Cash-for-Votes Scandal: At A Glance

Cash-for-Votes Scandal: At A Glance

BY ASHISH KHETAN

Click here to read the full report Photo: Reuters

For two years, the nation has believed that the Congress and its ally, the Samajwadi Party drove the nuclear vote through successfully, based on sordid horse-trading and the buying of votes.

While this may still be true, the only empirical evidence of this horse-trading was the 2008 CNN-IBN cash-for-vote sting.

In a shocking discovery, Tehelka has now found that as far as the cash-for-votes sting operation is concerned, it was not the Congress, or indeed even the Samajwadi Party, that was actively looking for MPs to buy in this particular scandal. In fact, the shoe was on the other foot. It was the BJP that had willfully set out to entrap either the Congress or the SP into buying three BJP MPs so it could pull off a successful sting operation and discredit the government. Disturbingly, this sting operation appears to have had the sanction and collusion of respected BJP leaders like Sudheendra Kulkarni, Arun Jaitley and even LK Advani.

Tehelka’s story is based on three crucial pieces of evidence: the first hand-account of the CNN-IBN reporter Siddharth Gautam, who actually did the sting on the ground. His account of the truth has been revealed for the first time.

The story also rests on 10 crucial phone recordings that have never been shared in the public domain and were not even made available to the parliamentary panel set up to probe the scandal. These phone recordings, now in Tehelka’s possession, display BJP MP Argal frantically calling people and shopping for someone to buy him and the other two BJP MPs on the night of 21 July 2008, the eve of the nuclear vote. The intention was to somehow pull off a sting operation that could discredit the UPA government.

Tehelka’s story also rests on the parliamentary panel report, now accessed by Tehelka. This report is full of contradictory accounts which prove that every player in the scandal resorted either to blatant lies or at least half-truths.

The story does not exonerate the Samajwadi Party, which did fall for the BJP’s entrapment and agree to buy its three BJP MPs.

For two years there has been a rumour that powerful Congress leader Ahmad Patel was somehow involved in the horse-trading. While the story shows that there is absolutely no credible evidence to support this, or even that anyone from the Congress per se was shopping for MPs to cross-over—at least in this particular case—the story still does not exonerate the Congress. It demonstrates that the parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP KC Deo and the Delhi Police did little to collate the evidence and nail the accused.

Finally, the story also looks at the ambiguous role played by the television channel, which according to CNN-IBN reporter Gautam, held back some crucial pieces of footage and skewed its own story and the version the reporter was allowed to put out in the public domain.

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Batcha's suicide note found, says he felt sorry for Raja - Video | The Times of India

Batcha's suicide note found, says he felt sorry for Raja - Video | The Times of India

YouTube - akaran-vck thol.thirumavalavan speech in diksha boomi frm nagpur 2010

YouTube - akaran-vck thol.thirumavalavan speech in diksha boomi frm nagpur 2010

YouTube - AKARAN VCK- MULLAI PERIYAR OORTHI PAYANAM THOL.THIRUMA PART-1 www.thiruma.net

YouTube - AKARAN VCK- MULLAI PERIYAR OORTHI PAYANAM THOL.THIRUMA PART-1 www.thiruma.net

Female Tamil migrant to remain in custody over tiger-themed necklace

Female Tamil migrant to remain in custody over tiger-themed necklace

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend? | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend? | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

How much of Japan's suffering can people comprehend?

The uncomfortable truth is that the limit is extremely low

• 

The American author Annie Dillard summed up well the difficulty of empathising with hordes of other people. "There are 1,198,500,000 people alive now in China," she wrote. "To get a feel for what this means, simply take yourself – in all your singularity, importance, complexity, and love – and multiply by 1,198,500,000. See? Nothing to it."

