Friday, June 27, 2014

Muzzafarnagar repeated in Mewat - Haryana

It’s late in the evening and I am at the house of the local Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh head, a respected doctor, in Tauru town of Mewat district in Haryana. The market outside is shut, even though curfew has been lifted. Scattered huddles of men sitting outside closed shutters talk softly among themselves. The town has been wracked by communal violence and Hindu shopkeepers are unwilling to open the market until the administration apprehends the culprits and seizes the weapons with which they were attacked on June 8. A clutch of RSS supporters explain their point of view as I wait for the doctor to come. Slowly, they leave one by one; the doctor has still not come. “You won’t get anymore than what we have told you,” one man says. I realise that the good doctor will remain elusive.
The next communal flashpoint?
Earlier, in another part of the town, a group of Muslims, worrying over the rabble-rousing activities of their Muslim leaders, said that this is the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections as the Meo-Muslim belt of Haryana voted en masse on religious lines. “The Indian National Lok Dal’s Muslim candidate, who polled more than two lakh votes from the three Muslim-dominated Assembly segments of Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, is now instigating Muslims in the villages by telling them that they are wearing bangles like women,” says Ramzan Chaudhary, a social activist.
Even when the worst of communal conflagrations rocked the country, Mewat (or the land of Meos), spreading across Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, remained an island of harmony. But that was before manufactured communal polarisation came to be seen as a shortcut to political power.
A few days ago, a routine road accident in which a Hindu boy was killed led to a riot. The unrest was further fuelled by false rumours of the deaths of two Muslims, who were beaten up in retaliatory action. In the ensuing mayhem, a mosque was burnt and shops were broken and looted. Muslims fired upon Hindus in Tauru market, which remained shut for more than a week. Those who were taken aback by the fury and speed with which the communal hatred spread are beginning to understand why an end to the tension is not likely anytime soon. Indeed, as Assembly elections approach in Haryana, this area — densely populated by Sunni Muslims — has become particularly vulnerable, leading to speculation about how this could be the next communal flashpoint after Muzaffarnagar. Two things took place immediately after the clashes. First, as soon as curfew was imposed, the Deputy Commissioner forbade any elected MLA or MP from visiting Tauru town and imposed Section 144.
Second, when leaders arranged to meet the affected people in villages around the town, they only met with people of their own community. Just as Gurgaon MP and Union Minister Rao Inderjit and State BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma met a group of Hindus in Pathrehri village some seven kilometres from the town, Zakir Hussain of the INLD and other Mulsim leaders are visiting only people from their community. A comment reportedly made by a BJP leader to Hindus — “Tension lene ka nahin, tension dene ka waqt aa gaya hai” (It’s not time to be tensed, it is time to spread tension) — is being repeated in both Muslim and Hindu circles of the area.
Aam Aadmi Party party leader Yogendra Yadav, who lost the election from Gurgaon, is the only politician who could be seen moving from house to house in Tauru, meeting members of both the communities. “It is a sad commentary on the nature of politics today that politicians are seen as part of the problem and are being asked to stay away,” Mr. Yadav says. “What faith can the elected representatives inspire when they are not reaching out to members of both the communities?”
Tauru town is largely Hindu-dominated, but is surrounded by Muslim villages. Scratch the hatred on the surface and Muslims proudly point at Hindu women from the town walking to Muslim villages to get their daily quota of milk. “We have always co-existed in peace; even the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 did not affect our ties,” says Mr. Chaudhary. Hindus and Muslims fought together against the British during the revolt of 1857. There was no communal violence during the Partition either. The region has a common cultural legacy. Till a few years ago, Meos used to celebrate festivals like Dussehra, Holi and Diwali. Some of the older people in the town can still sing folk songs associated with these Hindu festivals. Mr. Chaudhary points out, “We are all converts. Meos, like the Hindus, follow the gotra system while fixing matrimonial alliances.”
Deployment of forces
Advocate Hashim Khan is categorical when he says that the “violence has been orchestrated by Hindutva elements to polarise the situation in the run-up to the Assembly election.” However, Tek Chand Saini, a trader, points to the sense of security provided to them by central forces, deployed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. “It is only because of the BJP government at the Centre that we have some security now. The local administration has no answer as to how the Muslim villagers were in possession of hundreds of illegal weapons. Crime has gone up manifold. The police never registers a case when we complain of thefts by unemployed Muslims.”
The Deputy Commissioner of Mewat district that has six Muslim-dominated blocks has sought permanent deployment of central forces in the district in view of the coming Assembly elections. While that may have a salutary effect on the troublemakers and help prevent overt violence, everyone is unanimous in predicting that the subterranean chasms sought to be created in this fragile society will widen in the coming days.
The BJP is repeating in Haryana, what it did in UP where it reaped rich dividends because of the communal riots.
When will the people see through the BJP game plan.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The BJP wants a committed Judiciary, just like the Congress Party

