Tag Archives: Prime Minister

I’m not interested in becoming PM: Rahul Gandhi

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Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he was not interested in becoming the prime minister and wants to focus on his party instead.

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“The party is my priority. I believe in long-term politics,” Gandhi was quoted by TV channels as saying in Delhi.

“I am not interested in becoming the prime minister,” he was quoted as saying.

Gandhi, who is the second-in-command in the Congress, told reporters there was a need to end the “high command culture” in the party.

The Congress party has not announced a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but Gandhi is a clear favourite.

Gandhi has been working on improving the party’s grasroots and has convened a meeting of all general secretaries and central leaders in charge of states on March 6.

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Can’t do business without paying bribe: #Berlusconi

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Defending Finmeccanica SpA’s jailed ex-chief executive officer Giuseppe Orsi, Italy’s three-time former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday said bribes are a necessary part of doing business globally.

 ”Bribes are a phenomenon that exists and it’s useless to deny the existence of these necessary situations,” Berlusconi said in a televised interview.

 ”These are not crimes. We’re talking about paying a commission to someone in that country. Why, because those are the rules in that country,” the former premier was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

 In February 2010, India had inked the deal to acquire the 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters from AgustaWestland for IAF‘s elite Communication Squadron, which ferries the President, PM and other VVIPs.

 The deal came under the scanner of Italian agencies after allegations of kickback given in India surfaced.

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The agencies arrested Orsi on Tuesday as part of their probe related to international corruption.

It is alleged that Orsi, who was heading the helicopter unit, when the deal was struck, was involved in the bribery.
Around 50 million euros (Rs 362 crore approximately), about 10 per cent of the deal, were alleged to have been given as bribes to ensure that the company won the contract.

Italian news agency ANSA quoted Berlusconi as saying that probes by Italian prosecutors into contracts Italian firms sign abroad were a form of “economic suicide”.

“Everyone knows that as well as the tenders, agreements between governments are also involved,” Berlusconi said.
He added: “The fact that there is the risk of magistrates intervening I consider to be economic suicide”.

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Arvind Kejriwal, supporters detained near PM residence

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India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal, who was to lead a group of 300-odd physically challenged people to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s residence, was detained by the police near the 7, Racecourse Road, in the capital on Friday.

Apparently, the police rounded up Kejriwal and his supporters after warning them to clear the road.

While Kejriwal had said he wanted to submit a letter to the prime minister that contained the details of his allegations against union law minister Salman Khurshid, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to meet him, saying he had prior appointments.

However, reacting to their being stalled by the security, Kejriwal said, “It is utter shame that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should seek a security cover comprising thousands of securitymen to keep a bunch of physically challenged people at bay. This is not democracy.”

Kejriwal, who has demanded the resignation of Union law minister Salman Khurshid over the siphoning of funds of a charitable NGO that his wife Louise runs, is now staging a sit-in at the spot where he was stopped by the securitymen. “Earlier, we were seeking the PM for a time when he could meet us, but now we will wait till the time the PM speaks to the people of this country.”

Refusing to budge, Kejriwal said, “This is not democracy. The government is supposed to serve us and not lord over us.”

Demanding that a police complaint be filed immediately against Salman Khurshid and his wife, Kejriwal said, “Salman Khurshid should be removed from the cabinet till proven innocent. Both of them are influential people, they can tamper with evidence and pressure witnesses. They should be arrested immediately.”

“Let’s make this place another Tahrir Square (the focus of anti-regime protests in Egypt last year). People should take leave (from work) and join the protest. Now it’s a fight to the finish. The prime minister will have to meet us and accept our demands. Khurshid has to resign. He should be arrested,” he said.

Khurshid is planning to sue social activist-turned-politician Kejriwal for his allegations.

