Amarinder Singh accused of committing perjury -- BJP leader Subramanian Swamy

April 9, 2014, 7:36 am

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BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accuses Captain Amarinder Singh of committing perjury

By ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 9 Apr, 2014, 03.44PM IST

Captain Amarinder Singh filed his nomination papers on April 4.

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NEW DELHI: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday accused Congress candidate from Amritsar, Captain Amarinder Singh of committing perjury. Swamy claimed that Captain Amarinder Singh failed to divulge details of foreign bank accounts held under his wife and son's name.

Swamy's claim assumes significance in the backdrop of a high-profile political battle between BJP's Arun Jaitley and Congress' Amarinder Singh. Asked about whether his claims are deliberate targeting, Swamy told Times Now, "I am in the BJP, these kind of things would be said anyway. The fact of the matter is that I have been campaigning against foreign bank accounts."

"Therefore whichever party has a foreign bank account which is not disclosed, I will make it public. I will not worry about the political taint given to it," Swamy added. "I have produced the documentation and since it is a secret account, these things are not easily available. But the document that I have is authentic," Swamy said.

Asked about whether he would approach the Election Commission, Swamy said, "The Election Commission doesn't come into the pictureimmediately because this is now a perjury matter, which will come under the IPC. So, I will have to go to a criminal court for it."

Swamy went on to say that he will wait to see what Captain Amarinder Singh's reaction is to the matter. "I will wait to see what his (Amarinder Singh) reaction is and then I will proceed with the matter," Swamy said.

Watch: Amarinder committed perjury: Subramanian Swamy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepZpLj9fLY

Published on Apr 9, 2014

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy has accused Congress party Lok Sabha candidate from Amritsar Captain Amarinder Singh of committing perjury by not disclosing his wife's and son's foreign bank accounts in his nomination papers.

Captain Amarinder Singh filed his nomination papers on April 4. Accompanied by his wife Parneet Kaur and several Congress leaders, theformer Punjab Chief Minister filed his papers before Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat in the District Court complex. Amritsar goes to poll on April 30, along with Punjab's 12 other constituencies.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bjp-leader-subramanian-swamy-accuses-captain-amarinder-singh-of-committing-perjury/articleshow/33502814.cms?prtpage=1

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208 temples damaged in Kashmir in last two decades: Kashmir govt

April 9, 2014, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Philosophy of symbolic forms in Meluhha cipher - A new book by S. Kalyanaraman

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208 temples damaged in Kashmir in last two decades: Kashmir govt

Peerzada Ashiq, Hindustan Times Srinagar, October 04, 2012

First Published: 18:11 IST(4/10/2012) | Last Updated: 18:14 IST(4/10/2012)

The J&K government on Thursday said that 208 temples in the state suffered damages during past two decades of militancy with Srinagar witnessing highest number of acts of vandalism.

“Of the 438 temples in the Valley, 208 had been damaged over the years,” the state government said in a written reply to the state assembly in response to the question by a BJP MLA.

According to the government, 57 temples were damaged in Srinagar, followed by south Kashmir's Anantnag district where 56 temples suffered damage.

The authorities, however, were silent on those who are responsible for the vandalism and the damage. It has not blamed the temple damages on the militants.

The government also clarified that there was no illegal encroachment of temple land in the valley. “A total of 63 hectares of land were under the 436 temples in the valley. There was no case of encroachment on these lands so far,” said the government.

Hundreds of Pandits left behind religious places and houses when militancy erupted in 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir and migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country. According to the government, 209 Pandits have been killed during the militancy in the state. The government said nearly 75% of the 1,234 structures in Srinagar district have been gutted. “In south Kashmir Kulgam district nearly 85% of the 754 structures have been damaged. “In Srinagar district...most of the migrants have sold their property,” the government said.

The government claimed that it has protected Pandit properties after the migration under the J&K Migrant Immovable Property Preservation, Protection and Restrain on Distress Sale Act 1997.

Sanjay Tickoo of Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), a body of Kashmiri Pandits disputed the government figures.

“Around 550 temples were damaged and 50,000 kanals have been encroached upon,” claimed Tickoo.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/208-temples-damaged-in-kashmir-in-last-two-decades--kashmir-govt/article1-939793.aspx

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Philosophy of symbolic forms in Meluhha cipher - A new book by S. Kalyanaraman

April 9, 2014, 7:57 pm

≫ Next: Congress runs to EC, complains about RSS campaigning for BJP -- Sandhya Jain

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Philosophy of symbolic forms in Meluhha cipher

S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center, Herndon
978-0991104826 774 pages April 8, 2014
Rs. 420

The thesis reports re-discovery of lexical repertoire of Meluhha language. Meluhha language was in vogue during the Bronze Age from ca. 5th millennium BCE. Meluhha hieroglyphs of symbolic forms relate to Meluhha life-experiences as sphoṭā‘burst forth’ expressions in Meluhha language. The function of Meluhha writing system deploying Meluhha cipher as mudrā is to catalog wheelwright-lapidary artifacts of stone, shell, metal traded by maritime seafaring merchants and artisan-merchant caravans along the famed, extensively documented Tin Road. The cipher key here is artha translated as composite of entities and also ‘meaning’. In the Indian tradition, the word artha is a gloss which signifies both ‘meaning’ and also ‘wealth’ as seem in the compound Arthaśāstra used as a title for Kauṭilya’s treatise on wealth-creation and polity. This meaning is consistent with the word used for a polity Rāṣṭram (lit. ‘the firm, lighted path’) personified as divinity, vāk.

sphoṭāvāda elaborates on philosophical foundations of symbolic forms as media for ‘meanings’. In Indian rhetoric tradition mudra refers to ‘the natural expression of things by words , calling things by their right names’ (Kuvalayānanda). It is an energetic seal of authenticity. The gloss mudrā also signifies a seal, stamp, or impression made by a seal. Thus, by definition, the process of ‘sealing’ to create a ‘seal impression’ is an expression of words deploying symbolic forms. To call things by their right names, a rebus cipher with glosses of underlying glosses and related sounds of Meluhha language are used. The semantics get expanded to evolve mudra as a particular branch of education (e.g., reckoning by the fingers). In Tantra 108 mudrā are used; in Yoga, mudrā are used together with praanaayaama (breathing exercises) and āsana-s ("seated postures"). Nāṭyaśāstra lists 24 asamyuta ("separated", meaning "one-hand and fingers") and 13 samyuta("joined", meaning "two-hand and fingers") mudrā-s. A commentary on Hevajra Tantra refers to symbolic bone ornaments as seals or mudrā -s. (Sanskrit: aṣṭhiamudrā).

In the entire corpora of Meluhha hieroglyphs there are only two significant symbolic forms which may relate to ‘veneration’ or ‘worship’. Even these two symbolic forms are read rebus and are consistent with the archaeological context of working with ores, minerals, metals and alloys as life-activities. One form is of a person seated in a penance and is read rebus: kamaḍha‘penance’ Rebus: kammaṭa‘coiner, mint’. The second form is of a pair of persons flanking a person seated in persons; the pair of persons are shown using a mudrā‘with folded hands – as salutation’; this is called in Indian tradition añci- ‘to reverence’ read rebus: añjana’antimony’ (Chemical symbol: Sb).

This is a sequel to Meluhha – tree of life which evaluated hieroglyphs as sacred carvings incised, to convey rebus substantive messages in Meluhha as we traverse, in a pilgrim’s progress, through mists of time into the Bronze Age. Language glosses tag to symbolic forms and get associated with divinities and tree of life are Meluhha sacred carvings; they connote -- rebus -- metal artifacts of a kole.l'smithy/forge' which is, kole.l'temple'.

Archaeological evidences from Ancient Near East point to the practice of worship in temples of divinities associated with these hieroglyphs. Kabbalah of the Ancient Near East tradition is a synonym of aagama of Indian tradition with the roots found in Meluhha as a visible language. Both traditions venerate altars as models of temples. Many metal artifacts are shown as aayudha ‘weapons’ in the hands of Pratimā in Indian iconographic tradition with an intimation of memories of smithy traditions of ancestors. In Indian tradition. Pratimā lakṣaṇa, bimba reflections in a tranquil pool of consciousness transform into stone or metal or wood hieroglyphs in a temple. Pratimā or mudrā -s are not mere abstractions but firmly premised on language sememes.

Re-discovery of Meluhha language

Indian linguistic area: pre-aryan, pre-Munda and pre-dravidian in India

Intimations of casting, soldering, riveting work, working with zinc (pewter), ivory

Evidence from Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa

Evidence from Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa for mleccha Vācas

Evidence related to proto-Indian or proto-Indic or Indus language

Proto-Munda continuity and Language X

Reconstructing mleccha of 5th millennium BCE

Tin road caravan documentation

Historical background

Mleccha as bhāratam janam

Harappan control over the Oman Sea

Meluhha, Mleccha areas: Sarasvati River Basin and Coastal Regions of Gujarat, Baluchistan, Ancient Near East

Sphōṭavāda, theory of bursting forth

Three Samarra bowls: morakkhaka loha, pisācī loha

morakkhaka loha 'a kind of copper'

pisācī loha, ‘a kind of copper’

Tin Road: Ashur-Kultepe and Meluhha hieroglyphs

Function served by the ‘standard device’ in Meluhha cultural, life-activities

Shahdad standard

Hieroglyphs on Warka vase read rebus as epigraphs

Tabernae montana as a hieroglyph

Seafaring metal merchants

One Meluhhan village in Akkad (3^rd millennium BCE)

Forge: stone, minerals, gemstones

Meluhhans had travelled, traded and settled in Ancient Near East

Meluhha artisans had blazed the trail of lost-wax metallurgy

Dhokra as a Meluhha hieroglyph

Reduplication and homonyms with rebus readings as ‘areal universals’

Starting with verbs depicted as hieroglyphs

Structural characteristics of hieroglyphs

Indus script “fish-eyes” traded with Ur

‘Fish’ hieroglyph on Susa pot connotes alloy metal

Functions of tablets and seals: an archeological context

Appendix A: tagar symbolic forms

Appendix B: krəm‘neck’ symbolic forms

Appendix C:काण kāṇa‘one-eyed’, āra‘six’, ‘six rings of hair’ symbolic forms

Appendix D: kol ‘tiger’ symbolic forms

Appendix E: eṟaka'upraised arm'

Appendix F: dhokra kamar‘lost-wax metal caster’

Appendix G: Processions of stone-/metal-ware competence

Appendix H: Interpretation of Māyā's dream in Bauddham

Appendix I: Sphōṭavāda

Appendix J: Meluhha glosses related to symbolic form: helmsman, cargo kārṇī account

Appendix K: Metals trade catalog on a seal

Appendix L: Seal number 198 from Legrain 1921

Appendix M: Rebus as dream, as literacy

Appendix N: Bronze Age Linguistic Doctrine

Appendix O: Eagle and snake hieroglyphs

Appendix P: Meluhha hieroglyphs on a Proto-Cuneiform tablet

Appendix Q: Archaeological context is a cultural context for symbolic forms of ‘meanings’

Appendix R: ran:ga‘pewter or alloy of tin (ran:ku), lead (nāga) and antimony (añjana)’

Bibliography

Index

End Notes

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Congress runs to EC, complains about RSS campaigning for BJP -- Sandhya Jain

April 10, 2014, 2:25 am

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Congress runs to EC, complains about RSS campaigning for BJP

By Sandhya Jain on10 Apr 2014

In a display of open panic over the Modi juggernaut, the Congress has appealed to the Election Commission to monitor the activities of the RSS, Swami Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the ground that they are “conducting political activities” for the BJP “without being registered as a political party.” The party urged the Election Commission to monitor their activities with regard to the election campaign and include all expenditure incurred by them in the poll expenses of the respective BJP candidates.

This is in sharp contrast to the Congress president inviting the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid to her residence and urging him to ensure that the Muslim (Communal) votes are not split (against the Congress), a request that he subsequently accepted, though it is a different matter that several prominent Muslims denounced his commitment to the Congress, including his own brother!

The Congress’s alarm is equally evident in its attempt to misrepresent BJP leader Amit Shah’s exhortation to local leaders in western Uttar Pradesh to ensure that the people cast their votes to ensure that political parties they do not like are removed from office in a democratic manner. Shah’s advice that the ballot is the best revenge, and that the days of guns and bullets are over, is also being twisted and given unwarranted Communal colour; observers interpret this as suggesting that the Congress drought in UP continues unchanged.

Congress targeting RSS to create communal divide before Lok Sabha poll: BJP

Hence, the aggravated anxiety at the party’s Akbar Road headquarters. Pointing out that the RSS claims to be a social and cultural organisation, Swami Ramdev’s main activity is conducting yoga camps and making and selling Ayurveda medicines, and that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar runs centres teaching the ‘art of living’, the party alleged that all three bodies/ persons were incurring huge expenditure on campaigning for the BJP nominees.

The Congress cited the presence of Narendra Modi at a yoga camp organised by Swami Ramdev in Delhi, and said that the “aura” acquired by these persons and organisations in their respective fields was being used to further the political prospects of the BJP, which violates the norms laid down by the Election Commission for conduct of fair and proper elections.

AICC legal department secretary KC Mittal has pointed out that at the Ramlila Maidan, Acharya Govind Dev Giri from Varanasi was present on the dais and recited verses from the Bhagvad Gita; he spoke of the holy cow and Hindutva in the presence of Narendra Modi and sought votes for him. Hence, he said, the activities of such persons and organisations should be monitored in each constituency. Further, there should be action if they seek votes in the name of religion, caste or community, directly or indirectly. Mittal added that the Delhi Election Commission had already issued a notice to Swami Ramdev for using the yoga camp to make a political speech without permission from the Commission.

The move comes close on the heels of a widely disseminated public appeal by Left Academics warning that the strong possibility of the NDA coming to power under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi “constitutes a palpable threat to the future of our secular democracy”. It is pertinent that several of these academics have appeared on television programmes, ostensibly to discuss the elections, but used the platform to vent their prejudice against the BJP and Narendra Modi in particular; some regularly write in leading newspapers and magazines and vent their ideological biases. Most have been issuing appeals that favour a particular political party in successive elections.

In their appeal, they have urged various individuals and political formations to “urgently take whatever steps are necessary for defending our secular democracy”. One can only shudder at what that could mean, given that some of these academics are now leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and harbour sympathies for violent extremism.

That Congress finds nothing amiss in academics issuing appeals to the electorate to vote against the BJP-led NDA is understandable because, under successive regimes led by it over six decades, these academics have controlled the intellectual discourse of the country and dominated academic institutions and policy-making bodies to keep India stuck in a colonial time warp, destroying national self-esteem and inhibiting the full recovery of the nation’s civilisational heritage and pride. Now, the restive spirit of the Indian people, first expressed in 1967 with the rout of the Congress in all of northern India, has acquired an all-India spread and momentum that seems unstoppable.

Rahul’s statement about RSS childish: BJP

Hence, the creeping dread, with even Sonia Gandhi virtually conceding defeat by saying that the BJP is using costly advertising to project Narendra Modi as a ‘magician’ who can cure all ills of the country. This is a poor election speech, because she should have been able to tell the people why they should trust and follow her son and heir, Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress establishment intellectuals, who include National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy and some who were actively associated with the Babri Masjid action committee, have stated that, “Never before in post-independence India have political forces, which are a front for anorganisation committed to creating a Hindu Rashtra, made as strong a bid for power as in the coming elections. These forces are led by a person who presided over a pogrom against the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and has never expressed any contrition over his role in that ghastly incident. And they enjoy the backing of the most powerful corporate houses in the country. The prospect of this alliance of corporate capital and communal forces coming to power constitutes a palpable threat to the future of our secular democracy.

“We urge all responsible individuals and political formations to ponder over the situation and urgently take whatever steps are necessary for defending our secular democracy. We appeal to the electorate to foil this corporate-communal alliance’s bid for power by voting against the BJP-led NDA”.

