Reliance is NOT reliable!

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July 14,2014: The BJP’s Narendra Modi-led Central Government has decided to penalize Reliance Industries for producing less than targeted natural gas from KG-D6 block. The Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that Reliance India Limited (RIL) has been slapped with a new fine of  Rs.3,500 crore  ( USD 579 million). Interestingly, if you calculate such penalties in last 4 years for RIL, it stands at a towering amount of  Rs.14,300 crore (USD 2.376 billion). This has prompted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to urge the government to simply shunt Reliance out. AAP’s argument is that RIL has committed so many defaults that there is a strong basis for the government to now scrap the contract. 

However, on the contrary, is not Modi government shielding Reliance?

In June of this year, Anti-Corruption Branch of Delhi issued notice asking if any penalty had been imposed for underproduction of gas. This question becomes much more relevant since a hearing in Delhi high court is due on 1st August on the basis of FIR lodged by AAP Government (in Delhi) in February,2014 against Reliance Industries.

The penalty that has been imposed today may  just be a PLOY of Modi Government to withdraw the FIR against Reliance Industries. It is time that the Modi acts tough against erring companies and sends a signal that his government means business. Acting soft on such matters gives an impression that Mr. Modi is not able to crush crony-capitalists. 

The press statement of Aam Aadmi Party in this regard can be accessed via this link.

 

Murder of an 81 years old in GK and AAP connection

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The news of murder of an 81-years Mrs. Rekha Duggal – a resident of Greater Kailash in Delhi- drew widespread attention for the brazenness and inhumane behavior of the domestic help who killed her. The alleged killer – Neerak Saki- has also admitted to raping her before killing her. Just heart-wrenching news that makes you feel absolutely sick!  She was murdered on Monday, July 7, 2014. Here is a link to the news-item.

However, such anguish becomes much more intolerable when you come to know a personal connection to the person. Same day, July 7, she attended a Mohalla Sabha organized by our Aam Aadmi Party in the area in the daytime. Mr. Saurabh Bhardwaj- our MLA from Greater Kailash- told me that he vividly remembered an old lady (who he did not know personally) not only attending the meet, but she got up and drew attention to a civic issue in her neighborhood. She also gave a couple of good suggestions, said one of our volunteers. Mrs Duggal signed the sheet of the attendees also and one of the volunteers of the party ruefully showed me the diary. And after a few hours, such a gentle loving soul was taken away by a psychopath and barbaric man!

These days, I am attending to the party work in a few assembly areas, including Greater Kailash. When my attention was drawn to this news, it just made our hearts heavier.  And think about the family that is bearing the loss of the deceased. As someone said: These kind of brutal incidences are an indicator as to how low we have touched as a society!

 

 

Courts: Why not operate like Hospitals!

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There is a news today that the Chief Justice of India RM Lodha has stated that Indian courts are over-burdened and he apparently does not see a way out of this under the current operating system.

As hospitals work round the year to bring succor to those suffering, so should courts work round the year to bring justice to those suffering. Is this something too much of an expectation? Chief Justice RM Lodha had submitted a proposal wherein the courts would function throughout the year, without increasing workload and overtime for judges, but bar bodies and Bar Council of India were not keen on this, saying they could not work those many days. I think, time has come that justice system emulates hospital systems and function FULL TIME on all working days of a year. After all, it is about alleviating pain of a sufferer without the use of scalpel and blade!

India has an extreme  over burden of pendency of court cases, resulting in ineffective justices for many. We need speedy justice and that is only possible by having adequate courts and justices. At the same time, strengthen criminal justice system at the local level so that affected parties do not have to necessarily escalate their grievances to the upper courts. I agree to a large extent with Justice RM Lodha’s observation that in the current system, Supreme Court has become more of a court of appeals, rather than discharging its duty as a primary constitutional court.

Needless to say, in the criminal justice system, good value-systems, stringent and effective laws, modern professional policing, social dispute redressal (Lok Adalats) also play a great role so that disputes are settled before even reaching the courts. Or, shall I say, lesser disputes arise if there is a more tranquility and harmony in the society.

White Money in Indian politics: When shall We see that?

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Only 10 % of the total donations for all the major political parties in India are from known sources. In other words, 90 % donations are from unaccounted sources which means it is a  black money for the recipient. As you may know,a political party can choose NOT to disclose the name of the donor for a donation value of less than Rupees 20, 000. The political parties have been misusing this loophole to their advantage. A major exception is Aam Aadmi Party which documents a donation of even Rs one. This way, AAP voluntarily reveals 100 percent of its monetary donations and the names of donors.

