Busting the Malicious Myth that Nehru Awarded the Bharat Ratna to Himself

The legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first and longest-serving prime minister, has come under a systematic assault under the Narendra Modi government. The attack has been multi-faceted, ranging from an unsubstantiated revision of history to the spreading of disparaging myths and lies.

Sometimes, the attempt is to delete references to Nehru’s foundational contributions in the crucial years post independence, when India was at a fragile stage. For instance, in 2016, the new social science textbook for class VIII in Rajasthan – a BJP-ruled state – erased all references to Nehru, as if he had no role to play in India’s history. At other times, the strategy – especially by the troll brigade on social media – has been to spread lies invoking Nehru as the ‘fifth column’ harming the nation’s progress. In their imagination, Nehru becomes the ghost hindering the birth of a ‘new’ India.

This article seeks to bust one such lie. Social media is afloat with theories of Nehru awarding himself India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, during his term as the country’s prime minister by nominating himself for the same.

As a firm believer of scientific logic, Nehru urged Indians to imbibe argumentative abilities. Consistent with the invention of a new vocabulary to govern India that marked a fundamental discontinuity from the colonial rule, Nehru took a personal interest in inserting the term ‘scientific temper’ in India’s constitution. His efforts to promote critical thinking based on evidence and facts via higher secondary education testify to this pursuit of scientific temper. If we apply these values, we can see the untruth in the claim that he handed himself the Bharat Ratna.

The originating point of the controversy is the nomination process of the award. The practice of awarding the Bharat Ratna has been straightforward: The prime minister recommends the names to the president of India, who then accepts such nominations. But this process finds no mention in the official gazette notification of India dated January 2, 1954, which instituted the Bharat Ratna. An additional notification issued on January 15, 1955, to allow the honour to be awarded posthumously also did not mention its procedural aspect. Hence, the process under which the prime minister or the cabinet nominates names to the president to confer the Bharat Ratna is a convention and not the law of the land.

Before Nehru was decorated with the Bharat Ratna in July 1955, it had been awarded only on two occasions. On Independence Day in 1954, C. Rajagopalachari (India’s last governor-general, fondly called Rajaji), S. Radhakrishnan (a scholar of Indian philosophy par excellence who went on to become India’s second president) and C.V. Raman (a Nobel laureate in Physics) were awarded the Bharat Ratna whereas on the Republic Day of 1955, Bhagwan Das (an influential freedom fighter who helped to establish the Banaras Hindu University) and M. Visvesvaraya (the notable engineer and public thinker) received this honour.

On July 13, 1955, Nehru had returned from a successful tour of European countries and the Soviet Union, a tour aimed at the promotion of peace as the Cold War was rapidly escalating. Nehru’s efforts to establish India as a major player in word affairs found popular support outside India. On Nehru’s return to Delhi, the then president of India, Rajendra Prasad, went to receive him, disregarding protocol. A large crowd had gathered to celebrate Nehru’s arrival; their cheerfulness and enthusiasm forced Nehru to deliver a short speech from the tarmac of Delhi airport.

President Prasad hosted a special state banquet on July 15, 1955, at Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was at this event that Prasad announced conferring the Bharat Ratna upon Jawaharlal Nehru. This suo motu decision by the president was ‘kept a closely-guarded secret’ as a Times of India report dated July 16, 1955 notes. Prasad described Nehru as the ‘great architect of peace in our time’, the same newspaper quotes him as saying.

“In fact, the President himself confessed that he had acted unconstitutionally as he had decided to confer the honour “without any recommendation or advice from my Prime Minister” or the Cabinet”, the newspaper reported.

This should lay to rest all the malicious untruths regarding Nehru’s honouring with the Bharat Ratna

One should not forget that Prasad and Nehru had ideological differences mainly regarding the role of religion in politics; in some sense, they were political adversaries. Nehru was opposed to Prasad’s social conservatism. As chairman of the constituent assembly, Prasad had expressed reservations against the Hindu Code Bill that B.R. Ambedkar had proposed to bring about progressive reforms within the Hindu society.

When the first presidential elections were held in 1949-50, transforming India into a republican nation-state, Nehru favoured Rajaji, the then governor-general of India, to continue as the president. Nehru wanted a modern secularist like Rajaji as president to facilitate his role as the prime minister, whereas, Vallabhbhai Patel favoured Prasad for the position of president. Patel used this election as an opportunity to keep the prime minister in control by supporting a traditionalist like Prasad. Finally, Patel won the internal battle, showing his strength within the Congress party’s organisation. Later on, as the president of India, Prasad again voiced his opposition to the Hindu Code Bill, visible in a fierce exchange of letters with Nehru.

Another conflict between Prasad and Nehru arose in 1951 on the issue of the Somnath temple in Gujarat. Prasad had accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration of the restored temple much to the annoyance of Nehru. Nehru advised Prasad to not grace the occasion and to maintain a respectable distance between politics and religion. Prasad did not heed this advice and chose to remain present at the unveiling of the reconditioned temple.

These intense confrontations between Prasad and Nehru did not mean that they disrespected each other. They did not fall into the trap of understanding political opposition as personal enmity, nor did they contest each other’s commitment to the national cause which is evident in Prasad’s conferment of the Bharat Ratna on Nehru. This is an important lesson to remember when ideological differences are re-defining personal relationships and sowing the seeds of hatred in India.

