Manmohan Singh and Sonia and high corruption

Headlines Today stood up and announced it still had journalistic integrity and fearlessness.  It is incredible that middlemen are involved in ministry allocations. This is where the phony capitalist corporate pipelines empty into the political sumps.

Here is an excerpt from MJ Akbars article in Arab News “How much sleaze can you spare, brother”

Because both knew that Raja, as telecom minister in the first UPA Cabinet, was involved in a rip-off of incredible proportions. The Bofors allegations, which damaged the Congress in the 1980s, amounted to Rs64 crore. This 2G scam is said to be of the order of over Rs 60,000 crore or a thousand times that of Bofors. If you want to understand the scale of this rip-off, think of this. Sonia Gandhi has been pressing government to provide food security for those below the poverty line. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said government does not have the resources to do so. The cost of a year’s food security is far less than Rs 60,000 crore.

The unambiguous fact is that Singh and Gandhi were aware of this, but chose silence because the price of disclosure would have been the collapse of government. DMK has leveled a cash pistol at the head of government, and the head has nodded in acquiescence because the alternative was to watch its brains being blown up. DMK blackmail has worked, and would have continued to do so but for the integrity of some journalists.

Source : Arab News

What is remarkable is how the media has immunized Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, and P.Chidambaram from any and all corruption. It was not like this back in the early 90’s.  The scams of today yield Bofors kickbacks in simple interest everyday. Except a few media houses, no one follows this story.  Sure, NDTV and CNN-IBN report it but they dont follow it.

It is heartening that Headlines Today’s efforts were recognized by a large section of the media.

For what it is worth,  Reality Check and like minded blogs would like to congratulate Headlines Today and its intrepid reporter Priyamvada for keeping traditions of investigative journalism alive.

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Related Links :  Chennai based company sells stake to Etisalat DB for 380 Crores (yet does not win any entrepreneurship awards from Roy or Sardesai)

Right to Education comes into effect today

How can anyone write a blog post against something with such a noble name as “Right to Education” ? But darlings,  if words were all it took – let me propose this “Right to First World Status”.

The whole debate is about the mechanics of the bill.

This act takes government interference into running of private schools to a totally new level.  I cannot beat what the redoubtable Sunil Jain says on the subject in “Beware School Nationalization“. I want to focus on this :  The bill and minority institutes.

Specifically the only part of the bill that can be implemented : The 25 % quota for “disadvantaged”, which in the Indian context means the staging unit of caste. So question is :  Do minority institutes have to implement the 25% (caste) quota ?

Here is where Sibal has played a master stroke. As the bill stands now :

1. Minority institutes are exempt from School Management Committees (via Amendment to RTE Bill)

2. Sibal has hinted that minority schools could fill 25% quota from weaker sections within their own community . This means they can pick and choose. Not mentioned anywhere in bill text.

Here is what Sibal says :

So far as the minority institution’s demand of exemption from setting aside 25 per cent of their school seats for disadvantaged sections goes, Sibal clarified that the provision would stay until the court struck it down. “The minority institutions can’t shy away from their social responsibility. Let the matter be decided by the court,” Sibal said when asked whether the provision would not open floodgates of litigation. [Source Tribune India link]

The BJP does not care as long as minorities are not given blanket exemption. This is a losing strategy because it is hypocritical. Anyway, this ensures that the BJP has absolutely nothing to say on the RTE Bill at the moment. This keeps noise level down and moves the burden of reconciling minority exemption to the Supreme Court.  The standing judgment P.A. Inamdar vs Mah of 11 Judges has held that the state cannot set quotas in minority run institutes.  It would take a larger bench to overturn it ! IMO, it would be legally impossible without constitutional amendment to force quota down the throats of Church run schools (which are doing a good job). It would also be political suicide for the Congress Party as the school system free of caste quotas is vital to minority interests.

Before you run off feeling sorry for the judiciary, remember they invited this on themselves by not adjudicating on “how is disadvantaged”. The buck does not stop at the court, it keeps coming back until it is spent or pocketed.