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) – an NGO- while analyzing the funding of political parties for the year 2012-13, noted that one of the most common source of income for the political parties is by selling “coupons”.  Well,  selling coupon is an easier way: Sell as many as you can under the value of Rupees 20,000 and no need to take pains to identify the buyer!! You may read further details in the news item by clicking here.

For the sake of records, Indian National Congress raised a bounty of Rupees 425 Crores during the fiscal year 2012, while BJP netted 324 Cr Rupees. I was surprised to see that Communist Party Marxist (CPM) was able to garner monetary donations to the tune of Rupees 126 Crores. Who would  donate for an outdated left ideology which Churchill rightly said “is a  philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”. 

 

Discoms playing flirt

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The Government companies make/generate electricity. In Delhi, the distribution or supply of electricity (power) was privatized long back. Such companies are called Discoms (Distributing Companies) and they distribute electricity to consumers and charge tariff for that. Ambanis-owned company BSES is one such example operating in Delhi.

Right in the beginning of its coming, Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party raised the issue of high price of electricity in Delhi.  For Assembly elections (held in December of 2013), AAP made it an electoral plank and promised that if voted to power, it would reduce the electricity prices by 50 %. One of the ways to reduce the prices, said AAP, would be to audit the Discoms because in AAP’s view, the latter were a den of corruption and crony-capitalism. So if that leakage is contained, it would automatically help reduce prices, argued AAP.

AAP came into power , Arvid Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi in December 2013. Kejriwal ordered auditing of Discoms in a matter of days after becoming Chief Minister. Unfortunately, AAP decided to quit the government on the moral issue of Jan Lokpal Bill after a mere 49 days duration.

The auditing of Discoms however continued but the latest reports show that the move is not taking us anywhere. As this news indicates,  the Comptroller and auditor general (CAG) Mr Shashi Kant Sharma in a scathing attack on Discoms said that the companies were not cooperating with the CAG to hand over the data and information.  He has written to LG Mr. Najeeb Jung (Delhi is under President’s Rule and LG runs the administration in such a situation) informing him that the 3 Discoms in Delhi were hampering the progress of auditing by not providing complete data and has requested the LG to intervene.

This is a sorry state of affairs. The Discoms are not above government, yet are less than willing to cooperate because of the nexus between politicians and corporate houses where they complement each others, often ignoring the interests of the public. In other words, crony-capitalism often benefits those sitting in the power-corridors and the private corporations. The LG must intervene at the earliest and direct the Discoms to fully cooperate with the powerful constitutional body of CAG. CAG must also exert pressure to bring the defaulting companies to the task. The people in Delhi deserve the quality supply of electricity at reduced prices.

 

 

Has not the BJP Government gone one step too far?

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The theory of separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary is one of the backbones of our constitution. And yet, you can easily point out to multiple cases where the two organs of the constitution have overlapped and encroached into each other’s territory. The latest unfortunate incident to join this list is Gopal Subramanian’s self withdrawal of his Supreme Court judgeship candidature.

What is intriguing about this case is the media attention that it has managed to garner considering that the process of selection and recommendation of names for the post of Supreme Court judge is kept classified. One of the reasons of this selection cycle coming into the attention was that out of the four names recommended to the Centre by the Supreme Court collegium, two were senior advocates. While the other three names to be recommended to the Centre, Arun Mishra, Rohinton  Nariman and Adarsh Kumar Goel, were given the final nod, the candidature of Gopal Subramanian was halted on the basis of a negative report given by the CBI and IB.

While the newly appointed Government has maintained that the basis of this negative report is the fact that his ‘name’ was discussed in the Radia leak tapes, it remains an open secret that Subramanian has been an eye sore to the BJP ever since he appeared as the amicus in the Sohrabuddin, Tulsiram Prajapati and Kauser Bi case involving the senior BJP leader, Amit Shah. One of the most startling facts that weaken the Government’s argument is that Subramanian’s name was mentioned in the taped conversations as an ‘upright’ officer who wouldn’t bend. In a recent interview to a private news channel, Subramanian said “Some higher ups in the government did indicate to me, that some people had a problem with my role as the amicus curie in the Sohrabuddin case.”

Another factor that makes this case interesting is the timing of these events. The Supreme Court is on a six week annual summer holiday which started in the second week of May. It is learnt that the Chief Justice was not on duty when the file having the proposed names was sent back by the Government. These co-incidents are enough to raise anyone’s eye-brow.

