Upset Congress terms Baba Ramdev, Anna's joint fast infantile

By ANI

New Delhi, June 3 (ANI): The Congress Party on Sunday hit back at yoga guru Baba Ramdev and veteran social activist Anna Hazare for sitting on a daylong fast against corruption and for their demand for a stronger Lokpal Bill, describing it as an infantile and uncalled for approach.

Senior Congress leader K. Keshav Rao expressed disapproval of the daylong protest called by Team Anna and Baba Ramdev, and emphasized that the entire nation wants corruption to be fought at all levels.

"This is an infantile approach, absolutely uncalled for approach. What Anna wanted about corruption, the entire nation knows corruption has to be fought and it is fighting. He has brought it to the nation's focus because for 40 years we have been thinking of Lokpal," said Keshav Rao.

"According to me, Lokpal is not a silver bullet, which will go and chase and catch a person. There are a plethora of laws, which deal with it. What we require is some kind of a golden link, which will bring them all together and coordinate," he added.

Keshav Rao pointed out that for the first time in the history of Indian Parliament, a private group was invited to assist in the drafting of a bill.

"We have invited a private group to come and sit and draft a bill. The government has taken it seriously, the nation has taken the issue seriously, the spirit of the agitation seriously. And we are doing it, but you must give scope for everybody to speak," he said.

Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare began their daylong fast against corruption at the Parliament Street here earlier this morning.

Both Baba Ramdev and Hazare, who will highlight the demand for the return of black money stashed away by Indians abroad during their fast, visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat earlier this morning. The two spent some time meditating at Rajghat. Baba Ramdev also visited the nearby Shahid Park.

This is for the first time that Baba Ramdev and Hazare are sitting on a joint fast. Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia will be joining Hazare and Ramdev during today's fast. (ANI)

What Baba Ramdeo and Anna are doing is not at all infantile.

It is the need of the hour.

The corruption brigade is raising its head just as they think the Anna-Ramdeo forces have weakened.

Want proof?

A The Lok Pal bill has been put in cold storage by the very parliament which had assured it would be passed when Anna had gone on fast.

B.The case against Haryana Police Chief, SPS Rathore is being withdrawn by the CBI.

Who is this Rathore?

He is the person who sexually harassed Ruchika Girhotra and drove her to suicide and then harassed her family to

withdraw the case. He seems to have succeeded this time as the poor family has lost the will to fight against such powerful forces.

Do you still wonder why there are Maoists?

C. The IMA and other medical organisation are criticizing Aamir Khan for the last "Satyamev Jayate" episode which was very critical of the going-ons of this profession. I think, Aamir has not even aired even 1% of the loot that these doctors are perpetuating.

Apologize, Doctors Tell Aamir Khan

Mumbai :An umbrella body of 21 medical institutions Wednesday asked Bollywood star Aamir Khan to apologize for accusing doctors of malpractices in his TV talk show "Satyamev Jayate".

Medscape India said the representation of malpractices supposedly perpetrated by doctors was "rather sad" and Aamir Khan should offer his apologies.

"It is rather sad that doctors should be made the object of such shameless, unilateral scrutiny," Himanshu Mehta, co-founder and advisor to Medscape India, said.

After highlighting social issues affecting Indian society, Aamir Khan, in the fourth episode of his show, turned the spotlight on healthcare and malpractices in the medical profession.

He highlighted unethical practices, corruption and scandalous revelations in medical treatment.

"Aamir Khan is my favourite actor and he should stick to making films," said another doctor, Sunita Dube, president of Medscape.

"Surprisingly, no doctors' body has spoken against Aamir yet. We need to stand united against such blatant lies. We are going to write a scathing letter demanding an apology from him," Dube said.

Medscape pointed out that doctors were subjected to assault without any fault and many people didn't understand the pressures of the profession.

"Where is Aamir Khan when doctors are assaulted? Where is he when we give free treatment to the needy?" asked Kishore Taori, president of the Maharashtra Medical Council that is associated with Medscape.

The above is from Silicon India

Aamir has raised an issue of corruption in the medical profession only last week in his TV programme “Satyamev Jayate”

I have been raising it on our blog http://goethals1907-2007.blogspot.in/search/label/Corruption%20in%20the%20Medical%20Profession since February 2010.

Dr. Kunal Saha on has site http://pbtindia.com/, People for better treatment has been raising his voice eve since his wife died of negligence by AMRI doctors. The doctors accused of negligence have been made to cough up Rs 1.73 crores to Dr. Kunal Saha as penalty for wrong treatment.