The signatories include Irfan Habib, Suvira Jaiswal, MMP Singh, Arjun Dev, Vishwamohan Jha, Neeladri Bhattacharya, Amar Farooqi, DN Jha, Harbans Mukhia, Iqtidar Alam Khan, KM Shrimali, Mushirul Hasan, Zoya Hasan, Neera Chandhoke, RC Thakran, Rakhshanda Jalil, Shabnam Hashmi, SZH Jafri, Shireen Moosvi, Nikhil De, Vivan Sundaram, Achin Vanaik, Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, Utsa Patnaik, Kumar Shahani, Githa Hariharan, Anand Sahay, Arpana Caur, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, MK Raina, Ram Rahman, Saeed Mirza, Anil Sadgopal, Ashley Tellis, Badri Raina, Pamela Philipose, Prabhat Shukla, Kumkum Roy, Antara Dev Sen, Uma Chakravarti, Zahoor Siddiqui, Hasan Suroor, and others.

http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/10/congress-runs-to-ec-complains-about-rss-campaigning-for-bjp-209700.html

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Congressmen Question ‘Hidden Agenda’ Behind Hearing on India

April 10, 2014, 6:09 pm

≫ Next: Neville Maxwell's myth on Indo-China 1962 war -- Debunked by Claude Arpi

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Congressmen Question ‘Hidden Agenda’ Behind Hearing on India

By A Staff Reporter

Apr 09, 2014

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on “The Plight of Religious Minorities in India” on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 4, 2014. Several US lawmakers voiced concern for the future of religious minorities in India in a hearing that critics denounced as an attempt to influence upcoming elections. (AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States

Representatives Tulsi Gabbard and Brad Sherman raised serious concerns about the April 4 timing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Religious Freedom in India.
Both representatives, who are members of TLHRC, suggested that the hearing may have been timed with the upcoming Indian democratic election and urged committee members not to attempt to influence it.

"Any attempt by the United States to have an effect on the Indian elections will backfire," said Sherman while questioning panelists.

Leaders of the Hindu American Foundation echoed similar concerns, noting the unbalanced panel of four witnesses, all of whom expressed concern over the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

A witness that would have offered a Hindu perspective to the ground realities and the multi-dimensional nature of inter-religious tensions in India was not included, despite requests by the Foundation and some members of the TLHRC.

In a number of states in India, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Nagaland, and Mizoram, Hindus comprise a minority and have been subjected to violence and discrimination. Human Rights Watch's John Sifton, a panelist at the hearing, noted that Hindus have been ethnically cleansed from the Kashmir Valley.

"While the promotion of international religious freedom should be a U.S. policy priority, the testimony made it clear that the witnesses today simply had an axe to grind with the BJP's prime ministerial candidate," stated Jay Kansara, associate director of Governmental Relations, who was in attendance at the hearing.

HAF submitted testimony, which was entered into the record by Rep. Joe Pitts, co-chair of the hearing with Rep. Keith Ellison. The foundation's testimony outlined its perspective on the state of religious freedom in India while noting that it does not take positions on politics or elections in any country.

HAF specifically criticized Representatives Pitts and Ellison's H. Res. 417 as Hinduphobic and highly prejudicial, and expressed particular concern over the resolution's call to empower religious minority courts to conduct trials and hear appeals,¬¬ a suggestion HAF contended threatens to undermine the secular Indian judicial system.

"Like any other member of Congress committed to human rights, I see eye to eye with the national and international community that what happened in Gujarat calls for justice and accountability," said Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Asia Pacific Affairs, and a member of TLHRC.

"But India, like the United States, has an independent and transparent judiciary and, after an investigation that has been ongoing for more than a decade, India's Supreme Court and its Special Investigation Team have not found any evidence against [Mr.] Narendra Modi."

Pitts submitted testimony from the U.S. India Political Action Committee and the Sikh Coalition. Other TLHRC members remarked that they had not been informed by commission staff ahead of the hearing and, thus, were unable to offer comments that may have differed from the co-chairs.

Kansara also expressed criticism over the endorsement of H.Res. 417 by U.S. Commission on International Freedom commissioner Katrina Lantos Swett as well as several of the panelists' endorsement of the broadly criticized Communalism Bill of 2011 in India.

The proposed Communalism Bill, according to HAF leaders, India observers, and legal experts in India, violated fundamental principles of equal protection under the law and due process by creating two classes of Indian citizenry.

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Neville Maxwell's myth on Indo-China 1962 war -- Debunked by Claude Arpi

April 10, 2014, 7:20 pm

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MYTH THAT MUST BE BUSTED AT EARLIEST

Thursday, 10 April 2014 | Claude Arpi | in Edit

Neville Maxwell, who recently ‘released’ the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat Report on the 1962 conflict, claims that Nehru forced the war on Mao. This is a dangerously inaccurate interpretation of history and must be debunked

It is necessary to come back to the Henderson-Brooks-Bhagat Report and the role played by Neville Maxwell. The Australian journalist, who recently ‘released’ the famous report by posting it on his website, has been propagating a wrong interpretation of history, that India attacked China in 1962. Even presuming that Indian troops may have crossed what the Chinese perceived as the international border, many other factors have to be taken into consideration.

At age 87, why Maxwell remains a great advocate of China’s theory that India was the aggressor, is a mystery to me. It is not that I have any doubt that Nehru committed blunder after blunder, but Maxwell’s version is truly a biased over-simplification of the facts.

In an interview with The South China Morning Post, when asked by the Hong Kong newspaper: “What do you hope to achieve with this disclosure?” Maxwell answered: “What I have been trying to do for nearly 50 years! To rid Indian opinion of the induced delusion that, in 1962, India was the victim of an unprovoked surprise Chinese aggression, to make people in India see that the truth was that it was mistakes by the Indian Government, specifically Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, that forced the war on China.”

Reading the HBBR does not show that India forced a war on China, it just proves that India was not prepared to successfully defend some new forward positions ordered by Krishna Menon (and Nehru) in North-East Frontier Agency and Ladakh. It is undoubtedly a Himalayan blunder in itself; it demonstrates the foolishness of the Prime Minister (and his arrogant Defence Minister), but it was certainly not the root-cause of the War. The ‘forward policy’ was, however, the ideal pretext for Mao Tse-tung to show that India could not go unpunished for insulting China by giving refuge to the Dalai Lama and his followers.

An interesting conversation which took place in February 1972, in Beijing, during the historic visit of US President Richard Nixon demonstrates the high esteem the Chinese have for Maxwell. The Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai told Nixon that Nehru never implemented the famous Panchsheel (five principles) treat. In an earlier encounter, Zhou had already mentioned that “a book by Neville Maxwell (India’s China War) about the Indian war against us, which proves this.”

Zhou repeatedly quoted Maxwell. He said: “Neville Maxwell mentioned in the book that in 1962 the Indian Government believed what the Russians told them that we, China, would not retaliate against them. Of course, we won’t send our troops outside our borders to fight against other people. We didn’t even try to expel Indian troops from the area south of the McMahon line, which China doesn’t recognise, by force. But if [Indian] troops come up north of the McMahon line, and come even further into Chinese territory, how is it possible for us to refrain from retaliating?” He concluded: “You know all the other events in the book, so I won’t describe them, but India was encouraged by the Soviet Union to attack.”

The question of how India could attack without arms, ammunitions, clothing, food or basic supplies is not explained. The HBBR even says that some Indian troops starved for days. One should grant China ideological consistency in its interpretation of the conflict. I remembered interviewing Indian prisoners of war who were taken, shivering, to Tibet in their light parkhas. They were repeatedly asked by their jailors: “Why did you attack us, we are a peaceful nation?” The Chinese has been propagating this theory ever since and Maxwell’s over-simplistic interpretation has been extremely useful to them.

However, many other factors came into play, but first and foremost the flight of the Dalai Lama in March/April 1959 and his subsequent asylum in India, changed the rapport between India and China. This is an aspect that Maxwell has totally ignored. China has been aggressive from the day it entered Tibet in October 1950. Let us not forget that China had no border with India till that time. When Nehru acquiesced to the annexation of Tibet, it was a far more serious blunder than the so-called Forward Policy.

Another blunder of Nehru was to have ‘discovered’ the Aksai Chin road, linking Tibet to Xinjiang, only in 1958 even though it was officially opened to traffic in 1957 and the construction had started several years earlier. Further, Maxwell conveniently forgets that at the end of the 1950s and the early 1960s, Tibet was on the boil, particularly eastern Tibet, north of the McMahon Line. The 70,000 character petition from the Panchen Lama to Zhou on the internal situation in Tibet demonstrates the atrocious suffering of the Tibetan people during the period.

A few weeks back, while working in the National Archives of India, I came across interesting reports from the Indian Trade Agent in Yatung (Tibet). The Chinese authorities were harassing local Tibetans. For example, they were told that, “[They] should offer scarves to the photograph of Mao Tse-tung which will be displayed in the bazaar. It is no use to worship images in the monasteries which are of no use. Some images from the local monastery were thrown in the latrine or trampled down under their feet in the presence of the gathering.” They were also ordered: “From now onwards, nobody should utter any Hindi word and they should not speak of [to] India Office [Trade Agency] in any matter. They should address Indian merchants here as ‘dogs’.’

The ITA says: “The effect of the above announcement in the meeting is having adverse effect on the general local population and they are making every effort to escape into India.” By attacking India, China could effectively and ruthlessly seal the Tibet border and stop the Tibetans taking refuge in India.

Another factor forgotten in Maxwell’s simplistic approach is the internal power struggle in China. The war was a plank for Chairman Mao to return to power. In Volume III of his Origins of the Cultural Revolution, US scholar Roderick MacFarquhar says, “It is not difficult to understand why Mao launched this sudden [internal] counter-attack [during the 10th Plenum in September 1962]. He was faced with what he saw as fundamental and unacceptable changes in key areas of policy: A rolling back of collectivisation in the countryside which would have undermined his whole vision for a socially transformed China; and a détente with the Soviet Union.” But here too, Maxwell only sees the Chinese side of the coin; it explains why he was so lavishly praised by Zhou.

Retrospectively, the babus who confiscated the HBBR did a huge disservice to India. They allowed Maxwell one-sided interpretation to flourish. Let us hope more hidden aspects of India’s modern history will soon be made public; it can only help India to become a mature nation.
Comment:

Ashutosh Dube 10 hours ago

Arun Shauri's book SELF DECEPTION India's China Policy, throws ample light on this issue. It was Nehru who trashed all reasonable talks of India's security and thereby made India an easy target for Chinese war mongers. 1962 was not Chinese betrayal but Nehru's betrayal of India. The Chinese had never hidden their expansionist design. It was Nehru who minimized Chinese incursions and threats
- a work which continues even under votaries of Nehru ruling India with iron “Hand”.
Whenever any nationalist raises concern over Chinese threat, these votaries use old Nehruvian banality to trash him – you are a xenophobic, war monger. You want war. I want peace. We have no
alternative between war and peace. It is time that we the nationalists should call their bluff. These people need to be told that their ultra internationalist view is only promoting ultra nationalist expansionist policy of China and Pakistan and that there is no alternative between strengthening our security or encouraging our neighbors to want more from us. The second option will cause further loss of territories and peace shall remain elusive.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/myth-that-must-be-busted-at-earliest.html

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The prince vs. the tea-seller -- Mayank Singh

April 10, 2014, 7:25 pm

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Narendra Modi: India's Prime Minister in Waiting?

7 APRIL 2014

MAYANK SINGH

Modi, with his modest roots and focus on the economy, promises to usher in a new era for India.

The Congress party has ruled India for the bulk of the period since independence. For the last decade, it has been in power in the form of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), a coalition it forged with like-minded parties.

Today, Congress faces a challenge from a reenergized Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi. The Indian elections are historic. After decades of venal corruption, nauseating nepotism and staggering incompetence, the Nehru dynasty might finally be ousted from office.

Ten Years of Monumental Misrule

The UPA took over from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2004 with India's gross domestic product (GDP) growing at a robust 7.9%. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA had initiated reforms in infrastructure and other key sectors. Manmohan Singh became prime minister and there were hopes that high economic growth would continue because he gets credit for the 1991 reforms. Instead of further reforms, the UPA announced one populist scheme after another, creating a crypto-socialist economy for the 21^st century.

Under the UPA, patronage has increased to unprecedented levels. Even The Economist, the 1843 English publication which opposed India's independence for 104 years and that has long favored the Congress party, estimates that $4 billion to $12 billion were taken as bribesby the UPA. This does not account for the loss to the Indian exchequer, of which the bribes are a mere fraction. The Indian GDP grew at a measly 4.7%, while inflation averaged over 10% during the last quarter of 2013. This means real GDP growth was in the negative. Unsurprisingly, unemployment is rife in India. Thanks to the UPA, the Indian economy is in a mess.

India's security is also in disarray. The country's defense forces are short on equipment, lack officers to the tune of 12,000 to 15,000, and suffer poor morale. Off the record, India's intelligence services bemoan the fact that there has been no prime minister as disinterested in their work as Singh. Foreign policy has been a mess and there is a singular lack of vision about India's role in the world. Chinese incursions into Indian territory have been ignored and India has not stepped up to the plate in Afghanistan.

The Prince vs. The Tea-seller

There have always been two Indias. Anglicized elites, who largely inherit power, believe themselves to be superior to the hoi-polloi. The middle-classes and the masses, who speak the vernacular, struggle for basic necessities. This election is a battle between the patricians who want to cling on to power and the plebeians who want change. The choice is between two candidates who are like chalk and cheese. As The Economist writes: "Mr Gandhi would ascend to office as if by divine right. Mr Modi is a former teaseller propelled to the top by sheer ability."

Rahul Gandhi is the great grandson of Nehru, India's first prime minister. He has never held any executive position. As a legislator, he has not proposed a single piece of legislation over the last decade. In a staggering demonstration of arrogance, he has appeared in just oneextended interview so far. This was universally agreed to be an unmitigated disaster, raising questions not only about his experience and competence, but also about his ability and intelligence.

Modi comes from a backward caste. As mentioned earlier, he has humble origins. He is serving his fourth term as chief minister of Gujarat and has an impressive record in office. Three of his achievements are particularly impressive.

First, in a country with decrepit infrastructure, Modi has grasped the fundamental importance of focusing on power, irrigation, roads and ports for the Indian economy.

Modi appointed Manjula Subramaniam, a remarkable woman, to reform Gujarat's power sector. At that time, the Gujarat State Electricity Board (GSEB) was racking up massive losses and the state had a power deficit. Subramaniam improved morale, restructured debt to secure lower interest rates, renegotiated contracts with power plants to get cheaper prices, and plugged leakages in distribution. Distribution to rural areas improved dramatically with the launch of a scheme named Jyotigram, which means lighted villages. Now, the 18,000 villages of Gujarat have access to uninterrupted supply.

Most importantly, Modi took Subramaniam's advice and broke up GSEB. In 2003, the Gujarat government created a holding company, a power generation company, a power transmission company and four distribution companies. As of 2012, Gujarat "has a surplus of 2,114 MW and a vibrant energy sector."

Modi's irrigation reforms were no less path breaking. Around 70% of Gujarat is arid and semi-arid. His administration undertook a two pronged approach. Provision of water through dams, check dams, and the interlinking of rivers increased dramatically. Conservation of water through use of drip irrigation and other improved technology have meant that an additional 1.5 million hectares are now farmland. Agricultural growth in Gujarat has been 10.97% in the first decade of this century, in contrast to measly national rates of less than 3% for the same period.

When Modi came to power, Gujarat's roads were in dire state. The World Bank notes that the Gujarat State Highways Project "improved 1,900 kilometers of roads, reducing travel times by 10 percent." Numerous studies have noted that safety, employment and access to both education and health care have improved in Gujarat thanks to better roads. Ports have come up in Gujarat as well and a 2009 report notes the state has "the distinction of handling the maximum non-major cargo traffic in India."

Modi's policies have led to Chinese style double-digit growth rates for Gujarat. He has slashed red tape, introduced flexible labor laws, and successfully wooed investment. Such is Gujarat's allure that Ratan Tata, the former TATA boss, India's most respected industrial house, remarked: "You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat."

Gujarat accounts for 17.2% of India's fixed capital investment, 15.6% of the value of production, 20% of industrial output, and 22% of the country's exports. It is little wonder that Indians from other states are immigrating to Gujarat for employment.

Indians are sick of living in darkness, potholed roads, chronic unemployment and bureaucratic oppression. Modi offers a glimmer of hope to millions of Indians who yearn for better governance, improved infrastructure and a fair shot at life.

Secularism, Socialism and Scotch

As expected, Modi has many powerful enemies. The din of allegations against him is sometimes deafening. India's so-called secular leaders have long pandered to clerics for the Muslim vote. These secular leaders allege that Modi abetted the 2002 Gujarat riots, while staying silent about the 1984 pogrom of Sikhs that was led by the Congress. It is important to note that the courts have given Modi a clean chit.