The original article may be read on https://thewire.in/history/bharat-ratna-jawaharlal-nehru

Sharik Laliwala, an alumnus of King’s College London and Ahmedabad University, is an independent scholar of the history and politics of Gujarat.

'It's Like Frankenstein's Monster': The Father Of BJP's IT Cell Says Team Modi Started The Rot

"What does the BJP need that could put it ahead of other parties?" During a car ride to a campaign venue in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, BJP president Rajnath Singh tossed an unusual question at his media assistant Prodyut Bora. The 33-year-old was taken slightly by surprise. He had been a part of the party for barely three years and didn't belong to a political dynasty. But he took his chance. Remember, this was 2007, barely a year after Facebook and Twitter had been launched; the IT industry was booming and no party, Bora felt, had a narrative that could attract this new voting class of young professionals.

A few months later, the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'IT Cell' was born, with Bora as a national convenor. Eleven years later, Bora, now also an entrepreneur in clean air technologies with an office in Gurgaon, says his brainchild has mutated beyond recognition.

"It's like Frankenstein's monster," he said.
The original article can be read on https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2018/06/22/its-like-frankensteins-monster-the-father-of-the-bjps-it-cell-says-team-modi-started-the-rot_a_23464587/

How did you end up joining BJP?

I come from a middle class family where the first option was to get a job, so I had never been part of student politics or anything before. I studied literature in St Stephen's College and then did my post graduate diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad. I worked, got married, and then finally joined politics when I turned 30.
That happened purely out of a whim.

I was a management consultant advising companies how to change. So I thought, if I can tell companies how to change, why not go and work for the change of the country — just kind of making your canvas bigger. And you're 30 and you think you can change the world and all that.

It was just around the time BJP had lost power, September 2004.

I was a great admirer of Mr Vajpayee, so I felt that this is a man who deserves to get elected again and I would definitely want to contribute. Of course we couldn't have known that his health would deteriorate so quickly. Nonetheless, with all those ideals and idealism, I joined the BJP in 2004. Then I set up the IT cell in 2007 and then I was tasked with the responsibility of running the communications office for LK Advani during 2009 general elections.

Soon after he joined, Bora was assigned to the media cell of the BJP in Delhi under Arun Jaitley. The convenor of the media cell at that time was Siddharth Nath Singh, who he directly reported to. Before Bora left to join politics, he had worked in the DT group which has cinemas in Delhi, his first job, he recounts with a hint of pride, was at Biblio, a celebrated literary magazine. In 2007, Bora was nominated from the cell to join Rajnath Singh during the state polls in UP as his media assistant and spent all of January 2007 traveling with him. Then in May-June, the party announced two new cells. One was Bora's IT cell, the other was the cow protection cell.

Why did the IT cell come to be?

One day we were going from Kanpur to Lucknow in a car, and Rajnath Singh asked randomly, "So Prodyut ji, what is that we should do in the party, that we aren't doing?"

I don't know how the light bulb of my brain got on, so I said, "Well Sir, as a management student, we were taught to always pay attention to CRM — customer relationship management. It's not just enough to sell a product, after that you got to maintain a relationship with the customer as well, so that he or she becomes a repeat customer. So if there can be CRM for the corporate sector, why not VRM -- voter relationship management — for political parties?"

He said, "That's a good idea, let's do this, but how to do it?"

I said, "Sir, there are already 25 cells in the party, let's make another cell and call it the IT cell."

After the cell was formed, some people in the party came and congratulated me, though a little confused. They said, "Congratulations on the Income Tax cell."

When you started the IT Cell, what is it that you wanted it to achieve?

This was the pre-social media age, and the first objective of the IT cell was automating the party. Before we got on to the voters and did voter relations, the party itself needed to be automated first. The second objective was to reach out to voters, the third was advising the party on IT policy matters.

What kind of policy matters did the cell advise the party on?

A lot of things, for example bandwidth. In 2007, bandwidth was a huge challenge. What should be the party's policy — BJP was the main opposition — on internet roll out? What should be our position on VOIP, it was discussed then but it has still not been rolled out in India. We set up the IT cell in about 15 states if I remember correctly. (Editor's note: In 2007, the tariffs were high enough that Internet companies offering cheap calls were a real risk to the bottom line of Airtel and Vodafone. The launch of Reliance Jio in 2016 however changed things dramatically, and today calling is close to - or even entirely - free, with data being king.)

What were the qualifiers that you looked at to induct people into the cell?

A majority of the people were basically IT enthusiasts and experts who were interested in the party. You know, it was purely about technology — it was not about cursing people and running trolls.

What were the significant achievements of IT cell during your tenure?

I think we were capitalising technology like no one else was doing. Even Congress-leaning media houses declared that BJP was way ahead of Congress when it came to technology. In terms of using IT to attract the youth — the early 2000s was considered to be the years of the IT boom — it was very successful. A lot of people who had not thought about politics had begun to think about it. Our interest in IT and using IT as a gateway, got a lot of them associated with the BJP. In terms of automating the party, we did a good job as well.

The charter of the IT cell that Bora shared with HuffPost India begins with the words -- 'Jai Vigyan (Hail Science)' -- and goes on to explain how though lawyers have dominated political parties, the party has noticed people from the IT industry gravitating towards politics.