If Aamir is to be criticized, I would say he has been very lenient on the doctors. He couldn’t fully expose them because he had to complete the programme in its allotted time.

If he was to do justice, and take all the comments of the patients who had been looted by these docotrs he could make it into a daily serial of one hour duration and it would probably run for more than five years.

The IMA , Medscape and the other medical organizations are making a laughing stock of themselves by asking an apology from Aamir Khan and asking people to boycott his films.

Nobody will listen to them.

Ranvir Sena chief killed, curfew imposed on Bihar town

Patna, June 1 (IANS) An indefinite curfew was imposed in Ara town and red alert was sounded in Bihar's four districts Friday, after unidentified gunmen shot dead Brahmeshwar Singh 'Mukhiya', chief of the outlawed Ranvir Sena, police said. Singh, in his early 70s, was killed early Friday in Ara, the district headquarters of Bhojpur, triggering violent protests by his supporters and sympathisers who constituted the upper-caste militia, according to police.

"The indefinite curfew has been imposed in view of a large-scale arson in the town," a police official in Ara, about 60 km from here, told IANS over phone.

According to officials at police headquarters in Patna, a red alert has been sounded in Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad and Gaya districts. These four districts were the stronghold of Ranvir Sena and its rivals - outlawed Maoist groups and the Communist Party of India (Marxist Lenenist) - till early 2000.

"Singh was shot dead by unidentified gunmen when he was on a morning walk near his residence," a police official said.

Soon after the news of Singh's killing spread, his angry supporters attacked police vehicles, dairy vehicles and government offices in Ara. The circuit house in the town was set on fire, the official said.

Top district officials, including the superintendent of police, who reached the spot to assess and check the situation, were chased away by the protestors, the official added.

The supporters did not allow police to take Singh's body for an autopsy and blocked roads, demanding arrest of the culprits behind his killing, the official said.

The district administration has deployed security forces in the town.

The killing of Ranvir Sena chief, Brahmeshwar Singh, alias Mukhiyaji, came one and a half month after the Patna high court verdict acquitting all those responsible for the Bathani Tola massacre of 21 Dalits and and poor Muslims on July 11, 1996. Not only that his end came 24 days after his May 7 warning to the state government in a Press conference in Patna not to move the Supreme Court. And finally he died at the hands of the killers three days after the memorandum to the Chief Justice of India by 300 noted activists, writers and intellectuals of India and abroad. They included renowned linguist Noam Chomsky, UK-based Leftist writer Tariq Ali, economist Jean Dreze and novelist Arundhati Roy.

All these developments are link in the same chain. While the state government failed to provide justice to those killed 16 years back, it could not protect the man who led the Sena, which has been accused of a series of massacres in Bihar, especially in 1990s.

Though the media underplayed the whole series of developments till the killing of Mukhiyaji himself, the issue was quite serious and thus drew international attention too.Ranvir Sena was founded in September 1994 in Belaur village of Udwantnagar block by Brahmeshwar Singh of Khopira panchayat. Though it is called a private upper caste army, in this part of Bihar it is essentially dominated by Bhumihars. Of all the private armies of Bihar formed in 1980s and 1990s such as Kuer Sena, Sunlight Sena, Lorik Sena, etc this was the most ruthless and organized outfit with connections in bureaucracy and police as well.

That was the reason for its survival. While the earlier Senas were wiped out by the then MCC and now CPI (Maoist) and CPI ML (Liberation) Ranvir Sena not only survived but grew stronger. In tit-for-tat in the then Central Bihar, (then Jhakhand part was called as South Bihar) it chose to target the innocent Dalit women and children instead of Maoists cadres and Red Army of Liberation.

Since they suspect the Dalits of being sympathetic towards the Left extremists they singled out their family members as they were soft targets. For example on Jan 25, 1999 they massacred two dozen Dalit men, women and children in Shankarbigha village of Jehanabad district when the then President K R Narayan, himself a Dalit, was delivering the Republic Day eve speech on television and radio.

The timing was very important. Hours later, they through a Press release, justified the massacre of children and women, some of them pregnant, on the plea that sanp ka bachcha sanp hota hai (serpent will breed serpent). They repeated the massacre at Narayanpur village a fortnight later forcing the then Vajpayee government to dismiss the then Rabri Devi government and impose President’s Rule. It is other thing that it was re-instated on March 8, 1999 after the NDA failed to get majority in the Rajya Sabha.

