Bhagat would not be attending the dinner. His office intriguingly added: "The ambassador said it would be up to you to decide whether you would attend or not."
My Indian friends in Geneva, who had also received the invitation, told me they had received a similar intriguing message from the ambassador's office.
I rang the ambassador and asked him what happened. He replied: "You were right. The old man blew up when I told him I had accepted an invitation from the Hindujas on his behalf and asked me to cancel the dinner. I couldn't cancel the dinner since the Hindujas are the hosts. So, I asked my office to tell all Indian invitees about it and say it was up to them to decide whether they would attend or not -- in view of the minister's decision not to attend."
I did not. I was told most of the Indian invitees dropped out. The guests at the dinner were mainly foreigners. Even though the Hindujas told the guests that the minister was unwell, they all guessed it must have been due to Bofors.
Bhagat went up in my estimation.
Another Indian leader who spurned the Hindujas was V P Singh, commerce minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet. This was long before the Bofors bombshell. Singh used to visit Geneva often to attend General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade meetings.
Once, the Hinduja brother living in Geneva came to know of the hotel where Singh was staying and tried to contact him over the phone in order to invite him for dinner. Singh refused to take the call and pulled up the Indian diplomatic mission for telling the Hindujas which hotel he was staying in.
They did not have to tell him. The Hinduja brothers were much better informed of the comings and goings between New Delhi and Europe than any Indian diplomat. Often, the Indian diplomats got the first inkling of the intended travel programmes of our political leaders from the Hindujas.
I came into the investigation peripherally when the Joint Parliamentary Committee to enquire into the Bofors scandal sent a team of senior officials from the CBI, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and other agencies to Europe to make field enquiries on behalf of the JPC.
'Fresh freeze on Q's accounts will take time'
I received a request from New Delhi to help the team in any way I can in view of my supposed knowledge of Europe.
I received only two requests from the team. The first was to have an informal meeting with persons figuring on a list of possible witnesses, which had been given to them by the Prime Minister's Office, and report to them on my impressions of them before they formally met them for recording their statements.
They formally met only those whom I said had no knowledge or denied the allegations. They refrained from meeting those who, I said, seemed to have some knowledge.
The second request was to check the addresses of some people, which had been given to them by the PMO. I did not find anybody by those names in the addresses given by them. But I did find them in other addresses. When I gave the correct addresses to the team, they did not try to go there and meet them. They said the instruction to them was only to meet them in the addresses given to them.
I got the impression that the team was unhappy that I took some initiative to find out their correct addresses. They informed Delhi that no persons by those names were found in the addresses given to them, without mentioning that I had traced them in other addresses.
Not all journalists covered themselves with glory. I know of some who did excellent investigative reporting. I know of others who helped the government in the cover-up and in discrediting V P Singh. A journalist of a leading national daily let himself be used by the PMO in the psywar to have
V P Singh discredited through the so-called St Kitts' affair.
Even the hands of V P Singh were not as clean as he would have liked the nation to believe. He and some of his close advisors like Vinod Pande, his Cabinet secretary, did not hesitate to stoop to questionable means in order to have the credibility of Rajiv Gandhi and his family damaged when he was the prime minister.
Pandey did something which I considered highly objectionable. He ordered the hiring of the services of a West German private detective by an Indian agency to make enquiries about the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi and his family in the Bofors scandal.
Imagine the prime minister of India or his chief adviser hiring a foreign private detective to enquire about his leader of the Opposition and his family. Had an American president or his aides done a similar thing, knowledge of it would have led to an impeachment.
Many of the reports carried by sections of the media after V P Singh became prime minister about the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi and his family in the scandal were based on information collected by this West German detective and passed on by Pandey to journalists close to him.
I found it difficult to believe that Pandey could have done all this without the knowledge, if not the approval, of his prime minister.
The Bofors saga goes on like a Greek tragedy -- never ending, with the audience watching excitedly though knowing there would be no end to this tragedy.
National scandals bring out the best and the worst in a nation. We saw it in the United States' Watergate. It brought out the worst in American society. And also the best.
The Bofors saga has brought out only the worst in our society, our political class and our bureaucracy so far, despite 19 years of the drama.