"The second mandate of the IT Cell is to draw the best of IT talent and provide them a platform to operate in the public space. The IT Cell is inspired by the fact that the Indian independence movement was led by professionals," the document states.

It adds that the IT cells job would be to establish systems that would help party workers reach out to each other and to the public. It also invited IT professionals to join the party to discuss various issues listed as following:

How can IT be used for the greater public good, and not just for private profit?

How can it be used for providing better access to government and private services; for facilitating income-generating activities; and for bridging the urban-rural divide?"

After the BJP lost the general elections in 2009 and Rajnath Singh's tenure as the BJP President ended, Bora moved to his home state Assam as the state general secretary of the party. By then the leadership of the IT cell had changed hands and moved to Arvind Gupta, appointed by the new party president Nitin Gadkari. In 2015, Bora he quit the BJP and 2016 formed his own party, the Liberal Democratic Front in Assam. His party contested in the state elections in Assam in 14 seats and lost all of them. However, they plan to contest in the general elections again.

When you look back, what was the legacy you wanted to leave the IT Cell with?
My legacy doesn't stand. It has been turned upside down. It is like -- maybe this is a bad example -- but it is like asking Mr Vajpayee today what legacy he has left in the BJP. It's completely destroyed. Fortunately for us, we did not have social media. I mean it had just come in and in India, people had dismissed social media as something not happening...

Did you ever consider the possibility that social media will become a behemoth it is now?

Nobody thought! But we very enthusiastic about its implications. Back when we were just getting to understand it, it was all about democratisation of content, democratisation of voice, democratisation of access, multiple narratives — I mean those are the beautiful words.

We thought, until now we had media, now everyone can be media barons'. Nobody thought it would turn out to be what it is now.

When did you start feeling that the party has turned the IT cell into a polarising weapon?

I think it was the 2014 campaign. During the 2014 campaign, the IT cell was being controlled and managed completely from Gandhinagar. It was being run by the Modi team and I think the rot started there. The formal head of the IT cell was there peripherally but the entire thing was Modi's team. So Team Modi started the rot.

When you look at the IT cell today and what it allegedly does, what do you feel about it?

I mean, occasionally, its just painful to watch what they have done with it. But I try to be dispassionate about it as well. Institutions go up, go down and I look at the IT cell as a small institution that I had the privilege of setting up.

But it's no more a small thing. A few days back, there was news that in UP, BJP is looking to recruit 2 lakh people into the IT cell...
(Chuckles) When you have money, you can do anything. In those days, we didn't have money. See, I look at it this way — I was given a job. I did a good and honest job. Now somebody has driven it to the ground.

Also, you know we cannot keep talking about the IT cell in isolation. The IT cell carries out the mandate of the BJP president. Whatever directions the president kind of gives you, you do that.

During my time at the cell, we drafted out a charter, we showed it to Mr Rajnath Singh. He approved it and said, "Okay this is your job."

So today, whatever they are doing is a mandate that has come down from their president. I mean people should ask the party president what's going and not the IT cell.

Why did you quit the BJP?

I wanted to quit the day Mr Modi was made the prime ministerial candidate for the party...

Why did you feel that way?

Uncomfortable. Whatever has happened, I think I know too much. I was just uncomfortable. I think that it was not a good choice, it's a bad choice. But my colleagues said that everybody deserves a second chance, especially in public life and so does Mr Modi.

They also said, "That there are too many checks and balances in Delhi. There's a Supreme Court, the media is more intense, the Parliament... so we are sure he's going to change. Give him a second choice."

That I felt, was sane advice. So I gave him a chance, I waited. I resigned in February 2015, I gave him 10 months. Then when I saw that more of the same things were happening, I did the only honourable thing that could be done — quit.

Can you explain what you mean by 'same things'?

The same things that were happening in Gujarat — you know one man and the bureaucrats kind of running the show. The same thing is happening at the Centre. In fact, it's one man running the country and another man running the party. Just one man and his cabal running the country — the same kind of surveillance and pressure on the media, society and dissidence — what they did in Gujarat. Same thing they are doing across the country. One man taking all major policy decisions like it was in Gujarat — demonetisation, GST, this and that. In 10 months I could figure out that things will not change.

You joined the party in 2004. Before that, in 2001, the Gujarat riots happened and even before that Advani was widely acknowledged to be the architect unrest that led to the Babri Masjid demolition and the riots that followed. You said you wanted to do something for the country, so how did you overlook the party's communal history?

I didn't think there was any logic to this violence. In 2001, I was actually extremely proud of the fact that Vajpayee ji talked about 'rajdharma' and expressed his disapproval for Modi's discriminatory politics. (A letter obtained through RTI found that in a rare instance, Atal Behari Vajpayee had written to Modi after the riots reminding him what his job as a CM was and that was not to fan discrimination.)

It's another thing, that due to the intra-party politics, he could not fire Mr Modi, he wanted to. In that flight to Goa, everyone pounced upon him and he couldn't do anything. I empathised with his handicaps. Number one, he was running a 23-party coalition, his position was not one of absolute power. Within the party, I think, the control of the party was still with Advani. I felt he wanted things to change, but he couldn't change it. My attraction to the BJP was not BJP, it was not RSS, it was Mr Vajpayee.

How would you describe the trajectory of the IT cell?

