Fly on the Wall : Baffling Disappearance of scammers

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Fly on the Wall : 

Baffling Disappearance of scammers

The Sterling Biotech bribery allegations case in the Rs 5000 crores scam in which the name of CBI's special director Rakesh Asthana figured took an interesting turn; that the Enforcement Directorate is yet to seek the custody of the Gujrat-based promoters Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara. The ED went to town when it arrested Delhi businessman Gagan Dhawan recently who was instrumental in helping the company to manage its affairs with Central government agencies and banks. But the ED did not seek their non-bailable warrants against the Gujrat-based promoters. In fact, the scam first surfaced in 2011 and neither the UPA and nor NDA did anything worthwhile in this case for six years. It gained prominence only when proposal to promote Rakesh Asthana within the CBI to make him number two was brought before the Central Vigilance Commission. The CBI director Alok Varma opposed Asthana's promotion and was overruled by the CVC and news was leaked along with the entire case. Now it transpires that the promoters of the Sterling Biotech have vanished and not available to ED. The other directors of the company are around but the promoter director Sandesaras have vanished. No doubt, the ED has caught hold of the company CA who used to write the diary after making payments to officials. He has confessed that he made the payments. But unless the promoters are arrested and confess the same, nothing can be done. The ED is keeping its fingers crossed as no one has a clue where have they vanished, are they in India or abroad like many others.

Kovind's GCTOC test

President Ram Nath Kovind will face his first acid test when the controversial Gujrat Control of Terrorism and Orgnaised Crime bill (GCTOC) will land on his table soon. The GCTOC has been hanging fire for the past 14 years as three of Kovind's predecessors; APJ Abdul Kalam, Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee refused to sign. The Bill empowers the police to tap phones and use it as evidence in courts. It was conceived by Modi when he was CM in 2003 and pushing for its passage since then. In fact, he was very hopeful that Pranab Mukherjee will clear it. But he too declined to clear it in its present form. Now certain provisions are being re-worked. The bill is on the pattern of Maharashtra's MOCOCA which gives enormous powers to the state police. As per norms, the Union Home Secretary has to be kept in the loop before tapping telephones. The Gujrat police wants immunity to the state for any wrong doing in public interest. The bill will be on Kovind's table after the Assembly polls.

"Bichhre Sabhi Bari Bari", Lalu crying

Ever since his most trusted lieutenant and four-term Rajya Sabha MP Prem Chand Gupta deserted Lalu Prasad Yadav, the RJD supremo is in great agony and pain. He has been calling Prem Gupta repeatedly on his mobile and home numbers and waiting to meet him for long. But the former Corporate Affairs Minister in the Manmohan Singh government has not returned the call. Lalu's two former trusted officers Mahajan and Srivastava have also chosen to keep a safe distance from the former Railway Minister. Lalu has seen his worst as nobody calls on him these days and he is left with no monies. He is tapping all his former corporate friends and nobody comes to him. They are either not taking his call or not returning call either. Both his sons, wife, daughter Misa Bharti, her husband and other close relatives are under the ED/CBI scanner. Their bank accounts have either been frozen and confiscated. It is becoming clear that after the Gujrat polls, they will face a big music. But what Lalu can't comprehend is that his most trusted person Gupta stopped visiting him. It is learnt that ever since Gupta's wife Sarla Gupta was slapped with a PMLA case, Gupta is trying hard to curry favours from the Modi government. He is repoted to have met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley twice. What transpired during these meetings is anybody's guess. Lalu cried when an old friend called him up and said, “bichhre sabhi bari bari."

Amit Katyal goes missing too !

Heard of Amit Katyal ! He was a small time businessman who came close to Lalu and became big and fixed deals when Lalu was CM Bihar or Railway Minister. The ED has unearthed now that the New Friends Colony bungalow in the posh South Delhi area was virtually gifted by Amit Katyal virtually free to Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti and other family members through web of shell companies. The bungalow is worth Rs 30 crores though ED claims its more than Rs 100 crores. The ED has sealed the property and now fixing nuts & bolts. But it has been caught in a jam. Why ? Amit Katyal is not traceable. He is reportedly run away to Dubai. Though evidence has surfaced when ED detained Bharti's Chartered Accountant (CA) Rakesh Agrawal who started singing. Agrawal was arrested under PMLA for allegedly being instrumental in providing accommodation entries (illegal funds) to launder the money of businessmen brothers - Virendra Jain and Surendra Jain. But the prime person Amit Katyal has gone missing.

Lalu goes to astrologers

Lalu is now completely banking on his star for his fortunes. He has turned to the astrologers and godmen completely. Though he used to believe in astrology and star power. But he remained a die-hard political bird. However, his dependence on astrologers has gone up many folds with the appointment of Shankar Charan Tripathi, an astrologer, as party's national spokesperson.