Source: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/18guesta.htm
SONIA GANDHI IS THE MODERN ROBERT CLIVE
The bottom line observed in Sonia’s mindset is that she can disregard Indian laws with impunity. If cornered or if she becomes vulnerable to prosecution, she can always run back to Italy. In Peru, President Fujimori who all along claimed to be “born Peruvian”, when faced with a corruption charge fled to Japan with his loot and reclaimed his Japanese citizenship. That is Sonia’s bottom line fall-back option too. In 1977, when the Janata Party defeated the Congress at the polls, and formed the government, it widely known and published that Sonia with her two children abandoned Indira Gandhi, and ran to the Italian Embassy in New Delhi and hid there. Rajiv Gandhi was a government servant then[as an Indian Airlines pilot], but he too tagged along and hid in that foreign embassy ! Such was her baneful influence on him. Rajiv did snap out Sonia’s influence after 1989, but alas he was assassinated before he could rectify the situation. Those close to Rajiv knew that he was planning set things right about Sonia after the 1991 elections. He held her to blame for all the financial scandals that led to his defeat at the 1989 polls. She knew of it too because he had told her on his trip to Soviet Union in February 1991. Ever wonder why Sonia’s closest advisers are those whom Rajiv literally hated? Ambika Soni is one such name. Ever wonder why she has asked the President of India to set aside on a mercy petition the Supreme Court judgment directing that Rajiv Gandhi’s LTTE killers be hanged, when she was not similiarly moved for Satwant Singh who killed Indira Gandhi or even recently for Dhanajoy Chattopadhyaya ? The explanation for this special consideration for the LTTE perhaps lies in what Rajiv had told her about their future. May be therefore Sonia feels obliged to the LTTE for the assassination. More on this later. Those who have no love for India will not hesitate to plunder her treasures. Mohammed Ghori, Nadir Shah, and the British scum in the East India Company such as Robert Clive, made no secret of it. But Sonia Gandhi has been more discreet, but as greedy, in her looting of Indian treasures. When Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were Prime Ministers, not a day passed when the PM’s security did not go to the New Delhi, or Chennai international airport to send crates and crates of Indian antiques and other treasures, unchecked by customs, to Rome. Air India and Alitalia were the chosen carriers. For organizing all this, Mr. Arjun Singh first as CM, later as Union Minister in charge of Culture, was her hatchet man. Indian temple sculpture of gods and goddesses, antiques, pichwai paintings, shatoosh shawls, coins, and you name it, were transported to Italy to be first displayed in two shops [see Annexure-16] owned by her sister, Anuskha alias Alessandra Maino Vinci. These shops located in blue-collar areas of Rivolta[shop name: Etnica] and Orbassano [shop name: Ganpati] did little business because which blue collar Italian wants to buy Indian antiques ? The shops were there to make false bills, and thereafter these treasures were taken to London for auction by Sotheby’s and Christies. Some of this ill-gotten money from auction went into the bank accounts of Rahul Gandhi in the National Westminister Bank and Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, London branches, but most of it found it’s way into the Gandhi family account in the Bank of America in Cayman Islands. Rahul’s expenses and tuition fees for the one year he was at Harvard, was paid from that Cayman Island account [see Annexures-17]. What kind of people are these Gandhi-Mainos that bite the very hand of Bharat Mata that fed them and gave them a good life? How can the nation trust or tolerate such greedy thieves of national treasures? Since I failed to persuade the Vajpayee government to defend India’s treasures from plunder by the Mainos, I approached the Delhi High Court in a PIL. The first Bench of the court issued notice to the Government, but since the Indian government dragged it’s feet, the Court directed the CBI to seek Interpol’s and Italian government’s help. The Italian government justifiably asked for a Letter Rogatory for which a FIR is a pre-requisite. But the Interpol did oblige and submitted two voluminous reports on the shops which the Court directed the CBI to hand over to me. But CBI has so far refused, and has claimed privilege! This question will be argued out at the next hearing of my PIL. The CBI has also been caught lying in court by telling the judges that Alessandra Maino is a name of a man, and Via Bellini 14, Orbassano is a name of a village[not the street address of the Maino’s residence]. Although the CBI counsel had to apologise later to the court stating he had made a mistake, he has been promoted to Additional Solicitor General by the new government! Why was he appointed as the CBI’s counsel by the Vajpayee government in the first place? The Vajpayee-Sonia mutual assistance pact is thus in full view in this