The IT Cell's trajectory went a bit like SIMI's. The first president of SIMI, who was instrumental in starting it, is now a professor in United States and this is a banned organisation in India. He started SIMI with a different objective, you know, to help Muslim students who were backward. Using the power of education to help them progress, the founder later said, that was the idea behind SIMI.

Later, it became a banned organisation. The IT cell started with a very different mandate, it was not created to abuse people. I actually think, the people who joined in 2004, that wasn't even the culture of the party. The BJP used to be a cultured party, I mean there was some sense of it, some decorum within the party. Now it has crossed all limits.

Would you have advice on how to fix what the IT cell has become?

You cannot fix the IT cell until you fix the party's president.

Nirav Modi has six passports; FIR soon

Agencies probing the alleged $2-billion PNB fraud have detected that absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi possessed at least half-a-dozen Indian passports and a fresh FIR is being mulled against him for this offence, officials said on Sunday.

Mr. Nirav Modi has been traced to Belgium by Indian intelligence agencies and his frequent travels, despite the revocation of his passport, have led the sleuths to unearth that of the six passports he held, two were active for quite some time.

The four other passports were found to be not active, sources said.

Of the two active passports, one had Mr. Nirav Modi’s full name while the other only had his first name with a 40-week UK visa issued against it and that is probably how he kept travelling to various countries, despite the government revoking his first known passport earlier this year, the sources told PTI.

The second passport was also subsequently revoked by the Indian authorities.

The sources said the government, through the Ministry of External Affairs, has informed the Interpol about the two revoked passports of Mr. Nirav Modi, but it appears that in the absence of a uniform international mechanism, the legal blocking of the documents in various countries could not be done and the fugitive diamantaire kept using those to travel through airports and possibly seaports too.

The revocation order of the passports has been appended to the application of the probe agencies (CBI and ED), seeking an Interpol arrest warrant or a “red corner notice” against Mr. Nirav Modi.

“It is a criminal offence to use a revoked passport and also to possess more than one valid passport if a person does not enjoy a special status like that of a diplomatic entity, a government employee or on a few other grounds.

“A fresh criminal FIR may be filed against Nirav Modi and he may face prosecution for the offence after the completion of an internal inquiry,” a senior official in the security establishment said.

He added that an inquiry was also being held to ascertain if Mr. Nirav Modi was using passports issued by other countries to travel.

Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) again urged the Interpol to issue an arrest warrant against the fugitive diamantaire on the basis of their respective chargesheets against him and others, containing corruption and money-laundering charges.

Once the Interpol issued the notice and Mr. Nirav Modi’s latest location was ascertained, the government would move for his extradition, the sources said.

The ED will also move a special court in Mumbai to seek an official declaration to categorise Mr. Modi as a “fugitive” on the basis of the prosecution complaint (chargesheet) filed last month and for immediate confiscation of assets worth over Rs 8,000 crore, owned by him, his family and associated firms.

Mr. Nirav Modi, his uncle and jeweller Nirav Choksi and others are being probed by the agencies after the fraud came to light, following a complaint from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over ₹13,000 crore with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each in connection with the case. Both Mr. Nirav Modi and Mr. Choksi are said to have left the country before the criminal cases were lodged against them.

In the hot seat but 'kept out of loop'-Who is the Home Minister of India?

New Delhi: When national security adviser Ajit Doval visited BJP president Amit Shah's bungalow on Tuesday morning, Union home minister Rajnath Singh was sitting in his first-floor office in North Block.

Moments after the BJP announced its decision to pull out of the Jammu and Kashmir government, the home minister left his office and went to his official residence, two senior home ministry officials said, adding that they felt Rajnath had so far been unaware of the impending decision.

The two officials are among others in the home ministry who told The Telegraph that neither Rajnath nor the government's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, appeared to have known about the decision to dump Mehbooba Mufti.

When the BJP's Jammu and Kashmir minder Ram Madhav announced the pullout, senior ministry officials said they were taken aback. "Forget about us, it seems even Rajnathji was not in the loop," an official said.

Contacted after the BJP's decision to pull out, Sharma, the interlocutor, said: "I'm in Srinagar and have just learnt about it. I do not want to comment."

Such was the resentment within the home ministry that one official went to the extent of saying: "Rajnath Singh is the official second-in-command in the government, but only on paper."

The officials said Rajnath was perhaps the lone member in the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dispensation taking a nuanced, if not divergent, stand on multiple issues.

They cited how Rajnath had pushed for the extension of the unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir but the Prime Minister decided to end it on Sunday following opposition from Doval and army chief Bipin Rawat. Sharma too was keen on a ceasefire extension.

"It has to be seen now how Sharma does his job as there is no government in the state," an official said.

Government sources said the emergence of Doval as a power centre in the Prime Minister's Office has virtually clipped Rajnath's wings. The national security adviser is learnt to be taking all the key decisions on internal security and Kashmir.

"The NSA is PM Modi's eyes and ears in the home ministry," an official said.

Around 4.30pm on Tuesday, Rajnath held a meeting at his Akbar Road residence with home secretary Rajiv Gauba, IB chief Rajiv Jain and special secretary in the home ministry Rina Mitra on the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Doval too was present.

Rajnath also spoke to Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra.

Officials in the security establishment said the Centre was planning to launch an all-out operation against militants in Kashmir.

"The governor's rule in the state will ensure zero political interference in offensive operations. It is now clear that the government wants to go full steam ahead on its Hindutva and nationalism agenda before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," a source said.