I came across that honest, wise remark this weekend, while watching the footage from Japan. The two did not sit well with each other. When a big disaster strikes, either here or abroad, politicians and journalists alike work on the basis that the greater the misery, the more they, and we, should care. David Cameron was working to that logic when he said yesterday that "our thoughts are with the Japanese people". And after reading the reports of 10,000-plus deaths and nuclear warnings, or seeing the photos of submerged towns and stranded survivors, who could disagree?

Yet the uncomfortable truth is that the academic research suggests Dillard is right. However horrifying the pictures, however moving the reports, there's a limit to how much suffering people can take on board – and it's extremely low.

The bigger the numbers of fatalities and injuries, the harder it is for audiences to comprehend them. This law of diminishing returns doesn't just apply to natural disasters, but to other varieties of misery – from oil spills to famines and genocides.

"Psychic numbing" is how the University of Oregon psychologist Paul Slovic refers to this. To illustrate what he means, he sometimes sketches two graphs. The first shows how we might believe we value human lives, with the line going straight up along a diagonal: the more lives at stake, the more attention we pay. The second shows the reality, as Slovic sees it. Here the line starts off very high, but then drops all the way down: we get very worked up when one or two lives are at stake, but then the numbers begin to blur and we tune out.

The result is that humans will often throw money at one sad story – even when it doesn't involve a human. Researchers sometimes quote the story of how more than $48,000 was raised in 2002 to save a dog stranded on a ship adrift near Hawaii. Charities know this impulse too, which is why they often put a single child on their envelopes and posters.

"Perhaps the "blurring" of individuals begins at two," Slovic writes in one of his papers. "It leads to apathy and inaction, consistent with what is seen repeatedly in response to mass murder and genocide."

You might think that the way around this would be for campaigners or charity workers to highlight one story of distress and then use statistics to show how widespread that particular famine or drought is. But the evidence suggests not.

A few years ago, Deborah Small led a team of academics in a study of how people made donations. In one trial they showed subjects a battery of horrifying statistics about food shortages in Africa; in another they focused on Rokia, a seven-year old girl from Mali at risk of starvation; finally, they combined the two. People were most willing to give money to Rokia, but when confronted with statistics in any form their interest tailed off.

Our ability to turn huge instances of human suffering into abstractions becomes even more pronounced when the disaster in question – whether a tsunami or a drought – is one we have never encountered. I have written here before about research done by Namika Sagara and Christopher Olivola where respondents from Indonesia and India (countries where gigantic losses of human life are comparatively more frequent) were less sensitive to modest fatalities than counterparts from America and Japan – but were far better able to comprehend really big losses of life.

These studies might strike you as rather dispiriting, and I wouldn't disagree. But there is a lesson that can be drawn from them.

The height of a crisis of any kind is when prime ministers and presidents are most willing to vow that this disaster must never happen again. Think of Gordon Brown swearing after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 that he and his fellow leaders would "prevent a crisis such as this ever happening again". In the wake of Deepwater Horizon, Barack Obama made an almost identical promise – that he would "prevent a similar disaster from happening again".

One implication of Slovic's work is that these vows should be made reality as soon as possible, and turned into law or embodied in an institution. It is no good relying on the salutary example – because that way memories fade and mistakes get repeated.

In his classic on the Wall Street crash of 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith describes how shares crashed, investors were wiped out and banks collapsed in their thousands. This was one financial disaster that led to lots of vows of never again. Yet his passage on the lessons from that cataclysm is curiously ambivalent: "With time and the dimming of memory, the immunity wears off. A recurrence becomes possible. Nothing would have induced Americans to launch a speculative adventure in the stock market in 1935. By 1955 [the time of publication] the chances are very much better."

He concludes: "When people are cautious, questioning, misanthropic, suspicious or mean, they are immune to speculative enthusiasms."

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

The Hindu : States / Tamil Nadu : Discrimination against Dalits prevalent: study

Caste discrimination practised against Dalits does not spare even panchayat presidents, reveals a study conducted in select districts of Tamil Nadu.

The study conducted by Evidence, a Madurai-based organisation, in 213 panchayats across 12 districts in the State has come up with its findings on myriad forms of discrimination experienced by Dalits under various categories.

