Why is Manmohan Singh the worst PM any country can have?

Before you continue, please remember the Boot them campaign is still on. We need to show the Netas their place. Back to MMS It is rather late in the day to point out but surely we deserve Manmohan Singh as our Prime Minister. It’s not his fault that he is the PM. It is our fault. We get what we deserve. But now, the PM is sure to resign and Sushilkumar Shinde take over, it is time to look back. With no apologies, the questions are about his abilities as PM of a vast nation as ours. However, it is to his praise that he can sustain being PM for so long without having accepted what is wrong. He is having a ball. God has really blessed MMS – given him everything and yet expect from him nothing. Certainly God has his bias. But in doing so, God has giving the country the worst ever leader and by no stretch of imagination he can be called so. When Congress got a comfortable majority in 2004, Sonia Gandhi could have taken over South Block, but instead passed the baton to MMS. They wanted a lame duck, docile, mummy figure. He has no political standing. Imagine, he lost Vijay Kumar Malhotra from the highly influential South Delhi. Today he cannot raise his voice in front of any Congress doorman. MMS had all the qualities they could hope for if they wanted rule South Block from 10 Janpath. He fit the bill for the Congress Party. After having used him for nine and half months, the Gandhis feel it is time he is shown the door. He has taken the country on the brink of political, social and economic collapse. Our rupee touched over 100 to a pound. Oh! It is only a temporary phase. The country is developing faster than it could have had it been under Indira, Rajiv or Vajpayee. Chandrashekhar, VP, Gujral got hardly anytime. Are we forgetting Deve Gowda? What is the problem folks? MMS is not embroiled in any major controversy, scam or corruption case above Rs 2 lakh crore. For everything else, please blame the Congress party. 2G scam (1,76 lakh crore), Adarsh (just one building with some flats), Commonwealth (76,000 crore or so), Railway recruitment (just what a minister can’t even dream of getting as bribe to appoint a member) are some of the glaring examples where the PM is not directly involved. And even when the PM could have been directly involved, given he was the minister concerned or in-charge, the deals have not got him in headlines. Antrix-Devas (Rs 1,000 crore or so) and Coal scam (1.7 lakh cr or so) only figure with PM at the helm but big deal. Coal was going on much before MMS become PM. And hey now that certain files are missing, who is going to find out. So please don’t bother your head. You journalists and people just want to blame high and mighty without any iota of proof or witness. They can handle the courts. MMS has never offered to resign. Advani and gang have shout their lungs out. They are the Opposition, its their job. But what about your job Mr PM! Yes, MMS can read written speeches. He doesn’t need to inspire confidence of the people – for that you have Anna Hazare, Modi, Sonia ji, Rahul ji… He can just be a MMS – good to sneer at. Have you ever felt why he is your PM? Oh technically, our Constitution says, ‘We the People – ‘can have a government’, For the People, by the People and of the People. Please read it as Oh, you don’t need to be an elected one, you can be anybody – placed in Rajya Sabha, and behold, Dude, You got PM! If you compare him to Obama, you might feel ashamed. The country may need a leader but you get MMS. Has he ever realised that he would be a blot in the history books? Perhaps, he has never seriously contemplated resigning. However, he has accepted vacating the chair if Rahul Gandhi is ready for the job. For anybody else, MMS thinks what is the need for replacement? Rahul for God sake, please…

A tale of two ministers

Amidst the plethora of disturbing news on Coalgate, Quota mess and subsequent logjam in the Parliament, it was really heartening to see Sachin Pilot join the OG. Mind you, the young minister didn’t need to wear the uniform and march in the Army Headquarters to get his face published in the newspapers. He is a minister in the Government. And he is a very popular eloquent leader in his scheme of things. Why he joined as a lieutenant is still a mystery. Nevertheless he earned a lot of respect from many quarters. He could have easily become a Lt Col, but Pilot preferred to join the forces at the starting level of officers. It is not everyday that a minister joins the Army. If I happen to bump into the hon’ble minister I would certainly communicate a word of praise to him, but even if I don’t, he gets the pat from someone who hung his boots long time ago. Keep it up Lt Pilot – a thinking, doing minister. In the same vein, Pilot’s senior should learn from him. Its time Manmohan Singh quit the government and save the nation from the shame and corruption he brings to his office. MMS is silently self-serving-highly ambitious PM clutching onto the seat that doesn’t belong to him. He has no proven track record as a leader, having lost a single election he contested from South Delhi Lok Sabha seat. And is RS member from Assam, a state he has no connection with. A lot of criticism is heaped from within the country but he objected only when a firangi paper wrote a few lines of mild observations. Perhaps he got perturbed because the paper was from the country that paid his salariy when serving international financial organisations. MMS is a spent force, having made mota maal as Coal and Space Minister and even as PM. Who said anything about the episode of two girls and a pimp driving into his official residence? Perhaps an orgy was not out of the order. It is time that a rubber stamp, debase, taint-contaminated, rudderless, “dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government (Washington Post)” is shown the door.