World’s Biggest scam in India valued to $40 Billion [INFOGRAPHIC]

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The 2g spectrum scam not just 1 lakh but 1.7 lakh crores!
If put in figure, a whole lot of 1,70,00,00,00,00,000

Do you think a telecom minister can earn this much? or is this his father’s property? Sure it isn’t.Or you wondering if this belongs to Mr Karunanidhi who has been supporting him all along? sure not!

According to Indian television reports Mr. Raja, the Telecom Minister, made a loss of around 2 lakh crores to Indian government by selling the 2g spectrum for cheap bucks to corporates that have no standard at all.

With the Auditor General and comptroller charging Mr. Raja, the telecom minister, against the 2g spectrum scam has raised high the country. He was being held as personally responsible for the loss of over 1.7 lakh crore to the country selling 2g spectrum at dead cheap rates in 2008.

This incident blasted the issue more seriously adding to the intense interrogation by the civil society, supreme court and the Telecom watchdog against Raja.

This has been the biggest scam in India and in the world. This has substantially marked a dead black spot in the history of scams. Until now, the value of all the scams is not more than 20 lakh crore rupees (RS: 20,00,00,00,00,00,000) that made this a big buzz in the world of scams.

Countries like America and Europe were almost shocked to the 2g spectrum scam which is over a “whole 40 billion dollars”.

  1. No rules in the game! His game is the only rule.
  2. He played with dates and changed everything that can make his story strong and bring him all the money.
  3. Sold completely surrender to money and selling the country to cheap hands.
  4. No proper auction followed
  5. Above all, the highlights are his ignorance to Prime Minister Mr.Manmohan advice, TRAI who recommended to auction 2g spectrum properly at market rates and not the dead rates!

Finally, he was completely sold to lobbyists!

Wondering how much we can do with this money to a country?

  • 4 golden square projects connecting metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, kolkata
  • 23 samshabad airports
  • 30 lakh buses
  • 11 crores buffaloes to raithlu
  • Construct 1868 dams just like nagarjuna sagar
  • 25 lakh hospitals
  • 65 lakh ambulances
  • 30 lakh schools
  • 35 crore computers
  • 504 fighter jet aeroplanes

Society is fighting for its right and get back the money to the government. Should hold all the 2g spectrum projects

A national campaign is being held against corruption and everybody can make their contribution through the online voting system and let the higher officials know society is aware of the facts

Postal cards to kill corruption are being send to Prime Minister in the hope of taking strict action against the persons involved in the scam.

All accussed in this case are out of jail on bail, including A Raja.

 

 

 

‘I challenge the PM to make all the evidence public’ – SP Udayakumar

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Anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar tells Jeemon Jacob that the Koodankulam agitation is funded only by local people

The prime minister said that the Koodankulam protests are funded by US-based NGOs. What do you have to say?
It’s an absurd, false, malicious and baseless statement. By making such statements, he is behaving like an irresponsible PM. He has become a disgrace to our country. I would like to challenge the PM and demand him to provide details about the US-based NGOs that provided money to the Koodankulam struggle. I also request him to reveal the names of those who took money from the foreign donor agencies to fuel protests. If he has any evidence against us, let him come up with it and take action. Instead, he is engaging in blackmailing tactics. Otherwise let him face the consequences of making wild allegations in a democratic country where everyone has the right to defend his honour.

What will be your next move?
We are going to sue him for making a defamatory statement in public. We will consult our lawyers and initiate legal steps immediately. We are poor people who are on protest for more than 10 years. Majority of our people are fishermen who have no other means of livelihood. They have joined the protests as their lives and livelihood are at stake. It was not funded by US-based NGOs or stage-managed by groups. People cutting across religion, caste, politics and status participated in the movement.

Have you received money from any foreign or local NGOs for organising the protests?
We have not received even a paise from NGOs — foreign or Indian. If the PM has the evidence, I challenge him to make it public. If he doesn’t, then he should resign and offer a public apology. I have been with this movement since 2001. Our people were on hunger strike for more than a month. Entire villages joined the hunger strike because we were fighting for our lives. A PM who sold out our country to Americans when he was finance minister may not understand the spirit of the poor in suffering. A PM who allowed FDI in retail will never understand what a poor man needs for basic survival; a PM who thinks nuclear plants will resolve all energy crises will never understand our struggle.