episode. But the most sinister aspect of Sonia Gandhi’s links is her connection with terrorists. I am still working on it, but she has had long connection with the Habash group of Palestinians [PFLP], and has funded Palestinian families that lost their kith and kin in a suicide bombing or hijacking episode. This fact, Rajiv Gandhi himself told me and was confirmed to me [the funding aspect] by Yassir Arafat when I met him in Tunis on October 17, 1990 at the request of Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv and I were good friends from 1978, but became very close friends after V.P. Singh had betrayed him in 1987. We met practically every day, mostly in the early hours from 1AM to 4AM, discussed, chatted and gossiped on every topic. It was at my suggestion that Rajiv made Chandrashekhar the PM. And contrary to public impression, he was not mainly responsible for fall of Chandrashekar government[of which I was a Minister]. Besides the Palestinian extremists, the Maino family have had extensive business dealings with Saddam Hussein [see Annexure-18], and surprisingly since 1984 with the LTTE [“the Tamil Tigers”]. Sonia’s mother Paola Predebon Maino, and businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi are the main contacts with the Tigers. The mother used the LTTE for money laundering and Quattrocchi for selling weapons to earn commissions. Sonia’s conduit to the LTTE has been and is through Arjun Singh who uses Bangalore as the nodal point for contact. There is a string of circumstantial evidence pointing to the prima facie possibility that the Maino family may have contracted with the LTTE to kill Rajiv Gandhi. The family may have assured the LTTE that nothing would happen to them because they would ensure it is blamed on the Sikhs or the evidence so much fudged that no court would convict them[ the LTTE intercepted transcripts show this expectation of the LTTE]. But D.R. Karthikeyan of the CBI who led the SIT investigation got the support of Narasimha Rao, cracked the case, and succeeded in getting the LTTE convicted in the trial court, which conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1999. Although on the involvement of some members of the Congress Party in the assassination, DRK soft peddled it ignoring a number of leads perhaps because he did not want political controversy to put road blocks on his investigation as a whole. The Justice J. S. Verma Commission, which was set up as the last official act of the Chandrashekhar government before demitting office on June 21, 1991, did find that the Congress leaders had disrupted the security arrangements for the Sriperumbudur meeting. The Commission wanted further probe into it but the Rao government rejected that demand. In the meantime under Sonia’s pressure, the Jain Commission was set up by the Rao government, which tried to muddy the waters and thus exonerate the LTTE. But the trial court judgment convicting the LTTE came earlier than the Commission could conclude, and that sinister effort therefore too failed. Nowadays, Sonia is quite unabashed in having political alliance with those who like MDMK, PMK, and DMK praise Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. No Indian widow would ever do that. Such circumstances are many, and raise a doubt. My investigations into Sonia’s involvement in Rajiv’s assassination is therefore necessary. I am also author of a best seller titled Assassination Of Rajiv Gandhi—Unasked Questions and Unanswered Queries[published by Konark in 2000] in which I have given some indications of this possible conspiracy. Is it not significant that the political career graph of Sonia Gandhi advances concomitantly with a series of assassinations and apparently accidental deaths? How did Sanjay’s plane on June 23, 1980 nosedive to a crash and yet the plane fuselage failed to explode upon impact? There was no fuel ! How was that possible since flight register shows full tank before take-off ? Why was there no inquiry conducted ? Is it not a fact that Indira Gandhi died because of loss of blood from the wounds and not directly due to a bullet impacting her head or heart ? Then is it not strange that Sonia had insisted that the bleeding Indira be driven to Lohia Hospital-- in the opposite direction to AIIMS which had a contingency protocol set up for precisely such an event ? And after reaching Lohia Hospital, did not Sonia change her mind and demand that they all drive to AIIMS thus losing 24 valuable minutes ? The same kind of mystery surrounds the sudden deaths of Sonia’s other political roadblocks such as Rajesh Pilot, Jitendra Prasad, and Madhavrao Scindia. Such untimely deaths happened in the dark ages in Italy. Should we allow it to happen in India like dumb cattle going to slaughter? |
A 'M K Hussain' of Tamilnadu
V. Sundaram
M F Hussain is known for his slandering of Hinduism through his nude paintings of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. M Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, is trying to match the splendid Hindu-hating performance of M F Hussain through his classical Tamil words.