Happy April Fools Day !

Thank you very much Mr Sharad Joshi

186 – 1

Final Women’s Quota scorecard in the Rajya Sabha

In Reality Check tradition, we take this occasion to honour the ‘-1’  in ‘186-1’

Sharad Joshi of Swatantra Bharat Paksh (Maharashtra) was the lone dissenter.  While many bloggers and media outlets are quick to condemn unruly opposition, they completely ignore civilized dissent.

Here is what he has to say :

(Emphasis added by me to help lazy reader)

SHRI SHARAD ANANTRAO JOSHI (MAHARASHTRA): Sir, I rise to speak on behalf of Swatantra Bharat Paksh Party. The position of my party can be very briefly summarised as follows: Political empowerment for women – a thumping yes, yes, yes. Reservation – a fairly big question mark. And, Rotation and lottery system – an absolute No, No, No. It was in 1986 that the Shetakari Mahila Aghadi of my party, the Rural Women’s Organisation in Maharashtra, decided for the first time to have 100 per cent women’s panel for contesting the Panchayati Raj elections. It was the Congress (I) Party, under Shri Shankar Lal Chauhan in Maharashtra, who opposed that idea and postponed all elections to the Panchayati Raj for three years running. And it was only after that that they accepted the concept of 33 per cent reservation. Sir, hon. Mishra of the BSP raised the question: Where does this reservation come from? This is the genesis of 33 per cent. Now, the question is: Has the reservation, actually, ever given benefit to any of the targeted communities? And our experience is not very happy. This problem could have easily been solved by a system of proportional representation rather than the Party List system. That would take care of the entire set of problems connected with reservation. And, the scenes that we have witnessed in the last two days could have also been avoided had we included proportional representation instead of the Party List system.

Lastly, coming to the lottery-cum-rotation system, this is not a minor defect. I still insist that this is a fatal defect in the system. Here, we choose a constituency first, and it is very likely that for that constituency, there may not be an enthusiastic woman candidate. On the other hand, it is likely that a man has nursed that constituency for some time.

This will unnecessarily create bitterness against the women’s movement. Sir, secondly, it is also likely that this opportunity will be used by established leaders for pushing the candidature of their family members which is

not the purpose of this Bill at all. Sir, once a woman is elected, she would know that she does not stand a chance of getting the ‘woman reserved constituency’ again. Therefore, she would not be equally enthusiastic about nursing the constituency. Similarly, the men candidates who get elected would also have doubts about their letting to contest that election once again from the constituency because the chances that it will be available to them would be only 50:50. Under these circumstances, Sir, the major effect will be that all the constituencies will be badly nursed.

And, lastly, Sir, this kind of a reservation system will make it impossible for any House to have more than 33 per cent repeaters at any time. So, we will lack the experienced people in the Legislatures and the Parliament. That could prove to be fatal for the Indian Democracy.

Thank you, Sir.

No ! Thank you Sir. For not being part of the sheep herd !

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Related posts :

In honour of the “-1” in “544-1”

Womens Quota will kill independents and small parties

Institutes such as PRS Legislative started off on a promising note.  However, it seems they have been assimilated into the fake socialist state despite being funded by Ford Foundation USA, Google Foundation  USA amongst others. Their analysis of the Womens Quota bill ignores the man behind the curtain on many points.

Here is a major concern :

The impact of this bill on CHALLENGERS, INDEPENDENTS, and SMALL PARTIES.

This will almost sound a death knell for them.

Challengers

Let us say by sheer miracle we are able to build a group to critical mass. Lets say this has a realistic shot at winning a particular constituency say South Bangalore. Obviously small parties first build influence in one or two seats. With this quota in place, the seats could simply be reserved for women. This would force the challengers out of the democratic process because the infant party usually cant accommodate this type of quota. Nor can they contest from other seats where no one has heard of them. Even if the challenger party was founded by a woman it would have no advantage because it is unlikely that ‘being founded by a woman’ is the primary appeal of the challenger. They still have to fight the ministers daughter.