Earlier, similar allegations were levelled against you and about the movement having foreign donors. In that sense, the PM’s statement says nothing new.
It was none other than V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, who levelled an allegation that I’d received Rs 1.5 crore from a foreign NGO. I filed a defamation case against him in Madras High Court and issued a notice against him. In his reply, his lawyer had stated that he had never made such an allegation and it was the media misquoting him. So it’s a ploy by the Congress to destabilise and divide the movement. They think that by making wild allegations, they can kill our movement and commission the Koodankulam plant. That’s an illusion.

How do you run your protest without any financial support?
You don’t need money to run a movement when people are fighting for their cause. You don’t need PR or media managers to make a movement a great success. We had organised massive demonstrations in Koodankulam and Idanthikarai for more than a month with less than 2 lakh. You can verify our accounts and see the donations made by poor people. I request you to read the books on freedom struggle. Which corporate lobby funded the struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi? The PM or his media kids should read it at least once. It’s only then that they would learn how to make great movements for a cause. The lessons he had learnt as an economist are not good for this country but only for some corporate giants with hidden agendas.

Jeemon Jacob is Bureau Chief, South with Tehelka.

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Indian PM on Twitter, 50 followers every minute

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PMOIndia has taken Twitter by a storm although it is just 4 tweets old. The account refers to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and will be handled by Manmohan Singh’s media team, PMO sources said. With followers increasing at an exponential rate of 50 per minute the account’s existing fan base is 12,000-strong and growing.

“The Prime Minister’s Office is now on Twitter @PMOIndia. Thank you for your support,” Manmohan Singh’s newly appointed communications advisor Pankaj Pachauri said on his own Twitter account.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined Twitter to capture the attention of young Indians and inform people about the work done by his office through 140 characters on the popular microblogging site. The account attracted 10,000 followers within hours of being set up. The prime minister’s opponents have been criticizing him for maintaining a silence over burning issues and remaining inaccessible to the media. A close aide told IANS that the work done by his office was not being “reflected properly”. “The Twitter account may help in sending out the information to larger, particularly young, audiences,” the aide told IANS.

Within hours of the account being opened late Monday, Manmohan Singh attracted nearly 10,000 followers with three tweets by Tuesday afternoon. Manmohan Singh  joined the elite club of world leaders on Twitter with this move.

US President Barack Obama was among the first to use the micro-blogging service to communicate with his electorate in 2008. His Twitter account @BarackObama, is among the most followed of all world-leader accounts, with more than 12 million followers. Other world leaders on Twitter include Australian prime minister @JuliaGillard, her New Zealand counterpart @JohnKeyPM, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin @Netanyahu, and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum.

His first three tweets were about a function on bravery awards. This included his picture with the winners. PMO sources said the account was presently managed by his communication team but there was a possibility that Manmohan Singh would send out tweets personally.

“You make all of us proud…PM tells young brave hearts,” said his last tweet, which provided a link to his public speech at the bravery awards function.

The account, trending fast on the site, has already invited a barrage of reactions from people.

Said @rajennair: “Now our PM will speak through tweets, no one can blame him anymore of silence.”

“The #PMOIndia twitter account is a brilliant attempt to tweet silence in 140 characters,” said @RoflIndian.

Soumya Mukherjee @i1_2ramble commented: “So #PMOIndia is a brilliant example of ventriloquism if I am not wrong?”.

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Indian Army Chief vs Pak Army Chief – Who’s More Powerful?

