The 14 Ministers You Need To Know Should Be Jailed

Hardening its stand again after the Assembly elections, Team Anna moved from setting deadlines for the Lokpal Bill to naming Union ministers with a tainted reputation. They warned of a nationwide ‘jail bharo’ agitation in August if criminal cases were not filed against 14 Union Ministers on charges of corruption and criminal intimidation. The team said that the dates would be announced later.

Team Anna addressed crowds at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the venue of a fast to demand protection for whistleblowers campaigning against corruption. Team Anna also demanded investigation of allegations against 1,300 elected representatives (MPs as well as MLAs) across the country against whom criminal charges have been leveled.

Arvind Kejriwal, the core member of Team Anna, named the 14 Union Ministers who, he alleged, were “corrupt.” He himself had no direct evidence of wrongdoing on their party, but there have been allegations in newspapers and on television, and they needed to be investigated.

Indian Express listed out the 14 Union Ministers whom Kejriwal named corrupt and the specific charges against them. (SiliconIndia takes no stand on these allegations, but just lists out the names as given by Kejriwal. As it is in the public domain, it can evoke a public discourse and/or litigation.

1. P Chidambaram:

Chidambaram was one of the 14 ministers on the list, for his alleged controversial role in the 2G scam, and the charge that his wife (a lawyer) defended a Kolkata businessman named Kashinath Tapuria in an income tax claim of 580 crore.

Last year in September, referring to Chidambaram’s involvement in the scam, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare said “Had there been a Jan Lokpal now, Chidambaram would have been in jail.” Referring to the same, Kejriwal named him on the list.

2. Kapil Sibal:

Kapil was on the list of the corrupt ministers for allegedly lowering Rs 650 crore fine on Reliance Communication to Rs 5 crore. He was accused of favoring Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infocomm.

Anna Hazare had then appealed to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take action against Union Telecom minister Kapil Sibal, and expressed grief that frivolous litigations were being filed to settle personal scores. He also said that he himself would enquire into the matter and bring out details about the HRD Minister.

 
3. Praful Patel:

Praful Patel was also on the list for his alleged role in running Air India to the ground when he was civil aviation minister.

4. Sharad Pawar:

Sharad Pawar was named as well for his alleged “links” with Abdul Karim Telgi in the Maharashtra stamp duty scam.

He was named by Abdul Karim Telgi, during a narcoanalysis test, stating that it was Pawar’s idea to print fake stamp papers across the country and mint money. Pawar was also accused in a multi-crore scam concerning wheat imports and institutions headed by him and his close associates were served notices by the Bombay High Court for showing favoritism to his family.

 
5. SM Krishna:

SM Krishna made it on the list of 14 ministers too for his alleged involvement in the Karnataka mining scam. An FIR was filed against him by Karnataka Lokayukta for allegedly de-reserving large forest areas for mining in Bellary as the Chief Minister of Karnataka in 1999-2004.

6. Kamal Nath:

Kamal Nath, the Union Cabinet Minister of Urban Development, made it on the hit list too over allegations relating to the rice export. The alleged 2, 500-crore rice export scam of 2008-09 took place in his watch.

 
7. Farooq Abdullah:

Farooq Abdullah is on the list for alleged financial irregularities in the J&K Cricket Association.

The JKCA headed by union minister of new and renewable energy Dr Farooq Abdullah, is facing charges of grave financial irregularities and mismanagement. 50 crore is said to have been diverted to different accounts opened in the name of the JKCA by its officials to mint money, which comes as subsidies to promote sports and particularly cricket.

8. Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh :

Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh, both are on the Kejriwal list of corrupt ministers for their role in the Adarsh housing scam and a land allotment allegation against Deshmukh.

Adarsh Housing Society, a cooperative society in the city of Mumbai, was supposed to be reserved for the war widows and veterans of the Kargil War. However, it came to light that houses in the society were not given to the presumed beneficiaries, but taken over by politicians, bureaucrats and top ranking military personnel. There are allegations that former chief ministers of Maharashtra, Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh were also involved in the scam.

10. Ajit Singh:

Ajit Singh makes it on the hit list too for charges that in 2008, when UPA 1 government was tottering after Left parties withdrew support over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal; he supported the government for a monetary consideration.

The Wikileaks claim that during the nuclear deal trust vote, he had charged Rs 10 crore per MP to vote for the UPA government.

11. GK Vasan:

GK Vasan is a prominent Congress leader from Tamil Nadu and is on the corrupt minister list for allegedly giving away 16,000 acres near Kandla Port of Gujarat at a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the exchequer.

Vasan instead called these allegations “baseless” and pointed out that he was not in charge of the ministry when the alleged irregularities surfaced in 2008. He was quoted saying to the Hindustan Times “Allegation regarding irregularities in Kandla Port Trust Lease of Land case are totally baseless and there is no truth in it. When the report by CVO of the Port Trust was originally given in 2008, I was not the Minister of Shipping.”

12. Sriprakash Jaiswal:

Sriprakash makes it on the list for alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks. This allotment of coal blocks gave ‘undue benefits’ to scores of companies causing an enormous loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore to the nation’s exchequer.

The Coal Minister in his defence said “We gave advertisements for allocation of coal blocks and invited applications…after the applications were received by us (Coal Ministry), the state governments were consulted and thereafter the coal blocks were allocated,” as reported Business Today.

 
13. MK Azhagiri:

MK Azhagiri makes it on the hit list for alleged attacks on political rivals.  He was also accused of conspiring in the murder of the former DMK Minister, T. Kiruttinan.

14. Virbhadra Singh:

Virbhadra Singh is the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. He is one among the fourteen ministers named by Kejriwal, for assorted allegations of bribery.

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Why BCCI Hates the New Sports Bill?

