Country gets first Lokpal after 50 years

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Lokpal story with exclusive details.

Country gets first Lokpal after 50 years

Justice PC Ghose to be First Lokpal,

Justice Abhilasha Kumari, Archana Ramasundaram, others recommended Maharashtra Chief Secretary also under consideration Justice Bobde part of Selection Committee

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 17

Pinaki Chandra Ghose, a former judge of the Supreme Court, will be country's first Lokpal who will hold the post of Chairman.

Apart from justice Ghose, the Selection Committee headed by the Prime Minister, also cleared the names of justice Abhilasha Kumari, a former chief justice of the Manipur high court, Archana Ramasundaram, a former Director-General of Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) and a few others.

Highly placed sources say that the selection committee also considered the name of Dinesh Kumar Jain, Chief Secretary of the Maharashtra government who is currently on extension. It is not immediately known if his name was cleared for the post of Lokpal.

Under the Lokpal Act, the anti-corruption ombudsman will consist of a chairperson and eight members, of which 50% will be judicial members, 50% members of Lokpal shall be from SC/ST/OBCs, minorities and women.

Justice Ghose had convicted J Jayalalithaa's aide Sasikala in a corruption case. Interestingly, Justice Abhilasha Kumari is a daughter of former Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. She had served as a judge of the Gujrat high court when Modi was Chief Minister. It was in 2018 when she was made Chief Justice of the Manipur high court and retired after serving for a month only. 

Archana Ramasundaram is the first ever woman chief of any central armed police force and had retired from service in 2017.

A senior bureaucrat from Haryana who was once considered close to Chautalas also figured in the list of those probables.

With the creation of Lokpal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled his commitment to give country its first Lokpal which is empowered to inquire into corruption in high places including the office of the PM.

Interestingly, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi did not attend Friday's meeting that continued late in the night. Instead, he sent Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, a judge of the Supreme Court. Justice Bobde will is the next CJI in line after Justice Gogoi. Justice Bobde is also serving as the Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai and Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur.

Besides, PM and Justice Bobde, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan, Mallikarjun Kharge and eminent jurist Mukul Rohtagi are the members. Kharge didn't attend the meeting. The Selection Committee strictly went by the panel of 20 names recommended by the Search Committee. Justice A K Sikri who is a retired judge of the Supreme Court was disinterested in the post, say sources.

Lokpal's jurisdiction will cover all categories of public servants. All entities (NGOs) receiving donations from foreign source in the context of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in excess of Rs 10 lakh per year are under the jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Lokpal will have power of superintendence and direction over any central investigation agency including CBI for cases referred to them by the ombudsman.

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PM asks millions to become “Chowkidar” like him

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

PM asks millions to become “Chowkidar” like him

Counters Rahul's “Chowkidar Chore Hai jibe” in video 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 16

Six month after Congress president Rahul Gandhi's tireless jibe at the Prime Minister “Chowkidar Chor Hai,” referring to the Rafale deal, Narendra Modi came out with a counter - ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’.

PM Modi posted a video on his Twitter account today signalling  beginning of BJP's poll campaign to take the wind out of Rahul Gandhi's personal attack. Though the PM personally never replied to Rahul Gandhi's jibe in public and spoke on the Rafale deal, his senior ministers countered attack on Modi. But today, the PM decided to directly take on Rahul Gandhi calling upon party workers across the country with the tag line ‘Mein Bhi Chowkidar”. He will administer the oath to BJP workers on his NaMo app on March 31 at 6 pm. 

In a way, Modi re-defined the word ‘Chowkidar’ by saying in the 3 minute 45 seconds video, “everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt and social evils is a ‘chowkidar’ along with him.

The PM wrote on Twitter, "Your Chowkidar is standing firm & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar."

"Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar”

Rahul often use the slogan “Gali gali mein shor hai, Hindustan ka chowkidar chor hai (There is noise everywhere, the country’s guard is a thief),” against Modi.

BJP leader Piyush Goyal also took his Twitter account to promote the campaign ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’.

The 225 second long video begins with the PM addressing the people saying, “Your chowkidar is absolutely alert”. The video then moves into a song with visuals of people from across the length and breadth of the country, singing “main bhi chowkidar hun” as part of the chorus of the song.

Party sources say that this new campaign has been initiated after taking extensive feedback.

Why Modi is quiet ?

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

special report 

Why Modi is quiet ?

Inauspicious 8 day Holashtak makes Modi go silent

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 14

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had been on campaigning across the country and inaugurated as many as 157 projects between February 8 and March 10 has suddenly gone into a shell.

Its five days since the announcement of poll dates by the Election Commission of India but Modi has maintained a studied silence. Except for tweeting once in a while, he has not uttered a single word.

Though Model Code of Conduct has been set in motion on March 11, it has not prevented the government to issue fresh Ordinances and officers being appointed in key positions. The government maintains that it has not taken any policy decision and Cabinet took routine decisions. The Prime Minister who is known for addressing functions through video conference, has not done it during the last five days.

