Fwd: [arshavidya] Fw: Will Sonia Gandhi Fall -- Huffington Post
Ck.ashokumar
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Begin forwarded message:
From: Vijaya BNS Rao <bnsv...@yahoo.com>
Date: August 26, 2011 7:43:21 AM GMT+05:30
To: arsha...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [arshavidya] Fw: Will Sonia Gandhi Fall -- Huffington Post
Reply-To: arsha...@yahoogroups.com
--- On Wed, 24/8/11, MK Balu <mkb...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: MK Balu <mkb...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fw: Will Sonia Gandhi Fall -- Huffington Post
To: "MK Balu" <mkb...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, 24 August, 2011, 10:34 PM
World's #9 Most Powerful Person Now Accused of Corruption --
Will She Fall?
Posted: 04/25/11 07:17 AM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cleo-paskal/worlds-9-most-powerful-pe_b_853132.html
New Delhi . Some of India 's biggest fish are getting caught up in the
country's fast-growing wave of anti-corruption activity. In what could
be India 's equivalent of a judicial jasmine revolution, previously
invulnerable politicians, business icons, and pillars of the community
are all nervously keeping their lawyers on speed-dial.
The anti-corruption push is an unprecedented coming together of myriad
facets of Indian society. Religious leaders are concerned about the
effects on morality and spiritual growth. NGOs speak of the effects on
the poor. The middle class is angry about its future being stifled by
a smothering blanket of day-to-day corruption. The intelligence
services see corruption a clear threat to national security. And the
business community, thanks to globalization, has seen how efficiently
things can operate without having to constantly pay bribes or be
tangled in red tape, and they want the same thing at home.
Even the Supreme Court is fed up, with Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy
saying about the vast sums of Indian money being illegally hidden away
in Liechtenstein Bank:
We are talking about the huge money. It is a plunder of the nation. It
is a pure and simple theft of the national money. We are talking about
mind-boggling crime.
The scandals are bursting on to the front pages fast and thick. Suresh
Kalmadi, a Congress Party politician and the former head of the
corruption-plagued Commonwealth Games, was arrested April 25.
According to a report by the Indian Comptroller and Auditor General,
the 2G spectrum scam alone, in which 2G licenses were sold off in a
manner that was, to say the least, less than transparent, cost close
to $40 billion in lost revenue.
All across India , people are saying enough is enough. And suddenly the
unthinkable is starting to happen. People considered above reproach,
or at least untouchable, are coming under the judicial cross-hairs. 2G
alone has seen charges laid against one former government minister and
several captains of industry.
And the latest high profile target is one of the biggest fish of all,
Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, currently #9 on Forbes list of
the World's Most Powerful People.
Sonia Gandhi has one of the most remarkable life stories in
international politics. Born Edvige Antonia Albina Maino into a family
of modest means in rural Italy , she didn't even get a chance to
complete high school before heading to the UK for work. There she met
Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She
eventually married him and the young family moved in to Indira
Gandhi's New Delhi 's home, putting her literally in the heart of
Indian politics.
After Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, Sonia's husband Rajiv
became Prime Minister. Following Rajiv's 1991 assassination by Tamil
terrorists, there were rumors that Sonia was going to put herself
forward as Prime Minister.
As she herself later said, she "could not walk past the portraits of
my husband, my mother-in-law and her father and not feel that I had
some responsibility to try and save the party they had given their
lives to."
Given her focus on the party, it was fitting that instead of becoming
Prime Minister, she ended up as President of the powerful Congress
Party. Politically, it proved to be a smart move as it gave her power
without direct responsibility -- while she is #9 on Forbes list of
power people, the actual Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is
only #18. According to Forbes, "Gandhi remains the real power behind
the nuclear-tipped throne [...] she has cemented her status as true
heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty."
Her image is of a dutiful, submissive Indian wife, now widow. When her
husband was alive, she would walk behind him. In public she wears
saris. Although a devout Catholic, she is often photographed at Hindu
Temples . And like a good Indian mother, though she has decorously
pulled herself out of the race for Prime Minister, she is happy to
encourage her son, Rahul, to take the job.
However there have been growing, persistent murmurs about questionable
business deals and inexplicable exponential jumps in the personal
wealth of her and her family.