The survey was held in Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Salem, Namakkal, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Coimbatore and Tirupur.

Forty-five panchayat presidents from nine districts have given testimonies of discrimination, the survey reports. The discrimination takes the form of demand for appointment of Caste Hindu writer, refusal to cooperate with the panchayat president, obstructionist tactics by the Caste Hindu Ward members and panchayat vice-president to stall conduct of affairs and harassment of women panchayat presidents.

The 198-page report reveals an exhaustive account of various forms of discrimination and how they assume universality under certain categories. These include discrimination in temples, atrocities against Dalit women and discrimination in processions, burial of the dead and in offering services such as hair dressing and laundry to the Dalits.

With a few exceptions, almost all villages witness such discrimination.

Restrictions

Discrimination in temples varies from restrictions on entry to bar on touching the temple car rope and participation in festivities or allowing processions to go through Dalit colonies.

According to the report, 104 villages out of the total villages surveyed recorded the practice of two-tumbler system, revealing 49 per cent prevalence. Among them, 14 out of 22 villages in Coimbatore, 14 out of 24 villages in Dindigul, 13 out of 21 in Salem, 13 out of 17 villages in Virudhunagar, 11 out of 17 villages in Thanjavur and seven out of 13 villages in Madurai, recorded the practice.

In Nagapattinam, the study carried out in 16 villages in Vedaranyam reveals the prevalence of two tumbler system in Kodiakkarai, Vedananagar, Ayyakaranpulamirandamsethi, and Siriyankadu.

Of the categories, discrimination was negligible only in Government Hospitals and PHCs.

Do not fear an election, Mr Prime Minister - Opinion - DNA

Do not fear an election, Mr Prime Minister Neerja Chowdhury | Sunday, March 6, 2011

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The prime minister’s admission that compromises were inevitable in coalitions has drawn flak. It did not go down well even with his own partymen. The philosophical homilies by Janardan Dwivedi, who heads the Congress’ media department, at the start of the Budget session of Parliament, were seen to be directed at the PM and BJP leader Arun Jaitley pointing this out – that it was a “blunt” and not just a “subtle”message for Dr Manmohan Singh. Dwivedi had quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s words in 1920 that while in politics, he had fought its “vice-like grip” and not allowed political considerations to shape any of his major decisions. Politicians are adept at conveying what they want to by innuendo and the “politicalese” – the language that only politicians can interpret – that Dwivedi resorted to was lost on few. The prime minister was explaining why he had chosen to re-induct A Raja as telecom minister in 2009, despite enough information having surfaced about the DMK leader’s alleged involvement in what was by then being billed as the 2G spectrum mega scam. The reason the PM gave for his decision to take back A Raja was that “elections cannot be held every six months”. Article continues below the advertisement... Had the PM held firm on keeping him out in mid 2009, would it really have brought on an election? Would the DMK have quit the central government and brought down its own ministry in Chennai, which is supported by the Congress? Let us go back to 2004, when “tainted” ministers were inhducted into the UPA-I ministry in the face of opposition. The BJP had failed to make it an issue because it was a bad loser, opposing the Congress from day one, even disrupting the swearing-in ceremony of the ministers in 2004. Had the PM refused to take Taslimuddin or MAA Fatmi, allegedly involved in serious offences, and insisted that the RJD suggest alternative names for the ministry, would Laloo Yadav have rocked the boat and brought on another poll, after he had won so handsomely? At that time also, the PM, if the Congress grapevine was to be believed, had told colleagues that he would find it difficult to continue if he had to make these compromises. But he did continue. Admittedly, the PM is not just an individual and what is applicable to him also goes for his party. Yet, if there was one PM who could have taken a tough stand, it was Manmohan Singh. No one doubted his financial integrity. Though Sonia Gandhi nominated him, she does not have anyone better from her point of view, given Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to take over. Singh does not have an individual political agenda and appealed to the urban middle class, though this is now dented. Sonia Gandhi is reportedly wary of other senior leaders and those who have her confidence, like AK Antony, might run into problems. Were Antony to be elevated, the Sangh Parivar can be expected to go to town that she is promoting him because he is a Christian. Coalitions – or for that matter democratic governments – do entail a give-and-take. Yet, it is one thing to be flexible on, say, seat-sharing. For instance, the Congress is currently playing hardball with the DMK on sharing of seats in Tamil Nadu for the forthcoming state elections, knowing that the Dravidian party cannot do without its support. The Congress is demanding 90 seats but may finally settle for 60. But to be forced to compromise on a matter like 2G – which has led to a presumptive loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore, according to the CAG estimate, or of Rs22,000 to Rs50,000 crore as per the figures indicated by the CBI to the Supreme Court – is quite another matter. The question then is: should a government continue at any cost? Where does the PM draw the ‘Lakshman rekha’ in a coalition? After all, the PM did take a firm stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal, putting his government in jeopardy, as the Left leaders have been quick to point out. Agreed that elections cannot be held every six months. But if the compromise required is of a kind that leads to a 2G scam, let an election take place. It might help establish new norms for governance in coalitions and show the regional parties that they cannot push beyond a point. A general election costs the country around R 17,000 crore, with around Rs 2,000 crore spent by the Election Commission and another Rs15,000 crore spent by individual candidates and parties, if you take a rough estimate of Rs30 crore per constituency. This is incidentally only 0.3% of the GDP, and the amount spent is less than even the conservative estimate of what was lost to the exchequer through 2G. This is not to make a case for frequent elections, which can lead to a paralysis in policymaking. But if an election or two, brought on by a principled stand, leads to political reform, there is no need to fear them. A cleaner government is more likely to function better, generate greater development and result in a rise in the GDP. The cost of that election will be paid a thousand times over. At the end of the day, the choice is between a dispensation that totters under pressure and a government that is effective. Neerja Chowdhury is a commentator on political and social issues