The Hindus of India in determined unison would like to salute the Janata Party President Dr Subramanian Swamy for having made a public declaration at a recent press meet that he would launch a massive agitation against Chief Minister M Karunanidhi if he failed to publicly apologize for the 'vulgar remarks' he recently made against the Hindu Gods and Deities.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu is well known for his Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating or Hindu-baiting stances and postures, often laced with either malicious or ludicrous statements from time to time during the past five decades. Dr Swamy has also declared that a temple for Lord Shiva should be built in the place of Santhome Church as the Christian Shrine there was erected after demolishing an old Shiva temple in the 16th century. Dr Swamy has pungently observed that Karunanidhi has brought shame and infamy to the exalted post of Chief Minister by making dirty statements on Hindu Deities, vaingloriously imagining that the Hindus of Tamilnadu are in stark minority in terms of numbers.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the sentiments, feelings and susceptibilities of millions of Hindus in majority in India have been wounded by Tamilnadu Chief Minister's 'civilized' observations on Hindu Gods and Deities. What is even more shocking is the fact that the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu seems to have a total contempt for the Indian Penal Code in letter and spirit.
Section 153 (A) Indian Penal Code (IPC) states
Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise promotes or attempts to promote on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities shall be punished with imprisonment.
The Hindus of Tamilnadu - numerically equal in number if not more than either the Muslims or Christians in contrived and absolute political majority (!!) would like to pose the following superstitious, irrational, obscurantist and totally devoid of self-respect (I mean in the ecstatic, Dravidian and poetic 'Suyamariyadhai' sense!) questions to the Honorable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu:
The great Periyar who was globally noted for his Himalayan and Herculean Scholarship in the field of Hate Hinduism and Hate Sanatana Dharma, came to the axiomatically eccentric conclusion that when he was attacking the Brahmins in particular, he was attacking Hinduism and Hindu way of life in general and when he was attacking Hinduism and Hindu way of life in particular, he was attacking Brahmins and Brahminism in general. As a gigantic intellectual of ever lasting fame, Periyar was steeped in self-chosen conceptual confusion. For him, every action that stemmed from conceptual confusion was rational and every action that stemmed from conceptual clarity was superstitious and irrational. Fortunately for the country, Periyar never held any public office. Karunanidhi is not in the same unenviable position as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. He is bound by the law of the Constitution and therefore cannot arrogate himself the rights of an Idi Amin in Uganda or Stalin in Soviet Russia or Hitler in Nazi Germany.
I happened to see the special Issue of Periyar Birthday Celebration-84 volume dated 17 September 1962. Periyar wanted the total eradication of everyone around him everywhere, perhaps, excepting himself. To quote the militant words of Periyar in this context: 'If there has to be disciplined awakening among the people, cinema should be eradicated. If justice and rectitude has to be established, Vakil (advocate) system should be eradicated. If rascals have to be eradicated from the nation, media should be eradicated. If there has to be good governance and honesty, the election system should be eradicated.'
Deriving his inspiration from this ecstatic message of Periyar, it may not be too much to imagine that Karunanidhi may also like to declare that everybody other than himself and the members of his family should be eradicated in the larger interest of rationalism and social justice! The innocent Hindus of Tamilnadu would only beg of him to leave the Hindu Gods and Goddesses severely alone, even as he leaves Allah and Jesus Christ alone.!!
It is also heartening to note that all the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders as well as other Hindu leaders in the state have reacted strongly against Tamilnadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi speaking derisively about Hindu Gods and deities. They have also threatened to hold public agitations against Karunanidhi's 'obsessive running down of Hindu worship and traditional religious practices'.
Ramagopalan, the angry leader of the Hindu Munnani, has made one point abundantly clear. He has said: 'Ever since its formation, the DMK Government has been making a systematic effort to hurt Hindu sentiments. Karunanidhi takes immense pleasure in ridiculing Hindu gods, which is a direct assault on the religious sentiments of Hindus. The chief minister who does anything to appease the minorities has made it a habit of hurting Hindus. This just cannot be tolerated'.
I would like to invite the kind attention of Karunanidhi to the following inspiring words of Annie Besant (1847-1933) who showed a better understanding of Hinduism and what Sanatana Dharma stands for than Karunanidhi:
'After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect, none so scientific, none so philosophical and none so spiritual as that great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India's roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save it? If India's own children do not cling to her faith, who shall guard it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.'
All the Hindus of India fully endorse the stand taken by Annie Besant and reject with contempt the utterances of Karunanidhi on their time-honored religion and culture.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Who will answer to Mr. S. Gurumurthy
Sir, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singhji, Voters of India, are interested to know as to what are your comments on the Interview of Shri S. Gurumurthy?