Udyog Parv and a Dalit president

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

The job of the President of India surely glows with gravitas, complete with a bespoke palace on Raisina Hill that could make the White House in Washington look modest. The words in the Constitution defining the position of its occupant in the Indian republic are also grand. Article 53(1) says that the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President.

But these are just words as the issue of the President’s power was settled way back in the 1940’s, with B. R. Ambedkar, draftsman of the Constitution, favouring a truly powerful chief executive, and the Gandhi-Nehru clique, on the other hand, being all out for powerful legislature. The latter won. No wonder the same article goes on to underline that (19-3): “Nothing in this article shall…prevent Parliament from conferring by law functions on authorities other than the President”.  The fact that the Indian President is merely a titular head is known to school students, so his election should hardly attract either politicians’ get-up-and-go or even common man’s interest. Yet, politicians have always given the Presidential election—with its cumbersome calculation of votes—more weightage than it rightfully deserves.

In the Sixties, Indira Gandhi, in her early years as prime minister, wanted her protégé V. V. Giri to become President but her right-wing ‘syndicate’ in the party had Neelam Sanjiva Reddy as its candidate. Giri won, but not until the differences escalated and led to split in the Congress. In the Nineties, K. R. Narayanan easily glided through the election when the electoral college was badly splintered, thanks to the Mandal-era politics then prevalent, and everybody thought the former student of London School of Economics would be too scholarly to be assertive in India’s cutthroat political environment. Yet, it is this short and unassuming Dalit who surprised all when he refused to dismiss two state governments, of Kalyan Singh and Rabri Devi, despite being pushed by I. K. Gujral and A. B. Vajpayee respectively. But the Rashtrapati Bhavan can truly prove to be a gilded cage for over-ambitious politicians, as it happened with present President Pranab Mukherjee, who had aspired to the prime minister’s post occupied by  Manmohan Singh and had gone some way in gathering support of UPA partners until Sonia Gandhi got him summarily despatched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Mukherjee’s term is due to end on 25 July, before which his replacement must be elected. Except Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, no other president had a second term, nor is it likely that Mukherjee, a dyed-in-the-wool Congressman, will have too many helping hands stretching out from a predominantly pro-BJP electoral college. The total voting strength of the 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs translates into 10,98,882 votes (each MLA has a voting strength multiplied by a factor of his state’s population), the halfway mark being 549,442. The ruling NDA is already ahead of it and is adding on to the lead after every election. There is little doubt, therefore, that the new occupant of the best address in Delhi will be a man (or woman ?) approved by the ‘saffron brotherhood’, if not being one of it.

Earlier, in 2002, BJP under Vajpayee as prime minister boldly supported ‘missile man’ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Given a chance, the party could produce a hard-core saffronite from its RSS stable. But it did nothing of that sort. Kalam, in his turn, made the BJP proud. Being a Muslim president, he still supported the Uniform Civil Code, an issue close to the BJP’s heart for decades. Moreover, he was not given to pussy-footing on dismissal of state governments headed by leaders mired in corruption charges. In 2005, he dismissed the Bihar government headed by Rabri Devi, a task that his predecessor, Narayanan, had refused to carry out. It is a fact that Kalam did not oblige hard-core nationalists as he prolonged the mercy petition of Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the plan to attack the Indian Parliament. But Kalam’s choice brought to the Vajpayee set-up a rare respectability in both domestic and international spheres as this aeronautics scientist was held in high esteem. In the Vajpayee years, the BJP ruled only through a coalition and its grip on national politics was still unsure. A pacifist and multiculturist at the Rashtrapati Bhavan was an asset then.

In 2017, things have undergone a sea-change. Apart from holding more than half the Lok Sabha seats on its own, the BJP, singly or through allies, is in power from the hills and the plains to the seas. Modi has succeeded in doing what Vajpayee couldn’t, winning states after states.  It is no time for an ideologically driven leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or his fellow-thinkers like party president Amit Shah and RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagawat, to shelter behind a façade of goody goody liberalism and be content with the party’s elders from the pre-Modi era. Example: L. K. Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Kariya Munda and half a dozen more. The new names that are surfacing are hard-boiled RSS men who are also Dalit: like 73-year-old cabinet minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, a Dalit. Also in the running is Satyanarayan Jatia, a jatav (Mayawati’s caste). Though he was denied Lok Sabha ticket, the party rewarded him with a Rajya Sabha seat. There may be an unknown, unsung RSS Dalit hero for the post. The presidential poll is like Udyog Parv in the Mahabharata.  The previous assembly elections are a testimony to abiding upper caste support to BJP. Modi himself claimed that he is an OBC and garnering non-Yadavs in big numbers. He is now eyeing the Dalits who were never part of saffron dispensation. Modi, ever since his arrival at 7 Race Course Road (Lok Nayak Marg), has done everything possible to embrace the legacy of Dr Ambedkar. A Dalit commitment completes the circle. Political pundits are unnecessarily misplacing their bets on yesteryears’ horses.