The cry for the new sports bill just got stronger as many of India‘s biggest names in sports have come in support of the game-changing bill by Ajay Maken. The sports icons are all united for this one cause now and the revised draft will be placed in front of the cabinet on November 14.

The bill initially put before the cabinet in August, was sent back to the drawing board after being allegedly blocked by the cricket big wings in the cabinet and the Indian Olympics Association. The cabinet members including Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Farooq Abdullah, C.P. Joshi, and Vilasrao Deshmukh objected the bill on conflict of interests as they head many sports bodies in the country. The vested interests are seen in the cabinet itself which has many politicians playing the double game. It seems like they are the judges of their own case.

India’s powerful cricketing body BCCI has as once again rejected the bill and cleared it stand saying that the board would not accept the bill even in the revised form until and unless its reservations are met by the sports ministry. They say the bill is draconian in nature and it interferes in their functioning. However, it should be noted that the cricketing power house have not publicly shared its concerns about the new bill neither has objected the clauses it alleges is draconian in nature.

Talking in a debate in a news channel, former sports minister Mani Shankar Ayer said, “Cubans win 157 medals for every one core of their population, Chinese win about 3.5 medals for every crore of their population and India wins less than 0.5 medals for every core of its population.” He alleged that the heads of the sporting federations in India are not there to inculcate a sporting culture and oppose the bill because they do not want anyone to interfere in their business.

It’s an irrefutable fact that the new sports bill attempts to bring some kind of accountability and transparency to the sports bodies in the country. The bill tries to bring all sporting federations under the Right to Information (RTI) act, provide 25 percent of quota for sport people in sports organizations and put a tenure and age cap on administrators.

Former sprint queen PT Usha said, “The National Sports Development Bill and its revised version proposed by the Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India is a landmark initiative and has the potential of streamlining National Sports Federations of India including the Indian Olympic Association. It primarily provides for limiting the age & restricting the tenure of its office bearers and bringing them within the ambit of Right to Information Act. It further ensures 25 per cent Players’ representation in their executive bodies with voting rights, enforces international good practices & democratic principles like conducting free, fair & democratic elections by way of secret ballot, setting up of an ‘Athlete Advisory Council’ as also ‘Sports Dispute Settlement & Appellate Tribunal’, adhering to international standards in order to curb / abolish doping, age fraud, sexual harassment, amongst others. It is a well meaning legislation aimed at making sports administration responsible, accountable & transparent in its operation.”

“As we understand, this Bill, once enacted will grant much more autonomy to National Sports Federations (NSFs) than now prevalent. By removing the current provision of yearly recognition of National Sports Federations by the Sports Ministry, it will ensure that government and bureaucratic interference is done away with. Moreover, the Bill also addresses the issue of political interference in administration of Federations, which have marred Indian Sports till now,” she added.

“There is all positive about the bill. There is nothing negative. It’s a sports development bill. The opposition is nothing but a resistance to change based on personal issues,” said former shooter Morad Ali Khan to NDTV.

This bill will bring in a lot of positives to the Indian sports. It’s a massive, major, positive first step towards a better sporting system in our country,” Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said in the talk show.

For the first time, we are hearing much talks about accountability and transparency in sports federations in India. It’s for the first time that any sports minister has taken this on so serious. This bill will also give a chance to every athlete or sports person in the country a chance to be a part of governing or coaching in his own disciple. The general public, the entire sports fraternity, and the media are all with the bill and they argue that In all fairness, the people associated with the sports administration should withdraw from the cabinet..

77% of Union Ministers are Crorepatis

The Union cabinet is like a king who becomes richer and richer at the peril of his subjects.

Not a few, but almost 77 percent of the Union Council of Ministers have are crorepatis, the rich and prosperous ruling club of a nation reeling under widespread corruption, inflation and price rice. In an analysis of the assets declaration of Union Council of Ministers in the PMO website, the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch says the average asset value of a minister in the current ministry is 10,63,55,097.

The growth rate is amazing and many wish if the country would grow at least half the pace as the wealth of these ministers. The average asset value of a minister was Rs 7.3 cores in 2009 and today it’s at 10.6 crores.

Interestingly Defense Minister A K Antony and Minister of Corporate Affairs Veerappa Moily are at the bottom of the list with Antony possessing only 35 lakhs and Moily having assets worth just 13 Lakhs.
Surprisingly a prominent few have a decrease in their assets like P. Chidambaram, Agatha Sangma, Jitin Prasada, Veerappa Moily, Farooq Abdullah, S. Jaipal Reddy, and S.M. Krishna.

Praful Patel tops the list with 122 Crore, who reported an increase of 42 Crores. The businessman-turned-politician has a 7 year ministerial performance so far.

The minister with highest asset increase percentage Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan has a total asset of 70 Crores. The DMK man is 70 Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting.

Kamal Nath comes third in the list of riches ministers with a total asset of 41 Crores. However, the detailed report says that according to recent newspaper reports, Kamal Nath’s net worth has been calculated to 256 crores, which is including the assets of the companies in which he has business interest.
The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal comes next with a net worth of 38 Crore.

DMK’s Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan had an unbelievable 1092 percent growth in his assets, an increase of 64.5 crores in two years which took his total wealth up from 5.9 crores in 2009 to 70 crores in 2011.

Cabinet Minister for Heavy Industries Praful Patel comes second with an increase of 42 Crores in 2 years. His total assets increased from 79.8 crores in 2009 to 122 crores. Third in the line, Minister of Urban Development Kamal Nath has an increase of 26 Crores from 14 crores in 2009 to 41 crores in 2011.
Six of the ministers who declared their assets have not shown value of several of their movable and immovable properties. According to the analysis, the ministers in the current cabinet are Rs 3.3 crore richer than in 2009.

 

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