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As India’s Army Chief General VK Singh walks out after years of service that ended up with an age row causing serious damages to his integrity, there is political chaos in our neighborhood that has always lived under the fear of military coup of his democratic government. The world is keenly watching over the developments in Pakistan, wondering if history will be repeated as rumors spread of another military coup in the making under Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan army, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Indian army chief had made this quite clear that it’s not for an extra year in office but for his honor and dignity that he is fighting. At the end of this prolonged battle between the government and the army chief which in fact has affected the morale of the army itself, it has learned that there is some kind of a compromise formula on the horizon as the General said that he has not though of taking recourse to legal action yet.
The history of Independent Pakistan has seen many military coups and the country has been under military rule for several decades – during 958 – 1971, 1977 – 1988, 1999 – 2008.
It was in 1958 the first military coup that rocked the Pakistani politics when its Pakistani President Major General Iskander Mirza decided to dismiss the country’s Constituent Assembly and the government of Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon. He appointed army commander-in-chief General Ayub Khan as the Chief martial law administrator who after thirteen years disposed Mirza and appointed himself President.

The latest of military overthrow was in the year of 1999 and this famous coup which is much familiar to the modern world was orchestrated the then army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf who foiled Sharif’s attempt to dismiss him after his return from Sri Lanka managed to rule the Muslim State from 1999 to 2008.

While the question of power can only seen in different contexts in India and Pakistan, unlike its arch rival, the India military has been kept under solid civilian control. On the other hand, Pakistan had always veered towards an authoritarian style of rule and thus paved way for decades of military rule in the country. Despite the fact that the country failed to protect its civilian interests by having a strong government elected by the people, it should be noted that armed forces are the only effective and successful modern institution in Pakistan as everything else – the police force, the government, the judiciary, the civil service etc – proved failures over the years.

Kayani, who was trained in different military schools in the United States, became the first ever ISI chief to become the army chief of the country in 2007.  Called the soldier’s soldier, Kayani’s apolitical and professional image often makes him the invisible centre-of-gravity. He turned down President Zardari’s proposal to sent ISI Chief to India to initiate talks after the 26/11 and there are many similar incidents to be cited to show his supremacy over the political class in Pakistan. While the power of army chief is can be said unlimited in Pakistan, the system continues to survive in its own peril.

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Mayawati Will be a Better PM than Rahul: Ramdev

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Yoga Guru, Baba Ramdev blessed UP chief Minister and the BSP leader, Mayawati by complimenting that she would be a better prime minister than Rahul Gandhi. She is already facing great attacks from the opposition for corruption misgovernance and this appreciation from the yoga Guru must have surely got others goose bumps.

Mayawati Will be a Better PM than Rahul: Ramdev

Ramdev is on the roads of U.P to gather support from people for his campaign against corruption. When the question was raised if he is afraid of Mayawati, Ramdev said, “Behenji (Mayawati) appears to be ‘hard’ but is ‘soft’ from inside.” He also added that UP CM has more political and administrative skills to be the PM of India and Rahul is still a rising politician.

Ramdev says not against anyone in particular but all he wants is a corruption free country. He also said, Rahul should win the confidence of the Indian public by bringing back the black money stored in foreign countries and not act according to the people who flatter about him. If he accomplishes these tasks, he would be a worthy PM. “Though Manmohan Singh is personally very honest, he has been made helpless by the groups of corrupt people around him,” the yoga guru said. “If such a situation is allowed to prevail, it appears that the next session of the parliament would have to be convened at the Tihar Jail, he added.

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Should PM’s Role In 2G Scam Be Probed?

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The latest 2G fire has reached the Prime Minister’s doors. With the Home Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram already facing heat over his alleged negligence in the 2G scam, the focus has now shifted to PM himself. The 2G scam is getting increasingly uncomfortable for Singh. The documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) act clearly say that Singh had intervened to ensure that the 2G spectrum pricing would be the Telecom Ministry’s prerogative. At this stage, is it really impertinent to probe the role of our Prime Minister?

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Maran’s Letter To PM

A letter written by former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in 2006 to PM has opened a Pandora’s Box for Singh.