Given below is the statement issued by Mr Shanti Bhushan, one of India's seniormost lawyers, former union law minister and Aam Aadmi Party's founder, on the issue of Mr Gopal Subramaniam, withdrawing his name from the list of those who were recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment as a Supreme Court Judge :

BJP's attempt to compromise the independence of the judiciary :

The letter of Gopal Subramaniam to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) withdrawing his consent for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court has created quite a furore in the country.People are getting reminded of 1973 when Indira Gandhi directed Mohan Kumaramangalam to take steps to have a committed judiciary.
It is quite clear that the CBI and the IB have been induced to do a hatchet job for the BJP which was angry with Gopal Subramaniam as an Amicus appointed by the Supreme Court for taking a tough stand in the Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases, in which Amit Shah the blue eyed boy of Narendra Modi has been chargesheeted.

The BJP has always insisted that the CBI was always a tool of the congress government. We had also seen this repeatedly in the corruption cases against Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav. The CBI and the IB have raised two questions about the suitability of Subramaniam.

The first reason given by the government for opposing Subramaniam's appointment is ridiculous. The government says that a conversation between Radia and some third person shows Subramaniam in a poor light. On the contrary, the conversation between Radia and Ratan Tata where his name is mentioned shows him in a very favourable light, since Radia says "I am not sure that he (Subramaniam) will agree to what they say. He is an upright person. I think Raja will be trying to get the AG (Vahanvati)".

In fact, the Radia tapes contain a deadly conversation between Radia and the former Finance Secretary N.K. Singh who was then a member of the Rajya Sabha and is now a prominent member of the BJP is found acting as an agent of Mukesh Ambani and conspiring with her about how to get a provision introduced in the Finance Bill to give a retrospective Tax concession to Mukesh Ambanis's company passed. He tells Radia about how he has managed to get the BJP leadership to replace Arun Shourie who was going to oppose the bill, by Venkaiah Naidu (former President of the BJP), who was found to be close to the Reliance President and who was told to support this bill. Arun Shourie in his interview with Karan Thapar confirmed the truth of these events. Instead of taking action against those in the BJP leadership who are caught in the Radia tapes as being agents of Ambani, the government has targeted an independent lawyer by using the bogey of his name being merely mentioned in the Radia tapes.

So far as the other reason given by the government is concerned, ie meeting the lawyer of Raja in his chamber, I do not think that there is anything unprofessional in such a meeting in the presence of CBI officers. An allegation of this type is absurd.

I have observed the career of Subramaniam since the beginning with considerable intellect and I have found him to have the highest professional rectitude, a keen interest and a capacity for hard work. It is indeed unfortunate that the country has lost the opportunity of having a great judge in the Supreme Court and the BJP needs to be roundly condemned for this. If this government continues in this vein, they will have the same fate as Mrs. Gandhi's 1971 government.

Shanti Bhushan

Figures of Income given by political parties is a joke

Rs 991.20 crores: Total Income of National Parties during FY 2012-13

Only 10% from donations above Rs 20,000 of which Rs 11.14 crores from donors with no names and address