Ten days later, on March 18, 34 Bhumihars––between the age of 15 and 45––were slaughter in retaliation of series of Dalit-hunting. This was done by MCC in Senari village of Jehanabad district. The last big massacre by Ranvir Sena took place in June 2000 when about 35 Dalits and backwards, including Yadavs, were killed at Miapur in Aurangabad district. Among other infamous massacres was the one committed by Ranvir Sena at Laxmanpur-Bathe village in Jehanabad on Dec 1, 1997 in which 61 Dalits were killed. It could do all this in spite of the fact that it was banned in 1995.

The problem with the present Janata Dal (United)-BJP government in Bihar is that many of the sympathizers of Ranvir Sena are their voters. While in the past the situation was quite contrary. Though the then Lalu-Rabri regime too failed to protect the Dalits it was alleged by Sena men that the Dalits get state support and protection against them. Brahmeshwar Singh himself continued to elude the police till August 29, 2002 when he was arrested in Patna.

In fact his acquittal from the court and release from jail last July proved costly. Perhaps, he was more safe behind bars. The advent of Nitish Kumar and subsequent weakening of CPI ML in the successive Assembly elections––it failed to open its account in 2010 poll––made Ranvir Sena somewhat irrelevant. But with the killing of its leader now it is to be seen what impact the incident will have on the state politics.

The above is from the Bihar Times.

It should act as a warning to the State and the judiciary to do justice and act in a partisan manner.

When the poor get to understand that they can expect no justice from the existing system, they will take the law into their hands and mete out justice as they feel.

It is surprising that the judge who gave the judgement is still alive.

I would advise Nitish Kumar to give him extra security.

Maoism, as we know it now, is the result of such feelings of injustice by the poor.

It is another matter that now the movement may have been hijacked by criminals

Why have AI pilots struck work?

Is simulator training for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner the only issue for the Air India pilots strike? Check this out. The Telegraph, UK. May 17.

Pilots' predeliction for high life could bring down Air India

"The high-life of Indian pilots and crew has plunged its national carrier into a nosedive towards bankruptcy, the country’s aviation minister has revealed, with staff stealing whisky and caviar and being chauffeured in limousines to five star hotels.

Industry observers say there has been a long history of staff theft and pilferage at Air India. In eight years Air India, known affectionately as the 'Maharaja’ for its turbaned cartoon mascot, has plunged from profit to an estimated $10 billion in debt. In frustration, India’s aviation minister has said the country does not need a national carrier.

Air India is currently investigating 161 cases of theft, fraud and abuse of perks, aviation minister Ajit Singh told MPs on Wednesday.

One catering officer was recently caught stealing caviar worth around £300, while a purser was discovered walking away with more than 370 spirit miniatures.

Investigations by Air India’s internal vigilance department found that one pilot had been paid more than £250,000 in allowances for simulator training while he was off work on sick leave.

The disclosures were made as more than 350 Air India pilots escalated an unofficial strike by calling in sick.

The strike was called as part of an internal squabble within the airline over which of its pilots should fly the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Many of the airline's pilots joined after the 2011 merger of Air India with the government-owned domestic carrier Indian Airlines, but the Air India staff have rejected proposals for former Indian Airlines pilots to be trained to fly the new aircraft.

They say the beleaguered airline, which is $10 billion in debt, cannot afford to additional costs of training former Indian Airlines pilots to train on Boeing jets. The strike however has caused major disruption at airports throughout the world and has cost the airline an estimated £20 million in the last week.

Some of the airline’s staggering losses are rooted in exceptionally generous staff benefits. Investigators discovered pilots insisted in staying in five star hotels in New York, Chicago and Mumbai during stop-overs instead of spending the night at cheaper airport hotels.

Significant losses in revenues are due to serving and retired pilots and crew taking business class seats ahead of paying customers. The practice was restricted in 2009 when its chief executive appealed to staff to co-operate and stressed there was no shame in traveling economy.

Despite the restrictions on staff using business class tickets, paying passengers were rejected to make way for Air India staff who were upgraded from economy seats. At one point, Air India’s business class ticket holders were shunted onto rival airlines — at Air India’s cost — because their own staff had occupied the seats.

Investigators also found evidence of expensive spare parts disappearing, duty-free alcohol stolen, and spare seats and cargo space sold privately to rival airlines.

Industry observers say there has been a long history of staff theft and pilferage at Air India, citing a 2006 case where crew on prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s official aircraft were caught stealing six bottles of whisky. Fourteen employees were suspended following the investigation.

“It’s been going on for years,” said Dr Sanat Kaur, former joint secretary of India’s civil aviation ministry, and now International Foundation for Aviation chairman. “There was no need for budgetary support from government in the last 60 years until now. There was leakage but as long as the company was in profit there was no issue,” he said.