Furthermore, the number of Muslims below poverty line fell from 31% in 2004-05 to 7% in 2011-12 in rural Gujarat. The same number for urban Gujarat fell from 42% to 14.6%. Muslims have fared far worse in the states run by the Congress and other so-called secular parties.

Arvind Kejriwal is Modi's latest left-wing critic. He was in power for 49 days in Delhi where he overthrew a notoriously corrupt Congress government. Kejriwal made his name opposing the Congress but has now trained his sights on Modi. He is a Chavez-style populist who promises freebies such as cheap electricity and free water to the people. He also promises to curb corruption by creating an elaborate new bureaucracy. He opposes Modi's economic model and is trying to occupy the space left vacant by the Congress.

Other socialists and communists have a Pavlovian opposition to enterprise and a fixation with government intervention. Modi is offering an alternative to the Nehruvian state and that is upsetting those in a country, which Nehru's daughter deemed socialist in 1976 after aconstitutional amendment of dubious validity.

Foreign correspondents in India and its anglicized elite socialize over scotch in expensive locales in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Many of these still harbor imperial attitudes and disdain people with rural and vernacular roots. The rough-hewn cadences of Modi jar with their snobbish sensibilities. They are giving the Congress a clean chit for decades of misgovernance, while attacking Modi even on his incontestably impressive economic record. Clearly, the tea-seller is threatening India's incumbent elite to evoke such a vitriolic response.

In Search of a Leader

India has muddled through a decade of despair. In much of the north, there is no order, leave aside rule of law. Under the Congress, Delhi achieved the dubious distinction of becoming therape capital of the world. Sonia Gandhi has been de facto prime minister, wielding power without responsibility and reducing the constitutional position of the prime minister to a joke. India is looking for someone to lead and Modi is, by far, the best option in a generation and more.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

http://www.fairobserver.com/article/narendra-modi-indias-prime-minister-waiting-91741

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'Informer-Cop Nexus Behind TN Islamic Fundamentalism' -- Evidence in Madras HC

April 10, 2014, 9:11 pm

≫ Next: United against Modi, Muslim vote splits -- Imran Ahmed Siddiqui & Sujan Dutta

≪ Previous: The prince vs. the tea-seller -- Mayank Singh

In a startling revelation it has come to light that a senior police officer in Tamil Nadu had last year written to the Director General of Police blaming an alleged nexus between Muslim police informers and intelligence sleuths as the reason for thriving Islamic fundamentalist activities including planting of bombs in Madurai. A Muslim police informer was allegedly involved in the planting of a high intensity pipe bomb en route senior BJP leader L K Advani’s rath yatra in the temple town during 2011.

These deep impacting allegations were made by former Madurai SP V Balakrishnan in two confidential letters written to the DGP and Additional DGP in March and August 2013.

These letters were on Thursday produced in the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) by Peter Ramesh Kumar, the counsel for a petitioner, who sought a CBI probe into the various bomb planting cases in Madurai alleging that the real accused were not arrested.

Balakrishnan has argued that police informers belonging to the Muslim community were themselves indulging in subversive activities by abusing the faith the police had placed on them and also due to their alleged nexus with some corrupt intelligence sleuths.

To buttress this contention, Balakrishnan in a letter to the DGP dated March 29, 2013 pointed to a case registered by the Avaniyapuram police against Syed Wahab and Ismath relating to a case of extortion. Of them, Ismath, who was an informer for the City Intelligence unit, was involved in the Advani pipe bomb planting case.

Also, Vijaya Perumal, a head constable attached to the Madurai City Intelligence Wing, had joined hands with Wahab and conducted kangaroo courts settling controversial real estatedealings.

Balakrishnan had in another letter written to the Additional DGP on August 23, 2013 strongly objected to the transfer of an Inspector of the SIT who was probing cases related to bombs planted by Islamic fundamentalists in the temple town. He feared that the transfer of Inspector Madasamy would embolden fundamentalists to carry on with their subversive activities.

The petitioner’s counsel contended it proved that the police themselves had backed some fundamentalists and due to their intervention the real accused in the bomb planting cases were not arrested. Justice R Subbiah, who heard the case adjourned it to April 21 for further hearing.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Informer-Cop-Nexus-Behind-TN-Islamic-Fundamentalism/2014/04/11/article2161711.ece#.U0dqI6iSySo

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United against Modi, Muslim vote splits -- Imran Ahmed Siddiqui & Sujan Dutta

April 11, 2014, 4:52 am

≫ Next: Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries -- Sandhya Jain. RahulG, bring back foreign wealth into Indian financial system.

≪ Previous: 'Informer-Cop Nexus Behind TN Islamic Fundamentalism' -- Evidence in Madras HC

United against Modi, Muslim vote splits

- Division between Congress and AAP in Delhi raises possibility of BJP edge

IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI AND SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, April 10: The Muslim vote in Delhi has split between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, raising the possibility of Narendra Modi’s BJP sailing through most of the capital’s seven constituencies, surveys on the ground as voting ended today have indicated.

The split was distinctly evident in the Chandni Chowk constituency that has a large concentration of the minority community that easily also makes for the biggest anti-Modi voteshare.

United as they are in their opposition to Modi, Muslims were torn amongst themselves. Even Congress functionaries admitted that this was indeed the pattern.

In Chandni Chowk’s congested Bazaar Matia Mahal many of the functionaries, some of them manning Congress voter camps, admitted that there was also a class divide. Middle-class and better-off Muslims favoured the Congress while the poor favoured the AAP.

By and large, the split among the capital’s Muslims reflected a broad trend seen in north Indian constituencies that went to the polls today.

From riot-hit Muzaffarnagar — one of the 10 western Uttar Pradesh constituencies — local leaders said the Muslim vote was divided between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), making it easier for the BJP.

“Even in the past there was a split in the Muslim votes. The BSP used to get 15-20 per cent of the voteshare which has now gone to AAP. It will make no difference to me,” saidsitting MP and Union minister Kapil Sibal at Matia Mahal. Sibal was walking into the Dujana House polling station minutes before voting was to end.

Just outside the polling station, Mohammed Shami, who was supporting the Congress for its “secularism”, said “Harshvardhan (the BJP candidate) is a good person but Modi is not”. He also complained that Sibal had not visited the locality in a long time and had done little to address local issues. He pointed to a dark mass of overhead cables that filtered sunlight and posed a fire hazard to a mosque and the bazaar below.

Dilshad Khan, who runs a chicken and meat shop opposite the Jama Masjid, said he figured “that 60 per cent of Muslims in the locality voted the AAP and 40 per cent the Congress and so the BJP is a clear winner”. In the two Muslim-dominated Assembly segments of the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, he said, “the contest is between Kapil and Kejriwal”.

A Congress worker for voters queueing at the Jama Masjid School booths, Shakir, was happy that Modi’s BJP was hardly polling any votes in the booths in his locality. A junior worker of the party, the young man was barely even looking at the Lok Sabhaconstituency. But, he said, and admitted it mattered little to him, that Modi’s man would likely win the seat because of the split in the votes.

Abdul Hafiz, a maker of wedding cards and a leader of the Churi Walan Welfare Association, regretted that Muslims failed despite having resolved “to stop communal forces”.

Hafiz pointed to Sibal’s flying visit just before polling ended and said the minister was hardly accompanied by people, unlike other times when there would be a crowd assembling for a VIP visit. He said it was as if the Congress has pulled itself out of the race.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140411/jsp/frontpage/story_18179390.jsp#.U0fW46iSySo

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Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries -- Sandhya Jain. RahulG, bring back foreign wealth into Indian financial system.

April 11, 2014, 5:17 pm

≫ Next: Modi: What secret does Jogi know about Sonia’s family?

≪ Previous: United against Modi, Muslim vote splits -- Imran Ahmed Siddiqui & Sujan Dutta

Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries

Sandhya Jain11 Apr 2014

By attacking the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate over his non-secret marital status at apublic meeting in Doda, J&K, on Friday, the Congress vice president made a fatal mistake because, far from putting Narendra Modi in the dock, Rahul Gandhi has exposed himself to public accountability regarding shadowy areas of his own life.

Narendra Modi’s marriage, like his humble origins helping his father sell tea at a smallrailway station and education in a Government school, was known to all who knew the family at the time. The arranged marriage as a teenager to a girl of similar age was also known to all who knew both families socially. Later, when he joined the RSS, it was not secret from his colleagues and the news was swirled around in media circles for some years on account of intra-parivar rivalries.

It seems obvious that his reluctance to embrace the grihastha ashram (married life) surfaced only when he found himself on the threshold of that reality, and is not too surprising in the context of India’s civilisational heritage where to this day young men and women renounce the material world for the solitude of a Himalayan cave or life in an ashram.

He retreated as gracefully as possible in a difficult situation in any family in any era, after gently explaining himself to the only other person who mattered in the equation. As luck would have it, she was a person of immense character, and gave him the moral release that ascetics are bound to seek from their parents or spouses when forsaking thehomestead. This is a deep karmic calling that cannot be comprehended by those addicted to sensual pleasures.

Narendra Modi went to the Himalayas until, possibly nudged by an unknown preceptor who may have told him that he still had duties to perform before cutting his bonds with the material world, he returned. As he had already taken leave of his spouse, he did not contact her, but resumed his studies and joined the RSS to do social work. The rest is history.

What is notable is that from the time that Narendra Modi became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, neither his wife nor any member of her family ever tried to bother him in any way. They have conducted themselves with the grace that is the Hindu norm, something the Congress and its friendly media hounds would do well to respect. Neither side sought annulment or divorce because neither was looking for another relationship.

The attempt to project a conscious disengagement from marital life as the abandonment of an honest wife is an insult to India’s ascetic tradition in which many persons opt to lead celibate lives even while living in society. To hound a dignified lady and her family because they are not protected by a layer of security is repulsive, to say the least. It is time the media backed off.

Rahul Gandhi touched a new low in public life when he attacked Narendra Modi for “suppressing” his marital status in affidavits submitted to the Election Commission in the past, when the Gujarat Chief Minister was under no legal obligation to do so. The Congress vice president should have taken his cue from senior party leader Shankarsinh Vaghela who denounced the proclivity to interfere in the personal lives of others and emphasised that as an old colleague of Narendra Modi, he had personal knowledge that the latter’s personal life was clean as a whistle.

For Rahul Gandhi to equate celibacy with an inability to give “dignity and empowerment to women”, insinuate that more secrets could tumble out of (Modi’s) cupboard, and rake up the scurrilous allegations made by suspended IAS officer Pradeep N Sharma against the Chief Minister (for which he was twice reprimanded by the Supreme Court) has taken the public discourse in the country to a new low.

If the Congress vice president wished to publicly discuss the alleged phone tapping and stalking of a young woman in Gujarat, and insinuate that the Chief Minister was personally involved in an unsavoury activity, he was honour-bound to take note of the Gujarat Government’s affidavit before the Supreme Court, which furnished evidences about the salacious and dubious activities of the impugned officer.

However, having plastered as much muck as possible on the BJP’s numero uno, Rahul Gandhi owes an explanation as to why the ‘big announcement’ that the nation was expecting from the winter of 2003, when he took a young woman to Kerala and Lakshadweep for a holiday with his family, never materialised. This was highly unorthodox to say the least.

Rahul Gandhi’s lengthy relationship with Veronique, a girl he met in London in 1998, has given rise to intense speculation about his marital status, given that the lady was a regular visitor to India for many years, and was also alleged to be the reason behind the Gandhi scion’s frequent trips to London. They have often been spotted, even photographed, watching cricket matches abroad. She holidayed with him in the Andamans in the winter of 1999.

Then, during the 2004 election campaign, Rahul Gandhi told journalists, “My girlfriend’s name is Veronique, not Juanita… she is Spanish and not Venezuelan or Colombian. She is an architect, not a waitress, though I wouldn’t have had a problem with that. She is also my best friend.” Soon after the elections, he told journalists that the family was of Spanish origin and had been living in Venezuela for a long time, which suggests that they may have Venezuelan citizenship, though he did not elaborate. Amazingly, not much has been heard of Veronique since then, though for a while she was spotted in India occasionally.

Given the Congress vice president’s long relationship with an unmarried South American girl, questions are surely in order. Since 2012, Rahul Gandhi has been seen in the company of Noella, an Afghan princess and jewellery designer, whose mother is also an Italian. She is also the granddaughter of former Afghanistan king, late Mohammad Zahir Shah. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has publicly stated that he had seen the couple together in France over a year ago.

The bottom line is that Narendra Modi is a celibate with a celibate wife and a mutual understanding to live separate lives. Rahul Gandhi is a bachelor who goes on holiday in India and aboard with women he does not marry. As the preeminent leader of the Congress and its de facto prime ministerial candidate, he needs to come clean about his relationships.
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/11/narendra-modis-non-secret-vs-rahul-gandhis-mysteries-210512.html

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Modi: What secret does Jogi know about Sonia’s family?

April 11, 2014, 5:25 pm

≫ Next: Sleazy Congress has no right to lecture anyone on morality -- Ankit Jain

≪ Previous: Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries -- Sandhya Jain. RahulG, bring back foreign wealth into Indian financial system.

Modi: What secret does Jogi know about Sonia’s family?

By Niticentral Staff on Apr 11, 2014

BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Friday targeted former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, saying he might be knowing some “secret” about the Nehru Dynasty which made him indispensable to Sonia Gandhi though he has been losing successive elections in the tribal State.

He was addressing an election rally at Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh.

Poll trends suggest my responsibilities have increased: Modi

“I think about it that he has been losing, the party (Congress) is divided in factions but Madam Sonia can’t do without him. He must have a secret about this family that they fear him. Let the results come on May 16 and then this will be found,” Modi said, referring to the day of counting.

Claiming that Congress will not be able to open its account in the third phase of elections held April 10, Modi said the party’s tally will not reach double-digit in any State.

“There will be some states where Congress won’t be able to win a single seat,” he said, asking people to vote for the BJP candidates inLok Sabha elections to ensure all-round development as the party is already in power in the State.

He also targeted Rahul Gandhi, saying the Congress vice-president was born with a golden spoon and was incapable of understanding the pain of the poor while he, working his way up as a tea-seller in trains, has lived it.

Taking a dig at him, Modi said Rahul Gandhi went to the houses of poor families like a tourist going to Taj Mahal.

“They go with the media and to ensure good photographs and then eat up the poor’s meal,” he said.

Congress, he said, did not believe in democratic values and had been questioning him everywhere instead of accounting for its actions.

“It is run by dynasty… It believes people are in its pocket and considers it beneath itself to give answers to the people,” he said, hitting out at the ruling party over price rise and corruption.

(With inputs from PTI)

http://m.niticentral.com/2014/04/11/modi-what-secret-does-jogi-know-about-sonias-family-210534.html

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Sleazy Congress has no right to lecture anyone on morality -- Ankit Jain

April 11, 2014, 5:29 pm

≫ Next: SoniaG, Manmohan: how they subverted the Constitution. Sanjay Baru spills the beans.

≪ Previous: Modi: What secret does Jogi know about Sonia’s family?

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Sleazy Congress has no right to lecture anyone on morality

By Ankit Jain on Apr 11, 2014

Sleazy Congress has no moral right to lecture anyone

Elections are on and mudslinging is at its height in the Indian politics. Questions are being raised as to why Modi did not recognise his wife Jasodhaben in the affidavits he filed as the Gujarat Chief Minister.

The Congress has made this an election issue and asked how Indian women can trust a man who cannot respect his own wife.

The Congress has no right to talk about women’s rights. Let’s start from the time when Sushil Sharma, a youth Congress leader and MLA tried to burn his wife Naina Sahni’s body parts in a tandoor after killing her mercilessly just because he suspected that his wife was in a relation with another youth Congress member. Sushil Sharma is serving a life term for this heinous crime.

Congress Minister in J&K charged with sexual assault, resigns

Then there was the case of Manu Sharma, son of influential Haryana Congress leader Vinod Sharma, who shot dead Jessica Lal just because she refused to serve him alcohol. For years, Jessica’s family was denied justice because the politician used his clout to muzzle the case.

Woman raped and killed in Kerala Congress office, party leaders held

The Congress claims that women’s rights issue is their top priority. Haryana Congress Government Minister Gopal Kanda forced a young girl Geetika to commit suicide because she did not agree to entertain his sexual advances.

How can we forget senior Congress leader ND Tiwari who was nominated as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh by the Congress-led UPA Government. He was seen in a video clip in a compromising position with three women. Tiwari also had to accept one Rohit Shekhar as his biological son after fighting a court case.

