Friday 8 December 2017

Mr Prime Minister, why don’t you spend some time with the people incognito?




In olden days, wise kings across the globe would take some time off, travel incognito, and speak with ordinary people to know for themselves how their subjects were faring - their standard of living, their hardships, their levels of satisfaction or disaffection with the government, and their general state of well being. Such surprise visits also kept the official advisors and intelligence agencies on their toes, knowing that the ruler could go off on a midnight tour anytime without anyone knowing, and see the truth for himself.

My sincere and unsolicited advice to our Prime Minister is that he must restart this ancient tradition of incognito visits. Clearly, the affairs of state and of the global order, and now the dicey Gujarat election, are placing an excessively heavy burden on him, and he is not able to keep track of the real state of the land and the people who elected him to govern for Achhe Din. Needless to say, it is precisely in such situations that advisors and intelligence agencies play truant, and start feeding false information and misleading the ruler by reporting not the truth, but what the ruler wants to hear. Judging from what has been going on in the country, particularly during the last one year, it is highly recommended that the Prime Minister could stop placing sole dependence on his advisors for information, (who are misleading him so completely) and re-start the practice of incognito visits. And with his excellent theatrical skills, this should not be a problem. And this might also give him a unique position in the global pecking order, and may well improve our rankings in the Ease of doing Business Index or the Transparency Index.

Of course, he does not even need to go incognito to see that the air we breathe has changed to a toxic gas in many cities in India, one of the worst being New Delhi, our capital city. It is un-breathable, causing great suffering to children, the sick, the elderly. And who knows what the long term effects will be on the future generation and the work force - our demographic dividend, on whom we are depending so heavily for future economic growth. The people of India are not able to understand why the Prime Minister has not spoken or initiated any action to address this mega pollution emergency. He appears as if it is none of his business.

Has he been informed by his Ministers or advisors, that schools are being shut down, lung cancer is increasing, children and adults are developing bronchial problems, people are moving around with their mouths and noses masked, cricket matches are threatened with foreign players getting ill, and expatriates have started leaving Delhi? As an experienced administrator, does he not know that a problem as complex as this can only be solved through cooperation of several State Governments, several Ministries and Tribunals, scientific institutions, ecologists and experts? Does he not know that only he as Prime Minister can play the role of master coordinator of so many scattered agencies and State Governments? Does he not know that the situation requires a time bound set of actions to gradually reduce the poison in the choking air, with stringent self regulation and external regulation in several anarchic sectors, such as motor vehicles, carbon emissions, crop burning, construction activities, etc.? But he has chosen to remain silent, and a pathetic and disgraceful blame game between State Governments and agencies is going on in full public view. And there seem to be no signs of any concerted action plan by his Government to address the pollution emergency, nor a single new idea out of the box or the think tank.

The country is now well acquainted with the Modi model of governance - only what the Prime Minister articulates becomes political priority, whether it is sanitation, or skills or digitalization, and the entire implementation machinery focuses on only that or makes great motions to that effect. All these are very necessary and good, but the Government should not be allowed to relegate every other issue to the background. So Mr Prime Minister, it’s high time you coin another slogan and declare it aloud as a priority– Nirmal Vayu or anything else your communication agency suggests which catches your fancy. Set up a think tank with the best experts to draw up an action plan, set the targets, and your cloned administrative machinery will immediately get cracking, and hopefully produce results. London did it in the early 50s.

Coming back to doing an incognito reality check with the people of our land, the Prime Minister should see for himself the havoc that has been created in the lives of poor, honest daily wagers who earned their living through daily cash wages, through the whimsical demonetization, followed by a poorly conceptualized and hastily rolled out GST. Enough statistics have been reeled out about jobs lost, small businesses closing down, labourers returning home to their villages, unemployed. But the Prime Minister has not done any reality check, incognito or otherwise, and he and his Finance Minister continue to live in their fantasy world of denial, and have started doling out extended dreams of Achhe Din for the next decade. But the people of India have seen through the bluff; sadly, they are a disillusioned lot, and the great faith they had reposed in Modi has slowly but surely eroded.

Or look at the middle classes, struggling to connect their Aadhar Cards and PAN numbers to every activity of their lives, legitimate money transactions, mobile phones, bank accounts. Queuing up day after day, losing wages, wasting their productivity and incomes, all in the name of curbing black money. Only to be told that the computers are not working and the servers are down, and they must return the next day. Mr Prime Minister, do an incognito visit and you will see the people’s trauma.

A valid question being asked by many is that in their great enthusiasm to curb black money, how is it that the Government forgot to issue orders that all political donations must also be linked to Aadhar Cards? The world knows that Indian politics and elections are a carnival of black money. And this deliberate lacuna can only give rise to the most unsavoury speculation about the real intent of the Government.

The Government continues to distract the people with illusions of digitalization and cashless economy, knowing fully well that there is neither adequate digital infrastructure, nor the required connectivity, especially in the backward regions of our country, to support this bluff. Please do an incognito check, Mr Prime Minister, and you will find that what the poor need are jobs, food, health, education, and not the Brave New Digital World that you are peddling.

This, Mr Prime Minister is the last time I am addressing you as such. The people of this country expect me to inform them of the reality of you and your government, now with the media so completely gagged, and I cannot let them down.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

CBI’s forgiveness requires a complete disclosure of how the offence occurred. A serious offence described below cannot be forgiven below without a full disclosure of how it happened



It’s been raining brickbats on the CBI, what is popularly known as the nation’s premier investigation agency of the country, also popularly known as the ‘caged parrot’, the criminal bureau of investigation, and a host of other unflattering sobriquets.