Secret Plan To Arm Libya's Rebels By Robert Fisk

America's Secret Plan To Arm Libya's Rebels

By Robert Fisk

07 March, 2011
The Independent

Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi

Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.

Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.

But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain – even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.

The Saudis have been told that opponents of Gaddafi need anti-tank rockets and mortars as a first priority to hold off attacks by Gaddafi's armor, and ground-to-air missiles to shoot down his fighter-bombers.

Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi's strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and NATO – not least from Republican members of Congress – to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced.

US military planners have already made it clear that a zone of this kind would necessitate US air attacks on Libya's functioning, if seriously depleted, anti-aircraft missile bases, thus bringing Washington directly into the war on the side of Gaddafi's opponents.

For several days now, US AWACS surveillance aircraft have been flying around Libya, making constant contact with Malta air traffic control and requesting details of Libyan flight patterns, including journeys made in the past 48 hours by Gaddafi's private jet which flew to Jordan and back to Libya just before the weekend.

Officially, NATO will only describe the presence of American AWACS planes as part of its post-9/11 Operation Active Endeavor, which has broad reach to undertake aerial counter-terrorism measures in the Middle East region.

The data from the AWACS is streamed to all NATO countries under the mission's existing mandate. Now that Gaddafi has been reinstated as a super-terrorist in the West's lexicon, however, the NATO mission can easily be used to search for targets of opportunity in Libya if active military operations are undertaken.

Al Jazeera English television channel last night broadcast recordings made by American aircraft to Maltese air traffic control, requesting information about Libyan flights, especially that of Gaddafi's jet.

An American AWACS aircraft, tail number LX-N90442 could be heard contacting the Malta control tower on Saturday for information about a Libyan Dassault-Falcon 900 jet 5A-DCN on its way from Amman to Mitiga, Gaddafi's own VIP airport.

NATO AWACS 07 is heard to say: "Do you have information on an aircraft with the Squawk 2017 position about 85 miles east of our [sic]?"