CBI raids coal compaines - Wow

Coalgate A very interesting news item appeared in the TOI today – that the CBI would ‘formally raid’ various companies involved in the coalgate. The word here is formally raid. And rightly so, soon after, TV channels were flashing that the agency has raided five companies across the country – Delhi, Kolkatta, Patna, Nagpur, etc… The raids come as a surprise to an unsuspecting reader. Its months after scam surfaced, around a fortnight after CAG tabled the report in Parliament, daily uproar by the BJP, (demanding resignation of Prime Minister and cancellation of coal blocks), hundreds of screaming headlines. Naturally so, the raids were to be formal in nature too. Imagine any company or millionare waiting for the CBI to knock its doors to give out details of how much ‘mota mall’ they paid Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Coal Minister 2006-09 also), Coal Ministry officials, or even the Congress party (Read Ahmed Patel/Sonia Gandhi) and a host of middlemen. Any company in the right sense would even change the computer and recreate fresh books of accounts and not merely delete or erase files. Now it is surprising that the CBI is raiding just five companies and not 150 companies or hundreds others involved in the scam. Many CEOs/officials of the companies had not even turned up by 11 am. So what the agency doing raiding the premises since 6 am. Circa – 2017: The courts send a deputy secretary, then a peon to jail for the Coalgate. The PM, (Modi/Mulayam Singh/Priyanka Gandhi/Prashant Bhushan) says justice will be done and law of the land will prevail. Circa 2012: PM Manmohan Singh says why should I resign.

CWG Scam: Put MMS and Dikshit behinds bars too

Country Needs Action
The Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Commonwealth Games comes as no surprise. Corruption and mismanagement were hallmark of the Games that led to Pune MP and CWG Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi landing in jail. The CAG report clearly establishes multiple failures at various levels of the Government of India and numerous agencies including Delhi Government involved in the execution of the mega sporting event. The systematic and blatant loot of the exchequer was evident much before the press started exposing the rampant corruption in execution of the Games. A budget of Rs 1,200 crore reached approximately Rs 18,532 crore excluding investments on allied infrastructure by agencies like the DMRC, AAI and DAIL. However, only blaming Kalmadi and his team for the mess would be entirely unfair. Kalmadi was just a part of the bigger scheme of things. The fountainhead of the unparalleled scam is non other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team. By reportedly looking the other way, they were egging Kalmadi to go on regardless. Finance, Sport, Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting ministries played an equally important role in perpetuating the CWG scam. And Delhi czarina deserves a special mention. State Chief Minsiter Sheila Dikshit is the unofficial queen of the baton relay of corruption joining the various dots enjoying unbridled joy ride till the CAG stepped in.
All the CWG embezzlement actors should be exposed. The judiciary has been playing an exemplary role and the country expects that the law protectors would continue to serve the country with honesty and absolute integrity. But the aam admi feels that given the complexities involved in seeing the guilty behind bars, it may not be possible in this day and age. Now that the CAG report has indicted the PMO and the Dikshit regime, will the real culprits be ever booked. Ironically, the Government wastes no opportunity to run down the CAG. The classic example is the CAG report on 2 G scam being rubbished Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal. After Raja was ousted from his job in the Sanchar Bhawan, Sibal addressed the nation and trashed the report of the national auditors by claiming zero loss in the scam. Will the Government throw the CAG report on CWG in the bin is yet to be seen but given the track record of the UPA regime probability is high. In any case, Dikshit’s aide Chief Secretary Tripathi has batted for his madam and claimed that the report was ‘totally wrong’. Thankfully, Tripathi is not the last word in the country today. The Congress party is already in no mood to relent and is backing her and Singh. The common man needs to see the CWG mess protagonist behind bars, for long. Very-very long, indeed. The judiciary and the law enforcing agencies need to repose the faith of the people.