First, there was this terrible case which made national headlines, of the CBI team in Bhubaneswar, all set to execute a search warrant on a sitting Judge of the Odisha High Court, when in fact the warrant was meant for another person. This was a scandal in itself, which showed the scant care and attention the CBI officials were taking, even when barging into the house of a sitting High Court Judge. This incident came to light only because the person involved had the status of a High Court Judge and it caught the nation’s attention. Had this happened to a member of the common public, it would have just gone unnoticed.



We do not know till this day who were the CBI officers who abused their authority so recklessly, and what action has been taken on them for their abuse of power. Why is this being kept as a state secret? All we could gather from the newspapers of 14-10-2017 is that, “The CBI on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is ready to apologize to Odisha High Court judge CR Dash for trying to raid his house last month by mistake. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before a bench led by Justice AK Sikri that the CBI wanted to give a closure to this incident by unconditionally apologizing to the High Court judge.”



I wonder why the CBI have not informed the public of what action it has taken against the errant CBI officers who abused their authority in such a cavalier manner. Perhaps, they couldn’t care less, as it is quite becoming clearer each day that the present Government is relying heavily on the CBI to maintain itself in power, and using it as a state weapon to attack its political opponents or keep them in check. The CBI knows this, and therefore believes it can get away with murder under the present regime. How else does one explain such utter carelessness, callousness and abuse of power, in the performance of its duties, as they have done in the case of the Odisha High Court Judge?



Finally, I think it was the Allahabad High Court judgment on the Arushi murder case that exposed them with a judgment which they richly deserved, which informed the people of India conclusively, of the kind of illegal methods they use for investigation, after falsification of evidence and distortion of truth. This judgment clearly lists out the CBI’s criminal offences of tampering with forensic evidence, tutoring of witnesses, planting witnesses, and suppressing evidence critical to the case.

The CBI should hang their head in shame over this indictment. Can anything be more damaging to the credentials of our country’s premier investigation agency?



But here again, it’s a win win situation for the CBI. The CBI fights its case, straight or false, using the tax payers money, unlike the accused. Its potential to harass and conceal information is legend, again all at the expense of the tax payer. Its capacity to appeal any order of the trial or High Court, to protect its errant investigating officers from defamation is unlimited, with all legal and logistical support provided by the tax payer’s money.



I have already written in my blog of 25-2 17, “Bringing Accountability in the Caged Parrot”, that a performance audit of the CBI should be made available to the public – the cases filed by it, the convictions secured, and the acquittals. I request my readers to go through it at http://www.ramjethmalanimp.in/blog/bringing-accountability-in-the-caged-parrot.



The CBI now is so well set in its ways as a political outfit, and the senior officers have left all investigations and charge sheeting to its lower subordinates. The senior IPS officers have acquired for themselves the role of supervisory officers, thereby ensuring that they are never in the direct line of fire, should any strictures be passed by a Court for faulty investigation or charge sheet as in the Arushi murder case. And in the event of a case failing in the Court, the senior officers use their influence to go in appeal at the tax payers’ money, so that their subordinates are protected. And the government in power has a vested interest in doing so. If they do not do so, the next time they ask the CBI to target their political opponents, the CBI subordinate officers may well refuse to do so and merely advise their seniors, (generally government’s hand picked IPS officers) to use their powers under Section 36 Cr.PC and file the charge sheets under their signature. Misuse of power requires protection, which the ruling government happily and illegally provides, at the taxpayer's expense.



There is no doubt that the CBI is the darling of every Government in power. It is their own personal police outfit, which they directly control by staffing it with their cronies, and then using it to target their political opponents, according to their own timing and advantage. The CBI can close the Bofors case in 2005, according to political direction, and then want to reopen it again in 2017, again according to political direction. The CBI has now become so arrogant about its indispensability to any political government in power that it has ceased to perform its normal duties with any sense of accountability or responsibility, and has acquired a licence for abuse of power with absolute impunity.



Let me end by quoting something I had written in my previous blog on the CBI: “The popular perception of the Central Bureau of Investigation is that it is a superior investigation agency, that its investigations are thorough, meticulous and fair, and that it is above political interference. When people or the Opposition in the States are disgusted at the investigations and behavior of the State Police which comes directly under the political masters, there is always a shrill cry to refer the matter to the CBI, as if it’s integrity and investigation expertise is of a divine order. If only the people knew that the one thing the CBI has remained true to is the date of its founding, that is April 1, 1963. They have, as they have grown, perfected the art of fooling the people all the time.”



I know the CBI has sought forgiveness for what is obviously a gross crime. The least that they should have done was to have more courage to announce what made them commit this heinous wrong against law and justice and why did it happen at all ?

Wednesday 20 September 2017

India’s greatest Con Man

“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” So said Abraham Lincoln. And the time has come for our Prime Minister to take heed of Lincoln’s sage advice. Or if not him, then at least his fabled think tanks to whom he has outsourced his day to day PR, that is, if they have the guts to speak truth to him and the nation. For like with all autocrats, a stage is reached when advisors dare not speak the truth to their master, for fear of severe retribution. But regardless, and most importantly, the people of India have finally started discovering the truth of the great con game that was played upon them. 