An official spokesperson said in Srinagar that after consultations with political parties, governor Vohra had forwarded his report.

The spokesperson said the governor had asked Mehbooba to continue in office till alternative arrangements were made.

Unlike other states, Jammu and Kashmir has to be placed under governor's rule for six months under Section 192 of the state constitution before President's rule can be imposed. Other states come under President's rule under Article 356 in the event of the failure of the constitutional machinery.

"The Union home ministry will forward the governor's report to the President who will send it to the Union cabinet. It will be processed by the cabinet and a decision will be taken," a home ministry official said.
 

An Update: June 23, 2018
Ministry says report is false; The Telegraph stands by its report

• Sir - This has reference to the news item titled "In the hot seat but 'kept out of loop'" published in your newspaper dated 20.6.18.

The news item read "Moments after the BJP announced its decision to pull out of the Jammu and Kashmir government, the home minister left his office and went to his official residence, two senior home ministry officials said, adding that they felt Rajnath had so far been unaware of the impending decision. The two officials are among others in the home ministry who told The Telegraph that neither Rajnath nor the government's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, appeared to have known about the decision to dump Mehbooba Mufti. When the BJP's Jammu and Kashmir minder Ram Madhav announced the pullout, senior ministry officials said they were taken aback. "Forget about us, it seems even Rajnathji was not in the loop," an official said."

The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a serious note of the above mentioned news, which is completely false and motivated. It is fictitious, based on falsehood and malicious.

The correspondent in a bid to sell his story has written fiction and tried to pass it off as journalism.

To justify his imagination, the correspondent produced quotes attributed to the Ministry of Home Affairs officials, who do not exist in reality.

The intention behind publishing such false news appears to mislead the readers with an intention to create wrong impression in their minds about the functioning of the Ministry of Home Affairs and cause damage to the reputation of the Ministry and the Honourable Home Minister.

Publication of such completely, false and baseless news does not behove of a prestigious newspaper like "The Telegraph".

It is expected that a newspaper like "The Telegraph" would have a system in place to check the veracity of stories written by correspondents rigorously before they get published because media carries the onerous responsibility of informing the people accurately about various events, especially in which senior dignitaries of Government of India were involved.

It is expected that your esteemed newspaper will publish, by giving equal prominence, this rejoinder by the Ministry of Home Affairs so that the readers are informed of the correct position.

A. Bharat Bhushan Babu,
ADG (Media & Communication)

• The Telegraph report was based on conversations with officials of the ministry. The newspaper published the report only after corroborating the version with multiple officials who, contacted again on Friday, iterated the account. The Telegraph stands by the report. Editor

NCW sends team to probe gang-rape of NGO women in Jharkhand

New Delhi, Jun. 22 (PTI): The National Commission for Women is sending an inquiry team that will go to Khunti district in Jharkhand to look into the alleged gang-rape of five women, the NCW chairperson said.

Five women working with an NGO were allegedly raped at gunpoint by a group of at least five men when they had gone to Chochang village in Khunti district in Jharkhand to create awareness on migration and human trafficking, police said on Friday.

The three-member team would be led by Under-Secretary Preeti Kumar, who would travel to Khunti with a junior technical officer and a lawyer to take stock of the situation, said NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma.

Sharma said the NCW has also written to Jharkhand’s police chief D.K. Pandey to probe the matter properly and has directed him to apprise the commission about action being taken in the matter at the earliest.

A 11-member team of a non-governmental organisation had gone to the village to perform a street play on migration and human trafficking.

A group of men arrived on the scene and took some of them to a nearby forests at gunpoint and raped them.

Glare on DeMo stash in bank linked to Shah

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday called for a thorough investigation into post-demonetisation deposits following revelations that a cooperative bank associated with BJP chief Amit Shah received Rs 745 crore in scrapped notes before these banks were barred from accepting them.

Replies by the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard) to queries filed under the Right to Information Act reveal that many other cooperative banks linked to senior BJP leaders had also received high deposits.

Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala declared on Friday that Rahul Gandhi's contention - that the November 8, 2016, demonetisation drive was independent India's biggest scam - had been vindicated.

Rahul, too, lost no time in taking a dig at the BJP chief. "Congratulations Amit Shah ji, Director, Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, on your bank winning 1st prize in the conversion of old notes to new race. Rs 750 crore in 5 days! Millions of Indians whose lives were destroyed by demonetization, salute your achievement," the Congress chief tweeted in the morning.

The Congress released the list of banks linked to BJP leaders that got the deposits, according to the May 7 RTI reply to queries filed by Manoranjan S. Roy, a Mumbai-based information activist.

The Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, whose directors include Shah and his close associates, had received Rs 745.58 crore in scrapped notes - the highest among all 370 district cooperative banks in the country - in the first five days after conversions began on November 10, 2016.

District cooperative banks were banned from accepting the scrapped notes after November 14 on the ground that black money would be laundered through this route.

Shah had been the bank's chairman earlier, and his party colleague and aide Ajay Patel now heads it. Another close associate Yashpal Chudasma, whose name had appeared in the controversy related to his son Jay Shah, is another director.

No other bank among the 370 district co-operative banks across the country had received such a big sum in five days.