Independents

A lot of independents contest and win based on personal charisma and some because of careful nurturing of seat. Reserving their seats will squeeze them out as it is much harder to fight behind scenes as an independent against big money backed women proxies. So you can throw your Capt Gopinaths, Traffic Ramasamy, Anil Salgaocar, Mr Rodriguez  out the window.  On the flip side, this may not help Meera Sanyal and Co, because they will be up against moneyed women of big parties.  Being a woman fighting against men was not the reason Meera Sanyal lost.

Small Parties

Let me take an example. Say TMMK (Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam).  They have significant presence in a few areas.  If a number of seats in those areas (lets say 2 seats around Vellore) are reserved for women. They would have to find women muslim candidates to fight against the moneyed women of big parties.  Even worse. It would become even tougher next time to recover any lost seat because the incumbent woman can contest again as an open candidate.  But incumbent men would have to vacate or find women relatives.  I just took TMMK as an example.

That the people of the country cheer this monstrosity is a damning indictment of our education.

Womens quota – goodbye ladies

I am not surprised at the complete lack of debate about such a ground breaking policy as the women’s quota.  We are past the fork in the road.  The courts have stepped aside and let the political class have their way with our equality.

This quota will put paid to any hopes India may have about exiting third world status. Why?

1. Undemocratic. You cant choose who you want.
2. Exception for SC/ST arrived at after painstaking deliberation.
3. Constitution never envisaged reserved seats for any group other than SC/ST. Women were backward even at the time of framing of constitution. This would fall foul of the basic structure doctrine, but no one knows what it is any more.
4. All quota is engineered justice. You cannot support Womens quota and oppose fine tuning of  it, such as OBC or Muslim or Christian sub quota. It is a moral hazard trap. BJP is walking into this trap with its eyes wide open. They are going to come out looking like bumbling hypocrites when someone confronts them with the usage facts of quota for Muslim women.

Even technically the Womens Quota suffers from fatal weaknesses.

1. The so called 15 -year time limit is laughable. You cant expect beneficiaries to pull rug from the very law that allowed them to reach heights.
2. Sub Quota cannot be resisted on any grounds. How does the idea of Mr Owaisi talking from the moral high ground sound to you ?  Guess what you dont have an answer to him.
3. Will produce more Priya Dutts, Jayanthi Natrajan (grand daughter of ex-TN CM), Supriya Shule since there are no checks, such as creamy layer. What purpose is served by this.
4. Can be used by the government to play games and undermine democracy further. They can simply reserve a seat where an incumbent  male candidate from opposition party was strong.
5. Will promote dynasty even further as the knee jerk reaction to unseating a male incumbent would be for him to find a woman kin as replacement.
6. Lessons not learnt from SC/ST quota. They dont work for SC/STs once elected. They simply toe party line often following upper caste dictum. BSP did not appear on scene due to the SC quota.
7. Further legitimizes quota claims in other spheres simply based on under representation without considering other factors.
8. Disincentive to work for true empowerment of women. Keep quiet you have quota.
9. Very need for women’s quota not clear. Women may be fewer in number but they are in powerful positions.
10. Women are not going to join free agents in a future equality protest. The AIIMS scenes are probably going to be the last. Goodbye ladies !
    

PRS Summary with links to draft bill.

Who’s a good Hindu

This incident happened to me a few months back – but it left a profound impact on me.

I am a frequent visitor to a particular rural area in Kanchipuram District. On one of my trips I ran into an acquaintance Rangan*.  We were chit chatting and I noticed he had a new calf tied in front of his house, I asked him when he got it.

What he told me next jolted me ?

He told me that this was a bull calf and had no use for him.  He was passing by a meat shop and saw the calf tied near it. He then approached the shop owner and brought the calf home for Rs 5000 ! Just spur of the moment.

This whole scene gave me the chills – the bull calf just playing around and looking at me with round eyes and his story.