Three years have passed since the dream of achey din was sold to the people of India, which they fell for completely. And I must admit to all my readers that I too fell for it, despite my age and experience. Perhaps it was because of my utter disgust at the brazen, shameless and unprecedented corruption and anti-national behaviour of the previous government. I had full faith that Narendra Modi would fulfil his promises to the nation when he spoke of bringing India’s black money back to the country, ending institutionalized corruption, and giving the nation good governance. How wrong I was. Mea Culpa, is all that I can say.

Winds of change have again started blowing in the country, as bluff after bluff of the Prime Minister is being discovered by the people of India. And the dreams of achay din are now blowing in the wind, as the people of India are getting disillusioned yet again, with the government that had promised so much and delivered so little perhaps nothing at all. 

The black money which Modi promised to get back will never come back. He and his Finance Minister merely carried forward the fraud of the previous government and linked it wrongly with the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty. So no black money stashed away in off shore accounts will ever come back to India, and the whole bluff, in a moment of unguarded candour was dismissed as an ‘election jumla’ by the Prime Minister’s able alter ego, Amit Shah, for which no explanation came from the Prime Minister. This was the first time the people of India saw the bluff of Narendra Modi.

I must recall the salient facts of this great fraud on the unfortunate people of India. It is a tragic fact of history that India had every reason to pursue the search of Black Money stolen from India by Indian criminals and concealed in foregin tax havens that provided welcome shelter and protection to the dacoits who impoverished the nation and fully enjoyed the proceeds of their dirty crimes. 

The United Nations worked hard for four years and produced its Convention Against Corruption which came into force in December 2005, a most worthy and difficult task. The document mainly deals with the subject of black money, which was rapidly becoming a global problem. 

The Congress Government in power in early 2005 put its signature on the document and made great prop0ganda about how seriously it was about getting back India’s stolen wealth, and punishing the culprits. But they concealed from the people the most important fact that a UN Convention does not become binding on a nation unless it has lodged the Document of Ratification in the U.N Office. This the Congress Government never did.

Now let us see the further huge fraud perpetrated on the people of India by the Congress Government in power. When the Supreme Court was about to deliver its judgement in my famous Black Money petition in early July 2011, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited the Swiss Finance Minister a couple of months earlier and entered into a Secret Protocol amending the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty. Its main but fatal provisions were only two: First, India will seek no information about the past but only about the future; and second, it will seek information only under the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty (DTAT) and not the UN Convention Against Corruption. Every one knows that the DTAT has nothing to do with black money laundering criminals but only honest tax payers who pay income tax in more than one country on the same income. After this secret protocol whose terms were kept a secret the DTAT got the name Amended Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty. Congress Finance Minister Chidambaram knew of this fraud and so did the BJP Finance Minister under Modi. These two amendments were kept a complete secret from the unfortunate people of India.

In answer to a Rajya Sabha question put to Finance Minster Arun Jaitley about what steps he was taking to recover black money, his answer was “ I am entering into amended DTATs with various countries.” Chidambaram and Jaitley, Modi and Manmohan Singh, Congress and BJP have all been in conspiracy to defraud the people of India, and deserve the worst punishment under the criminal law of our country.

Minimum Government, maximum governance has become an underworld of minimum government and minimum governance, with extra constitutional and ideological despots doing maximum governance, be it lynching people to death on mere suspicion of eating beef or transporting cattle, directing enforcement agencies, such as the CBI and ED to maul political opponents, even as maximum corruption persists in the minimum governance mode. A pall of fear has descended upon the legitimate governance agents, political or bureaucratic. Everyone speaks in whispers, as Big Brother is always watching, and any disobedience or dissenting opinion, especially of the honest or ethical kind, will be smothered, and if it still persists, severely punished – this is Modi’s Minimum Government, Maximum Governance. 

Many other bluffs are now being perceived by the people of India who voted Modi to power. Where are the ten million jobs per year that he promised our youth? It is reported that only 2.3 lakh jobs were added in eight key non-farm sectors last year. Where is the economic growth he promised the people of India? Despite the financial fudging that is well known and documented in reports, projections for GDP growth are falling. Industrial growth has plummeted, and NPAs have risen, including in his own home state Gujarat, where small and medium industries are turning sick, and artisans are losing livelihoods. The fate of the artisans remains the same in his adopted constituency of Varanasi. Demonetization has ruined the legitimate cash economy that ran the informal employment sectors across the country. The East India Company is reported to have ruined the artisans and weavers of Bengal by cutting off their thumbs, to sustain the Lancashire textile mills. Modi cut off their livelihoods to sustain electoral victory in UP. Livelihoods have been ruined and families are in dire straits, and the hasty GST is further hitting the informal sector to which the poor of our country belong. All this is reflected in the downward trends in the GDP forecasts. To counter this, minimum governance has resorted to expropriating from the citizens vast bonanzas by way of taxes, on purchase of diesel and petrol, without any transparency or rationality, and purely on the basis of its whims, just to fill its coffers, and conceal the demonetization disaster.

There are less than two years left for the next election, and it is now the time for all patriotic, good people who care for the future prosperity of our country and its people to shed their fears and feeling of helplessness and come together to get the ruling megalomaniacs out. Let them be from any party or ideology. Every day, I receive appeals from scores of people, from all sections of society and religious faiths, to do something to change the disastrous political course that has descended upon our country. We need a government which cares for all the people of India, which can give each section what they need, and take our country forward with respect, dignity and prosperity; where law and order returns, and people cannot be lynched to death by vigilantes who have the confidence of being protected by the Conspirator State of India.