"Whose money was this?" Surjewala asked. "We had asked the government to bring out a list of all those who deposited more than Rs 25 lakh just before demonetisation or soon after that. Why was that not done?"

QUESTION IN M.D. EXAM ASKS ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST DOCTORS AND ITS SOLUTIONS – WILL THE ANSWER INCLUDE LACK OF PUBLIC TRUST AND FAILURE OF MEDICAL COUNCILS TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST NEGLIGENT DOCTORS?

In the written exam held earlier this month at the King George’s Medical University in Lucknow for doctors in the program for obtaining post-graduate degree in medicine (M.D.), a question simply asked, “Write briefly on violence against doctors: Causes, effects and solution“. 

A valid point may be raised whether this question at all belongs in the examination for would be medicine specialists but more importantly, having been involved with the unequal fight for justice for the victims of medical negligence, we wonder what would be the standard for the examiners to judge the “correct” answer to this unusual question for M.D. examinees? 

Apart from the debatable answers for the “causes” or “effects” of violence against doctors, what is the right “solutions” to solve the crisis of wide-spread medical negligence and sporadic attacks on doctors?

PBT never supports the idea of doctor bashing or hospital vandalism under any condition, even in the event of death from genuine incidence of “medical negligence” because two wrongs can never make a right. But there is no argument that most cases of violence against doctors happen due to deep erosion of public trust on the medical community. 

When a loved person dies in front of your eyes from apparent act of gross medical negligence, friends and family of the victim want medical justice. Unfortunately, it is a common knowledge today that, unlike in the West, doctor-members of the medical council primarily work to shield their errant medical colleagues without caring for the loss of life of an ordinary citizen. 

The idea of violence against doctors is simply unimaginable in the Western Countries including USA and UK because medical councils in these countries (composed of doctor and non-doctor members) investigate complaints against doctors in an impartial and transparent manner and routinely suspend/cancel license of the negligent doctors. There is no need for the ordinary citizens in these countries to take law into their own hands in a futile attempt to find medical justice by physical violence against doctors/hospitals as in India. 

No new law to put the victim’s friends/families in jail for their momentary lose of control under acute grief and lack of hope for justice in the medical council after losing their loved one from gross medical negligence cannot be an effective solution to prevent attacks on doctors. 
Compassion and proper understanding from victim’s perspectives are necessary to eradicate the social evils of medical negligence and violence against doctors. 
But will the examiners in Lucknow give appropriate credit for this answer to the M.D. candidates?

After DJB, Arvind Kejriwal accuses CBI of going after mohalla clinics

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today alleged that the CBI has started investigating the mohalla clinics project, "summoned" several senior officials and seized documents related to it. 

The chief minister made the accusation in a series of tweets, a day after he alleged that the CBI and the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) had started random picking of files from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), of which he is the minister-in-charge, to "somehow frame him in something". 

"Now, CBI starts investigating moh clinics-takes 3 lac pages incl all patients prescriptions. All CDMOs, 2 Addl Dirs, Project Dir, Addl secy, OSD to Dir n many other officers summoned (sic)..," Kejriwal tweeted. 

He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeting "Modi ji, instead of closing Delhi's mohalla clinics, open mohalla clinics across the country." 

Arvind Kejriwal

✔@ArvindKejriwal

Now, CBI starts investigating moh clinics-takes 3 lac pages incl all patients prescriptions.

All CDMOs, 2 Addl Dirs, Project Dir, Addl secy, OSD to Dir n many other officers summoned.

Modi ji, delhi ke moh clinics band karwane ke bajaye poore desh mein moh clinic kholiye(1/2

9:40 AM - Jun 10, 2018

• 4,961
• 2,600 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Mohalla Clinics is one of the flagship projects of the AAP government. There are currently around 165 mohalla clinics aimed at providing free primary health care to city residents closer to home. 

The government has a target of setting up 1,000 such clinics across the national capital. 

In another tweet, Kejriwal alleged, "Del govt has spent Rs 3 lacs to get these pages photocpied. Spl permission was taken by officers for this money. 

"I challenge Modi ji if these Rs 3 lacs photocopying charges and CBI officers' salary cud be recovered out of this investigation (sic)." 

In a series of tweets yesterday, the chief minister had announced that he will put in the public domain the list of all files sought by the two agencies, and asked them to either explain the reason or else "apologise to Delhiites for this witch hunting exercise".

BJP fumes at Pawar plot jibe

New Delhi: The BJP was livid on Monday over NCP leader Sharad Pawar mocking a purported letter plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accusing the party of trying to gain sympathy, saying it didn't befit a senior leader to play politics over a serious issue.

"When a letter talking about a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister is recovered... the country should condemn it in one voice.... Instead, a senior leader like Sharad Pawar says that this is being used for advertisement.... This is the lowest point of insensitivity and politics," human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Addressing a rally in Maharashtra on Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party chief Pawar had sought to play down the letter recovered by Pune police purportedly baring a Maoist conspiracy to assassinate Modi. The veteran leader said the BJP was fast losing support among the people and trying to use the "assassination story" to gain public sympathy, adding people would not fall for such tactics.

"They (the BJP) say there was a threat letter. I spoke to a retired police officer who had worked for the CID. He said there is no substance in the letter. The letter is being used to garner public sympathy," Pawar had told the rally.

"The BJP has realised they are losing popular support and so to gain sympathy they are now playing the threat letter card. However, I am sure people will not fall prey to such tactics," the NCP veteran had added.