Now Rangan is no rich guy, in fact he does odd real estate jobs and since the slump has been having a hard time. He has even asked me for loans now and then.

I realized I was looking at a real hindu and a real human being.  He is from the Yadava community – but this incident instantly placed him higher than most Brahmins I know.

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The reason why I posted this was I have been wondering about the sanctity of the birth based brahmin concept for a while.  Two earlier incidents are recorded in this post :  https://realitycheck.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/brahmins-in-the-age-of-incredible-coolness/

* (names changed for no particular reason)

AP Muslim Quota – Why cant I have what you just gave him ?

The hardest cases in Justice ask the easiest questions.

The AP government is having a really hard time convincing the court with its Muslim quota. Its third attempt at 4% quota was rejected by a 7-judge bench of the AP High Court. (Related news).  (Link to judgment). The AP Congress government is preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court .

Ironically, this happened the same day the West Bengal government announced a 10% quota for Muslims. I had written almost 3 years back that the CPI-M in Bengal would be severely penalized for its quota policies. They seem to be getting around and correcting this mutant behaviour.

So, why is this happening ? Are the ground rules so unclear even for such a fundamental law ?

It is because people look at what other people get and assume they have a similar right to it. The absence of any visible evidence supporting necessity of special treatment strengthens perceptions. When it comes to quotas the touchstone is almost always Tamilnadu. The TN government had no trouble passing a Muslim quota, they even passed a Christian quota which was revoked on representations by the Christian community.

Here is Mr Syed Shahabuddin of NMMR (Muslim Reservation Movement)

New Delhi: Former Lok Sabha Member and Convener of National Movement for Muslim Reservation (NMMR), Syed Shahabuddin has termed as “unfortunate and deplorable” the ruling of Andhra Pradesh High Court quashing the 4% quota for backward Muslims in the state. “The Hon’ble High Court has ignored the fact that under Article 15 (1), read with Article 15 (4), reservation may be religion-specific or caste-specific or race-specific or language-specific, if the social group concerned passes the test of backwardness. It has also ignored the fact that several states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Kerala have provided reservation for Muslims as a community and other religious groups,” Syed Shahabuddin said.

Source : Two Circle (emp mine)

Here is Mr Owaisi

“When Muslims in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are provided reservations, it is strange that it is getting quashed repeatedly in Andhra Pradesh High Court,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, Hyderabad MP and president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), who considers the latest verdict a severe blow to the community.

Source : Thaindian (emp a)

There is  lot of cheer from misinformed public as evident in online comments.  But this is not a case where you need to get involved in legal minutae.  It is far simpler and much harder.  The real question is : Does anyone have an answer to Mr Syed Shahbuddin and Mr Owaisi ? Why strict scrutiny for them in this case and not for Hindu castes in a much larger case involving 2% cess ? Remember large hindu castes are no different than muslims when it comes to quotas. Both are staging units for social justice.

This ad hoc benefit granting and protection is exactly what locks people into voting patterns. Destroys democracy because it would be against natural order to expect humans  to vote against self interest.

It is interesting the majority judges applied a narrow interpretation of strict scrutiny doctrine in Thakur (2007 OBC quota case).  It will be interesting how the Supreme Court deals with the AP governments appeal – given that several pending cases for Tamilnadu has not been addressed for decades.  Can eat cake and put it back in fridge.

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Because as long as the fat kid enjoys his free milk shake and ice cream in the corner – other kids who see it are going to ask “Why only nimbu juice for us ?”. You better be prepared with an answer.

Follow me on Twitter

Pune attack. Threat reality check.

After weeks of obsessing over the safe release of a movie My Name Is Khan (featuring Mr Shah Rukh Khan) – we now get a jolt.  The terrorists have shown us the relative damage potential.  They do not give a rats ass about Valentines Day either.

This media manufactured news provided free publicity to Mr Khan and to Mr Thackeray. So how potent was the Shiv Sena threat ? Every visual I saw on TV of Shiv Sena activists had only close up shots. There were only about a dozen people behaving like general lunatics.