At this point I applaud the great loyalty that the Muslims in our country have demonstrated. The IS has made no impact upon them, and they continue a life of peace and harmony. They are an irreversible part of our historical inheritance, and it is up to us, the majority community, to carry them with us, not in a spirit of appeasement, but in a spirit of brotherhood and patriotism. They have not and will not fail us.

It was said some time ago, that as long as Rahul Gandhi continues with a leadership role in the Congress Party, the BJP has nothing to fear. I think the tables have turned. One thing Modi’s minimum governance has certainly done is to give Rahul Gandhi a terrific opportunity to become relevant again, and talk sense. Which is what he has started doing. His speech at Berkeley University was excellent, and most appropriate and opportune. As long as Modi remains, Rahul will continue to grow.

Before I end, an important message to the Prime Minster comes to my mind - from Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

“When good people are snubbed, and evil people are embraced, distress increases. Wherever officials or people initiate unprecedented violence in acts or words, wherever there are unrighteous acts of violence, disaffection grows. When the king rejects the Dharma, that is ‘does what ought not to be done, does not do what ought to be done, does not give what ought to be given, and gives what ought not to be given’, the king causes people to worry and dislike him.

“Where people are fined or punished or harassed when they ought not to be harassed, where those that should be punished are not punished, where those people are apprehended when they ought not be, where those who are not apprehended when they ought to, the king and his officials cause distress and disaffection.

“A state, where courageous activity is denigrated, quality of accomplishments are disparaged, pioneers are harmed, honorable men are dishonored, where deserving people are not rewarded but instead favoritism and falsehood is, that is where people lack motivation, are distressed, become upset and disloyal.”

Take note, Mr Prime Minister.



Tuesday 5 September 2017

A CRUELLY UNFAIR INSULT TO FAIR SEX

In an otherwise hated period of emergency of 1976 the glorious attribute of secularism became the basic feature of the Indian Constitution meant to be a great gift to religious minorities which together were a very large size of the population of India.

I have no doubt that it certainly did neutralize their hostility to the evil that the emergency in fact was. It is recognized by a very important nine Judges-decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India reported in (1994) 3 SCC 1, that this is now basic non-repealable feature of the Constitution of India. It made every Indian an equal citizen of India no longer to be identical by his religion caste or language.

The above said Supreme Court Judgment contains following passage:

“25. India can rightly be described as the world's most heterogeneous society. It is a country with a rich heritage. Several races have converged in this sub- continent. They brought with them their own cultures, languages, religions and customs. These diversities threw up their own problems but the early leadership showed wisdom and sagacity in tackling them by preaching the philosophy of accommodation and tolerance. This is the message which saints and sufis spread in olden days and which Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of modem times advocated to maintain national unity and integrity. The British policy of divide and rule, aggravated by separate electorates based on religion, had added a new dimension of mixing religion with politics which had to be countered and which could be countered only if the people realised the need for national unity and integrity. It was with the weapons of secularism and non-violence that Mahatma Gandhi fought the battle for independence against the mighty colonial rulers.

………… Gandhiji when in 1946 he wrote in Harijan "I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The State has nothing to do with it. The State will look after your secular welfare, health, communication, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not my religion. That is everybody's personal concern."

It is the duty of every citizen and politician to preserve this Great feature of the Indian polity; it makes India respected in the comity of nations.

India can remain a great nation only with loyal and absolute adherence to this great achievement. I am all appreciation for the majority Judgment which ruled out as unconstitutional the Islamic rule of Triple Talaq. I have great admiration for the depth and extent of their knowledge of constitution and laws of India but I may be pardoned for suggesting that if I was a judge which I never have been all my life. I would have reached the same conclusion in in a short paragraph of a few lines only. Let me share it with my readers. It would read like this:- Every religion has a core and essence but lot of disposable stuff perhaps useful for a time and under different circumstances. As an admirer of the Islam of the Holy Prophet I have often written that essence of Islam is in two lines of the Holy Quran; first: When you walk in search of knowledge you walk in the path of God and the second: the ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr. Triple Talaq is certainly not, this stuff.

Secularism now a basic feature of our legal system is nothing but religion being subject to the rule of reason. This Triple Talaq is the most unfair insult to the fair sex. It must not disgrace our legal system to please some intolerant fanatics. However, much I do not admire Prime Minister Modi’s policies and character I am in all appreciation of a charming lady being made the Hon’ble Minister of Defence ofr our vast country. She is a conclusive argument for terminating the disgrace of Triple Talaq. Politicians in India must be careful. Secularism is not safe with most BJP leaders though there are many who are intensely secular but they are either afraid to speak up or sacrifice their convictions for temporary political rewards. They need to be woken up by appeals to their somewhat dormant conscience.



Ram Jethmalani

Wednesday 26 July 2017

India’s Mysterious Economy



The state of our economy as officially reported by the government not only defies sound economic logic or forecast, but appears to be becoming more and more of a national mystery, especially to experienced economists and analysts. Nothing adds up, and the data on hand from several respected and reliable sources just doesn’t lead to the information on our economy being given by the Government. And as for our projected GDP growth for the next financial year, 2017-18, it seems to have become more and more like the card game of bluff, with several forecasting agencies, both national and international giving completely different figures. 