Milap Choraria
‘In 5 years, Indians stashed Rs 688,000 cr illegally’
S Gurumurthy, the leading chartered accountant who is also the convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, is a member of the taskforce created by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani to bring back the black money stashed away in various banks outside India if the National Democratic Alliance is voted back to power.
The first report by the taskforce was released a few days ago. Other than Gurumurthy, those involved in the preparation of the report was former Intelligence Bureau director Ajit Kumar Doval, Dr R Vaidyanathan from the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalor e, and lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, the BJP candidate from the Mumbai North-Central constituency.
In this exclusive interview with Shobha Warrier, Gurumurthy discusses tax havens, secret bank accounts and what the taskforce’s plans are.
You are part of the taskforce created to bring black money back from secret bank accounts abroad. The BJP has made it an election issue. Were you instrumental in getting Mr Advani to take up the issue?
This is a subject I have been working on since 1986. In fact, I was even arrested because I was trying to dig into the secret accounts of the Gandhi family. I have always been talking to many politicians on this subject; I had also spoken to the BJP.
At that time, it was more ideal to work on it than anything practical. It is not that India on its own can prevent global black money being generated, because there are countries which help the generation of black money by their laws, and Switzerland is the most important of them.
These countries provide secrecy, and anybody can go and deposit money incognito. Their laws prohibit the disclosure of names. Only rarely, where you can link the money to corruption or drugs, is it possible to trace the flight of capital. For that, they have treaties with different countries, including with India . But you need to know the name of the criminal and his account number to ask for the details.
It has always been a question on the minds of the Indian people and also those keen on establishing the amount of money that has gone there, but there was no proper estimate. But this has always been a topic of debate in the minds of those who are interested in the country.
Why did the BJP decide to take it up as an issue now?
It is essentially because of the turn in the Western nations’ approach to secret banking due to the economic crisis in the West. The West began feeling the pinch of secret banking. They felt that the financial system is getting destabilised because of the generation of black money.
Black money in the West is not as much flight of capital as it is evasion of taxes. In India , it is both black money and flight of capital.
Were the recent developments in Germany , with its authorities asking for the secret names, the turning point?
The Germans took the step of bribing a bank official of the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein by paying $6 million. They got a secret CD containing 1,500 names of people who have stashed away money, and nearly 500, 600 of these were Germans. They acted against them, which included the head of the German postal system.
Then they told the entire world that anyone could ask for the names and if the names of those countries’ nationals were there, they would part with it free of cost. All the countries made a request, but not India . So, Advaniji wrote a letter in April last year, but an evasive reply was given.
Three other things also happened. One, after Germany acted very powerfully, there was a big diplomatic row between Liechtenstein and Germany . Liechtenstein is a place from where secret trusts are created and monies are deposited into Switzerland . It is a principality.
Then, Germany took up the issue in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’ s 17-nation platform ( Switzerland is one of them) and asked for blacklisting and sanctions against Switzerland . France also joined Germany . This happened some time in October last year.
Switzerland did not know what to do then and they began lobbying. France and Germany then took it to the G-20 preparatory meeting. They said at the G-20 meeting on April 2 that they were asking for blacklisting of and sanctions against Switzerland and all those countries that were not cooperating.
So that was why Mr Advani wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to raise the issue at the G20 meet?
At that time Advaniji felt as the PM was attending the April 2 meeting, he should take up this issue. But our people remained silent at the G-20 preparatory meet.
See what India did. We didn’t forcefully ask the Germans to give us the particulars. When Germany and France took up the matter in the OECD, we didn’t welcome it. When they took up the matter in G-20 we did not support them or join them. So, from all this arose a big question, whether the government was at all interested in working against illicit Indian monies abroad. That is why Advaniji took up the matter. As the government did not take it up, the BJP had to take it up as an electoral issue.
The Congress said Mr Advani was lying…
It is like this: A theft has taken place, and you are arguing about how much has been stolen. Nobody denies the theft! Nobody denies the loot!
How much black money from India must be there in the secret Swiss accounts?
A global study was conducted by an expert, Raymond W Baker, which we have quoted in the report. He published a book in 2005,Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money And How To Renew The Free Market System.
After 2001, secret money became an issue of security. So America became worried about terror funding which takes place only through secret banking channels.