The safe second place strategy

To understand the issue, imagine you are Mr Thackeray. You wake up in the morning and find 8-10 TV OB vans outside your house.  Journalists (mostly impressionable young people in the process of being brainwashed and taught the art of ignoring the obvious)  are salivating outside your gate, waiting to catch a statement of yours.

This is a politicians dream.  The following outcome of this drama does not really bother the Shiv Sena :

• Nationwide media ridicule  (eg, Tiger meows)
• Exposing the potency of the threats issued by Shiv Seva
• Further consolidation of the conventional wisdom by the media. The wisdom being : The Congress is benign and the others have issues.

Any leader could have assessed the above outcome based on his own strengths and popular sentiment.  So why did Shiv Sena paint its own face black ?

Here is the answer : There are a lot of parties that are quite content being a safe second or third place.  A shining example is the Congress party in Tamilnadu.  Maybe the Shiv Sena is quite happy these days protecting its business interests and assets of its core constituency. Maybe they don’t really have ambitions of anything bigger than the next real estate deal – which would go through a lot smoother if they played the ‘safe second place’ strategy.  More and more of Indian politics had moved to backroom negotiations over this or that deal.  The Congress has shown time and again that it has the power to calibrate the impact of any Sena threat. I’d be surprised if the Mumbai police does not know the names and addresses of the trouble makers by now.

Blasts in Pune kill 10 people.

Will the media ask the following tough questions to the party that rules at both the centre and state ? Will they resist the temptation to interpret and cushion ?

I have never been to Pune, but this strikes me as odd.

• We are told we knew Mr Headley  conducted recon of the area
• We know the German bakery was a well known hangout
• Was there a security assessment done in that establishment? Similar ones?
• In the wake of the knowledge of the recon : Was there anything done at all ?
• What impact did the redirecting of the police force to protect a Bollywood movie impact any patrolling in that area ?  Who blew the Shiv Sena threat out of proportion and who underestimated the Congress’s power to calibrate the Senas impact ?

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We cant prevent these terrorist acts.

We can only ensure that to conduct such a terrorist act would require the perpetrators to defeat some countermeasures first.

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The media and its personalities in the recent weeks have shown themselves to be childish, partisan, and irresponsible name callers. Hopefully such incidents will make them change their ways and direct them to their main job. Reporting news faithfully. Yeah, I know, its unglamorous.

Quiz : Who or what is this ?

Indian mainstream media showcase – Sec 507

Thats it ! I am calling uncle.

Ms Sagarika Ghose has a twitter account – big deal you say.  A lot of Indian and international journos are on twitter. However, she is different. She seems to take every tweet personally, gets easily offended, and rains down abuse on those who pan her tweets. Lady, the point is you don’t have to reply to everyone and get your blood pressure up.  You do not even have to be on Twitter.

Twitter is a participative public medium. Once you tweet, its out there in the internet.  If you do not want that, you may choose to protect your tweets. If you open it up searching for upsides then you have to deal with the undesirable. You do not get to control whether your tweets are slammed or loved.  The veterans (Vir Sanghvi, Pritish Nandy, Kanchan Gupta etc) have figured it out. They have been panned – but they never lose their composure. Some even avoid twitter wisely (Arnab of Times Now).

So far so good. Abuse and return-abuse. Like a power tennis match.

But she repeatedly threatened those who slam her tweets with Sec 507 of the IPC.

hahahHA. may the best Hindu win! better get some good lawyers..):

Section 507 IPC: criminal intimidation by anonymous communication. You’re in for it, my friend..

You’ll be in the dock for criminal intimidation one day..

amazing! amazing the way you talk..how free you are to say exactly what enters your filthy mind, , hiding under your fake identity

so is it considered Hindu to be anonymously rude and abusive..? if you are a Hindu, god save Hinduism..

