Tag Archives: Team Anna

The 14 Ministers You Need To Know Should Be Jailed

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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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Team Anna, BJP Rejects Lokpal Bill Tabled in Parliament.

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The Congress-led UPA government has tabled the Lok Sabha 2011 in the Lok Sabha only to be welcomed by severe criticisms and opposition, both from the civil society and the political parties. 

Team Anna has mocked the Lokpal bill prepared by the Government and called it “anti-people, dangerous and useless.” The Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the unconstitutional” minority quota provision in the legislation and demanded the government to withdraw the bill immediately.

The Congress-led UPA

BJP leader and leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj objected this particular provision and told, “We are disappointed. This is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has given dozens of rulings stating that any reservation should not be more than 50 percent.” “It is important we make a law that is not patently unconstitutional and later rejected in the court of law,” she said.

In a strong counter attack, Finance Minister and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, said, “This is not just a piece of law. There is an agitation on in the country for the Bill and a committee has been working to bring this Bill. If a bill is struck by courts it doesn’t mean that Parliament doesn’t pass the bill. It is for the courts to judge the constitutional of a bill. Our job is to make and pass the bill. Let the court do their job, we will do our job.”

Anna Hazare rejected the bill saying “it is a betrayal of the people and the legislation would not provide for a strong anti-graft institution.” Anna challenged Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi for a public debate to justify the proposed bill as a strong one. Anna said that the new bill is useless as it does not have direct control over CBI and the lower bureaucracy. He was also quoted saying “Sonia Gandhi says the bill is strong. If it is so, let she come out and debate with us in front of media. Let people see it. Convince the people of the country that it is strong. We will explain how it is not strong.”

Kiran Bedi, member of Team Anna said, “The draft prepared by the government should be rejected and condemned in the strongest terms. This draft has several loose ends and due to this, the rational of the anti-graft legislation has been lost completely.”Referring to CBI being controlled by the government, she also was quoted saying “Of what use has a body’s power to merely inquire ever been, if the investigation that follows the inquiry will be controlled by the government?”

Anna and his team do not want CBI out of the administrative control of the bill as he says that the biggest victims of corruption are the poor who have to pay bribes to get any work done and that the ‘weak’ bill will not help the poor in their fight against corruption.

Team Anna also says the Prime Minister is provided with too many safeguards from investigation by the Lokpal and any inquiry against him would need a sanction of three-fourth of the Lokpal members in non-public proceedings and they would have no access through the Right to Information Act.

As the bill is tabled in the Lok Sabha, the anti-graft legislation will now be discussed during Parliament’s extended session on December 27.

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Is This Really a Proper Way to Spend Public Money?

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A recent news states that Team Anna had collected donations of Rs 2.94 crore in the past six months out of which

 1.14 crore came during Anna Hazare‘s 12-day hunger strike in Ramlila Maidan. They have already spent a huge chunk of it and have provided the expenses in approximate figures. The fact is that a lot of people have donated money and it has been heart warming to note that 23,138 contributions were of 1,000 or less. It has really been humbling and moving to note that people with very limited resources contributed with sums like Rs 1, Rs 2 and Rs 5 of their hard earned money, hoping that it is spent for a good cause and will help in developing a new India. But the expenses mentioned, are no match to it and seems just like a waste of resources.”

According to Team Anna, a total of 27,505 people, including 25,023 during Ramlila agitation, contributed financially to the anti-corruption movement with Rs 25 lakh being the highest donation and over 400 donating more than Rs 10,000. Out of the Rs 2.94 crore it collected during the six months, they have decided to return Rs 42.55 lakh to donors who “did not provide their complete details and their sources of funding”(Which indeed is a good thought), leaving Rs 2.51 crore with them.

The Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), the Secretariat for the movement, made public its audit report for six months starting April one following allegations of financial misconduct by activist Arvind Kejriwal. 

by Arvind SawantA former Team Anna member Swami Agnivesh was sidelined by the Team when he questioned the depositing of donations in PCRF, saying none of the prominent Team members like Justice Santosh Hegde were trustees of PCRF run and controlled only by Arvind Kejriwal.

Of the Rs 2.51 crore, Team Anna has spent Rs 1.5 crore in the past six months with Rs 52.27 lakh being spent for public meeting expenses, mainly for Ramlila Maidan agitation which is quite acceptable. But the real doubts creating expenses follows.