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed the IT returns and donations reports of the 6 National Parties submitted for the Financial Year 2012-13. Political parties are required to submit details of donations received above Rs 20,000 from all over India, to the Election Commission, annually. Parties provide details of the name, address, PAN, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000. 
  • This report, apart from analysing the total income and expenditure, analyses the contributions made by corporates and individuals above Rs 20,000 during FY 2012-13 to National Parties
  • The report looks into those donations where details of donors were not declared by the parties
  • It is seen that details of 703 donors were not declared in the donations statement, who had contributed a total of Rs 11.14 crores to the National Parties
  • BSP declared that the party received no donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2012-13 as it had declared since FY 2004-05.
        I.            Total income of political parties from all over India
  • The total income and expenditure of political parties is calculated from their IT returns filed with the Income Tax Department annually
  • The total income of National Parties for FY 2012-13 was Rs. 991.20 croresINC declared the highest total income of Rs. 425.69 crores, followed by BJP with Rs. 324.16 crores and BSP with a declared total income of Rs. 87.63 crores. NCP a declared total income of Rs. 26.56 crores, CPI, Rs. 1.07 crores and CPM declared a total income of Rs. 126.09 crores for FY 2012-13.
                                      Inline image 2
        II.            Number of donors contributing above Rs. 20,000 to political parties from all over India (FY 2012-13)
  • The total amount of donations received above Rs 20,000 by National Political parties during FY 2012-13 is calculated from the donations report submitted to the Election Commission annually
  •  The total donations above Rs 20,000 declared was Rs. 99.14 crores, from 3777 donors.
        III.            Top corporate donors to National Parties
       ·    INC: Torrent Power Ltd donated the maximum amount (Rs 3.50 crores) followed by Torrent Pharmaceuticals (Rs 1.50 crores) and             Hyderabad Industries Ltd (HIL) (Rs 50 lakhs). 
       ·  BJP General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 7.50 crores) followed by Lodha Dwellers             Pvt Ltd (Rs 6.99 crores) and Torrent Power (Rs 6.57 crores). 
       · CPI and CPM: CPI received a total of Rs 4.21 lakhs from organizations such as Bhartiya Khet Mazdoor Union and while CPM received a              total of Rs 1.43 crores from 29 corporate/ business houses.
        IV.            Undeclared Donors
        ·  The name and address of a total of 43 donors who contributed Rs 29 lakhs to the National Parties is undeclared in the                           statements submitted by the parties. Thus, these donations above Rs 20,000 cannot be traced to any individual, organization or a          trust. 
        ·   Similarly, the addresses of a total of 655 donors contributing Rs 10.84 crores to the National Parties have been left undeclared              in the statements submitted by the parties.
        V.            Sector-wise donations
      ·   Corporate/ business sector tops the list of contributions with 72% or Rs 70.97 crores to the National Parties followed by individual         donations with 17% or Rs 17.01 crores 
       ·  It is to be noted that 11% or Rs 11.14 crores was donated by those donors who cannot be traced by name or address
                                            Inline image 3
        VI.            Donors who have not declared details of PAN
     ·   A total of 2371 out of 3775 donors (or 63%) contributing Rs 37.64 crores to the National Parties have not declared their PAN details        in the contribution form. 
    ·   BJP has listed the maximum number of donors (1670) who have not declared their PAN while contributing a maximum of Rs 25.99         crores.

Recommendations of ADR 

For more details about the top sources of income of the National Parties, party-wise break up of undeclared donors, undeclared PAN details and mode of payment, please refer to the attached report, titled 'Analysis of income, expenditure and donations of National Parties - FY 2012-13'

Regards

Media and Journalist Helpline

+91 80103 94248
Maj. Gen (Retd.) Anil Verma
Head
National Election Watch, and
Association for Democratic Reforms
+91 11 4165 4200
+91 88264 79910
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar
IIM Ahmedabad
Founder Member
National Election Watch, Association for Democratic
Reforms
+91 99996 20944

Prof Trilochan Sastry
IIM Bangalore
Founder Member,
National Election Watch,
Association for Democratic Reforms
+91 94483 53285

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I think you will all agree that the figures given above are a joke which the Election Commission accepts. With the BJP purportedly having spent around Rs 10000 in the last elections, would anyone believe the above figure. But our gullible election Commission accepts it without a question.