Congress leader gets nine-years RI for raping minor maid

Rajasthan Congress Government Minister Mahipal Maderna got Bhanvari devi (mother of two) killed after she threatened to expose his relationship with her. There was a CD in which Bhanvari devi was in compromising position with Mahipal Maderana. Leela Maderna (his wife) has been given a ticket by the Congress for Lok Sabha election.

Assam Congress leader thrashed by villagers for raping woman, arrested

FIR registered against Uttarakhand Minister in sexual assault case

Harak Singh Rawat, former Uttarakhand Congress Minister was booked in a molestation case of a 30-year-old woman.

Please see the BBC’s photos of Nehru with Edwina and four women at diving board of a swimming pool in London in early 1950s in Britain.

http://m.niticentral.com/2014/04/11/sleazy-congress-has-no-moral-right-to-lecture-anyone-210174.html

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SoniaG, Manmohan: how they subverted the Constitution. Sanjay Baru spills the beans.

April 11, 2014, 5:43 pm

≫ Next: China doubles down on thorium reactor. India should announce thorium-based nuke doctrine.

≪ Previous: Sleazy Congress has no right to lecture anyone on morality -- Ankit Jain

Needed a Shah Commission to inquire into Soniag_MMS operation destruction of Indian Constitution. It should be the way Justice Shah unraveled the atrocities of the Emergency. The current subversion is most insidious, diabolical because this was done even without declaring a State of Emergency.

Dr Sanjay Baru spills the beans in his book, says Sonia Gandhi cleared files before PM!

This is violation of the oath of office and Official Secrets Act. This is subversion of nation's constitutional institutions and Constitutional mandate. Both SoniaG and MMS should be accountable under law. Will Hon'ble SC take suo moto notice and constitute a Special Investigation Team under its supervision?

Kalyan

Untold accidents at the top

Book suggests PM threatened to quit

SANKARSHAN THAKUR April 12, 2014

Manmohan Singh with Sonia Gandhi: The book speaks of tense power relations between thePrime Minister and the Congress

New Delhi, April 11: Sanjaya Baru’s fresh-off-the-press account of Manmohan Singh’s first term has drawn a quick punch from the outgoing Prime Minister’s office. And probably dealt the book a high-powered kick-start.

A terse statement from the PMO greeted the arrival of Baru’s The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh in stores this evening.

The statement said of the book: “It is an attempt tomisuse a privileged position and access to high officeto gain credibility and to apparently exploit it for commercial gain. The commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of a former adviser.”

The statement also made to belittle the veracity of Baru’s retelling, quoting the Prime Minister himself. “The question about comments of the former media adviser was raised by senior editors when they met the Prime Minister in October last year. His answer was: ‘Do not believe all he is saying’,” the statement said.

Baru was the media adviser to Prime Minister Singh through the UPA’s first term.

None in Singh’s PMO was willing to either identify portions the Prime Minister had a quarrel with or put out specific counters.

Contacted by The Telegraph tonight, PMO sources said they had nothing to add to the statement. A senior official did say, though, that apart from the tone and “certain sections” of the content, the Prime Minister was particularly upset by the timing of the book’s release.

Singh is bowing out after a 10-year term in a welter of allegations ranging from corruption to inflation to policy standstill; his party, the Congress, is struggling on a steep uphill to retain power.

“The release of such a book at this time is going to impact the course of the campaignand hurt the Congress,” the official said. “The sense here is that if this is not a politically motivated exercise, it could have waited until the end of the campaign.”

The Accidental Prime Minister is a Penguin Viking imprint and became available forsale today. Excerpts from the book will be published in The Telegraph this Sunday.

Baru reacted with cryptic stoicism to the PMO’s jab. “I am amused,” he said.

His book, though, will not amuse the Prime Minister or the Congress establishment, it is clear.

Many of Baru’s ringside revelations and observations cast embarrassing light on the manner in which the UPA was run even during its first, and more successful, term.

One case Baru makes through his memoir of the PMO in UPA-I is that Singh was not themaster of his PMO, and was being constantly undermined by powerful people in the Congress establishment.

A key disclosure Baru makes is that the Prime Minister actually threatened to quit over the Indo-US nuclear deal: “When I asked him about Sonia’s message, sent through Montek (Singh Ahluwalia), Dr Singh confirmed that she was trying to persuade him to wait and not force the pace of events. I warned him that if he did not act now, the rest of his term would be wasted.

“The Left would smell victory and might even press for a change of prime minister. I reminded him that the Left had a track record of doing just that. They had claimed credit for replacing the ‘pro-business’ Morarji Desai with the ‘pro-farmer’ Charan Singh in 1978; of forcing the exit of V.P. Singh and replacing him with the ‘young turk’ Chandra Shekhar in 1989; of helping ‘leftist’ I.K. Gujral replace ‘pro-Narasimha Rao’ Deve Gowda in 1997. Now they would claim credit, I warned him, for replacing ‘neo-liberal’ Manmohan Singh with ‘secular’ Arjun Singh, ‘Bengali’ Pranab — the CPI(M) was essentially a Bengal party — or ‘leftist’ Antony, who was an old ally of the comrades from Kerala.

“Dr Singh laughed. ‘I am ready to go. Anyone of them can be made PM. Why not?’”

At one point, Baru even calls the Prime Minister spineless and depicts him as a man not in control of the affairs of the high office he held. This relates to the interregnum between Singh’s two terms in office. Baru had quit the PMO a little before the end of Singh’s first term and taken up a teaching assignment in Singapore.

Shortly after the UPA returned to power in 2009, Singh wanted Baru to return to the PMO and had him return to India. They negotiated, but Baru says his return fell through because of political pressure from the Congress top brass.

At the end of an engrossing description of the shifting of power levers in the PMO and the Congress, Baru concludes: “To tell the truth, I was dismayed by the PM’s display of spinelessness, even after this handsome victory. If he was unable to make appointments in his own office, he was ‘yielding space’ too soon.”

The PMO’s criticism of the book, though, may end up achieving what it has mocked it for; in reacting in the way it has and calling it an exercise aimed at “commercial gain”, it could actually churn curiosity and push sales. Especially when the nation is in the throes of its biggest, and probably bitterest, electoral battle, and the political atmosphere charged.

According to those who have read advance copies, the book is a racy 300-odd page insider account littered with anecdotes surrounding the high and mighty who ran Manmohan’s first PMO.

Among some highlights they flagged are first-hand accounts of ego battles between the Prime Minister’s top mandarins and the often tense power relations between the Prime Minister and the Congress.

“It is unlike previous accounts to come out of the Prime Minister’s office in the sense that it is written lucidly and littered with direct conversations between the Prime Minister, his top officials and Baru himself,” said one, speaking from the advantage of a sneak preview. “It’s anecdotal, gossipy, it gives you a whiff of the goings-on in the PMO like nothing else before.”

Tell-all memoirs by senior politicians, bureaucrats or political advisers are nothing new in the West, but this could well be a ground-breaking book in this genre for the home readership, coming from a man who sat close to the Prime Minister and had direct access to him throughout UPA I.

“The one big sense Baru seems to convey is that the Prime Minister, even in UPA I, was never given his due by the party. The book has much more, especially about the big power players of the time and how they impacted key political and policy decisions,” said one with access to an advance copy of the book that’s set to intervene in the discourse for Campaign 2014.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140412/jsp/frontpage/story_18183060.jsp

Sonia chose finance minister without consulting Manmohan, gave instructions on key files: Book

TNN | Apr 12, 2014, 02.16 AM IST

According to Baru, Congress MPs “did not seeloyalty to the PM as a political necessity, nor did Dr Singh seek loyalty in the way. Sonia and her aides sought it.”

NEW DELHI: After the Congress's electoral victory in 2009, PM Manmohan Singh made "the cardinal mistake of imagining the victory was his. Bit by bit, in the space of a few weeks he was defanged. He thought he could induct the ministers he wanted. Sonia nipped that hope in the bud by offering the finance portfolio to Pranab (Mukherjee), without even consulting him," reveals a new book. Singh had apparently been keen to appoint his principal economic adviser C Rangarajan, "the comrade with whom he had battled the balance of payments crisis of 1991-92", as finance minister.

The author, Sanjaya Baru, who was media adviser to the PM in UPA-1, claims that when it seemed the Congress would cave in to the Left on the nuclear deal with the US, a dejected Singh told a couple of confidants, "She (Sonia) has let me down." And he adds that Pulok Chatterjee, who served in the PMO in UPA-1 and is now principal secretary to the PM, would have "regular, almost daily meetings with Sonia Gandhi in which he was said to brief her... and seek her instructions on the important files to be cleared by the PM."

The PM seemed to have had little authority over his own Cabinet. "No one in Singh's council ofministers seemed to feel that he owed his position, rank or portfolio to him. The final word always was that of leaders of the parties constituting the UPA," says the book. It adds that Singh often faced challenges while dealing with senior Congress ministers like Arjun Singh, A K Antony and the "presumed PM-in-waiting" Pranab Mukherjee. "Each had a mind of his own and each was conscious of his political status and rank".

According to Baru, Congress MPs "did not see loyalty to the PM as a political necessity, nor did Dr Singh seek loyalty in the way. Sonia and her aides sought it."

For years, Singh's stoic silence has made him the target of many unkind remarks. But the secrecyshrouding his functioning — and his relationship with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi — has now been breached by a man he had handpicked. While offering the job to Baru, Singh had requested him to be "his eyes and ears". Ten years on, Baru has chosen to exercise his voice — and it couldn't have come at a worse time for the Congress.

Baru's book, 'The Accidental Prime Minister' paints a picture of a PM who decided to "surrender" to the party boss and the UPA allies. According to Baru, Sonia's "renunciation of power was more a political tactic than a response to a higher calling".

Predictably, the book has already evoked sharp responses. The PM's current media advisor, Pankaj Pachauri, dismissed the book "as an attempt to misuse a privileged position and access to high office to gain credibility and to apparently exploit it for commercial gains. The commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of the former advisor". A later statement issued by the PMO said, "It is categorically denied that any PMO file has ever been shown to Shrimati Sonia Gandhi. The statement is...completely baseless and mischievous." Baru's response was a pithy, "I am amused. All I can say is that the statement could have been drafted better."

Much of what Baru — who served between 2004 and 2008 — has written has been long heard on the Capital's political grapevine, but this is the first time an insider has spilled the beans quite so candidly. On the question of a 'diarchy' or two power centres, Baru says there was no such confusion in Singh's mind. He quotes Singh as having told him, "I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power. The government is answerable to the party."

According to Baru, Singh shared a good working equation with finance minister P Chidambaram in UPA-I. He would insist that Chidambaram sit with him and finalize the budget speech. In contrast, his relationship with Pranab Mukherjee was far more formal. Mukherjee would apparently not even show Singh the draft of the budget speech till he had finished writing it.

The book also claims that Singh had tried to resist the induction of DMK's A Raja well before the 2G scam became public knowledge. "But after asserting himself for a full twenty-four hours, (he) caved in to pressure from both his own party and the DMK."

Baru claims that there was an eagerness to claim all social development programmes as the Sonia Gandhi-chaired National Advisory Council's initiatives, even though the Bharat Nirman programme came out of the PMO — drafted by the late R Gopalakrishnan, who was joint secretary.

He also claims that on September 26, 2007 — Manmohan Singh's 75th birthday — Rahul Gandhi led a delegation of general secretaries to wish him. Rahul wanted to extend NREGA to all 500 rural districts in the country. Baru sent a text message to a journalist that this was the PM's birthday gift to the country. When he was summoned by the PM, he apparently told Singh, "You and Raghuvansh Prasad (then minister for rural development) deserve as much credit." The PM snapped: "I do not want any credit for myself... Let them take all the credit. I don't need it. I am only doing my work."

The book also reveals that Singh had threatened to quit if the UPA buckled under Left pressure and had told Sonia Gandhi to look for his replacement. Even as rumours circulated that Pranab Mukherjee or Sushil Kumar Shinde might be considered as his replacement, the NCP backed him, with Praful Patel telling Baru they would not support anyone but "Doctor Saheb".

Sonia then reportedly asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, to convince the PM not to resign. She also visited Singh at his residence with Pranab Mukherjee. The government was then allowed to proceed with the deal.

However, such shows of resolve from Singh were not forthcoming in UPA-II. Baru cites his own case when the PM wanted to reappoint him as a secretary in the PMO in 2009. However, he had to drop the plan as he was told that the party was opposed to such a move. "To tell the truth, I was dismayed by the PM's display of spinelessness," writes Baru.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sonia-chose-finance-minister-without-consulting-Manmohan-gave-instructions-on-key-files-Book/articleshow/33627651.cms

So where's the fiction?

PMO hits back at Sanjaya Baru over his book on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Kaveree Bamzai New Delhi, April 11, 2014 | UPDATED 01:23 IST

Sanjaya Baru with Manmohan Singh in 2007.

I am amused, says Sanjaya Baru at the vitriol being poured on him by the PMO for writing a memoir of his four years as media adviser. It smacks of fiction, says a PMO statement, and has been done for commercial gain.

Exactly what is the PMO objecting to?

1. Baru writes that Manmohan Singh told him that the party president is the centre of power. That "the government is answerable to the party". Is that fiction? Is the PMO suggesting that the PM is the centre of power. Congress president Sonia Gandhi will not be amused.

2. Baru writes that the PM had tried to put his foot down on the induction of A Raja of DMK well before the 2G scam became public knowledge, "but after asserting himself for a full twenty-four hours, caved in to pressure from both his own party and the DMK". Is that fiction? Then what is the truth? Was the upright PM happy to include Raja in his team?

Read: Excerpts from Sanjaya Baru's book 'The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh'

3. Baru writes that Manmohan told him very clearly that he did not want him to project his image -- though Baru repeatedly told him that it was his job to do so. Is the PMO suggesting that Manmohan wanted to be promoted?

Our April 21, 2014 cover

4. Baru writes that Manmohan didn'ttrust his colleagues, especially Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and AK Antony. So why did Manmohan Singh devalue the Cabinet as an instrument of governance and start functioning through Groups of Ministers and EGoMs?

5. Baru writes that he offered 'unsolicited' advice to Manmohan that he fight the 2009 General Elections, either from Assam or Punjab. He writes that his wife Gursharan Kaur too was keen that it happen and agreed that she would be a good campaigner. Baru writes that the PM felt he was too frail for the rigours of campaigning. Does the PMO want us to believe there was another reason he was wary? If so what was it?

Cover Story: Why Manmohan Singh failed?

The PMO statement today says the prime minister told senior editors in October when they asked about the forthcoming revelations, that they should 'not believe all that he is saying'. Does that mean we should believe some of it, perhaps only the few high points such as when Manmohan Singh strikes an understanding with George Bush on the nuclear deal. Or perhaps when Baru says Manmohan did not know the deals that were done to ensure the support of the Samajwadi Party on the nuclear deal?

Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi at the release of the Congress poll manifesto

The book is a devastating and unflinching account of what went wrong in UPA 2 and how the seeds for it were sown in UPA 1. It shows how the diarchy was doomed from the start and that Manmohan Singh had no choice but to be in office but not in power, perhaps because he was genuinely loyal to the dynasty or because he felt he had no moral right to stake control. Or perhaps he just wanted to avoid the fate of his mentor PV Narasimha Rao. In one of the more shattering revelations of the book, Baru says Ahmed Patel approached him to speak to Rao's son upon his death to convey SoniaGandhi's message that she wanted his funeral rites to be in Hyderabad, not Delhi. Baru says he refused to carry the message but sure enough Rao's last rites were not held in Delhi.

There is no fate worse for a Congressman, however talented he may be, than to be erased from the history of the party.