Team Anna spent Rs 9.83 lakh on travel (Who’s travel? Only Team Anna or all the people at Ramlila Maidan? Did Team Anna go on a world tour? Or did they hire a Helicopter?) while another Rs 2.68 lakh was spent on communication expenses (Really shocking, what type of communication was that, which costs RS. 2.68 Lakhs in six months). Under public awareness expenses, the Team spent Rs 45.50 lakh (What kind of awareness? Did they advertise somewhere? or did they pay the media for their news to be shown???) Their printing charges are shown to be Rs 26.55 lakh.(No Comments!)

It also spent Rs 9,711 under the head RTI and also paid Rs 9.29 lakh as salary and stipend to the staff of PCRF besides a lowly Rs 36 as interest on government dues.

All this while, the people who donated their hard earned money would have expected their donations to the Public Cause Research Foundation be used for real Public Cause. They would have lived in a state of satisfaction that they helped in a good and noble cause. But seeing the expenses which almost seems to be worthless would really dishearten the donators..

by Arvind Sawant – SI

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Why can’t Team Anna wait until the Winter Session?

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Why can’t Team Anna wait until the Winter Session?It’s still not clear why Team Anna cannot wait for the Winter Session of Parliament. PTI

So Jan Lokpal Bill it is. ‘The’ Jan Lokpal Bill it has to be. Team Anna would settle for nothing less.

Anna Hazare is bigger than Parliament, asserted Arvind Kejriwal, key member of the team yesterday. The message: Parliament can go to hell. So can reasoned dabate. We won’t accept if it comes up with a Lokpal Bill that is not the Jan Lokpal Bill.

It’s still not clear why Team Anna cannot wait for the Winter Session of Parliament or allow the Standing Committee to study other suggestions on the Lokpal Bill and arrive at the best possible solution. It’s more confounding why it should take a controversial, and rather unnecessary, political position at this stage.

The lack of respect among the members of Team Anna for the august House was evident in the developments during second phase of Anna’s fast which began on 16 August, Kejriwal has made it an unequivocal stand. So long as the government and the political parties were the enemy number one for Team Anna, it did not matter. But the issue moves to a different plane after this.

What if Parliament votes in favour of a bill which is not acceptable to Anna’s associates? Does Anna announce “I am Parliament. My diktat is what the law of the land is”. After that? By all indications, Team Anna won’t find it repulsive. But political parties, who have taken opportunistic positions so far by trying to pander to the whims of Anna’s associates, cannot kowtow for too long. A confrontation of a different kind is on the cards. This is likely to get interesting with Team Anna taking a partisan political position.

Anna Hazare is bigger than Parliament, asserted Arvind Kejriwal. PTI

In the last few days the political leanings of Team Anna has got clearer. Though the team has been vehement in its denial of suggestions of political affiliation, by design or default it has positioned itself against the Congress and for the BJP. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has already spoken of the Sangh Parivar’s support to the anto-corruption movement of Anna Hazare. In Hisar, the team is actively asking the electorate not to vote for the Congress. In Uttar Pradesh, which is headed for assembly polls early next year, it is likely to campaign against Mayawati and the Congress, thus serving as the non-political arm of the BJP.

Nothing exactly is wrong if Team Anna backs any political party — it’s even better if it contests polls — but by positioning the popular movement cleverly to suit the interest of a few political players, it is committing a fraud on the supporters of the movement. If it backs the Congress and opposes the BJP in some other state in a balancing act, it won’t mean much. The movement was supposed to stay focused on corruption only and not get distracted by delving into political mind games.

Again, it is curious that Team Anna would issue certificates of good conduct to political parties on the basis of their support to the Jan Lokpal Bill. It is clear that none of the parties agree completely on all the provisions of the bill and they have reservations on several important clauses. That they have issued letters of support to the bill is crass political opportunism. It does not amount to much at this point since they will come open with their objections and suggestions in Parliament when the government’s bill is up for discussion. So what it is support of Team Anna to parties is all about?

Moreover, its support is not for clean candidates. The assumption is whoever backs the Jan Lokpal Bill is honest. That’s is too unusual a position. The team is inadvertently treating the corrupt on different parameters: those who support us are clean and those who don’t are not.

Should the anti-corruption movement get into all this?

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