But the abuses have steadily come into sharper focus over the last ten years as its problems have mounted. A proposed sale to Tata and Singapore Airlines was abandoned shortly after the September 11 2001 terror attacks on the United States. A series of ill-advised multi-billion dollar airliner purchases and a merger with its domestic partner Indian Airlines has compounded problems.

“It’s not just scams, it is union agreements. [They say] we only travel by limousine, and insist on staying in five star hotels. Things are not carried out because the union would be [hostile]. A soft approach is there, which has allowed it to carry on and now it is making huge losses,” he said.

The disclosures were made as more than 350 Air India pilots escalated an unofficial strike by calling in sick.

The strike was called as part of an internal squabble within the airline over which of its pilots should fly the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft."

If you are a tax payer in India think about it, and why should you continue to pat for such frivolity?

The above was posted by Suvrajyoti Sengupta on FB.

I think it should all make us cry at the sacrifices the staff of AI have made, especially its pilots.

As a reward, I would recommend all the pilots be sacked and new recruitment be made.

Our ministers are just great in giving away things but cannot bring about discipline.

Just look, how fast Mukul Roy, our Railway Minister who replaced the efficient Dinesh Trivedi, has been in giving away Rs 5.0 lakhs to each of the dead in the recent Doon Express accident.

But ask him to visit the accident site and he will have no time.

CBI probe into charges against PM laughable: Team Anna

Team Anna on Friday dismissed as "pretence" the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the irregularities in the coal block allocation and alleged such a probe is meant to give a "clean chit" to Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh.

"The CBI is under the government. Here the prime minister is accused. How will the CBI investigate the prime minister?

It is laughable, it is a pretence. We know the outcome of this probe. It will say that the prime minister has not done anything wrong. It will give clean chit to Singh," Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal told reporters in Ghaziabad.

Demanding an independent probe by a panel of three "honest" retired judges, he said why is the PM afraid of a probe if he is sure that he has not done anything wrong.

"We have said we are ready to be probed. Then why is the prime minister afraid? So there is nothing wrong, if people suspect that there was something wrong in this," he said.

Alleging that CBI is a "complete puppet" in the hands of the government, Kejriwal said disproportionate asset cases were going on against Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Lalu Yadav (RJD), Mayawati (BSP) and many other politicians for several years.

"However no worthwhile investigation has taken place. But Jaganmohan Reddy, who is a political foe of the ruling United Progressive Alliance has been arrested in a very short period. This shows that CBI rather than acting as anti-corruption body is being used to serve the Centre's political agenda.

"Can such CBI ever do an honest and independent probe into Coal gate scam in which PM himself is accused? Can such a CBI do an honest investigation against the other 14 ministers?" Kejriwal said, adding this is why they were demanding probe in the case by a special investigation team.

He said they would not approach Supreme Court if their demands are not met. "This is a political issue," he said. Allegations of corruption were made by Team Anna in the allotment of coal blocks especially during the period 2006-09 when Singh was handling the charge of the coal ministry.

Reacting to the coal ministry rebuttal to the charges, he claimed the arguments were misleading and factually incorrect.

"While up to 2005, a total of 75 coal blocks were allocated, this number went up to 145 from 2006 to 2009. Surprisingly, only one coal block has been allocated.

"Is the PMO saying the demand for coal was limited before 2005 and it increased suddenly between 2006 and 2010 and again came down to negligible after that? What are the factors that can explain such a trend in the economy?" he asked.

I fully agree with team Anna.

I have always maintained that the CBI is the pet poodle of the Central Government and does its bidding.

If the government says stand, it will do so.

If it says sit, it will do so.

We have seen since the time of Indira Gandhi that the CBI is not at all independent and it was one of the main reasons for Team Anna asking for the Lokpal as it wanted an independent agency to investigate crimes against politicians.

YSR and Jagan Reddy were the blue eyed boys as long as they followed the central dictates. But as soon as Jagan challenged the centre, the Central Government has set the CBI dogs on them.

Suddenly, the centre discovers that his wealth was ill-gotten.

On the other hand cases against Mulayam Singh, Mayawati, Lalu Yadav have been going on for years without any outcome.

The Centre uses these cases to blackmail these leaders into submission

Doc & Metro manager beaten

- Cousins assaulted by drunken goons in Durgapur after parking tiff

Durgapur, May 30: A Durgapur dentist and his cousin, who is a marketing manager at Metro Cash & Carry in Calcutta, were severely beaten up by drunken goons with rods and knuckledusters last night when the two requested them to make way so that their car could be garaged.