Sources say one of the reasons for Modi going into the shell is beginning of “Holashtkat” period.

Holashtak is considered inauspicious and 8 days period prior to Holi is considered a curse period. The Holi festival is on March 21. Therefore, Modi is unlikely to address any major public function unless decided otherwise.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office say that the PM is extremely busy in political work and working in close coordination with senior party functionaries including Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and other members of the Parliamentary board.

These sources say that before entering the campaign arena, the PM wants every thing to fall in place beginning with finalization of alliances with regional parties. Till the time of writing this report, the BJP completed alliances with 36 parties. Now the work is going on with the party's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and discussions are underway with Rajnath Singh. Arun Jaitley who is incharge of the campaign strategy has been meeting him to re-work tagline and campaign blitz. Since Modi is a perfectionist and goes into small details, he is devoting a lot of time himself in this regard. He has been holding hectic parleys with senior party leaders at his 7 Lok Nayak Marg and giving final touches to full throated poll campaign.

The BJP's parliamentary board is also slated to meet after Holi though some say it may meet on March 16-17 to clear some names for seats falling in the phase-I and phase-II so that candidates can mingle with their constituencts on the Holi day.

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BJP struggling with Sena, JD (U) to identify LS seats

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

exclusive 

BJP struggling with Sena, JD (U) to identify LS seats

BJP contesting 22 in Maharashtra and 17 in Bihar

Parliamentary board to meet on March15-16

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 13

The BJP high command is working on a war footing basis with Shiv Sena and Janata Dal (U) in Maharashtra and Bihar respectively to identify Lok Sabha seats electoral partners will contest.

The BJP has agreed to contest 22 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra leaving 26 for Shiv Sena. But these 22 seats have not been identified as yet and internal discussions have not been completed as yet. Similarly, in Bihar the BJP will forego its claim on five Lok Sabha seat to keep Nitish Kumar in good humour. The BJP has 22 sitting MPs from Bihar in Lok Sabha. The JD (U) will also contest 17 seats while Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP will contest remaining 6 seats. The seats in Bihar have not been identified so far.

The BJP high command’s discussions with JD (U) have almost been completed and a formal announcement is possible anytime tomorrow. But Maharashtra is still causing problems despite BJP conceding extra space to Shiv Sena. The BJP is also up set that despite conceding more seats, the Sena’s official organ continues to criticize the Modi government policies.

Highly placed sources in the BJP say that BJP’s Parliamentary Board will meet on March 15-16 to announce party candidates for 91 seats in Phase-I and 97 seats in Phase-II. Maharashtra’s 7 seats are in phase-I and 10 in Phase-II. The BJP wants to finalise seat allocation with Sena before its board meets. Similarly, Bihar’s 9 seats are in Phase-I and phase-II.

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BJP welcomes Celebrities, But with a rider

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Special report

BJP welcomes Celebrities, But with a rider

Film Stars, Cricketers seeking tickets

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, March 13

BJP high command is not very enthused towards the idea of fielding a large number of celebrities from cricket, cinema, art etc in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

Contrary to reports appearing in a section of the media that BJP is contemplating to field former cricketers Virendrer Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sunny Deol and others, the BJP won't like to field a celebrity merely because of a name.

A member of BJP parliamentary board said on the condition of anonymity, “We are not averse to induct talent from these fields. We are talking to couple of them who have shown interest. But our experience has been that these celebrities become a more of a liability than asset.”

Except for Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha hardly anyone stayed and worked sincerely for the party. Lately, even Sinha chose to become a rebel after serving the party for 28 long years.

Secondly, after the exit of celebrities, Kirti Azad, Sinha and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP leadership is cautious in picking such faces on a large scale. Instead of inducting such celebrities from party's strong states, the BJP would like to these celebrities belonging to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and North Eastern states. The BJP wants to expand in these states and inducted Suresh Babu, Mary Kom into Rajya Sabha. The leadership is not very enthused in bringing in such stars in states where it has a formidable presence like Delhi, Bihar, UP, Gujrat, etc. Of course, the party brought in Paresh Rawal (Gujrat) and Rajya Vardhan Rathore (Rajasthan) in 2014.

Gambhir and Virender Sehwag have been keen to contest but they didn't get involved in the political or social work. The BJP wanted film star Akshay Kumar to join. But he will take his own time. Akshay Khanna wants to contest Gurdaspur seat which was represented by his late father. , Mohanlal and Sunney Deol are keen. But last word on them is yet to written. The names of Madhuri Dixit and Mohan Lal are being mentioned from Mumbai/Pune and Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

In June last year, BJP chief Amit Shah had met the actor at her residence in Mumbai and Kapil Dev during his party's 'Sampark for Samarthan' (Contact for Support) program and briefed them on the achievements of the Narendra Modi government.

Therefore, a fine balance is required. But Gambhir won't be fielded from New Delhi, a seat held by Meenakshi Lekhi who is groomed to play more important role.

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