The Economist, May 13th to 19th, labels India’s economy - State of Disrepair – and warns of a fiscal crisis if the financial profligacy and budget deficits of the States are not brought under check. A short passage is worth quoting : ‘The Central Budget deficit may have been reduced from 5% four years ago to 3% now But its parsimony has been matched by the profligacy of India’s 29 states. They have spent nearly all the money saved, leaving the country’s public finances no better off. The central government has only itself to blame. By implicitly guaranteeing bonds issued by states, and forcing banks to invest their depositors’ money in them, it has unwittingly created the conditions for a future fiscal debacle…ndia should act now to prevent a future crash by imposing more discipline on state borrowing, and by pressing markets to discriminate between states with sustainable finances and those on the path to bankruptcy.’



Does anyone know what our GDP growth last year really was? It has been officially stated that our economy grew at 7.1% during 2016-17, as against 7.6% last year, the .5% reduction being the result of the Tuglaqian and insensitive manner in which the demonitzation was carried out. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave India a growth forecast of 6.6%, against its original forecast of 7.6%, “primarily due to the temporary negative consumption shock induced by cash shortages and payment disruptions associated with the recent currency note withdrawal and exchange initiative.”



Economists and analysts have been puzzled at the 7.1% GDP rate announced by the Central Statistical Organization, after demonetization sucked out 86% of hard cash from the Indian economy, causing greatest hardship to the rural and informal sectors. Even the infrastructure structure slowed down, as per the official CSO report, with job losses and layoffs. There appears to be a great deal of sleight of hand, if not actual fudging of data going on, something being openly discussed in all informed quarters. And there is a great deal of data to show reduction of private investment, of gross capital formation, of falling exports, and that the industrial sector, construction, manufacturing and retail sectors, job creation, the agricultural sector and informal sectors that work on a cash economy, (the informal sector providing 45% of GDP and 80% of employment) have all been badly hit by demonetization. And yet the Government gives a GDP figure of 7.1%. Perhaps the CSO forgot to factor the above data in their GDP calculations. Instead, they show a whopping 10% consumption growth for the same quarter when demonetization sucked the currency out of the system, and people became cash starved!



Does the government think the people are fools. And has it sunk to such an abysmal low that it must resort to unethical and brazen fudging of figures and ‘statistical illusions’ for the citizens of India. For how long do they think these illusions of fudged data can stick?

Most economists are of the view that the CSO figures are indeed mysterious, if not magical, when correlated with the data regarding the growth in various sectors that make up the GDP. Economist Vivek Kaul says that ‘an increase in government expenditure has been responsible for a greater proportion of the increase in GDP - for every Rs 100 increase in GDP, increase in government expenditure made up for Rs 26.64 on an average.” Games governments play to hoodwink citizens.



We have still not been informed by the Government as to how much black money in the country has been integrated into the banking system after demonetization. Well, it has been reported that of the Rs 15.4 lakh crore worth of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were scrapped, as much as Rs 14 lakh crore has been deposited in banks. And how much of this is black money is not known.



Is this going to be the next ruse to fix our GDP for the next year?



And what the effect of the GST will be, introduced through the needless midnight fanfare, no economist, leave alone the common man can predict. Analysts say that it relies heavily on digital connectivity, something that is neither reliable, nor universally spread in our country. And though it might make the tax structure easier for the big business, its impact on the unorganized, vulnerable production sector, such as weavers, artisans, small cash run businesses is yet to be seen. The triple system of Central, State and Interstate GST and revenue sharing between Centre and States would certainly demand innovative monitoring. And as for enforcement, we wait to see what lies there and what’s in it for whom. 







                                                                                                                   Ram Jethmalani

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Chattisgarh burns red, New Delhi fiddles , a tragedy Supreme.