Excerpts from Sanjay Baru's book 'The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh'

April 11, 2014 | UPDATED 20:11 IST

The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjaya Baru

The power and importance of the principal secretary to the PM has always been dependent on the latter's political clout, apart from the officer's own standingwithin the civil service. As the bureaucratic link between the PM and senior ministers and secretaries to government, the principal secretary commands authority and influences policy. Most principal secretaries have been extremely capable men, well regarded by their peers and respected by their subordinates, like P.N. Haksar in Indira Gandhi's PMO, P.C. Alexander in Rajiv's, A.N. Varma in P.V. Narasimha Rao's, Satish Chandran in Gowda's, N.N. Vohra in Gujral's and Brajesh Mishra in Vajpayee's. However, every now and then, a nondescript official of limited talent has also adorned that job.
Since Manmohan Singh's PMO also included a special adviser, a novelty created to accommodate M.K. Narayanan, part of the NSA's turf, namely the area of internal security, was hived off to him.
J.N. 'Mani' Dixit was, without doubt, the dominant personality among the three (Narayanan, T.K.A. Nair and Dixit). His stature ensured that T.K.A. Nair was not quite the 'principal' secretary that many of his predecessors had been. Of course, Nair's immediate predecessor, the larger-than-life Brajesh Mishra, was more than just a principal secretary. I once jokingly remarked to Dr Singh that in Vajpayee's time the principal secretary functioned as if he were the PM, while in his case it was being said that the PM functioned like a principal secretary. This was a comment on Dr Singh's attention to detail, his involvement in the nitty-gritty ofadministration, his chairing of long and tedious meetings with officials, which Vajpayee rarely did. He ignored the remark, knowing well that it was also a taunt, drawing attention to the fact that Sonia was the political boss.
Nair was not Dr Singh's first choice for the all-important post of principal secretary. He had hoped to induct Vohra, who had given me news of my job. Not only was he a fellow refugee from west Punjab, now Pakistan, but both had taught in Punjab University and Vohra also went to Oxford, though some years after Dr Singh. Vohra even cancelled a scheduled visit to London to be able to join the PMO. Sonia Gandhi had another retired IAS officer, a Tamilian whose name I am not at liberty to disclose, in mind for the job. He had worked with Rajiv Gandhi and was regarded as a capable and honest official. However, he declined Sonia's invitation to rejoin government on a matter of principle-he had promised his father that he would never seek a government job after retirement.

Sanjaya Baru with Manmohan Singh in 2007

With these two distinguished officers ruled out, Dr Singh turned to Nair, a retired IAS officer who had worked briefly as secretary to the PM in Gujral's PMO and had also served as Punjab's chief secretary, the top bureaucrat in the state. Nair's name was strongly backed by a friend of Dr Singh's family, Rashpal Malhotra, chairman of the Chandigarh-based Centre for Research on Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID). Dr Singh himself was the chairman of the CRRID and Nair a member of its governing board. Apart from his stint in the Gujral PMO, Nair had neither held the rank of secretary in any of the powerful ministries on Raisina Hill-home, finance and defence-nor in any key economic ministry. He had only done so in the less powerful ministries of rural development and environment and forests. In short, he was a bureaucratic lightweight.
Always impeccably attired, Nair, small-built and short, lacked the presence of a Brajesh Mishra, whose striking demeanour commanded attention. He rarely gave expression to a clear or bold opinion on file, always signing off with a 'please discuss' and preferring to give oral instructions to junior officials such as joint secretaries and deputy secretaries. They would then be required to put those instructions on file as their own advice. It was classic bureaucratic risk aversion aimed at never getting into any controversy or trouble. Nair depended a great deal on Pulok Chatterjee, a joint secretary who had worked with both Rajiv Gandhiand Sonia, for advice on important policy decisions.
Pulok, like Nair, suffered from the handicap that his own service had never regarded him as one of its bright sparks. A serving IAS officer, he had never worked in any important ministry. He was inducted into Rajiv's PMO as a deputy secretary after having served as a district official in Amethi, his constituency in Uttar Pradesh, where he had caught Rajiv's eye. After Rajiv's death, he chose to work for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation where he did some worthwhile social development work. But this meant that he was not just outside government but completely identified with the Gandhi family. When Pulok returned to government, it was to work on the personal staff of Sonia Gandhi when she was leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Pulok, who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh PMO at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had regular, almost daily, meetings with Sonia at which he was said to brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on important files to be cleared by the PM. Indeed, Pulok was the single most important point of regular contact between the PM and Sonia. He was also the PMO's main point of contact with the National Advisory Council (NAC), a high-profile advisory body chaired by Sonia Gandhi...
Even with its combined strength, I felt that the Nair-Pulok duo was not a patch on the magisterial Brajesh Mishra who ran Vajpayee's PMO with great aplomb. Even though he was a diplomat by training, Mishra, the son of a former Congress chiefminister of Madhya Pradesh, had politics in his genes and knew exactly what stratagems to adopt to strengthen the authority of the PM in a coalition government. His other great qualification, one that both Nair and Pulok lacked, was that he was a risk-taker. On critical occasions, Mishra was willing to push the envelope and take things forward on behalf of the PM. He established that reputation by taking the decision, along with Vajpayee, to conduct nuclear tests in May 1998 and declare India a nuclear weapons state. Mishra's stature consolidated and expanded Vajpayee's clout within the government.
***
'National Security Adviser became the effective boss of IB and R&AW'
PM declined to take daily briefings from intelligence chiefs
It was clear to me that Dr Singh shared a bond with him (Mani Dixit) that was never there between him and Narayanan. It seemed plausible that the latter had been inducted as the third leg of PMO leadership as a concession to Sonia. MK, or Mike, as his contemporaries called him, was the intelligence czar who had headed the Intelligence Bureau (IB), India's internal intelligence agency, under both Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao. He earned his spurs by playing a role in the unseating of the first-ever democratically elected communist government in the world, E.M.S. Namboodiripad's ministry in Kerala, way back in 1957. He was director, IB, when Rajiv was assassinated. Narayanan's favourite line was, 'I have a file on you.' He used it, humourously, with ministers, officials, journalists and others he met, leaving them, however, with the uneasy feeling that he wasn't really joking. Indeed, Narayanan himself gave currency to the tales that circulated about his proclivity to snoop on everyone. He seemed to derive great pleasure in letting me know that he kept a tab on the credit-card spending of influential editors. On long flights in the PM's aircraft, he would regale us with stories about how various prime ministers had summoned him for information on their colleagues.

Sonia Gandhi at a party meeting on January 17

If those stories were true, Dr Singh was clearly the exception to that rule. He not only resisted the temptation to spy on his colleagues, but gave up even the opportunity to be offered such information by declining to take a daily briefing from the intelligence chiefs. He was the first prime minister not to do so. The chiefs of both the IB and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) were told to report to the NSA instead. I didn't think the intelligence chiefs would deliver their best if they reported to an intermediary instead of the prime minister himself, and repeatedly implored him to take a direct daily briefing from them. Every now and then he would, but the NSA became their effective boss in the UPA PMO.

M.KarunanidhiIt was Dr Singh who had negotiated the DMK's entry into the UPAwith M. Karunanidhi in January 2004 and had gone to great lengths to be deferential to him.As prime minister,Dr Singh always received Karunanidhi at the portico of 7 RCR, and not just at the door of his room, as was the norm with most other visitors.
Whenever Karunanidhi sent an emissary with a message, Dr Singh would set aside all other work and meet the DMK emissary. This made the DMK feel they had a special equation with Dr Singh. After all, the DMK's friendship with Sonia was a relatively new one. In 1996, she had rejected P.V. Narasimha Rao's proposal that the Congress ally with the DMK rather than the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK); the former were known to be sympathisers of the LTTE, her husband's killers.

Narayanan, when he succeeded Dixit as NSA, used this power to its limits, and not without controversy-he was accused by R&AW officers of being partial to the IB. But his control over the system also derived from his professional competence and the respect he commanded even from junior officers for his non-hierarchical style of functioning. He would deal directly with them, not bothering about rank and protocol and focusing on getting the job done. My nickname for him, while talking to friends, was 'Ed', for J. Edgar Hoover, the powerful boss of the FBI of whom even US presidents were wary. Dr Singh too was wary of Narayanan's reputation and would, on occasion, warn me to be cautious while carrying out sensitive assignments for him that he did not want anyone to know about.
***
'Active morality for himself, but passive morality for others'Manmohan turned a blind eye to corruption by his colleagues
Dr Singh's general attitude towards corruption in public life, which he adopted through his career in government, seemed to me to be that he would himself maintain the highest standards of probity in public life, but would not impose this on others. In other words, he was himself incorruptible, and also ensured that no one in his immediate family ever did anything wrong, but he did not feel answerable for the misdemeanours of his colleagues and subordinates. In this instance, he felt even less because he was not the political authority that had appointed them to these ministerial positions. In practice, this meant that he turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of his ministers. He expected the Congress party leadership to deal with the black sheep in his government, just as he expected the allies to deal with their black sheep. While his conscience was always clear with respect to his own conduct, he believed everyone had to deal with their own conscience.

Jairam RameshIn 2005, when he asked me whether I thought Jairam Ramesh should be inducted into government, I replied that Jairam ought to be more demonstrative of his loyalty to the PM if he wanted a berth in the ministry. I was taken aback when, a few days later, Montek Singh Ahluwalia took me aside at a Christmas party at journalist T.N. Ninan's house and asked me why I was opposing Jairam's induction... I am not aware of what transpired after that, but in the following month,January 2006, Jairam did get inducted as a minister of state in the commerce ministry. I was not surprised to learn that Jairam later called on Sonia's friend Suman Dubey and thanked him for the job.
Politics is about power and patronage, and ministerial positions are won not just on the basis of competence but also in recognition of a politician's clout or loyalty to the leader. For Congress MPs, the leader to please was always Sonia.That Jairam's loyalty was only with Sonia became clearer within weeks of his becoming minister when he chose to embarrass the PM by leaking a letter that Sonia had written to Dr Singh cautioning him against pursuing an initiative he valued a lot-the free trade agreement with member countries of the ASEAN.

When a colleague got caught, as the DMK minister A. Raja finally was, he let the law take its course. Raja was arrested, placed in judicial custody at Delhi's Tihar Jail for fifteen months and is currently being prosecuted for his role in the 2G scam. Dr Singh's approach was a combination of active morality for himself and passive morality with respect to others. In UPA-1 public opinion did not turn against the PM for this moral ambivalence on his part, because the issue had not been prised out into the open. The media focus in the first term was very much on his policy initiatives.
But in UPA-2 when corruption scandals tumbled out, his public image and standing took a huge hit from which he was unable to recover because there was no parallel policy narrative in play that could have salvaged his reputation. In other words, there were no positive acts of commission that captured the public mind enough to compensate for the negative acts of omission for which he was being chastised.
***
'I do not want you to project my image'
PM let Rahul take credit for nREGA and UPA winning a second term
When the idea of a rural employment guarantee scheme travelled to the PMO from the NAC and the rural development ministry, it was received enthusiastically by Dr Singh, who was familiar with Maharashtra's early initiatives in this regard. As the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in the 1980s, Dr Singh had studied this scheme and had been impressed by it. Hence, he was in favour of implementing this programme at the national level and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was nothing more than a variant of MEGS (Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme).

Rahul Gandhi at a road show at Kathpara village in Assam on February 26

The so-called differences on MGNREGA between the PMO and the finance ministry on the one hand, and the NAC on the other, related mainly to the financial implications of the programme with estimates of how much it would cost the exchequer varying from 1 to 3 per cent of national income. Neither Dr Singh nor P. Chidambaram wanted an open-ended fiscal commitment, since the benefits of the programme were to be based on self-selection. That is, only a person seeking employment under the MGNREGA would be offered it for the number of days and at a wage rate specified. This would mean that at the beginning of the year the government would not know how many would come forward to seek the benefit.

'She has let me down'On October 12 , 2007, both Sonia Gandhi and Dr Singh spoke at the Hindustan Times Summit. She said the survival of the government took precedence over the nuclear deal and while the Congress would continue to try and win over the Left it would do nothing to force the issue and risk a break with the Left.
In a pointed question, the newspaper's editorial director asked him,'You made a statement to a newspaper which was a bit out of sync with your persona and that started all the controversy. Do you think you overstepped a bit?'
Dr Singh responded with uncharacteristic firmness,'I don't think I overstepped. I was responding to a public statement issued by the four Left parties and I don't think I overstepped. I am quite conscious of my responsibilities and what I should say and what I should not say.'
He returned home deeply disappointed.As I took leave of him he asked me,'Who are the wise men around whom I can turn to for advice?' I said I knew only two wise men.One was my father, who happened to be in Delhi that day, and the other my guru, K. Subrahmanyam. 'She has let me down,'he said to both in the separate meetings he had with them, in a voice tinged more with sadness than anger.

The minister for rural development Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a one-time physics professor and a genial grassroots politician for whom Dr Singh had high regard and great affection, played an important role as a bridge between the fiscal conservatives and the populists.
The Congress party's obsession with giving the entire credit for MGNREGA to the Gandhi family reached a point where it may have actually embarrassed the family. When I tried to correct that impression, I found myself in a spot of trouble. On September 26, 2007, shortly after he was appointed one of the party's general secretaries, Rahul Gandhi led a delegation of all the party general secretaries to greet Dr Singh on his birthday. After the courtesies and tea and dhokla were done with, the delegation settled down to a discussion on policy issues. At the end of the meeting, Sonia's poIitical secretary, Ahmed Patel, handed over a statement about the meeting, requesting me to release it to the press.
The statement claimed that Rahul Gandhi had urged the PM to extend the scope of NREGA (this was before it was named after Mahatma Gandhi and consequently became MGNREGA) to all the 500-odd rural districts in the country. Until then, it was being implemented only in 200 of the most backward districts. I told Patel that it was not the practice of the PMO to issue press statements on behalf of those who visited the PM, and that I would draft a statement of my own stating that a delegation of party general secretaries led by Rahul had come to greet the PM on his birthday. As for the political content of the statement, it was better, I suggested, that it came in a separate statement from the party office.
Later that evening, a senior political journalist (then) at the Indian Express, called me to find out if Dr Singh had accepted Rahul's suggestion and whether NREGA would now be extended to the entire country. I reminded him that the prime minister had already stated his commitment to doing so in his Independence Day speech the previous month, and that the PMO was in discussion on this very point with the ministries of rural development and finance.
That evening, all TV channels dutifully reported the Congress party's statement that Rahul had asked the PM to extend NREGA to the entire country, and the next morning's papers did the same. Only the Indian Express made the additional remark in its dispatch the next day that 'Sources said that this issue had been on the PMO radar even before Rahul's elevation to the party post. The Principal Secretary to the PM had already discussed the issue with officials from the Finance Ministry, Rural Development Ministry and Planning Commission almost two weeks ago.'...

When the PM quitI called on Dr Singh at 3 RCR. Both he and Mrs Kaur were seated in the living room, each reading a book.That was such a familiar sight. I had seen them this way on innumerable occasions; just the two of them, reading together in companionable silence. When I asked him about Sonia's message, sent through Montek,Dr Singh confirmed that she was trying to persuade him to wait and not force the pace of events. I warned him that if he did not act now, the rest of his term would be wasted.The Left would smell victory and might even press for a change of prime minister.
I reminded him that the Left had a track record of doing just that.They had claimed credit for replacing the 'pro-business'Moraji Desai with the 'pro-farmer' Charan Singh in 1978...Now they would claim credit, I warned him, for replacing 'neo-liberal'Manmohan Singh with 'secular'Arjun Singh,'Bengali'Pranab-the CPI(M) was essentially a Bengal party-or 'leftist' Antony, who was an old ally of the comrades from Kerala.Dr Singh laughed.'I am ready to go. Anyone of them can be made PM.Why not?'

I sent an SMS, half in jest, to a journalist who wanted to know more about the programme's national roll-out, that this announcement was the PM's birthday gift to the country. After all, if Sonia or Rahul had been PM, that is precisely how the party's strategists would have spun out such an announcement on a leader's birthday.
It later transpired that this SMS had made the rounds and reached the party leadership. One senior leader told a senior editor, 'What does Baru think? He thinks Doctor Saheb [Dr Singh] can win us elections? We have to project Rahulji's image and this kind of SMS does not help.'
When I heard this, I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough, I was summoned by the PM for a dressing-down. As I entered the antechamber of his room, Nair, Narayanan and Pulok were walking out. Noting that all three scrupulousIy avoided eye contact with me, I realized this was going to be serious. When I went in, Dr Singh was seated, arms folded and wearing an angry look.
'Did you send an SMS to journalists that the expansion of the NREGA is my birthday gift?'
I said I did, but half in jest... The PM sat stiff in stony silence. I broke the silence by adding, 'The party wants to give the entire credit for this decision to Rahul. But both you and Raghuvansh Prasad deserve as much credit.'
'I do not want any credit for myself,' he snapped. He was still red with anger.
'Sir, it is my job to project your image and secure the political credit due to you. Let the party do that for Sonia and Rahul. I have to do this for you.'
'No!' he snapped again. 'I do not want you to project my image.'
***
'So who is the architect of this victory?' the CNN-IBN reporter asked Prithvi (Prithviraj Chavan, now Maharashtra chief minister). 'Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh?'
Prithvi, the man who was handpicked by Dr Singh to be his MoS in the PMO and kept there for a full five years despite a lacklustre record, said the politically correct thing, 'Both!' He then added a spin, 'This victory is a vote for Rahul Gandhi. Rahulji's good work helped us win!'