Subramanian has been a part of several key cases in the past as the Solicitor General in the UPA Government, including the 2G case where he played a critical role in the prosecution of A Raja. He was one of the Solicitor Generals of India to resign citing the growing interference of the government during the UPA regime. People close to him have always maintained that he boasts of an uncompromising work ethic and impeccable integrity. He was also quoted saying “Though I bear no personal animus against Mr Shah, I’ve never said anything personal against him; I am not at all apologetic about my role as the Amicus Curie in that case. If I am paying the price for the manner in which I pursued the case, I don’t not regret it all, and I am willing to pay the price 150 times.”

After the unprecedented public support gained by the BJP in these general elections, the party would do well to rise above the ghosts of the past and lead the country in a manner that the

common man expects.

Iraq and ISIS Crisis

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The turmoil in the Middle-East doesn’t seem to have an end in the close sight. What started as a minor intrusion into the territory of Iraq has turned into one of the biggest crisis in the world at present. According to the latest official reports from the Iraq Government, most parts of the country’s biggest Oil Refinery, Baiji, have been overtaken by the ISIS militants. In addition to that, most parts of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, are under ISIS control. Accepting helplessness, the Iraqi Government in the beginning itself formally requested the US to launch airstrikes against the ISIS insurgents. From Indian point of view, the abduction of 40 Indian migrant workers from the affected areas has put the Indian Government into the spot with the families of the victims demanding a swift response.

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – also called ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’- is a self-proclaimed independent state covering areas of Iraq and Syria. It has also been given the name ‘Al-Qaeda 2.0’ due to the initial support it had from the feared terrorist outfit. Formed in 2013, it aims at putting in place a Caliphate in the areas of Iraq having Sunni majority. It must be noted that Al-Qaeda snapped its relations with ISIS within one year of its formation. ISIS is known for its brutality which far surpasses the exploits of Al-Qaeda. Their leader, Abu Dua or Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, was detained by the US Army from 2005 to 2009.

There have been a number of violent videos released by the militants in the past 2 weeks including a video showing execution of 1700 Iraqi soldiers. Although the Iraqi Government denies the massacre on such a large scale, it is not ruling out the death of its soldiers in significant numbers. Citing the criticality of the situation, Iran has offered Iraq ‘Everything it needs to fight ISIS’. At that point, the US officials also hinted at working together with Iran to save Iraq from getting completely overrun by the militants. However, the American response to the issue has not been very consistent. President Obama in a press conference on June 19 categorically stated that USA would not send combat troops, but will provide expert assistance. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry is currently on a visit to the Middle East, including Iraq. He has admitted that the Iraq failed to see the rising tides of ISIS militancy and the country was taken by surprise as ISIS opened its frontal attack. Kerry also said that the areas captured by ISIS are likely to stay with the latter, admitting the capability of the militant organization. However, the adjacent Kurdish area sources claim that they had forewarned the US and British authorities about the increasing military strengthening of the ISIS.

Meanwhile, amid the rising pressure on the Indian Government to take some action for its citizens’ safety in Iraq, the Prime Minister Nardendra Modi has directed the External Affairs Ministry to put up its best efforts to rescue the 40 Indian workers kidnapped by the ISIS militants. The biggest problem in front of the Indian Government is that they don’t have any second party to negotiate for the safety for their citizens. Mosul, from where the Indian workers were kidnapped, is out of bounds of the Iraqi Government. The Prime Minister has sent a former envoy, Suresh Reddy, to the Oil rich town of Mosul to expedite the process of bringing back the Indians. The issue has been further complicated due to the fact that no specific group among the ISIS has taken the responsibility of the Indian workers’ kidnapping.

With ISIS crisis likely to linger on, the International community must put a hand forward to help Iraq before the issue causes further blood-shed.

Heinous rape and murder in katra, Uttar Pradesh

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May 28-29,2014: The horrific rape and murder of 2 teenage sisters in Katra, Uttar Pradesh has brought shame to all of us. The gruesome hanging of the victims to the tree was the most barbaric act the culprits committed. It simply exhibits their insanity and insensitivity. However, I was appalled by the agonizing delay that happened in police reaching the crime scene and cordoning the area so that the whole world could have been  spared of the insensitive way the hanging bodies were displayed by the media. It has been reported by the media that the girls belong to Dalit families.
Violence (including sexual) against women has its roots in societal attitudes. However, lax law and order situation also adds to the problem. The society can not absolve itself of the guilt that we all share when such cases happen. Similarly, the ignorance and misplaced notions of the political class with regard to violence against females just halts the process of more stringent laws to tackle the problem. I am reminded of a recent highly irresponsible statement by none other than Mulayam Singh Yadav whose land witnessed this unfortunate incidence. Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav had said on an occasion:” Boys will be boys. They make mistakes.”

Let us hope the police and justice system will act in a swifter manner to bring some healing  to the aggrieved families.