                                                                                                  
Yet another tragedy in Bastar. 25 CRPF men killed on 24.04.2017 by Maoists in Sukma, scream the headlines. Wreaths have been laid, bugles have sounded, compensation has been announced, and the tragic headline is already on the wane and will be forgotten soon. Do we even remember that just about a month ago 12 CRPF men were killed in the same place, 15 were killed on March 11, 2014 again in the same place, and the worst being a massacre of 75 CRPF men in Dantewada in April 2010.  And these are just illustrative examples, not a complete list of Maoist killings which run into thousands over the last ten years. 
The CRPF has a grand history dating back to pre-Independence days. It was originally constituted in 1939 as the Crown Representative Police in 1939, to address the political unrest and agitations and help the then princely States of India to maintain law and order.  After Independence, the force was renamed as Central Reserve Police Force by an Act of Parliament on December 28, 1949. Its main role is to assist the States in maintaining internal   security. The Headquarters of CRPF was to be at Neemuch as per Sector 8(2) of the original Act. Since independence, CRPF has been recognized for its gallantry and patriotic service to the nation, both at the borders and within India.
With such a glorious history and legacy, why does the CRPF appear such an orphan today, with neither leadership nor strategy, without proper arms and equipment, without protective cover or mobile connectivity required for guerrilla warfare, and has repeatedly been reduced to cannon fodder for the rapacious Maoists.
The country was shocked to learn that the post of DG, CRPF had been lying vacant for the past almost two months, and was filled up only after the Sukna massacre, almost like an afterthought. May I ask the Home Minister and the Prime Minister, both members of the Appointments Committee, to explain this lethargy in governance, after all that hype about good governance which was the BJP’s main election plank. Why did it have to take the lives of 25 CRPF jawans for this routine appointment to be made?
Maybe no answers will be forthcoming. But perhaps it would be better governance if the new DG CRPF is ordered to shift his Headquarters to Dantewada and stay put there for at least a year, protect his men, boost their morale, and give them all the support they need, and clean up the infested area. Massacres in Chattisgarh should never be repeated again.  
I only hope the newly appointed DG, CRPF has some prior experience in handling battalions of the CRPF, and has adequate knowledge and technical competence in field craft, knowledge of various types of weapons and ability to use them, proven man management skills of field formations, and intimate knowledge  of the topography and enemy tactics. If not, and his appointment is based solely on the fact that he belongs to the IPS, then he certainly cannot hit the ground running, and will continue to be the usual apprentice in the trappings of New Delhi, without a clue about the harsh ground realities of a Battalion at work. And the attacks on our hapless jawans will go on.
I cannot understand why the post of DG- CRPF is reserved only for IPS officers of all hue, even when they have had no experience in the outfit that they are supposed to lead. If there are senior competent officers recruited in the CRPF, and have spent their entire service in the force and have intimate domain knowledge of their work, why are they denied this opportunity? Just one small policy change by opening up senior positions of the force to them can hugely boost their morale.                                                                                  
Some other disturbing questions also surface. The Sukma incident, an attack by a large group of Moists armed with weapons, is reported to have taken place in broad day light around noon time.  How did this go unnoticed? Does it not indicate an abysmal intelligence failure of the State and Central police agencies? The State police have their moorings and permanent influence in the area where the Central Police force is deployed, and therefore have greater responsibility to gather actionable intelligence and passed it on to the CRPF.  They have better knowledge of local language and dialects, of local customs and environment, which the CRPF men drawn from various parts of the country do not have. Does the State Police and the CRPF have the required synergy between them, or has the State Police abdicated their responsibility and put the entire load on the CRPF? 
It is also not clear why drones and helicopter services were not utilized for tracking the movement of large groups of armed men in the region. Why is it not possible for ISRO to place a fleet of small satellites to give 24 x 7 images of movements of insurgents in this chronic Maoist infested area, which for the last two decades has cost us so many lives of our brave jawans?  I urge the Prime Minister to treat this as a matter of highest priority for national security. Pictures of Venus and Jupiter can wait. Let us try and get pictures of what is happening on Indian soil, and help our security forces.
Then there are disturbing bits of information openly spoken about that the Maoists share quite a cosy relationship with both politicians and industrialists in their areas. To the politicians, they promise votes from the people they control, and from the industrialists there are regular payments of protection money which sustain their insurgent activities. Is this the reason why there is no political will to completely crush the Maoist war on the Indian State?
Where are the Maoists getting their arms and ammunition from? It is said that both China and Pakistan are doing their utmost to ensure that the Maoists are never wanting for them. Can the Prime Minister please inform us as to what steps are being taken to curb this. Judging from the repeated succession of such attacks on our security forces, we don’t seem to be doing anything very effective.
And then there are reports about the pathetic conditions that the CRPF jawans have to work in - lack of potable water in hot temperatures, poor quality of food, stress and fatigue because of long deployment without break.  Clearly, the CRPF appears to be in such a state of neglect that its leadership cannot even get its basic man management right.
Every time a tragedy happens in the Maoist belt, there is a predictable response from the Government – that there will be an enquiry about whether the Standard Operating Procedures were being implemented. But would it not be more useful to review these SOPs and ensure that they give maximum protection to our jawans engaged in this guerrilla warfare.
I am waiting for a transformational statement to come from New Delhi, but have heard nothing yet. New Delhi continues to fiddle while Bastar burns. And I’m reminded of the statement the Prime Minister made after the Pathankot attack in September 2016,  that ‘the sacrifice of our 18 jawans would not go in vain.’ After this recent Maoist attack in Sukma, he has made the same statement in a tweet, ‘we are proud of the valour of our CRPF personnel. The sacrifice of the martyrs will not go in vain...”
I beg to differ, Mr Prime Minister, all these lives did indeed go in vain, because of neglect, poor governance and failure of the Indian State. I urge you to place the highest priority on this great threat to our internal security, in the national interest. And it’s high time you changed your sound bite writer. He is becoming too trivial and repetitive.    

Thursday 6 April 2017

ISIS NOW IS – A THREAT TO THE ENTIRE CIVILIZED WORLD


I write this piece to clear a total misunderstanding from which our government is unfortunately suffering. During the Question hour on Wednesday 5th April in reply to Rajya Sabha question 348 the Home Ministry gave a reply which showed total ignorance of an important development which might well turn into a natural disaster for India and of course for every secular democracy of the world.  I tried to draw attention of the house this gross ignorance of our government but my supplementary question was disallowed on a technical ground that not more than three supplementary questions are permissible and mine was the fourth. I write this on the advice of the Hon’ble Chairman who was pleased to meet me after the Question hour was over.

The question of member Shri Raj Kumar Dhoot was “whether it is a fact that Islamic State (IS) has established its base in the country and its modules were recently found operating in the country”

The reply from the Hon’ble Minister disclosed ignorance of our government about the difference between the IS and ISIS. The two are not the same and I cannot allow such dangerous ignorance to persist. The ISIS stood for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In late 2014 the second IS in ISIS has been dropped and now the IS stands for Islamic State in the whole world.