Sonia GandhiThere was very little social contact between the families of the two leaders.Rarely, too, did Dr Singh's daughters or Sonia's children join the Congress president and the prime minister at social gatherings. On the odd occasion, Sonia would call on Dr Singh to discuss family matters. There were, after all, few family elders available to give her advice on things that may have bothered her in her personal life. I was aware that on at least one occasion she came to see Dr Singh to discuss her concerns about Rahul's personal plans. Following that conversation, Dr Singh invited Rahul for lunch and the two spent time together.

Rahul GandhiThe telecom issue came on the back of public criticism of the government's handling of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.The Games fiasco was waiting to happen. At one point ,Dr Singh tried to get Rahul Gandhi interested, suggesting to him that just as his father,Rajiv, had acquired both administrative experience and a reputation for good organisation when he took charge of the 1982 Asian Games, the younger Gandhi could also make good use of this opportunity. Rahul showed no interest.

The chant became the official mantra. Rahul Gandhi, every party loyalist claimed, was the architect of the 2009 result. In the very hour of victory, its authorship was denied to the man who made it happen.
The way I saw it, if the Congress had lost, the blame for the defeat would have been placed squarely on the PM's shoulders. It would be said his obsession with the nuclear deal cost the party the support of the Left and the Muslims. His 'neo-liberal' economic policies would have been deemed to have alienated the poor. His attempt to befriend then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf would have been regarded as having alienated the Hindu vote. A hundred explanations would have been trotted out to pin the defeat on the PM. Now that the party was back in office, and that too with more numbers than anyone in the party had forecast, the credit would go to the party's 'first family'. To the scion and future leader. It was Rahul's victory, not Manmohan's.
After the elections, Dr Singh did try to be more assertive, taking a view on who would be in his Cabinet and who would not, and resisting the induction of the DMK's Raja and T.R Baalu, for their unsavoury reputations. Watching from the sidelines, I had hoped he would not buckle under pressure. Dr Singh stood his ground for a day, managed to keep Baalu out, but had to yield ground on Raja under pressure from his own party. To me, it was a reiteration of the message that the victory was not his but the family's.
***
'He did not want to become more popular with the media and the general public than Sonia'PM's low profile seen as a virtue in UPA 1 but criticised in UPA 2
Consequently, it was a relatively smooth ride with the media for Dr Singh in UPA-1. His problem always was that he did not want to become more popular with the media and the general public than Sonia. Whenever a TV channel or news magazine conducted an opinion poll and showed that his popularity, while rising, was a few notches below that of Sonia, he would feel relieved. 'Good,' he would say, with a mischievous smile. That defined the limit to his projection and brand-building.

Manmohan Singh with former US President George W. Bush at the White House in July 2005

Dr Singh's 'silences' and his unwillingness to project himself became more manifest in UPA-2 and were more widely commented upon. His penchant for a 'low profile' was seen in UPA-1 as a defence mechanism, part shyness and part self-preservation, but in UPA-2 it came to be seen as escapism, as shirking responsibility and an unwillingness to take charge. The same trait of self-effacement was seen as a virtue in UPA-1 and a weakness in UPA-2.
***
'Pranab Mukherjee would "forget" to brief the Prime Minister on his meetings'Manmohan had no control over his Cabinet colleagues

Amar SinghAfter all the hectic activity of the preceding days, Saturday,June 21 was a quiet day. I had lunch at home and was enjoying a siesta when my mobile phone rang.Afriend of the Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was on the line. 'Mr Baru, I have a message for you,' he said.'My friend Mr Amar Singh is in hospital in Colorado. He wants you to tell the prime minister that American doctors are very good and they are taking good care of him. He is very happy there and he says Americans are such warm and friendly people, we should have good relations with them.'
Later that afternoon, I met Dr Singh and conveyed what was clearly a political signal from Amar Singh. He had hinted, through this intermediary, at the Samajwadi Party's willingness to support Dr Singh on the nuclear deal... Months later Amar Singh would claim credit for getting the nuclear deal done...'So who do you think are the architects of the nuclear deal?'he asked me.Before I could reply, he added,'You will say George Bush and Manmohan Singh. Let me tell you, it was George Bush and Amar Singh.'

Pranab Mukherjee, now President of India, was never so transparent either in expressing his disagreement or support. After returning from an important visit to Washington DC, Pranab chose not to brief the PM for three days. He had gone to see Sonia Gandhi but had not sought an appointment with Dr Singh. On the third day, I asked Dr Singh what had transpired at Pranab's meetings with President (George W.) Bush and Condoleezza Rice. 'I don't know,' was his plaintive reply.
I was taken aback. How could the foreign minister not have briefed the PM immediately on return? I suggested to him that he should summon the foreign minister and demand a briefing. I am not aware if Pranab was actually summoned or himself found time to drop in, but in any event, he visited the PM the next day. Similarly, Pranab would 'forget' to brief the PM on his meetings with the Left.
***
Pranab and A.K. Antony, as successive defence ministers in UPA-1, were reportedly not enthusiastic about a deal on Siachen, though Sonia had blessed the peace formula. The armed forces were ambivalent, with retired generals who had served in Siachen favouring a deal to end the agony of the troops serving in that inhospitable terrain, but serving generals not willing to trust Pakistan on a deal...

Pervez MusharrafAfter watching the cricket match at Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla grounds, Dr Singh and Musharraf went to Hyderabad House for a formal conversation.
Musharraf was in a great mood because Pakistan had got off to a good start. In fact, the President, who had apparently been informed by his staff that Pakistan was set to win (which it did in the end), began the conversation saying, 'Doctor Saheb, if you and I decide,we can resolve all our disputes before lunch and go back to watch the match.''General Saheb, you are a soldier and much younger,' replied Dr Singh to Musharraf,'but you must allow for my age.
I can only walk step by step.'The septuagenarian economist and the sixty-one-year-old general walked their talk. Over the next two years, they outlined a roadmap for the resolution of the Kashmir issue based on Dr Singh's famous formulation that 'borders cannot be changed, but they can be made irrelevant.'

Antony was politically conservative and risk averse and depended excessively on the advice of IAS officers inexperienced in strategic policy and defence. His stewardship of the defence ministry has been widely criticized for this reason.
To add to this, Dr Singh had to also contend with a declining quality of defence services leadership, which has since become all too visible. For me, the first sign of this decline was evident in the manner in which army chief General J.J. Singh dealt with the Siachen issue. In closed-door briefings, the general would say that a deal with Pakistan was doable, but in public he would back Antony when the defence minister chose not to back the PM.
I was never sure whether Antony's hawkish stance was because he genuinely disagreed with the Siachen initiative or whether he was merely toeing a Nehru-Gandhi family line that would not allow Dr Singh to be the one finally normalizing relations with Pakistan. After all the Kashmir problem had its roots in Nehru's policies.
***
'It is for the party to decide if I should contest'
Not contesting Lok Sabha polls denied PM political authority
I suggested to Dr Singh that now that the elections had been called, he should contest a seat in the Lok Sabha. If the party returned to power, he would be PM again, but this time, I argued, he should be in the Lok Sabha. Even if the party lost, he would at least have the satisfaction of ending his political career by winning a seat in the House of the Poeple. Ever since his defeat in the South Delhi constituency in 1999, which his family and friends suspected had partly been caused by internal sabotage by Congressmen, this had been a touchy topic.
I was convinced, even more than before, that the prime minister's decision not to return to office via the Lok Sabha was his biggest political mistake. The political authority and legitimacy that a second term in office offers a head of government was denied to him by his remaining a member of the Upper House and not securing for himself the imprimatur of a popular mandate. He could easily have said to Sonia that he would prefer to retire as PM than to once again return to the job from the Rajya Sabha. If she had refused him a safe Lok Sabha seat he could have gone into retirement on health grounds.
***
As UPA-2 began to unravel, another Mahabharata comparison came to suggest itself to some of Dr Singh's critics. For all his wisdom and strategic brilliance, and despite the enormous respect he commanded from both sides of a family at war, Bheeshma faced his most embarrassing moment when the hapless Draupadi asked him why he could not protect her when she was being disrobed. She mocks Bheeshma for seeking refuge in the finer points of dharma.

George W. BushWhatever his political image, at a personal level Bush was warm and friendly. Being shy and a poor conversationalist, Dr Singh always relaxed in the company of men who were gregarious, and took an instant liking to Bush. When the two first met in New York in September 2004, Bush was deferential and, rather surprisingly for an American President, kept addressing Dr Singh as 'Sir'.By the time they met in Delhi in March 2006, the two had become buddies.
Bush's gesture of placing his arm around Dr Singh's shoulder as the two walked towards the media was frowned upon by some Indian diplomats and journalists, who read it as a patronising one. But to me,watching from close quarters, he seemed to be treating Dr Singh like a 'buddy'in a natural sort of way.

An angry and troubled Bheeshma remains silent. Dr Singh's silences in UPA-2, for which the media mocked him, made me wonder whether he too was consumed by impotent rage like Bheeshma.
Like Greek epics and Shakespearean plays, Indian epics too have no untainted heroes. Leave alone mortals, even the gods have flaws; Lord Rama's treatment of Sita raises a question that has never gone away. There are questions that will probably haunt Dr Singh too, most of all: why did he not quit when he realised he had lost all vestiges of control over his own government? If his failure to do so arose from loyalty to the Congress or a promise to Sonia, it was misplaced-and unrewarded-loyalty. Except it enabled him to remain in office, even if not in power. His apparent commitment to ensuring Rahul's succession, perpetuating the Congress party's control by one family, was even more misplaced. That was Bheeshma's failure too: he should have put his foot down on the Kaurava succession. Moreover, promising loyalty to hereditary succession is a monarchical attribute, not a democratic one. That was Dr Singh's fatal error of judgement.

When Indira Gandhi lost in 1977, she fought back by campaigning long and hard. Sixty-two days and nights of travelling 1,000 km a day, addressing 10 meetings, which meant that she had been seen or heard byone in four voters.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/so-where-is-the-fiction-manmohan-singh-sanjaya-baru-pmo/1/355330.html

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China doubles down on thorium reactor. India should announce thorium-based nuke doctrine.

April 11, 2014, 7:09 pm

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≪ Previous: SoniaG, Manmohan: how they subverted the Constitution. Sanjay Baru spills the beans.

April 11th, 2014

China Doubles Down on New Thorium Reactor

By Kent Harrington |

As the smoggy skies over China’s northern industrial cities thicken into soupy murkiness, life spans plummet and citizens are getting testy. Over a billion sullen people would frighten any politician, elected or not. Ratcheting up a response, concerned leaders just pushed to develop a revolutionary thorium nuclear reactor in only 10 years, elevating a long=term research program to an urgent Manhattan Project. Although it’s a symbolic gesture at this point, as an attempt to cut down China’s destructive reliance on coal, it plays to the country’s reputation as the global infrastructure king after building the Three Gorges Dam and nation-wide high speed rail.

To gauge the government’s resolve, look no further than Premier Li Keqiang, who told the national legislature on March 5th that the government had declared “war on pollution”(borrowing a handy Washington cliche). Although China is the world leader in clean energy investment, with $54 billion poured into 14 GWs of wind and 12 GWs of solar last year alone, the government has targeted nuclear as an important part of its low-carbon strategy.

Leap-frogging uranium

China hasn’t abandoned traditional nuclear, according to thorium-ophile Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph. It’s already building 26 conventional reactors to fire up in 2015, with 51 more planned, and 120 more stuffed into the pipeline. But for the government they have a big drawback: a reliance on pricey, imported uranium.

Since China has enough thorium to last for “20,000 years,” starting just three years ago, China’s Academy of Sciences (an arm of the government) began the long pursuit of a “thorium-based molten-salt reactor system” at the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear andApplied Physics. Originally, its scientists had been given a manageable 25-year mandate to develop the thorium plant – and leap-frog uranium – but a 10-year deadline is pushy by any autocrat’s standards.

Ironically, this story leads back to the United States, a slower -moving democracy, andKirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer, who, by trying to develop a thorium reactor, has become the 90th element’s biggest advocate, which makes him both the Johnny Appleseed and the world’s biggest Chicago Cubs fan of nuclear energy. He’s definitively American.

Solving the Fukushima problem

Sorenson explained to Evans-Pritchard that his thorium reactors could solve the Fukushima problem: they would operate at atmospheric pressure to eliminate the same hydrogen explosions. If a reactor began to overheat, a plug melts and the salts drain out. “There’s no need for computers, or the electrical pumps that were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor can save itself.” He’s ingeniously practical.

Then he went big-picture and very Spockian, ignoring legacy energy systems, dysfunctional politics, and greed: ”Once you start looking more closely, you can run civilization on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. You don’t have to deal with uranium cartels.” Or humans. He’s also insanely rational. And eternally hopeful. A terminal Cubs fan.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee built a molten-salt reactor in the 1960s, but it was shelved by the Nixon Administration. At the time, the Pentagon needed uranium to build nuclear bombs, so the project was aborted. The blueprints were gathered up, archived, and forgotten, until Kirk Sorensen, a young engineer prowling NASA looking for a new research project, found and studied them. Convinced of their value, he later published the results. Although the small thorium research community shared them and reporters publicized them, the US government ignored them; however, China did not.

Taking the technology back to China

Jiang Mianheng, the next link in the thorium story, is the son of former Party leader Jiang Zemin, which makes him a princeling, a rich and pampered member of the ruling Communist government’s second generation. That world of privilege and access gave him the clout to bring his thorium project to China’s National Academy of Sciences and wrangle a start-up budget of $350m.

Mr Jiang made a special trip to the Oak Ridge labs and obtained the designs – legitimately, just by asking – after reading an article in American Scientist that touted thorium’s many benefits. He’d decided that a molten-salt reactor could be the answer to China’s ongoing energy and climate crisis. He took this disruptive technology back to China and suddenly it’s moved into the mainstream, just like Sorenson has hoped.

A hundred thousand years from now

Under the original 25-year research plan, Jiang’s Shanghai team would have built a tiny 2 MW plant using liquid flouride fuel by the end of the decade, before gradually scaling up to commercial size during the 2020s. Now those plans have been jump-started by a nervous regime.

One hundred thousand years from now, if Jiang’s scientists managed to develop a working molten-salt reactor that created an energy revolution, Beijing pedestrians will be able to look up into the clear night sky and see an immense, state-sponsored hologram of Kirk Sorenson floating overhead, flashing an eternal Vulcan salute as he sucks up the endless free energy supplied by one of his reactors. Unfortunately, it will be too late to snag a book deal with best-selling author Michael Lewis.

Will Communist leaders survive long enough to see the results?

http://chenected.aiche.org/energy/china-doubles-down-on-new-thorium-reactor/

↧

Jashodaben practised Sadbhavna for 20 years -- Bharat Yagnik

April 11, 2014, 8:48 pm

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≪ Previous: China doubles down on thorium reactor. India should announce thorium-based nuke doctrine.

Jashodaben practised Sadbhavna for 20 years

Bharat Yagnik,TNN | Apr 12, 2014, 01.36 AM IST

In the five decades after theirmarriage, Modi and Jashoda lived diametrically different lives. Modi is an ambitious politician, fighting tooth and nail for the top job of India. Jashoda, who retired five years back as a teacher, lives a quiet, spiritual existence marked by long hours of prayer and pilgrimages. (PTI photo)

AHMEDABAD: While Narendra Modi undertook Sadbhavana fast in 2011 to soften his image of being a hardliner and warm up to minorities, Jashoda Modi, who was recently acknowledged by the chief minister as his wife, practiced Sadbhavana for nearly two decades.

For 19 years (till she retired in 2009) Jashodaben taught children of the minority community in Rajosana, a village where Muslims comprise 60% of the population. Sarpanch of the village, Rafiq Basan, says that Jashodaben was a loving teacher who never discriminated between Hindu and Muslim children. "She used to keep Ma Santoshi fast on Fridays and would lovingly distribute prasad of gud-chana (jaggery and roasted horse-gram) to Muslim children. If a child was not well and missed school, she would visit him or her at home," says Basan. She was married to Narendra Modi in 1968. Later, however, her husband left home to join the RSS. Forty-six years later, Modi has formally accepted Jashoda as his wife in the nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission for theLok Sabha elections.

