China escalates Arunachal dispute with India, blocking an ADB loan
China has blocked an Indian application for loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) because it contained a $60 million project for Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims is a disputed territory, reported The Indian Express newspaper Apr 14. It said China held back its approval at the ADB Board, saying it could not clear a plan containing a programme in a “disputed territory”.
At ADB, Beijing blocks India’s $60-m project for Arunachal
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Congress in a bind over its black money
Unquestioned Loot
Jairam Ramesh fumes that Advani has got the numbers wrong and it might not be 70lakh crore but a few lakh crores less.
Manish Tiwari refuses to answer calling the demand for return of Indian money a election stunt.
PM of course keeps his "dignified silence", seen as he is a poor orator. Of course he had said that his actions speak for themselves, and true to his words he has done nothing about the black money either.
Jairam Ramesh fumes that Advani has got the numbers wrong and it might not be 70lakh crore but a few lakh crores less.
Manish Tiwari refuses to answer calling the demand for return of Indian money a election stunt.
PM of course keeps his "dignified silence", seen as he is a poor orator. Of course he had said that his actions speak for themselves, and true to his words he has done nothing about the black money either.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Naidu and Chiranjeevi get their kneepads out
Naidu promises separate corporation for Christians
Will set up board to protect Christian properties: Chiranjeevi
GUNTUR: A separate corporation will be opened in the State to provide protection to all the Christian properties, renovate churches, and provide amounts to larger number of Christians to travel to Bethlehem, said Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
Addressing a gathering of more than a lakh of people on the inaugural day of the Bible Mission Annual Conventions opposite Acharya Nagarjuna University, the TDP leader said that the attacks on Christians all over the country had increased multi-fold and were never seen during his regime.
Promising to scrap the new Government Orders 746 and 747 amid loud cheers, as the GOs were allegedly being used to attack Christians, Mr. Naidu promised to provide additional land for the burial grounds.
Thanking the organising secretary Jerripothula Samuel Kiran for making efforts to help people have faith in the Jesus, who had only promoted peace in the world, he said conversions were not the route for reaching out to the disadvantaged.
Asking the devotees and the preachers gathered at the massive Bible Mission Convention venue at 4.30 p.m., he asked them to continue to pray for the world peace and end of terrorism.
All TDP leaders including party district president Prattipati Pulla Rao, Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, former Mayor Yesuratnam, and Mangalagiri in-charge Madala Rajendra received him at the Helipad arranged at Kantheru.
Will set up board to protect Christian properties: Chiranjeevi
GUNTUR: A separate corporation will be opened in the State to provide protection to all the Christian properties, renovate churches, and provide amounts to larger number of Christians to travel to Bethlehem, said Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
Addressing a gathering of more than a lakh of people on the inaugural day of the Bible Mission Annual Conventions opposite Acharya Nagarjuna University, the TDP leader said that the attacks on Christians all over the country had increased multi-fold and were never seen during his regime.
Promising to scrap the new Government Orders 746 and 747 amid loud cheers, as the GOs were allegedly being used to attack Christians, Mr. Naidu promised to provide additional land for the burial grounds.
Thanking the organising secretary Jerripothula Samuel Kiran for making efforts to help people have faith in the Jesus, who had only promoted peace in the world, he said conversions were not the route for reaching out to the disadvantaged.
Asking the devotees and the preachers gathered at the massive Bible Mission Convention venue at 4.30 p.m., he asked them to continue to pray for the world peace and end of terrorism.
All TDP leaders including party district president Prattipati Pulla Rao, Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, former Mayor Yesuratnam, and Mangalagiri in-charge Madala Rajendra received him at the Helipad arranged at Kantheru.
Same ol same ol
For Barack Obama, ignorance is bliss when it comes to the Afpak region
Despite America’s broken policy on Pakistan, President Barack Obama has unveiled the largest-ever US aid package for that country. Indeed, Islamabad is being made the biggest recipient of US aid in the world. If military, non-military and counterinsurgency aid and reimbursements to the Pakistani military were totalled, Pakistan — under Obama’s latest proposals — would overtake Israel and Egypt as the single largest recipient of American aid.
To supposedly mend a wrecked policy, Obama is doing more of what helped create the failure — dispensing rewards upfront. He has decided to shower billions of dollars in additional aid on Pakistan without even defining benchmarks for judging progress.