53 MPs of the Lok Sabha face disqualification if convicted as per SC's 10th March judgement

Press Release

Analysis of Criminal Cases Declared by the newly-elected Lok Sabha MPs in view of the Supreme Court order dated 10th of March, 2014 


Detailed reports in English and Hindi + Press Note are attached with this mail

Summary and Highlights

The Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch have analysed the affidavits of 541 newly-elected Members of Parliament out of which 53 have declared criminal cases (where charges have been framed) under Section 8(1) and/or 8(3) of the RP Act. These MPs will face disqualification whereby the seat would be declared vacant if convicted. This includes Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Uma Bharti.
·          23 MPs out of these 53 MPs have been elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time.
·         Average pendency of the criminal cases declared by MPs under 8(1) and 8(3) of the RP Act is 10 years.
·         10 MPs have declared criminal cases where the charges have been framed which fall under Section 8(1) of the RP Act and who would face immediate disqualification if convicted.
The following 10 MPs have declared criminal cases where the charges have been framed which fall under both Section 8(1) and 8(3) of the RP Act:

S.No
Name of the MP
Party
Constituency
1
Brij Bhusan Sharan Singh
BJP
Kaiserganj
2
Mahesh Giri
BJP
East Delhi
3
Uma Bharti
BJP
Jhansi
4
Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi
BJP
Kanpur
5
Lal Krishna Advani
BJP
Gandhinagar
6
Nalin Kumar Katil
BJP
Dakshina Kannada
7
Suresh Angadi
BJP
Belgaum
8
Ganesh Singh
BJP
Satna
9
Shrimant Chh. Udayanraje Pratapsinha Bhonsale
NCP
Satara
10
Anbumani Ramadoss
Pattali Makkal Katchi
Dharmapuri

 MPs with Highest Number of declared criminal cases where charges have been framed which fall under Section 8(1) and/or 8(3) of the RP Act (the complete list is in the report):
S.No
Name
Party
Constituency
Total Cases
1
Rajesh Ranjan Urf Pappu Yadav
RJD
Madhepura
13
2
Shrimant Chh. Udayanraje Pratapsinha Bhonsale
NCP
Satara
6
3
P Karunakaran
CPI(M)
Kasaragod
6
4
Tathagata Satpathy
BJD
Dhenkanal
6
5
Adv.Joice George
IND
Idukki
4
6
P K Sreemathi
CPI(M)
Kannur
4


Party wise MPs with declared criminal cases where charges have been framed which fall under Section 8(1) and/or 8(3) of the RP Act:

Party
Number of MPs
BJP
24
Shiv Sena
5
AITC
4
AIADMK
3
RJD
3
CPI(M)
2
INC
1
JMM
1
LJP
1
NCP
1
Pattali Makkal Katchi
1
Revolutionary Socialist Party
1
BJD
1
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen
1
Swabhimani Paksha
1
TRS
1
IND
2
Total
53

First time Lok Sabha MPs with declared criminal cases where charges have been framed which fall under Section 8(1) and/or 8(3) of the RP Act:

S.No
Name
Party
State
Constituency
1
V.Sathyabama 
AIADMK 
Tamil Nadu
Tiruppur
2
Vijay Kumar Hansdak 
JMM
Jharkhand
Rajmahal
3
Ashwini Kumar
BJP
Haryana
Karnal
4
Jadhav Sanjay (Bandu) Haribhau
Shiv Sena
Maharashtra
Parbhani
5
Hari G
AIADMK 
Tamil Nadu
Arakkonam
6
P K Sreemathi
CPI(M)
Kerala
Kannur
7
Bhairon Prasad Mishra
BJP
Uttar Pradesh
Banda
8
Kunwer Sarvesh Kumar 
BJP
Uttar Pradesh
Moradabad
9
Naba Kumar Sarania 
IND
Assam
Kokrajhar
10
Saumitra Khan
AITC
West Bengal
Bishnupur
11
Parbhubhai Nagarbhai Vasava
BJP
Gujarat
Bardoli
12
Barne Shrirang Chandu 
Shiv Sena
Maharashtra
Maval
13
A.Arunmozhithevan
AIADMK 
Tamil Nadu
Cuddalore
14
B Sreeramulu
BJP
Karnataka
Bellary
15
Balka Suman
TRS
Andhra Pradesh
Peddapalle
16
Shewale Rahul Ramesh
Shiv Sena
Maharashtra
Mumbai South Central
17
Vinayak Bhaurao Raut
Shiv Sena
Maharashtra
Ratnagiri Sindhudurg
18
Lallu Singh
BJP
Uttar Pradesh
Faiz

The above is from ADR, Association for Democratic Rights.
An yet we chose these criminal MPs.
Why?
It is because of their money power and the support of the media.
The same media which cries hoarse of corruption in Public Life.
Just think.
The media is responsible for these criminal MPs being elected.