Malta air traffic control replies: "Seven, that sounds to be Falcon 900- at flight level 340, with a destination Mitiga, according to flight plan."

But Saudi Arabia is already facing dangers from a co-ordinated day of protest by its own Shia Muslim citizens who, emboldened by the Shia uprising in the neighboring island of Bahrain, have called for street protests against the ruling family of al-Saud on Friday.

After pouring troops and security police into the province of Qatif last week, the Saudis announced a nationwide ban on all public demonstrations.

Shia organizers claim that up to 20,000 protesters plan to demonstrate with women in the front rows to prevent the Saudi army from opening fire.

If the Saudi government accedes to America's request to send guns and missiles to Libyan rebels, however, it would be almost impossible for President Barack Obama to condemn the kingdom for any violence against the Shias of the north-east provinces.

Thus has the Arab awakening, the demand for democracy in North Africa, the Shia revolt and the rising against Gaddafi become entangled in the space of just a few hours with US military priorities in the region.

©independent.co.uk

Advani And Modi - The Real Culprits Escaping The Law By Asghar Ali Engineer

Advani And Modi - The Real Culprits Escaping The Law

By Asghar Ali Engineer

05 March, 2011

More than 100 innocent persons were arrested after burning of S-6 in Godhra on 27th February 2002 which in turn followed demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992. The man mainly responsible for the former was Mr. L.K.Advani who, to fulfill his ambition for power raised the slogan ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ and played with the religious sentiments of common Hindus and our secular state looked the other way. The man responsible for the later was Narendra Modi, who exploited burning of S-6 in Godhra to retain his power which otherwise he was sure to loose. And both these worthies of BJP brought utter shame to our secular tradition and secular philosophy.

As a result of this conspiracy by these two men thousands died, lakhs uprooted from their hearths and homes and many more lost everything they had and yet both are not only unpunished but are enjoying power (Advani, though could not become Prime Minister which was his ambition but became Home Minister and deputy Prime Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji and is now a prominent opposition leader which also is a sort of power).

Narender Modi and L K Advani

Mr. Advani very promptly issues a statement that he has been vindicated the moment lower court pronounces some people guilty arrested by his or his Party’s Government even before higher court’s judgments often release them or declare them not guilty. The moment Mr. Jeelani was held guilty by the lower court in Parliament attack case, he did not hesitate to issue this statement even though he was Home Minister at the Centre. No one holding such responsible position should rush to issue such statement when the lower court has pronounced the judgment. The highest court i.e. the Supreme Court found Prof. Jeelani ‘not guilty’ and released him.

Again after the ‘Godhra Conspiracy Case’ judgment the Advani-speak was the same. He was delighted that 31 people were pronounced ‘guilty’ by the lower court although 63 were released and especially Husain Umerjee who was arrested as the ‘main conspirator’ was found not guilty by the Court. The whole conspiracy theory falls to the ground if the chief conspirator himself is found innocent. Who then plotted the conspiracy? But that was none of Advani’s concern. At least 31 have been found guilty. And it is out of question that he (Advaniji) will wait for higher courts to critically examine the judgment of the lower court.

Mr.Advani does this not because he is hasty by nature. He does it on purpose. He knows his guilt in raising emotionally surcharged issue of Ramjanambhoomi temple and getting it demolished in his august presence on 6th December, 1992 and wants to hide his guilt by pronouncing the victims themselves as guilty. Unfortunately this is the whole tragedy. Besides thousands who died due to the controversy Mr. Advani raised and lakhs who were uprooted and became refugees in their own country, hundreds suffered due to imprisonment for years.