In the five decades after their marriage, Modi and Jashoda lived diametrically different lives. Modi is an ambitious politician, fighting tooth and nail for the top job of India. Jashoda, who retired five years back as a teacher, lives a quiet, spiritual existence marked by long hours of prayer and pilgrimages.

Interestingly, despite having no contact with each other, Modi and Jashoda have similar habits.

Both husband and wife are ardent devotees of Ma Amba. Modi and Jashodaben both fast during the nine days of Chaitri and Sharad Navratri living only on water and lime water.

Even during his gruelling schedule as the BJP's star campaigner for the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi fasted on the nine days of Navratri only on lime water. Jashoda too fasted during Chaitri Navratri without consuming any food, and praying for Modi to become PM. Modi has confessed to winding up his day with a dialogue with Mataji each night. These have been produced in the form of a book called 'Saakshibhaav'.

Jashoda's brother, Kamlesh Modi, says Jashodaben has complete faith in Ma Amba. "She gets up at 4 am to pray and continues till 11 am. If she has been publicly accepted as Narendra Modi's wife, it is the fruit of her prayers," says Kamlesh Modi. Jashoda is also known to keep Modi's picture in thetemple at her home.

Ashok, another brother of Jashoda, says that his sister is a very simple woman who epitomizes sacrifice made without expecting anything in return.
"She owns four odd sarees. She has never asked for more. Our family had asked her to consider remarriage but she had flatly refused saying that probably she was not destined to have a conventional happy marriage," said Ashok.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/Jashodaben-practised-Sadbhavna-for-20-years/articleshow/33626361.cms

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Dr. Subramanian Swamy's views on BJP manifesto 2014 and a gallery of info.

April 11, 2014, 9:32 pm

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≪ Previous: Jashodaben practised Sadbhavna for 20 years -- Bharat Yagnik

http://www.veooz.com/media/9H3pWvq/gallery

Subramanian Swamy , Hindi Version - Trending Photos and Videos

Dr. Subramanian Swamy on BJP Manifesto 2014BJP Manifesto is a supreme balanced view of what is needed to make India a global power with cultural coherence. In particular the emphasis on innovation, skill development, tax reform, and decentralisation of power are essential for modernisation of the economy. With these reforms the Indian economy will grow at over 10 percent per year in GDP and remove poverty in 5 years.(Subramanian Swamy)see link for English & Hindi Version of BJP manifesto.-------------------------------------------http://www.bjp.org/manifesto2014

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@Swamy39 This is in Mail Today , India Today gp, Delhi, 11-04-2014, Forceful conversion of Hindus in Pak

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[Dr. Subramanian Swamy]: Remember that Babri Masjid was built by two foreign citizens Babar and Baqi. Foreigners have no right to property except due process. - Dr. Subramanian Swamy -----------------....

Listen NWRLive.com speaks to BJPs Dr. Subramanian Swamy on Congresss Amritsar candidate Amrinder Singhs perjuryClick: -subramanian-swamy-on-amrinder-singhs-perjury-and-more-209979.html

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accuses Captain Amarinder Singh of committing perjury: via @YouTube

@Swamy39 The comedy continues for generations!

[Niti Central]: In a startling expose, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday claimed that Congress candidate in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency Captain Amarinder Singh had committed perjury by not....

Why @ArvindKejriwal is silent for all these ? @Swamy39

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accuses Amarinder Singh of perjury -

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Dr @Swamy39 to address Public Meeting in Dombivili near Mumbai on Fri 11th Apr at 8 pm see link

Dr @Swamy39 speaking at IndiaFirst program at Kolkata to jam-packed audience on a working day afternoon

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Dr @Swamy39 addressing Press Conference at Shimoga

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Dr @Swamy39 speaking in Shimoga at BJP meet

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Dr @Swamy39 at the BJP election campaign meeting in Tumkur in Karnataka

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National athlete R. Bahulayen running across Thiruvananthapuram asking people to vote for Modi (Bjp). Via @Swamy39

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.@DrBhava: #Aerial Photo of Ram Setu Bridge# Constructed by - Shri Ram Saved by the Bhakt - .@Swamy39

Exodus stampede for exit from Congress @Swamy39

@Swamy39 ji at Khadia footpath parliament interaction in Ahmedabad Gujarat.

Guru ji @swamy39 the stinger of cobrapost associate editor K.Ashish is ashish khetan of LS candidate of AAP

@Swamy39 .... Sir All Set ... Waiting 4 U .....Excited To meet U ....@bindeshpandya

Me & @Swamy39 together at Karnavati (Ahmedabad) Gujrat. #HDL

Dr. Subramanian Swamy interview with Sandesh News. #HDL @Swamy39

<------ The Abandoned cranes by Siddarth A, talking about OUR kashmiri Pandits !!

Screenshot of FORD FOUNDATION website showing grant given to KABIR with all payment details @Swamy39 #IfModiBecomesPM

Screenshot of page 101 of 2005 Annual report of FORD FOUNDATION, Grants section. See the name KABIR? cc @Swamy39

Sonia Gandhi Doesn't Own A Car, Given Loan to Rahul, And Poorer than Rakhi Sawant ? Joke of the Century @Swamy39

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Nationalist @Swamy39 celebrating Pakistan's National Day!

Various branches of Gurukul have produced scholars who are excelling in various fields. #RevivingIndianEducation

@Swamy39 This is why we Indians need @narendramodi as PM ... @BJP4India

@Swamy39 Guruji here is conversion king & Naxal @RajMohan_Gandhi truth EXPOSED

I didn't understood this Family Tree .. Dr @Swamy39 sir .. Can you Clarify please

[Dr. Subramanian Swamy]: Congress head Sonia Gandhi asks all Muslims to unite and vote against us. Well, we ask all Nationalist Indians to Unite and vote for BJP. -------------------------------------....

[Dr. Subramanian Swamy]: News: Odisha is going for polls next week with 98 candidates contesting for the 10 Lok Sabha seats. Question: Guess which party the candidate with highest number of criminal c....

@Swamy39 take MH370 Flight & Search it #MissingManifesto

Dr.@Swamy39 sir AAP is spreading lies through bulk messages Please take cognizance..

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Official Hindi Trailer Releasing...: via @YouTube

#AAp4Criminals - Arundhati Roy's Mother Joins AAP (Kashmir was never a Part of india) >>

@ArvindKejriwal Have you checked this ? Sensless comments from a Harvard PhD @Swamy39

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100th birth anniversary of Sam Manekshaw,a salute to his life @Gen_VKSingh @RSSorg @Swamy39

@Swamy39 @yogrishiramdev Book release

Rae Bareli : Sonia Gandhi performed 'hawan' earlier today before filing her nomination

tre candidat en Inde Cong President Sonia Gandhi seeks blessings before filing nomination in Raebareli

Electoral fraud: Fake votes, 'election ink remover' r being sold in Delhi-NCR @anilkohli54

[Dr. Subramanian Swamy]: Pawar-less.... Dr. Subramanian Swamy via Manoj Kureel

Fake News! Fake Anchors! Fake Script ! Welcome2 India News! Where India feels Shame! #SickIndiaNewsChannel

A clarification in Pune Mirror signed by all journalists and anchors saying sorry to Modi. @mediacrooks. Kya ho gaya?

Help sonia again ? @ra101: Every NRI & PIO is at your service Sir @Swamy39, we will help even at great risk.

Huge crowd at Jansabha in Laxmi Nagar. Dr @Swamy39 & @MaheishGirri Ji to arrive soon. #AbKiBaarModiSarkaar

@swamy29 EXPOSED 1984 Swamy with Bhindranwale in Golden Temple , Amritsar

@Swamy39 Education in India.

Dr @Swamy39 Ji to address a Public Meeting in support of Shri @MaheishGirri this evening in Laxmi Nagar. All Invited.

Dear Rahul's Muslaman Look. Like Father, Like Son #PappuDiwas @Swamy39

[Dr. Subramanian Swamy]: Guess? 1) A lake within Google campus in California. 2) A boating tourist spot in Singapore. 3) A cricket stadium flooded with water in Pakistan. 4) None of the above

Raul Vinci fail ho gaya

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Chidambaram should first improve Sonia Gandhi's Hindi before commenting on Narendra Modi-Subramanian Swamy,BJP

@vidhi_coorg: @letsgethere part of nagarhole reserved forest burnt due to fire ,in CoorI.felt helpless. @Swamy39

Would Like To See Sonia - Rahul In Tihar Jail: Dr Subramanian Swamy @Swamy39

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@mediacrooks Even Google Doodle does a U-turn to celebrate #KejriDiwas

@narendramodi's interview on ETV network

Sr BJP leader @Swamy39 addressing the media in Bangalore on Sunday.

Net net, poverty has declined in India during last decade as never before-

Powerful! Congrats @Swamy39 4 becoming a specialized committee member of BJP!

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Dr. Subramanian Swamy's views on BJP & RSS. #Modiyapa

Dr @Swamy39 - Headlines in Major Kannada news daily on his Bangalore Visit yday exposing Aadhar @jagdishshetty >>

Selfless leaders like @Swamy39 r the real strength of NaMo & BJP! Kudos to Swamy sir! #BJPRocks! #AbkiBaarModiSarkaar

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The situation of our nation right now.! :l We need to Believe in the Saviour... believe in Narendra Modi @Swamy39

@Nisha_Hindu this the third son of Maimuna Begum alias Indira Gandhi..

all the AAP supporters.. U must read this .... Cheap Party AAP :/

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Sanjaya Uvaaca. SoniaG destroyed India's constitutional institutions. Route: Pulok Chatterjee, Manmohan minions.

April 12, 2014, 3:12 am

≫ Next: "I can't hoodwink people by wearing such skull caps" - NaMo to Rajat Sharma. See full TV interview

≪ Previous: Dr. Subramanian Swamy's views on BJP manifesto 2014 and a gallery of info.

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/04/soniag-manmohan-how-they-subverted.html
SoniaG, Manmohan: how they subverted the Constitution. Sanjay Baru spills the beans.

PM’s surrender to Sonia: Baru just proves what we knew

by Apr 12, 2014
In the Kurukshetra battle, the blind King Dhritarashtra is given details of the fratricidal war between his sons and the sons of Pandu by Sanjaya - his advisor and charioteer. Sanjaya's key strength is that he can see events from a distance, and can tell it like it is. He minces no words, spares no feelings for the blind King as his sons are killed one by one by the Pandava brothers. Many stanzas in the Bhagavad Gita begin with the phrase, Sanjaya Uvacha (Sanjaya says)…

So when Sanjaya Baru says something, one needs to listen carefully. His book on Manmohan Singh and the UPA-1 years, when Baru was media advisor to Manmohan Singh, is a telling of the behind-the-scenes power play in the blind king's durbar - only Singh chose to be willfully blind rather than being born that way like Dhritarashtra. Blessed with the same insight and long vision of his Mahabharata namesake, Sanjaya's story, told in The Accidental Prime Minister: The making and unmaking of Manmohan Singh, is something we all thought we knew: that Manmohan Singh was a cipher, especially in UPA-2. The halo that he built around himself with his tough stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 disappeared in UPA-2 - when the Congress party's victory with 206 seats shifted the Dynasty's priorities from government to projection of dynastic succession.

So what is Baru telling us that is different from what we already knew? Actually, there are quite a few reasons why the story needed telling by an insider.
]Was Sonia controlling the Manmohan Singh government? AFP image
First, what was apparent could never be formally confirmed because both the PMO and Sonia Gandhi's courtiers have denied always dual power centres - but nobody believed them. Even now, the PMO's office has rubbished Baru's claims, dismissing it as “coloured” and a piece of “fiction.” But the fact is Baru's book carries more credibility than the PMO's denial. In fact, the PMO's denial is effectively Sonia's denial, since the ring around Manmohan Singh comprises not his own people, but Sonia's - including his principal secretary Pulok Chatterjee and his media advisor Pankaj Pachauri. Neither of them owed their jobs to the PM.

Second, Baru's book takes the story forward and effectively paints Sonia Gandhi as almost directly controlling the PMO. The point it makes is the opposite of what was till recently received wisdom: the duality of power centres in UPA, one around the PM and his government, and another around Sonia Gandhi. Baru disabuses us of this notion by claiming that actually there was one power centre - and that power was not the PM. Files were being routinely shared by Sonia Gandhi through the Pulok Chatterjee route - making a mockery of the cabinet system and the oath of secrecy administered to the PM. How can someone not in government be privy to highly confidential files? Was the country's interest compromised in any way by this illegitimate information sharing?

This is what Baru's book says: “Pulok, who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh PMO at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had regular, almost daily, meetings with Sonia at which he was said to brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on important files to be cleared by the PM.”

A caveat is in order here: Baru exited the PMO in 2008 while Chatterjee was inducted in 2011 - and so this claim must be the product of Baru's research or anonymous sources. (Baru was called back from an academic assignment in Singapore around the time of UPA's 2009 victory to assist Singh in his second term, but the offer was yanked by the last minute, leaving Baru “traumatised”.) The PMO has denied Baru's claim and said: “It is categorically denied that any PMO file has ever been shown to Smt Sonia Gandhi.” But coming from the PMO, we must now presume the denial is really Sonia's.

What cannot be denied, though, is that Sonia certainly kept a close watch on the PMO - through Chatterjee. Whether files were actually shared with her or not is a side issue. Clearly, Sonia was the real power centre. There was no dual power centre - Manmohan Singh was a mere branch office of 10, Janpath, at least during UPA-2.

Third, the book also explains why Manmohan Singh, who seemed more relevant in UPA-1, was cut down to size in UPA-2. It seems the media's pronouncement that Manmohan Singh was the author of the Congress' victory in 2009 (Headlines screamed, “Singh is King”) unnerved the Dynasty. Sample this passage from the Hindustan Times on 16 May 2009, when the results were out: “Kingmakers are out. There is only one king in this election. And that's Manmohan Singh, the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) that won with a decisive margin, belying predictions of a hung parliament.” (Italics mine)

The media's attribution of the 2009 victory to Singh can probably be seen as the beginning of the end of the Manmohan-Sonia equation of complete trust. The Economic Times, which quoted extensively from Baru's book, had this to say today (12 April): “After the UPA's victory in 2009, Singh had assumed the victory would bolster his power, but ‘bit by bit, in a space of a few weeks, he was defanged'. While Singh thought he could induct the ministers he wanted into the cabinet, Baru said Sonia Gandhi ‘nipped that hope in the bud by offering (the) finance portfolio to Pranab (Mukherjee).' Singh had wanted to appoint his principal economic adviser C Rangarajan to that post. The PM also ‘tried to put his foot down on the induction of A Raja" but after 24 hours ‘he caved in to pressure from his own party and the DMK'.” (Parts in italics in the above paragraph are direct quotes from the book).

A few things have gotten mixed up here. The induction of Mukherjee happened before the 2009 victory after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The PM used this opportunity to shift the ineffectual Shivraj Patil out of home and induct the more energetic P Chidambaram in his place. But Baru is right to say he could not induct Rangarajan, who was reduced to being Chairman of the PM's Economic Advisory Council. It is clear that Sonia brought Mukherjee in to check Manmohan's intentions in the finance ministry. And given Mukherjee's poor equations with Singh, this is exactly what happened. Mukherjee got the portfolio in order to put Singh in his place, not because he was somehow Sonia's favourite. Even Mukherjee's elevation to the presidency was accidental - it happened because Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh looked like ganging up to propose APJ Abdul Kalam, when Sonia wanted a pliant Hamid Ansari for the job. Moving swiftly, Sonia sent Mukherjee to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Ansari stayed Veep.

Baru's most important amd damaging disclosure, however, relates to the debunking of the widely belief in dual power centres. Baru says this was because Manmohan Singh simply surrendered to Sonia's will. Quoting from the book, The Indian Express attributes this statement to Singh: “I have to come to terms with this. There cannot be two centres of power. That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power.”

Manmohan Singh, of course, is not going to confirm this, but the statement has a ring of truth around it. It is the most damaging part of Baru's book - one from which Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi cannot recover.

If the country is going downhill economically, we have to blame Sonia for it, and Manmohan for not standing up to her. There may have been only one power centre, but there is enough blame for distribution among two people.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/pms-surrender-to-sonia-baru-just-proves-what-we-knew-1477069.html

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"I can't hoodwink people by wearing such skull caps" - NaMo to Rajat Sharma. See full TV interview

April 12, 2014, 5:36 am

≫ Next: Manmohan Singh didn’t put wife’s name in Rajya Sabha affidavit: BJP

≪ Previous: Sanjaya Uvaaca. SoniaG destroyed India's constitutional institutions. Route: Pulok Chatterjee, Manmohan minions.