In January 2006, Singh had approved a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look after the additional spectrum for private telecom players. The Groups terms of reference included the price of the 2G spectrum. A protest meeting by Maran with Prime Minister in February and a letter by the former Telecom Minister forced the PM to dilute the agenda of the GoM, and leave the pricing issue exclusively in the hands of the Telecom Ministry.

 In the letter dated February 28, 2006, Maran had asked Singh to recall their meeting on February 1, when he urged the PM to dilute the terms of reference, so that the pricing issue would not come under GoM. The letter also reminded Singh of his assurance that, “the terms of reference of the GoM would be drawn up exactly the way we wanted, which was to focus only on the issue of vacation of spectrum.”

It is clear that the PM was arm twisted into accepting Maran’s demand, which later led to one of country’s worst scams under Raja.

Apart from his complacency in the pricing issue, Singh has also come under the scanner for ignoring the advice of then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukharjee.

PM Ignored Pranab Mukharjee’s Warning

The PM and the government are currently battling hard to counter the note sent by Pranab Mukherjee‘s ministry to the Prime Minister’s office that questions P Chidambaram’s actions. Another letter by Mukherjee, discovered under the RTI act has added to woes of the Prime Minister.

 In December 26, 2007, the then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the head of GoM had written to the PM warning him of the consequences of an incorrect policy. Mukherjee had cautioned Singh on the problems of not adhering to a clear-cut strategy. He stressed that it was essential for the department of telecom (DoT) to issue the new norms immediately so that the spectrum allocation is done in a transparent manner. He made these observations 15 days before Raja made the controversial allocations of spectrum licences to private companies.

The Prime Minister chose to ignore the counsel and allowed the Telecom Ministry to act on its own whims.

Kanimozi Had Threatened To Call PM as a Witness

The RTI revealed blunders on the part of the PM seem to substantiate Kanimozi’s claims that Prime Minister Manmohan

 Singh and P Chidambaram were indeed present during the 2G spectrum license allocation and were aware of the whole process. Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, appearing for Kanimozi, told a special CBI court last month that the Prime Minister and the then Finance minister P. Chidambaram had complete knowledge of the 2G license allocations, and had decided along with former telecom minister A. Raja not to auction these.
PM Can No Longer Hide Behind Coalition Politics
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The Prime Minister can no longer hide behind the compulsions of coalition politics. The prime minister of India has  absolute powers in running the country. If Maran or Raja had flouted the ethical norms, he should have acted against them. Singh instead chose to be a mute spectator to the crimes of his ministers. The personal integrity of the PM cannot absolve him of his greater responsibilities. At a time when the country is sparing nobody for corruption, Singh could find himself facing a probe, leading to major political repercussions in India.

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Union Ministers Spent 42 Crore on Foreign Travel in 2010-11

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Government has spent nearly 42 crore on foreign visits by Union Ministers during the last one year. The information provided in an RTI reply shows that while Cabinet Ministers spent Rs 37.16 crore on their foreign visits, their junior colleagues, Ministers of State, spent about Rs 4.76 crore on these visits bringing the total travel expenditure to Rs 41.82 crore for the year 2010-11.

The Cabinet Secretariat has given these consolidated figures of foreign visits expenses incurred by the Ministers to activist S C Agrawal after instructions from the Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra who directed it to make the disclosure.

In the case, Agrawal had sought to know from the Cabinet Secretariat the travel details of Union Ministers for the last three years, but he was told that information was “scattered” across different ministries and he would have to collect it from them separately.

When the matter reached the Central Information Commission, the Cabinet Secretariat reiterated its position.

The Secretariat also noted that to collate the information, a large volume of records and documents would have to be scrutinised which would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority.

“While we tend to agree with the submission made by the respondents (Cabinet Secretariat), we think it would be in the interest of transparency if some key information about the domestic and international travel by Union ministers could be maintained centrally in Cabinet Secretariat itself, especially since the pay and accounts office under it is responsible for all accounting details for payment of the salary and reimbursement of their travel expenditure,” CIC Satyananda Mishra had said in his order.

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