Doctor Dibyendu Nandi, 33, and his cousin Arindam Ghosh, 36, who have been admitted to the ICU of The Mission Hospital, had protested when the goons refused to move from in front of the garage on the ground floor of Nandi’s rented flat in Durgapur.

Ghosh, who had gone for marketing with Nandi while holidaying in Durgapur, suffered multiple fractures in his nose and underwent a surgery today. Nandi suffered deep cuts below and above his left eye and was given multiple stitches.

“We have kept him under observation and advised him to consult an ophthalmologist as his eye is still red and blood clots are visible,” said Krishnendu Goswami, the surgeon under whom the cousins are admitted.

“When we returned home (in Ambagan) around 8pm, we found four drunken youths standing in front of my garage. I honked repeatedly but they refused to budge. They started abusing me and asked me not to disturb them because they were chatting,” Nandi said.

The dentist, who works in The Mission Hospital, alleged that one of the youths threw a brick and broke the left mirror of his Hyundai i20.

“I got off the car and asked them what my fault was. But they kept on abusing us and threatened to bury us alive. They left when residents and shopkeepers intervened,” Nandi said.

But around 15 minutes later, when the others had left and the cousins were parking the car, the youths returned with some more drunken associates and allegedly assaulted them.

“Ghosh was hit first with an iron rod on his nose. After he fell down clutching his nose, the goons kicked him repeatedly and also hit him with knuckledusters,” said Subrata De, an eyewitness.

Nandi, who was beaten up when he tried to save his cousin, said: “They kicked and punched me and hit me with weapons. Both of us lost consciousness.”

Alerted by De’s cries for help, the residents returned and the attackers fled.

Nandi and Ghosh were taken to the hospital in the i20. The neighbours informed police.

The cousins regained consciousness late last night and gave their statements to the Durgapur police.

Ghosh’s wife Piyali arrived at Durgapur this morning from the couple’s Phoolbagan home. Nandi, who got married this January, said his wife Debaleena would come to Durgapur from Bangalore on Friday. She works in a software company in the southern city.

Nandi’s elder brother Sreemantha, who is a manager at Metro Cash & Carry and lives in Calcutta’s College Street, said: “He lives alone in Durgapur. I am worried after what happened last night. I will ask him to come to Calcutta and practise here.”

Ambagan residents complained that drunken brawls were common because of a country liquor shop in the locality.

“Every evening, youths drink liquor in a field adjacent to the shop. Drunken capers continue till late in the night. Women feel afraid to pass through the area after sundown. We repeatedly requested the administration and the police to shut the liquor shop but nothing has been done,” De, a private contractor working for Durgapur Steel Plant, said.

The police said they had received the cousins’ complaint and had started an investigation. “The culprits are yet to be identified. Even though we are busy making arrangements for the municipal polls (on June 3), we are probing the incident,” said Kazi Samsuddin Ahmed, the assistant commissioner of police (East).

Partha Ghosh, the officer in charge of state excise in Durgapur, said: “I will find out if anybody is consuming alcohol inside the shop or if the outlet remains open beyond the prescribed time limit. The complaints of drunken brawls should be looked into by the police as it is a law-and-order problem.”

The above is from the Telegraph.

How could anyone have the guts to stand and drink in front of a legitimate owners garage and refuse to allow him to park his car.

These hoodlums who were previously with the CPM and are now with the Trinamul can dare to act this as they know that no political party can touch them for these political parties depend upon them during elections.

Mamata Banerjee has already booked them for the next election by giving each club Rs 2.0 lakhs donation. For What?

India requires at least 5 years of military rule if we are to stem the rot for the politicians will never do it themselves.

CBI judge suspended on corruption charges

By Indo Asian News Service

Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur has suspended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge on corruption charges, officials here said.

Additional CBI Judge T. Pattabhi Ramarao allegedly received Rs.5 crore for granting bail to former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, the key accused in OMC illegal mining case..

Ramarao had granted bail to Reddy May 12. The mining baron, however, remained in Bangalore jail in another illegal mining case..

The chief justice took action against the judge Thursday after the CBI lodged a complaint with him, according to officials..

The CBI reportedly found that the bribe money was stashed in bank lockers of the judge's kin..

It shows the degradation in the stanadards in India when a CBI judge is suspended on corruption charges.

Anna is right when he is making such a big issue of it.

Corruption has eaten away all our morals. All political parties are responsible for it, withour any exception.