PM should also be held responsible for 2G scam

Though the report of the Public Accounts Committee on 2G scam was subdued in the ruckus created by the parliamentarians on accepting the clear cut findings because they indict clean-image Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the message has been delivered.
Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party member MM Joshi, who was on the receiving end by the Congress MPs assisted by its allies and foes-turned-allies like the BSP and SP, appeared to have had the last laugh.
Joshi was perhaps aware that the PAC report would be short-lived. The Congress party would in any case have turned it down had it been fully accepted. The party had been raising the questions of continuing with the PAC after the JPC had been constituted. But Joshi went ahead with his probe.
The PAC gained a lot of brownie points by summoning the likes of Ratan Tata and Anil Ambani. The PAC members went along with Joshi for sometime, only protesting in murmurs but as he become bold and daring enough to reach, what the Congress wants to protect - the Prime Minister, they had enough. As PMO officials were about to be called for giving their statements, Soz and his team of eight went on the rampage, forcing Joshi to shelve his plans of calling the PM for examination, which Singh himself had offered earlier.
And before the PAC term could end on April 30, the (draft) report hit the headlines.
The report is unlikely to be accepted. But the damage has been done.
The veteran leader was more or less successful in hinting who are the protagonists of the Rs 1.76 crore scam besides those already in jail, including former Telecom Minister A Raja. The name of PM had been dragged in the 2G scam.
The most vital question is what has been Manmohan Singh’s contribution in perpetuating the scam? How did he benefit from the mega scam?
Caesar wife should be above suspicion. So if there are fingers being pointed out, should it not be proper for the highest executive officer holder to come out clean, if he so desires to remain spotlessly taint-free.
Leaving aside the fact that Raja mislead the PM on more than a few occasions, the PMO too showed files to Singh after the scam had taken place. The PM with the RAW, IB at his command and so also all the senior babus who are supposed to keep him informed on important matters of the state, should have briefed Singh at some point about the scam taking place.
Given that the scam managers were able to hoodwink the PM, PMO, IB, ED… and Raja was able to “deliberately and dismindly mislead the PM in order to fulfill his nefarious design leading to a staggering loss of revenue which also tarnished the image of the country”, was the PM so self-contained or occupied or powerless that he could not spare time and stop what was happening right in front of his face. A newspaper was regularly writing about the scam since 2008, much before the 2009 general elections. Should not the PM have taken cognizance?
The questions being raised are:
Why did the Prime Minister give “indirect green signal” to former Telecom Minister A Raja?
“The PM’s “desire to keep the PMO at arm’s length indirectly helped the Communications Minister to go ahead and execute his unfair, arbitrary and dubious designs.” Why did the PM keep the PMO at arm’s length? How long was the arm?
Manmohan has recently said that revenue generation has never been a primary consideration. This contradicts his India Telecom 2007 statement that revenue generation must not be lost sight of. Why is the PM flip flopping on such important matters?
The PMO is “required to reconcile the two divergent views of the PM”.
Will Singh present himself to the Central Bureau of Investigation, like he offered to the PAC?
The onus is on the PM and not on the agency to come forward. The fact of the matter is CBI cannot move against the PM. Can a sleuth, no matter how gutsy or fool-hardy, question the man who inaugurates their swanky building? Can any file noting be ever made against the PM?
In any case, the CBI and other investigating agencies have to seek permission from the sanctioning authority, which sounds a very difficult proposition.
The CBI after filing the second chargesheet in the court indicated that it was as far as it could go, barring a supplementary. In fact the role of the premier agency has been that of a passive one, acting at the behest of the Supreme Court.
But Singh should take the lead and come forward and present what circumstances led to the scam, was he never aware of the scam taking place, why no officer briefed him and plethora of other questions. The chair of the PM has to be above board. Singh is King, and it should show.

Who is to blame for the mess?

A man recently lost his life due to traffic mismanagement in place for the convoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had to attend the Congress party plenary at Burari in Delhi.
This is not the first death due to traffic blockages in place for the PM and that too when he did not take the route. Two other deaths have been reported, one from Chandigarh and another in Kanpur, due to traffic blockades of the PM. Perhaps, this will not be the last, if adequate measures not adopted and soon at that.
Without questioning the need of security for the PM, it raises a pertinent question – Do we value the life of a citizen of the country? If yes, has anyone been held responsible for the deaths? Why has no officer or the PM been held guilty of murder? Who is to blame?
Why can’t we have systems that enable unhindered movement of the PMs and also respect the right of the citizens to live and move freely, and not die or at least reach emergency services in time?
The answer lies in the fact that we do not value the life. A death is just a small news item or a passing mention in the briefs.
We are still living in the mindset of British slavery. Today, in our system, we treat district magistrates as lords and police officials at unbridled dictators. Judges and netas are Gods. Bow down mister, or else…
That leaves us - you and me in a crappy hole. Just run a reality check. We travel in overcrowded buses and metros, bear stench of open nalas, walk in uncleaned streets, beg gas wallahs to deliver our cylinders, traffic is in a mess and we plead cops not to challan … all because most of the bureaucrats and leaders are lethargic, corrupt and work in self-centered mode. Corruption is omni-present and bribe is the way to get your file moving. Governance is in pits. A day in the life of the nation is filled with greed, graft, bribery, dirty money. We are still rated among the most corrupt in the world. Human rights, not the Arundhati-Kashmir variety type, are only for thesis papers.
Corruption at the top – 2G scam, CWG… Corruption at the bottom – at the thana level or in the courts. Can you get a driving license made without getting through the dalal? You have paid the court staff to even see your court file? Can you get a government contract without paying good percentages upfront? Nah, I not only doubt, but am pretty certain that exceptions apart, money is the rule of the game.
So if one of us dies, who cares?
Take it easy. We all have our faults. Its not so bad, argue many who always like to see the picture through the prism of air-conditioned logic.
Why blame the system, since it is so rotten and so irreversible that you too have become a part of it. Agreed, we all have paid bribes or resorted to some sort of corruption somewhere. But we have to stand up.
They take advantage of us being disunited. We have to take the responsibility, here and now. It will take a revolution, perhaps a civil war to cleanse this rot. Perhaps, it will take a few decades but lets start. Today! Dayafter we can reap the benefits and not die because the bloody PMs have to suck the nation’s thumb.