Due to American pressure and presence in Iraq and Syria the Sunni Islam had not been able to establish its rule in these two States; the objective of the terrorists was establishment of Sunni rule and elimination of the U.S obstacle caused by the presence of its forces.

In the second half of the year 2014 on the first day of Ramzzan the ISIS declared the formation of an Islamic Caliphate known as the Islamic State (IS) in the entire world posing a serious terrorist threat to the secular democracies of the world. The spokesman for this new danger to all secular states of the world will be Abu Bark al-Baghdadi as the Imam and khalifah for the entire world to be called Islamic Caliphate. It will usher in a vast and glorious Islamic Civilisation. The Caliphate would again reach Spain and even conquer Rome.

 In the end of  March last the IS made an armed attack in London and disclosed  its great plans of world domination. Pakistan is welcoming this monster and using it in Kashmir.

The secular democracies  of the world must now unite in a powerful armed force to meet this menace with all its resources military , economic  and intellectual. Make no mistake this new evil force is being used in Kashmir too.

In the fall of 2014 ISIS had done so much damage in so short time that people had asked with great anxiety -: “ where did ISIS come from and how did it manage to do so much damage in so short a period of time?” The question was understandable given the images and videos there including around the world , most notoriously the horriyfying propoganda beheadings of Seven Western hostages with American Journalist James Foley among them. But  the question was also a strange one , because the United States has been at war with ISIS for the better part of  a whole decade under its various names  , first of al-Qeada in Iraq then the Mujahdin Advisory Council and then the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). If there was a familiar foe , ISIS was it.

The following is a paragraph from a great book ‘ ISIS : Inside the Army of Terror’ by Micheal Weiss and Hassan Hassan.
“ ISIS is a terrorist  organization , but it isn’t only a terrorist organization. It is also a mafia adept at exploiting decades- old transnational gray markets for oil and arms trafficking. It is a conventional military that mobilizes and deploys foot soldiers with a professional acumen that has impressed even members of the US military. It is a sophisticated intellegence- gathering apparatus that infiltrates rival organizations and silenty recurits within their ranks before taking them over, routing them in combat, or seizing their land. It is a slick propoganda machine effective at disseminating its message and calling in new recurits via social media. ISIS is also a spectral holdover of an even earlier predecessor al-Qaeda. Most of its top decision- makers served wither in Saddam Hussein’s military or security services…………Most important , ISIS presents itself to an embattled Sunni minority in Iraq, and an even more persecuted and victimized Sunni majority in Syria, as the sect’s last line of defense against a host of enemies- the “ infidel” United States, the “apostate” Gulf Arab States, the “ Nusayri” Alawite dictorship in Syria, the “ rafida” one in Iran, and the latter’s satrapy in Baghdad.”

The IS is now a threat to all civilised nations and a word of advice is called for to my friend the Hon’ble Home Minster: Please ask the news editors to be more accurate in their composing the Headlines of the news items. When I read it I could not believe that my friend Rajnath has said something so atrocious. It is lucky I read the whole report when I realised that the headline was a masterpiece of bad English.


Tuesday 14 March 2017

Antrix Devas: A fraudulent termination of a fraudulent contract



The corrupt of the world have much to learn from us, as it is now universally acknowledged that our national capacity to defraud the public exchequer is among the highest in the world. One of the greatest skills that India has built up over the past few decades is in designing of scams, executing them, and then covering them up, not only from the law, but also from people’s memories. The most universally recognized Make in India product is the Indian Scam, truly state of the art.

Of course, corruption happens in almost all countries and societies in the world. But the sheer magnitude, scale and sustainability of India’s corruption is exceptional - the brilliance with which scams are conceptualized, the seamless operations of the political, official and business machinery in cahoots with the quasi criminal sections of the citizenry, all nicely fitting into the loopholes of the law.

After the embezzlement has been successfully executed, we show great expertise in hushing it up, destroying evidence, obfuscating and delaying, protecting the corrupt, nailing hapless scapegoats, all under direct political supervision and bureaucratic connivance/subjugation. Investigations are scuttled or derailed and the CBI becomes the PBI-the Political Bureau of Investigation. Take a look at the last decade – scandals aplenty, punishment nil.

Well, a scam which started in 2003 and mysteriously persists till today is the Antrix Devas scam. It neither gets exposed nor does it close. And till today the general public has not been informed the whole truth about it. Fortunately it is in news again.



A news item appeared on February 28, that the Delhi High Court admitted Devas Multimedia's plea to attach the bank accounts of ISRO's Antrix Corporation to secure damages worth USD 672 million (Rs 4,435.20 crore). These had been awarded to Devas in 2015 by a Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris for “damages and pre-award interest.” The Delhi High Court has directed Antrix to file before March 21, an affidavit by an authorized officer, along with its audited balance sheets and profit and loss accounts for the past three years, to facilitate the hearing in the matter.

In another Arbitration, in July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Tribunal at the Hague held the Indian Government liable to pay compensation to the tune of 40 per cent of investment made by foreign investors of Devas Multimedia.

There is yet another arbitration in respect of Deutsche Telekom’s investment of USD 100 million for which judgment is reserved and the award is expected to be much bigger than the last. So altogether the Indian tax payer can look forward to being mowed down under at least Rs 10,000 crores by the time Antrix has finished losing every Arbitration case.