Her stand is very unfortunate. It betrays a “Thats it ! I am calling uncle “ mentality of those privileged enough to have connections. Remember in school cricket matches, when the rich kid got out – he would take his bat, ball, and stumps and go home.

Can someone who slams your tweets, even calls you names be jailed under Sec 506/507 ?

* I am not a lawyer, but I am passionately interested in the field of justice.

Fact is : The Gen-Y twitterati do not need a good lawyer – a garden variety will do. She needs to get a real superstar lawyer to even go beyond the first step.

Requires major co-operation from other media houses. Requires co-operation from international companies like Google Inc, Twitter to trace. They in turn require production of warrants.  Could attract negative  foreign coverage. Will outrage the internet community and cause major harm to the channel. Unless of course, there  is really a criminal intimidation.

First what is Sec 507. It is an extension of Sec 506. Lets look at both of them.

Section 506. Punishment for criminal intimidation

Whoever commits, the offence of criminal intimidation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both;

If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc.: -And if the threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, or to cause the destruction of any property by fire, or to cause an offence punishable with death or 1[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or to impute, unchastity to a woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.

Section 507. Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication

Whoever commits the offence of criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication, or having taken precaution to conceal the name or abode of the person form whom the threat comes, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, in addition to the punishment provided for the offence by the last preceding section.

We also need 503

Section 503. Criminal intimidation

Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of any one in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as the means of avoiding the execution of such threat, commits criminal intimidation.

Explanation-A threat to inure the reputation of any deceased person in whom the person threatened is interested, is within this section.

Illustration

A, for the purpose of inducing B to desist from prosecuting a civil suit, threatens to burn B’s house. A is guilty of criminal intimidation.

Both 506 and 507 – REQUIRE 503 Criminal Intimidation. 507 is just the anonymous version of 506. In the case of the twitterati – there is no evidence of criminal intimidation whatsoever. The only statement resembling a threat was made by the journo herself.

If name calling can be passed off as crime, then the culpability picture turns fuzzy. To be sure, she dishes out her share of you-suck tweets. In fact, a large majority of her tweets are name calling and return abuse. In a court, her you-suck tweets are at least as intimidating to a 20 year old aam-aadmi twitterer as the reverse.

Both 506/507 are non – cognizable and bailable by law

Non-cognizable = Police require warrant to arrest (they can neither register an FIR, nor investigate, nor arrest without express directions from a competent court)

Bailable = you can get bail or anticipatory bail

Some states have made them cognizable. Although I think it is unlikely such a frivolous case would be the grounds to test it.  (Chandigarh police misuse 506, old article Misuse of 506 )

Again – there must be actual criminal intimidation first

There must be an element of criminal intimidation. This means that there must be a open or veiled threat to actually commit a crime.

None of these are even close to criminal intimidation.

Your tweet sucks big time. I hate your style. You are a fake socialist sell out. You overlook corruption, You dont know Hinduism, You dont know Islam, You are a closet Hindu/Muslim/Christian/Alien. You are Hindu/Muslim/Alien/ hater.  You yell.

The below would fall under criminal intimidation.

I am going to rob, burn, steal, maim, injure you personnally or cause damage to your property. Threats of a sexual nature. Obscenity and other communication intended to instill fear of crime.

For example : Saif Ali Khan was charged under 506 for threatening to kill journalists.

Misuse of an already overloaded judicial system. Millions of jailed poor cant get a trial date

So what about her threat ? Clearly IPC 506/507 is dubious in this case based on available evidence of public tweets. What she is really threatening to do is to put you through the process !  Using  connections it may be possible to obtain a warrant. You will have to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort at your expense to arrange for bail and defend it.  A terrifying thought for most professionals who cant take off work.

In a country where millions of poor are awaiting trial dates and a creaking overloaded judicial system  – it is in extremely bad taste to abuse the criminal justice system.

In mature democracies, such a misguided adventure would be met with stiff penalties from the court and ridicule from rival media channels. The person who is sued will  almost immediately turn around and seek damages from the individual or corporation – when the case is tossed out.

But we live in India.