The allegations came out in the open in 1995 when M. D. Nalapat, then
Resident Editor ( Delhi ) of the world's largest English language
newspaper, the Times of India, began a groundbreaking series of
articles about Sonia.
The articles made the controversial (at the time) claim that the
public docility was just a ploy, and that Sonia actually had serious
political ambitions (later confirmed by her role in Congress). Also,
crucially, the series said that her desire for power wasn't simply
altruistic and that the wealth not only of her, but of her Italian
relatives, rose stratospherically after Rajiv Gandhi became Prime
Minister in 1984.
Nalapat's articles could not be ignored as he was one of India 's most
respected journalists and had, throughout his career, taken on corrupt
politicians, social inequity and institutionalized discrimination.
This however was a 'topic too far'. While the facts in the article
were never refuted, Nalapat was forced out of journalism in 1998 and
moved into academics.
Next came public questions from another highly reputed source, Sten
Lindstrom , Sweden 's special prosecutor investigating the pay-offs
associated with the sale of weapons by Bofors to the government of
India . His investigation showed that a close friend of Sonia's,
Ottavio Quattrocchi, has received kickbacks in the millions.
In 1998 Lindstrom gave an interview in which he said:
the Gandhis, particularly now Sonia, should explain how
Quattrocchi-owned companies got such fat sums as payoffs from the
Bofors deal. After all, what is the connection of Sonia and the Gandhi
family to Quattrocchi? Who introduced Quattrocchi and his AE Services
to Bofors? At least one thing is certainly known now. A part of the
payoffs definitely went to Quattrocchi. [...] the papers all pointed
to the Gandhi family.
Not only have the questions not been answered by Sonia, but in spite
of substantial evidence against him, Quattrocchi has managed to evade
prosecution in India , and has even had his kickback funds unfrozen
from overseas accounts.
Part of the genius of Sonia Gandhi is her ability to present herself
as a helpless victim, convincing even her political rivals not to fear
her as she is fatally flawed. In 1998, India was being led by BJP
Prime Minister Vajpayee. When Nalapat spoke with him about Sonia, he
was bluntly told to lay off, as, "so long as a white Christian lady is
head of the Congress Party, I [Vajpayee] and my party will always be
in power". Vajpayee and his party lost power to Sonia's Congress in
2004.
But the most serious threat to Sonia -- and, as she is at the apex of
the Congress Party, and so to Congress itself -- is now lying on the
desk of #18, the Prime Minister of India.
On April 15, former Law and Justice Minister and Harvard Professor Dr .
Subramanian Swamy asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for leave to lay
corruption charges against Sonia Gandhi. In a meticulously researched
200+ page submission Dr Swamy alleges Sonia Gandhi has been involved
in corruption in India since 1972 and personally benefited from the
Bofors scam (1986), has held billions in non-Indian bank accounts
since at least 1991, illegally profited from the Iraqi oil-for-food
deals (2002), and even accessed KGB payoffs during the Cold War.
The Prime Minister has three months to decide whether or not to grant
sanction to prosecute. If he doesn't, Dr. Swamy can take the case
directly to the Supreme Court, which under Chief Justice Kapadia is
showing a definite proclivity towards facilitating corruption cases.
While, so far, the corruption cases in India have caught up some
pretty big fish, if charges are laid against Sonia Gandhi, it won't
just be part of a wave, it will be a sea change.
Sonia Gandhi is not just an individual, she is the steely core of a
pillar of Indian politics. If she crumbles, it will shake the
foundations of the venerable Congress Party, and possibly leave a
gaping hole in the political scene. Meanwhile, a range of polarizing
and regional parties are ready to rush in and stake their claim. Given
the growing importance of India in our heavily globalized world, this
is not just an Indian story, this is one all should be following very
closely indeed.
Follow Cleo Paskal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cleopaskal
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
__._,_.___
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__,_._,___
Dr Bharadwaj
sarvE santu nirAmayAH |
sarvE bhadrAni paSyantu |
mA kaschit duHkha bhAg bhavEt ||
From: Ck.ashokumar <cka...@gmail.com>
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Sent: Sunday, 28 August 2011 10:54 PM
Subject: [sadgoshthi] Fwd: [arshavidya] Fw: Will Sonia Gandhi Fall -- Huffington Post
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