The BJP's Mystery Treasurer Has a 1000 Crore Touch But Nobody Knows His Name

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the richest political parties in the world, with a declared income of Rs 1,034 crore during 2016-17, the last year for which returns have been filed with the Election Commission.

This was a particularly good year for the BJP, with its income shooting up by a stupendous 81% compared to the year before. More significantly, the money raised by the party was more than double the figure raised by all other national parties combined.

Chart depicting total income of national political parties for 2016-17. Source: Association for Democratic Reform

So which BJP leader should take a bow for the amazing financial performance of the party and having given it the biggest ever war chest ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections?

This is where things get murky, and a huge question mark emerges over the role of the Election Commission (EC), which is supposed to regulate and audit the working of political parties, in addition to conducting elections in the country.

In its mandatory declarations to the EC, the BJP for the past few years has not been disclosing who its treasurer is. The BJP’s audited returns for 2016-17, for example, have an indecipherable signature which appears to say “for treasurer”, without disclosing who the party’s treasurer actually is.

Instead of the party treasurer’s signature, the BJP’s returns are signed ‘for treasurer’.

The secrecy continues on the party’s official website; the page titled ‘National Treasurer of BJP’ has been left blank.

Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Qureshi told The Wire that the BJP’s declaration to the EC was wrong, and the EC, instead of meekly accepting the declaration, should have issued notice to the party and asked them to declare who the treasurer of the BJP really is.

Another former CEC, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the guidelines for financial transparency adopted by the EC in 2014 clearly require “the treasurer of the political party or such person as authorised by the party” to maintain its consolidated accounts. Asked why the commission had not insisted on the party identifying who its treasurer or “authorised” person was, he said the financial returns are scrutinised at a “lower level” and this issue was never referred up.

Intriguingly, before the BJP’s 2014 win and the installation of the Narendra Modi government, the party’s declared treasurer was Piyush Goyal, now Union finance and railways minister. When Amit Shah announced the names of the party’s officeholders in August 2014, the post of treasurer was not among them. There was some speculation in the media that a Modi confidante Parindu Bhagat, known as ‘Kakaji’, would get the job but that did not happen. So does Piyush Goyal continue to be de facto treasurer of the party even while in government, which would be a clear cut case of conflict of interest? Or if he has fully disengaged, who is the party’s treasurer? The BJP has kept mum on the subject.

Former CEC N. Gopalaswami told The Wire that the signature and name of the responsible authority signing such an account statement has to be legible and if it isn’t, the EC needs to find out who it is.

Another former CEC, T.S. Krishnamurthy, said that while he would not like to comment on the current matter pertaining to the BJP as he has not seen the documents in question, “from my past recollection, I can state that it all depends on what the party says in its constitution about who would be responsible” for making its account declarations.

The BJP’s constitution mandates the party president to appoint a national treasurer. It also says that the treasurer’s duties are to maintain income and expenditure accounts and have them audited. As far as raising funds for the party is concerned, printed receipts have to be issued  and “each receipt [of party funds] shall bear the facsimile signature of the concerned treasurer” at the Central or state level.

So the question which arises is whose facsimile signature has been appended to the receipts the BJP has issued for hundreds of crores it has raised at the national level since 2014?

If Goyal is involved even peripherally with the party’s accounts, this would not be the first case of conflict of interest at the highest level of the Modi government. Goyal, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce minister Suresh Prabhu, minister for state for aviation Jayant Sinha and minister of state for external affairs M.J. Akbar all continue to be directors of the India Foundation, a think-tank run by Shaurya Doval, son of national security advisor Ajit Doval, and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, whose programmes have attracted corporate sponsors, including MNCs.

In general, political parties have insulated their treasurers from allegations of conflict of interest by keeping them away from government positions as treasurers typically get their hands dirty while raising funds. Motilal Vora is the treasurer of the Congress party and signs its accounts. He was never a minister in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The secrecy around the treasurer has come about after Amit Shah was appointed BJP president in July 2014 to finish Rajnath Singh’s interrupted tenure. In January 2016, Shah was elected unopposed to a full three-year term as party president. Under the constitution, he is entitled to a second consecutive three-year term. Authoritative sources have told The Wire that the consensus within the RSS mothership is that Shah will either get a second term or continue on extension as president till the general elections. Modi has apparently said that Shah’s current term as all-powerful BJP president will be co-terminus with his own tenure as prime minister.

Speculation is rife that perhaps Shah, who along with Goyal is said to be the main fundraiser for the party, has assumed the functions of BJP treasurer as well. In a transparent political party, which the BJP used to pride itself on being, details like the identity of the treasurer should be in the public domain. But it seems that in the ‘Modified BJP’ – where Modi and Shah call all the shots – nobody else, inside the party or outside, not even the EC, can dare ask these questions.

A senior cabinet minister told The Wire, “ We used to pride ourselves on electing our president, yet Shah was nominated… I am a cabinet minister and I honestly cannot tell you who the BJP treasurer is. Who took over after Goyal, or whether he continues, is a mystery. But I know from my corporate contacts that he and Shah are the main fundraisers of the party.”

The telling blanks in the declaration to the EC and on the party’s official website suggest that the Modi-Shah duo are aware of the irregularities in the party’s records.