His book estimated the black money to be $11.5 trillion which is increasing at the rate of $1 trillion every year, out of which $500 billion is stolen from developing countries.
Is the report one of the reasons why the BJP decided to raise the issue?That alone would not have helped. The change in the economic situation made the Western countries try to break banking secrecy. That was the most important point. US President Obama has proposed a law to break the secrecy. Like I said earlier, you have to join forces at the global level as the battle needs to be fought at the global level. That is the reason why the BJP decided to take it up.
The GFI study only indicated the magnitude of the problem. It says between 2002 and 2006, the amount of money stashed away from India would be on an average $27 billion a year and totally about $137.5 billion which is equal to Rs 688,000 crores in just five years. So, the fact of the loot can never be disputed.
What the Congress is trying to do is to dispute the maths of the issue. The fact is, whatever be the amount, it is very big.
Why do you think the Congress is not taking up the issue?
Obviously, a large part of it must be Congressmen’ s money, they have ruled the country for 50 years. Why did Sonia Gandhi not speak on this subject? She is said to be a close friend of Ottavio Quattrocchi and it has been established that he had received bribe money from Bofors through secret banking systems and tax havens. The Central Bureau of Investigation successfully traced the money and kept it frozen. He was allowed to leave India first and then take the money back.
I believe the lead family of the Congress party is a suspect in the matter of foreign money and that is why the family doesn’t want the banks’ secrecy to be unveiled.
Their friends are the only people who have been caught so far. No other Indian has been caught except the people associated with the Gandhi family in the Bofors scandal.
What are the taskforce’s plans?
First, he (Advani) wanted us to find out what the global position was. That is the first report we gave. We have said it is doable if we work on an appropriate strategy. We have to also generate a national consensus and arouse a high level of consciousness among the people about the issue.
Is that the reason why a survey was conducted in Gujarat on black money in secret bank accounts?
Yes, the BJP wants to make people to proactively think and participate in the campaign.
You are talking about huge sums of money. If at all we manage to bring it back to India , what do you say India should do with it?
Even if 25 per cent of what they are talking about comes back, India ‘s rating will go up because it’s our own money and not borrowed money. It can transform the economic personality of the nation.
The BJP manifesto says if the money comes back, it will be used for fundamental purposes like rural roads, schools, poverty alleviation and things like that. It will be used for social causes and not building airports.
Will the current global recession make people look at globalisation from a different perspective?
Capitalism will undergo a lot of changes because today’s capitalism is not what Adam Smith conceived or Karl Marx opposed. Today, capitalists are not the people who handle capital; it’s the professionals. It’s somebody else’s money that the professionals are handling. So, it is not capitalist’s capitalism; it’s professionals’ capitalism.
Now, a further change that has taken place is, it is not actual money, but virtual money that is being used. Imaginary money has been created by brain power and that is put to use as real power. That is the crisis today.
This kind of capitalism will be gone and the original capitalism where ‘I look after my wealth’ will come back again. That is good for the world. This other man’s money I handle which has promoted the expenditure- driven market mechanism is a product of neo-capitalism.
Banking secrecy was considered one of the virtues of capitalism. Now, they call it an evil! This is the U-turn in one year!
In one of your earlier interviews, you told rediff.com that globalisation was not sustainable.
Who is talking about globalisation today? Today, it’s just not environmentally, ecologically and culturally sustainable. I have always maintained that it was not economically sustainable, because it is contrary to the very meaning and definition of economics which is associated with frugality.
It is an executive class economics different from the economy class which brings out the difference between economics and excessiveness.
Moreover, globalisation disregards the existence of countries; they talk about a global society, global rule, global citizens, global villages, etc. It was an absolutely idealistic idiosyncrasy. That is gone.
Who is talking about the WTO? I told you long ago that the WTO will not last. If you create an artificial structure, it will not stand. People in different parts of the world have their own models of living; you cannot homogenise them, make them wear the same dress, eat the same food, or see the same cinema or have the same goals. This is what West-centric globalisation attempted, and got the first taste of it in the last four, five years.
Will people start thinking in terms of swadeshi?
People will be more conscious of their surroundings, their people, their family and their society first, and not the distant world.
The distant world is good for a visit, but not for domicile.
Source: http://aconcernedandawakecitizen.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/who-will-answer-to-mr-s-gurumurthy/
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