Read selective excerpts from Narendra Modi’s interview to Rajat Sharma in ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ on India TV

India TV Politics Desk [ Updated 12 Apr 2014, 15:54:27 ]

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New Delhi: In his first exclusive marathon interview to India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma on his popular Aap Ki Adalat show, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi opened up on a range of issues - his personal life, Gujarat riots, his relations with senior party leader L K Advani and replied to charges of giving land at throwaway prices to industrialists in Gujarat.

Here we selective excerpts of the interview:

Rajat Sharma: Important leaders of our country - Sonia, Chidambaram, Sharad -they are all worried that wherever they go, they get to hear “Abki baar, Modi Sarkar”.

Modi: I didn’t know that high profile people could be worried about such issues. If they are worried they it’s a sign of being small minded not big.

RS: Rahul Gandhi says that our nation doesn’t need a single chowkidaar. Modi wants to change the entire nation. I say that the nation needs crores of chowkidaars. What can a single chowkidaar do?

Modi: It a good thing that he listens to my speeches carefully and he knows that crores of chowkidar will serve him good. One could pose a problem. I am worried that if there are 150 crore chowkidaars then will they include Adarsh Scam culprits and those who have snatched lands of widows of Kargil martyrs? Their LS candidates who have been accused of land acquisition of the farmer of Rajasthan - will they also be chowkidaars? If this is the case then it seems that cat will be made in-charge of milk.

RS: Their slogan goes- Har haath shakti har haath tarakki.

Modi: They need to come up with ideas to put a lid on their work. Their hand that commits sin has to be portrayed in some other way. That is why, for them, it’s- har haath loot, har honth jhooth (Every hand loots, every lip speaks a lie).

RS: Anand Sharma, Congress Union Minister said in a press conference that BJP has spent Rs 10000 crore on publicity.

Modi: The first thing that Anand Sharma needs to do is to write to the EC. Then there is a govt agency named Enforcement Directorate. Since they don’t do anything, I’m giving them an idea of doing some work. Let them fully investigate it. Let Anand Sharma do it as fast as possible. If there is any objection from EC, I’m willing to writing to EC to let them do it.

RS: But Rahul Gandhi says that you are a person who can sell combs to even balds.

Modi: I used to sell tea. I never sold combs but the information that I can do it has reached them, is sort of achievement for me.

RS: Omar Abdullah says that you went to Punjab and accepted their attire, you went to Arunachal and wore their cap, you went to Assam and wore their dress but you refused to wear skull cap offered by Imam.

Modi: I have never seen Gandhi, Patel or Nehru wearing such skull cap. Indian politics has deteriorated. They can do anything for appeasement. I believe in respecting traditions of all religions. But at the same time, I have to respect my own tradition as well although I respect all traditions. I can’t hoodwink people by wearing such skull caps. But I believe in taking action against those who show disrespect to other’s caps.

RS: Nitish Kumar said that in public life, you have to wear both tilak and skull caps. You have to take care of sentiments of others.

Modi: If he thinks that it helps in taking care of sentiments then it’s his thought. I believe that their children should get better education. They should have Quran in one hand and computer in the other hand.

RS: You had said, “We are human beings. It pains even when a puppy comes under my car.”

Modi: In our country we say it pains even if an ant dies. These are proverbs. This should not be interpreted otherwise. And you should know that the person who had taken myinterview, despite being a foreigner, had tweeted that I did not mean anything like that. But the news traders, and am not talking about media, used this to sell their stuff.

RS: Azam Khan while referring to you has said today that we don’t need the sympathy of Modi, the elder brother of puppies.

Modi: I should say- thank you very much- to him because the loyalty of dogs is unparalleled. I’m proud that somebody saw this quality in me that will benefit the country.

RS: But it is also true that you got Amitabh Bachchan for promotion and marketing.

Modi: This is true...

RS: It’s the same Amitabh who was once a part of Congress and then SP...?

Modi: There is difference between Modi and others. He is indeed close to Mulayam Singh Yadav. He is from UP and thus he has his attachments. But Mulayam Singh used him. He used him in his election campaigns with the slogan - “UP mein hai dum, zulm hai kam”. But that didn’t work.

Amitabh’s role needs to be reflected with intellect. I used him to talk about Gujarat and not of Gujarat government. He advertises Kutch, its handicraft and lifestyle. So if I have that thought, that is my work. I use Amitabh Bachan as a productive resource for the welfare of Gujarat. It’s been around 5 years that he’s been working with me. Neither he has ever spoken about politics and nor have I. And today let me clarify, when I had given him the proposal that I wanted to promote tourism in Gujarat, he said, “I give you my voice and my face, you may use it”. He refused to take money from me. He does not take a single rupee for promoting tourism in Gujarat and for this I am extremely grateful to him.

RS: We thought he must be earning a lot from your Government.

Modi: I’m a “pakka Ahmedabadi” (pure Ahmedabadi). Our specialty is to find someone on whom we have least expenditure. We believe in single fare, double journey. We don’t give money to people easily.

RS: There’s one man’s rule in BJP. Modi’s name is chanted everywhere. Even on all theposters. It appears that there is no other leader left in BJP.

Modi: This is not true. BJP is a huge organization. It works in that structure. There is a galaxy of leaders who are equally competent. During elections we have to set a goal and prioritize issues. Even for this there is a committee of which Modi is not a part. Previously we worked under Atal ji’s guidance. Then we worked under Advani ji, Harshvardhan in Delhi, Shivraj Singh in MP and in Rajasthan we worked under Vasundhara Raje. So responsibilities are distributed according to the party’s goal. Right now I have been given this role and I have to do what the party has asked me to do. I am a worker of the party. We are a team.

Don't miss Narendra Modi's full interview to Rajat Sharma in "Aap Ki Adalat" onIndia TV on Saturday,April 12 (10pm) and Sunday, April 13 (10am)

http://www.indiatvnews.com/politics/national/narendra-modi-interview-rajat-sharma-aap-ki-adalat-india-tv-16538.html

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Manmohan Singh didn’t put wife’s name in Rajya Sabha affidavit: BJP

April 12, 2014, 6:40 am

≫ Next: No more Dhoom3 for Congress: Narendra Modi

≪ Previous: "I can't hoodwink people by wearing such skull caps" - NaMo to Rajat Sharma. See full TV interview

Manmohan Singh didn’t put wife’s name in Rajya Sabha affidavit: BJP

Prasad did not say affidavit was from which year, but Gujarat BJP leaders claimed it was filed in 2013 when Singh was re-elected to Upper House of Parliament.

Press Trust of India | Ahmedabad | April 12, 2014 7:06 pm

Manmohan Singhhad not mentioned his wife's name in the affidavit submitted along with nomination he filed as a Rajya Sabha candidate, claimed BJP. (PTI)

BJP on Saturday claimed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not mentioned his wife’s name in the affidavit submitted along with nomination he filed as a Rajya Sabha candidate, as the party sought to blunt Congress’attack on Narendra Modi over his marital status.

“This is Manmohan Singh’s affidavit that was put before the Rajya Sabha (Returning Officer). He has not put his wife’s name in that affidavit. Why should we talk about such issues?” BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad told a press meet here while waving a copy of what he claimed was the PM’s affidavit.

Prasad did not say the affidavit was from which year, but Gujarat BJP leaders claimed it was filed in 2013 when Singh was re-elected to theUpper House of Parliament.

“This country has been following a tradition that personal issues are notraised in public. His (Modi’s) elder brother made a statement that he had left his home and family life to serve the country,” he said.

Prasad was answering a volley of questions related to Modi’s affidavit, submitted along with nomination paper filed from Vadodara Lok Sabhaconstituency, where for the first time he revealed he is married.

Launching a counter-attack on Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, who had on Friday referred to Modi’s personal life, Prasad said, “Rahul Gandhi’s understanding is very limited and people of the country have understood it.”

“But BJP has its own set of values and we do not comment on somebody’s family issues. We can say many things about Pandit Nehru,Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. But we do not have such values,” Prasad said.

“They do not have important issues to raise. Hence, they sometimes raise the issue of communalism, secularism or personal issues.”

On Finance Minister P Chidambaram not contesting elections, Prasad said,” the day Chidambaram ran away from electoral battle, it was the first confirmation before the people that Congress is reluctant to fight. Chidambaram was the face of Congress’ development plank.”

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Prasad said BJP and its allies will win a major chunk of seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together send 120 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/manmohan-singh-didnt-put-wifes-name-in-rajya-sabha-affidavit-bjp/

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No more Dhoom3 for Congress: Narendra Modi

April 12, 2014, 6:54 am

≫ Next: Karti Chidambaram's lok sabha nomination challenged by IT Officer

≪ Previous: Manmohan Singh didn’t put wife’s name in Rajya Sabha affidavit: BJP

No more Dhoom3 for Congress: Narendra Modi

Sandhya Jain12 Apr 2014

In the first installment of his response to Rahul Gandhi’s intemperate attack on him at Doda on Friday, Narendra Modi attacked the Congress vice-president for travelling inRajasthan on a stolen motorcycle with a history sheeter, thundered against the grabbing of farmers’ lands by his brother-in-law, and challenged the Government of India and the Congress to clarify questions pertaining to the alleged foreign bank accounts of Captain Amarinder Singh’s wife and son. The Election Commission, he asserted firmly, needs to play its role in the matter.

Watch! Gujarat works for solar power, Congress worked for Damad power: Modi in Rajasthan

Speaking to a large gathering at Pachpadra in Barmer, Rajasthan, where the BJP has fielded Colonel Sonaram, Narendra Modi noted that when the ‘shehzada’ came to the region some days ago, he was nostalgic about the movie Dhoom 3. The BJP PrimeMinisterial contender said he wondered why, and then recalled the shehzada’s own escapade on a motorcycle.

As the crowd broke into a roar, he continued jocularly that the Congress vice-president came to Gopalgarh in Bharatpur district at the time of the riots in 2009, without informing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and moved about secretly on a motorcycle in a Dhoom 3 style. “Do you know whose vehicle it was?” he asked, and the crowd shouted in union that it was a stolen bike! “Who was driving?” he asked next, and the people responded, “A history sheeter!”

“No wonder he remembered Dhoom 3,” the Gujarat strongman mused. “There a father-son do kamaal (magic) and everything disappears (gets stolen), here in the nation we have a mother-son khel (game), but this time, though they have succeeded two times, this time there will be no Dhoom 3,” he prophesied.

Modi attacks Amarinder for ‘hiding’ foreign bank account detail

Pointing out that Barmer has the best land for solar energy, an area in which Gujarat has many accomplishments, he lamented the former Chief Minister had worked for “damaad power” (an allusion to Robert Vadra) and allowed the land of farmers to be cornered by the latter.

Thundering that the nation has been looted by corrupt persons who have stashed wealthin foreign banks and are loathe to bring the money back, he put the media in the dock for ignoring the news that broke two days ago to the effect that the Congress candidate from Amritsar, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, had not declared foreign bank accounts (in Geneva) of his wife and son in his affidavit before the Election Commission. This was made mandatory by the Election Commission from this year.

Since a serious issue has been raised before the Election Commission, the BJP veteran said, the Commission should play its role in bringing out the truth, ideally before the elections. As this is not a small issue, he exhorted the Government of India to declare the Captain innocent and save him if the allegations are untrue. Insisting that the BJP was not interested in ruining innocent lives, Narendra Modi said that Sonia ji and shehzada ji should tell the truth to the nation. If the Congress cannot tell, then after May 16, the new Government would unveil the truth before the people,” he guaranteed. “How did so much money come; you have to answer,” he said.

Congress worked overtime to put me behind bars: Modi

Adding a frisson of excitement to the heated political atmosphere, Narendra Modi promised people that a new scandal was about to be revealed. Insisting that Congress was in terminal decline and would get zero seats in some States including Rajasthan, he said it would not touch two digits in many states and would struggle to reach three digits on an all-India basis. Knowing this, the party is now focusing upon dirty tricks (gandi harkate mein vyast), but nothing would come of it. Pointing out that for the past 10 years, each and every agency of the Government of India, whether IB or CBI, had struggled to implicate him in some case or other and send him to jail, filing cases in so many courts, he said they still failed to hurt his prestige in the eyes of the people. “Madam Sonia ji, your sultanate did overtime to ruin me, main tap karke nikla hoon, but you are still trying, and the people will give a befitting reply (karara jawaab)”, he asserted.

BJP, he averred, was in the political arena only on the twin issues of su-rajya and development, and as promised in its manifesto, it would implement special plans for desert regions like Kutch and Barmer. Such ideas when implemented in Kutch after the famous Bhuj earthquake had made it the fastest growing district of Gujarat in just 10 years, and it was now growing and exporting mangoes. Barmer could thrive similarly, he said, once the river linking vision of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was implemented and flood waters diverted to drought prone areas.

Directing the people’s attention to neighbouring Pakistan, he said much was being done there in the field of gas and petroleum, and this must be a priority in Barmer also as it belongs to the same landmass. He urged the youth of the region to study at the Petroleum University in Gujarat so that they could avail of future employment opportunities.

Narendra Modi attacked the politics of vote-banks which laid out red carpets for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh but shunned refugees from Pakistan. As the crowd chanted in approval, he said those forced to flee from Pakistan deserve rights in India and must be treated as equal citizens of this land.

Modi elevates political discourse, his opponents drag it down

At Saladiya in Banswara district, Rajasthan, a region that has given several jawans and martyrs to the Army, Narendra Modi lamented that the recent Congress regime that did not see fit to erect a memorial for the fallen soldiers as had been done by the Gujarat Government at the Kutch border. The UPA Government at the Centre was similarly indifferent and did not even give the region a Sainik School; it remained unmoved when a jawan was beheaded by Pakistan.

Railing against the previous regime for the closure of the copper industry which had put 10,000 workers out of work, the Gujarat veteran said the policy paralysis at the Centre had destroyed the value of the rupee. In contrast, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had dared to undertake a series of nuclear tests at Pokharan and brave the outrage and economic sanctions imposed by the world by reaching out to overseas Indians and ensuring that the rupee did not fall. Today, an economist Prime Minister has put the rupee in the ICU.

Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries

Listing serial failures of the Ashok Gehlot regime, which was sharply rebuked by the Rajasthan High Court and even the Supreme Court, he pointed out that the physical environment of Rajasthan was very similar to Gujarat as both had deserts, less rain and few rivers, but determination had solved the crisis of drinking water and irrigation in Gujarat. He wound up the day with a packed rally at Pune, Maharashtra.

Narendra Modi addressing a Public Meeting in Pachpadara, Rajasthan

http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/12/no-more-dhoom3-for-congress-narendra-modi-210902.html

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BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accuses Captain Amarinder Singh of committing perjury

Table of Contents

Tin road caravan documentation

Mleccha as bhāratam janam

Harappan control over the Oman Sea

Meluhha, Mleccha areas: Sarasvati River Basin and Coastal Regions of Gujarat, Baluchistan, Ancient Near East

Congress runs to EC, complains about RSS campaigning for BJP

MYTH THAT MUST BE BUSTED AT EARLIEST

'Informer-Cop Nexus Behind TN Islamic Fundamentalism'

United against Modi, Muslim vote splits

Narendra Modi’s non-secret vs Rahul Gandhi’s mysteries

Needed a Shah Commission to inquire into Soniag_MMS operation destruction of Indian Constitution. It should be the way Justice Shah unraveled the atrocities of the Emergency. The current subversion is most insidious, diabolical because this was done even without declaring a State of Emergency.

Dr Sanjay Baru spills the beans in his book, says Sonia Gandhi cleared files before PM!

Untold accidents at the top

Book suggests PM threatened to quit

Sonia chose finance minister without consulting Manmohan, gave instructions on key files: Book

So where's the fiction?

Excerpts from Sanjay Baru's book 'The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh'

China Doubles Down on New Thorium Reactor

Leap-frogging uranium

Solving the Fukushima problem

Taking the technology back to China

A hundred thousand years from now

Jashodaben practised Sadbhavna for 20 years

PM’s surrender to Sonia: Baru just proves what we knew

Read selective excerpts from Narendra Modi’s interview to Rajat Sharma in ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ on India TV

Manmohan Singh didn’t put wife’s name in Rajya Sabha affidavit: BJP

No more Dhoom3 for Congress: Narendra Modi