Now, how did this happen? This happened because the fraudulent Antrix Devas Contract was terminated most fraudulently by the then ISRO Chairman in 2011 - the highest act of corruption and betrayal of the people of India.

Devas had claimed in the Antrix-Devas Contract of January 2005 (Clause 12 b) that it had the ability to design Digital Multimedia Receivers (“DMR”) and Commercial Information Devices (“CID”) and had the ownership and the right to use the intellectual property, viz. SDMB technology, involved in their designs. Allegations started mounting around 2009, regarding the authenticity of the IPR claimed by Devas, and a spate of enquiries followed. The then Financial Advisor, G Balachandran had repeatedly informed ISRO Chairman Radhakrishnan that the Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, (SDMB) technology claimed by Devas in the Contract is not a confidential and proprietary technology held by it. The note recommended that these facts should be intimated to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and the contract should be cancelled on grounds that Devas had given false information when signing the contract about its ownership and rights over the technology and intellectual property, and acted fraudulently. The Financial Advisor also intimated Radhakrishnan that if the contract was terminated on these grounds, the chances of Devas winning any case of Arbitration are remote.

Why did Radhakrishnan disregard this shocking revelation and the sound financial advice given by his Financial Advisor? Why did he not recommend to the CCS to cancel the Contract on grounds provided to him in writing by his officers that the Contract was induced by fraud and misrepresentation and was null and void? Had he done so, Devas would not have succeeded in winning every arbitration, and the Indian tax payer would have been spared the unpardonable financial burden that has started descending upon him.

And thereafter, Antrix and ISRO did everything possible to ensure that they lose the arbitration cases.

I request my readers to go through what I wrote about this case in my blog in October 2015 in http://www.ramjethmalanimp.in/latest-posts/antrix-devas-scam-continues-what-i-predicted-in-2009-has-happenedand in my article in Sunday Guardian in 2014, which my readers can see at http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/antrix-devas-space-odyssey-continues

I had requested the Prime Minister ‘to appoint a panel of eminent legal experts to put the Department of Space on the right legal track and safeguard national interest and the taxpayers' money. Legal amends can yet be made to save the nation and the taxpayer from being robbed of Rs 18,000 crore by this criminal conspiracy.”

This was the new Narendra Modi Government who came to power on a strong anti corruption agenda, and it was legally possible to have done so. But they chose to do nothing about it, and the people of India, the plaintiffs, were converted into defendants.



Clearly, in retaliation to Devas for persisting in its efforts for execution of the Award and securing a favourable order from the Delhi High Court on February 28, on the same day the Enforcement Directorate, (after sleeping for several years), issued a Press Release that stated that they had ‘provisionally’ attached about Rs 80 crores from Devas.

This was a bit of a hoax because this amount included Rs 68 crores which had been paid by Devas to Antrix as Upfront Capacity Reservation Fee, which Antrix had returned to Devas after annulling the Contract, and Devas had not accepted.

But what was a bit unusual about the ED Press Release was that its main emphasis was that “The agreement entered into by Devas with the ISRO/ACL is illegal as Devas did not have any technology/ownership of intellectual property rights to deliver the Multimedia Services and the main purpose of entering the agreement with ISRO/ACL was to raise foreign investments on the strength of the Agreement with ISRO and thereafter siphon off the investment raised, out of India in the guise of investment in subsidiary Company, Business Support Services and Legal Fee.”

This is something that Chairman ISRO should have said in 2011 and declared the Contract null and void. This is what Prime Minister Modi should have said in 2014, and rectified the mischief of the previous Government. This what the media should be asking even today. Sadly, a blanket of silence seems to have shrouded them.

If this is meant to be a message to arm twist Devas, it is too late. This ground should have been made by Chairman ISRO in 2011 to declare the contract null and void, and pleaded thereafter during the Arbitration proceedings.

The Antrix Devas scam is unique, one of its kind, a classic case of smooth inheritance of a scam sprawling three different Governments from 2003 to 2017. Its history begins in 2003, when dialogue between ISRO/Antrix starts with M/s Forge Advisors regarding opportunities in the global satellite market. It smoothly transitioned to the UPA Government and the Contract was signed in January 2005. Incidentally, Chairman M/s Forge Advisors, Shri Ramanathan Vishwanathan later in December 2004 became Chairman of the quickly cooked up Devas India, the Indian entity with which the Antrix Board approved the infamous Contract a few weeks later on December 24, 2004. And despite the unsavoury disclosures, it was once again inherited with complete ownership by the Modi Government in 2014. The present Government did nothing to rectify the corrupt decision of its predecessors. Instead, they continued with the same premises, which were sure to spell defeat for Antrix in the several Arbitrations. Not at all like the Agusta Westland or the National Herald scams in which the present Government is taking some interest from time to time. Clearly, this scam has extremely powerful backers, cutting across party lines.

Or was the termination error intentional? The nation has not forgotten the Bhopal tragedy, and how the compensation money for the dead and afflicted became the richest contribution to the private coffers of several politicians and their cronies.

One last observation. Is it a coincidence that the last two ISRO Chairmen rushed to the RSS after they retired? Any guesses why?

Sadly, ISRO and Antrix are in disarray, and the Prime Minister seems not in control. He owes it to the nation to tell them the true facts.