In the Godhra case alone more than 100 persons were arrested under the charge of conspiracy some of whom died and 63, who spent 9 years in jail, were released by the court. Who will compensate them for precious loss of these years in prison? The Police in Modi Government arbitrarily picked up people and put them under POTA. I cannot forget the cries of a woman in public hearing in Hyderabad whose three sons were arrested in the so called Godhra conspiracy case and who has been released by the court. She was crying why POTA has taken away my sons, please tell POTA my sons are innocent. She swooned while crying. Obviously she did not know what the POTA was and thought it is name of some person. Her husband could not bear the tragedy and passed away after 4 years of his sons’ arrest. Every body in the audience was crying and I too could not hold up my tears when the woman was crying. Who can compensate her and her three sons for this loss?

What is more matter of concern is that while innocent people who have suffered so much already including those whose near and dear ones were burnt alive in Sabarmati Express those who are really guilty are enjoying power. Is this our secular democracy that those who incite religious sentiments enjoy power and those who sweat and toil for their daily existence loose their lives or suffer imprisonment for years? Can it fit into any human rights norms, let alone our secular political philosophy?

And what is worse Mr. L.K.Advani is not even being tried for demolition of Babri Masjid but for making provocative speech near Babri Masjid. That case was also withdrawn and now CBI has again applied for reviving the case. The CBI was as much pliant to the NDA Government as the BJP never tires of accusing the Congress of. It was under Home Ministership of Mr. Advani that such cases against him were withdrawn by the CBI.

In the first place Mr. Advani should not have been made Home Minister, much less becoming Deputy Prime Minister when he was being tried in the court of law by CBI which works under the home ministry. But anything can happen in democratic India. And still BJP has temerity of accusing the Congress of misusing CBI. This writer has nothing to do with the Congress and the Congress cannot be said to be above board at all. I am only pointing out double standards of the BJP.

Mr. Narendra Modi, less said the better. It is important to ask in his case what is good governance? To kill 2000 innocent people and rape scores of women, including pregnant women and to win power by inciting religious sentiment and to polarize people on religious grounds? For TATAs and Ambanis and other big industrialists it may amount to good governance but for common people it amounts to hell.

The Gujarat carnage, whatever Mr. Modi now does, cannot be forgotten and will go down in history as occurrence of greatest shame for secular India. Mr. Advani, who fights election from Gujarat, keeps on praising Modi on every possible occasion but it only adds to the gravity and criminality of the matter.

Even SIT (Special Investigation Team) appointed by the Supreme Court, though could not give clean chit to Mr. Modi but wriggled out by saying there is not enough evidence to try him. The SIT report published in Tehelka is damaging enough. If the SIT had proceeded further on that basis it could have surely found evidence to try Mr.Modi. Without Modi’s complicity riots could not have lasted even for 24 hours, let alone three months.

The cases of Bihar under Lalu Prasad and West Bengal under the Left Government clearly show, if any proof is needed, that no communal riot can last more than 24 hours without the state complicity. Can then Narendra Modi be exonerated of his complicity in riots? In no way. And SIT report and other investigative reports clearly indict him beyond any doubt. If his dark spot on the fair name of secularism is to be washed away the really guilty must be held accountable in any case.

Technicalities should not become an excuse to exonerate these people who have ruined the lives of thousands of people for ever. If these people can enjoy power by accusing innocent people of ‘conspiracy without any solid ground, can really guilty be not tried on very sound ground. Let us hope the Supreme Court will issue further directives to SIT or any other agencies to collect proper evidence against the guilty men of Gujarat. Most of the police high officers who did what the Government of Gujarat wanted them to do should also not be allowed to escape and must be held responsible.

These high officials cannot get away by saying they carried out orders of the Government. Their first duty is towards the Constitution of India and no unconstitutional orders can be followed. My experience in last forty five years of my work for communal harmony shows that communal violence cannot stop in this country unless the guilty people are given exemplary punishment. It is no use small fish being shown the stick and big fish enjoys all the benefits of inciting communal violence.

Let us all hope that one day it will happen and certainly so if the civil society shows proper awareness. It is fragmented civil society which allows such benefits of provoking communal sentiments by few politicians. Gujarat then certainly cannot repeat.
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