Constitutional experts say that the EC, which has acquired a reputation of partisanship after Modi nominated A.K. Joti from his Gujarat days as CEC, should be asking the BJP tough questions.

After the disqualification of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs on Joti’s last day in office – a decision subsequently struck down by the high court in a huge snub to the EC – and the recurring controversy over electronic voting machines, the EC has lost face. Not asking the BJP to reveal who its treasurer is will just be the latest example of caving in to the Modi government.

PBT’S PIL TO HELP VICTIM: CALCUTTA HC WANTS RS. 10 LAKH DEPOSIT BEFORE ALLOWING EXHUMATION AND POST-MORTEM OF A 6-MONTH OLD VICTIM OF ALLEGED MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE

In a stunning development during hearing of a PIL filed by PBT seeking court’s permission to exhume the body of 6-month old baby and perform post-mortem to help in search of justice, Calcutta High Court division bench presided by the chief justice said that they may allow the writ petition provided PBT makes an advance deposit of Rs. 10 lakh which will be returned only if it is proven that this death involved medical negligence. 

Akshay Ghosh, a poor man from Asansol (200 km from Kolkata) whose 6-month old daughter, Kushi Ghosh, died last March at HLG Hospital in Asansol from alleged gross medical negligence after an injection was given the child, recently came to PBT seeking help to find justice. The HLG Hospital denied all charges of medical negligence and tried to botch up medical records. 

In order to find the cause of death, PBT moved a PIL with supporting opinion from forensic expert seeking exhumation and post-mortem of the baby. 

Although post-mortem after almost three months of death provides no guarantee that the exact cause of death may be identified for obvious decomposition of the body, there is some chance that the cause may become clear following the post-mortem. But post-mortem report may at most be useful as a piece of supporting evidence. Proving a case of “medical negligence” before the court of law requires many such supporting evidences and testimonies from the witnesses. 

Is it possible for PBT, a purely charitable organization working selflessly to help the hapless victims of medical negligence find justice, to put up Rs. 10 lakh in advance with a guarantee that “medical negligence” will be proven in the court of law? 

Nobody can be prejudiced with exhumation and post-mortem of Kushi Ghosh and her unfortunate parents also provided written submission requesting the court to allow exhumation and post-mortem of their deceased child. So why to impose this heavy financial burden to a bona fide NGO like PBT before the court may allow their PIL to exhume the body of Kushi and perform post-mortem examination?

‘Absolutely Rubbish’: Pranab Mukherjee’s Office On Fake Quote On Manmohan Singh

A quote by Former President Pranab Mukherjee in Hindi is going viral on social media.

The quote reads, “मैं मनमोहन की तरह गुलाम नहीं हूं मुझे जो ठीक लग रहा है मैं वह कर रहा हूं आज भारत को RSS जैसे संगठन की आवश्यकता है : प्रणब मुखर्जी” (I am not a slave like ManMohan Singh. I am doing what what I feel is correct. Today, India needs an organisation like the RSS.)


The tweets that began on June 4 has seen a number of Twitter handles post this fake quote.

Jeetendra Singh @jeetensingh
मैं मनमोहन की तरह गुलाम नहीं हूं मुझे जो ठीक लग रहा है मैं वह कर रहा हूं आज भारत को RSS जैसे संगठन की आवश्यकता है : प्रणब मुखर्जी

1:03 PM - Jun 4, 2018
1,238
710 people are talking about this

neha kakkar @ nehakak5
मैं मनमोहन की तरह गुलाम नहीं हूं मुझे जो ठीक लग रहा है मैं वह कर रहा हूं आज भारत को RSS जैसे संगठन की आवश्यकता है : प्रणब मुखर्जी

4:18 PM - Jun 4, 2018
303
122 people are talking about this

But speaking to BOOM, Pranab Mukherjee’s office has called the quote “Absolutely Rubbish”. The team clarified that Mukherjee has not given any such quote at any event or to any journalist and it is clearly fake.


The fake quotes have also gone viral on Facebook pages, including several fan pages that support the BJP and its leaders. The posts have been shared by thousands of users.

The spread of this fake quote comes at a time when Pranab Mukherjee accepted the invitation to attend an RSS event at its Nagpur headquarters, starting Wednesday. Mukherjee will participate in the concluding ceremony of the RSS training camp on June 7 and will deliver a speech that is expected to last for about 30 minutes, reports The Economic Times.


Mukherjee’s acceptance of the invite had created quite a storm among his former Congress colleagues who expressed their reservations. His former cabinet colleague P Chidambaram had urged him, to take this as an opportunity to tell the RSS what is wrong with their ideology, “Now that he has accepted the invitation, there is no point in debating why he accepted it. The more important thing to say is, Sir you have accepted invitation, please go there and tell them what is wrong with their ideology,” said Chidambaram.


Reacting to the criticism, Mukherjee had issued a firm response, saying that he will be attending the event. “Whatever I have to say, I will say in Nagpur. I have received several letters, requests and phone calls, but I haven’t responded to anyone yet,” Mr Mukherjee was quoted as saying by Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika.


Fake quotes attributed to famous personalities has now become a regular feature. In the past, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Sundar Pichai, Bollywood actors Swara Bhasker and Farhan Akhtar and recently, Kairana RLD MP Tabassum Hasan have been targeted by those creating fake quotes to spread confusion and further their ideological agenda on social media.