Worse yet, the Obama administration has neither acknowledged Pakistan’s role in staging terrorist strikes in India nor made the slightest effort to help bring the Pakistan-based planners of the unparalleled Mumbai attacks to justice. In the detailed, inter-agency “Afpak” policy unveiled by Obama, there is not even a passing mention of Pakistan’s use of proxies to wage a terror war against India. In other words, when Washington refuses to even recognize the problem, can New Delhi really expect the US to be of any help?
Despite America’s broken policy on Pakistan, President Barack Obama has unveiled the largest-ever US aid package for that country. Indeed, Islamabad is being made the biggest recipient of US aid in the world. If military, non-military and counterinsurgency aid and reimbursements to the Pakistani military were totalled, Pakistan — under Obama’s latest proposals — would overtake Israel and Egypt as the single largest recipient of American aid.
To supposedly mend a wrecked policy, Obama is doing more of what helped create the failure — dispensing rewards upfront. He has decided to shower billions of dollars in additional aid on Pakistan without even defining benchmarks for judging progress.
Worse yet, the Obama administration has neither acknowledged Pakistan’s role in staging terrorist strikes in India nor made the slightest effort to help bring the Pakistan-based planners of the unparalleled Mumbai attacks to justice. In the detailed, inter-agency “Afpak” policy unveiled by Obama, there is not even a passing mention of Pakistan’s use of proxies to wage a terror war against India. In other words, when Washington refuses to even recognize the problem, can New Delhi really expect the US to be of any help?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Obama policy reflects in Kashmir
Kupwara again: 2 para commandos, 2 militants killed in forest gunbattle
Two para commandos and two militants were killed in gunbattles in the Maidanpora forests of Lolab in Kupwara as operations spread over six days ended today. While the Army said they were still trying to establish the identity of the militants, police named them as Abu Zarar and Abu Mawiah of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Security forces are trying to find out if the militants belonged to a Lashkar team in the area or were from a group that had managed to evade troops after infiltrating in Gurez. A group of infiltrators, numbering between 15 and 25, had been intercepted by the Army near the Hajibal forests close to the Line of Control. While one militant was killed in a firefight, the rest melted into the forests.
Bramha Chellaney had exactly this to say about Obamas AfPak policy. He had said this would be the consequence.
The unfolding cut-and-run strategy
"The CBI has never been as misused ever before"
COUNTERVIEW Weak PM lived in denial
The CBI was misused to get Mayawati's vote for presidential elections but when it was over the noose tightened around her. When Mulayam went with the UPA, his trail went cold according to the CBI. When he moved away from the UPA, the CBI was back on his trail. The entire Quattrocchi episode showed how the government lost the case by colluding with the crown prosecution authorities in London to defreeze his account. A weak prime minister was compelled to offer infrastructural ministries like surface transport involving national highways construction to tainted ministers.
Swapan Dasgupta on Manmohans 5 years
Man leaves no footprints
The special circumstances of Manmohan’s rise to the top job should warn against describing his term as the “Singh era”. The PM, as a British magazine observed, was in office but not in power. The levers of power were always held by Sonia Gandhi and individual Cabinet Ministers were given unprecedented autonomy. The all-important PMO was reduced to a cipher, its role limited to periodic expressions of unhappiness. Till the “office of profit” issue forced Sonia to be more careful, even crucial policy making was vested in the National Advisory Council headed by her.Manmohan’s unique contribution lay in transforming the Central Government into a confederal arrangement. Lalu Yadav did his own thing in Rail Bhawan; Praful Patel forged his own policy of favouritism; Anbumani Ramadoss carried out his personal witch-hunt at AIIMS; and crony capitalism became the norm in DMK-run Ministries. Nor were Congress Cabinet Ministers more disciplined. Arjun Singh was on his own pseudo-radical trip; Mani Shankar Aiyar crafted his own foreign policy during his short stint as Petroleum Minister; and P Chidambaram never took kindly to even the gentlest hint of criticism. Meanwhile, political management was left to Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee.
The special circumstances of Manmohan’s rise to the top job should warn against describing his term as the “Singh era”. The PM, as a British magazine observed, was in office but not in power. The levers of power were always held by Sonia Gandhi and individual Cabinet Ministers were given unprecedented autonomy. The all-important PMO was reduced to a cipher, its role limited to periodic expressions of unhappiness. Till the “office of profit” issue forced Sonia to be more careful, even crucial policy making was vested in the National Advisory Council headed by her.Manmohan’s unique contribution lay in transforming the Central Government into a confederal arrangement. Lalu Yadav did his own thing in Rail Bhawan; Praful Patel forged his own policy of favouritism; Anbumani Ramadoss carried out his personal witch-hunt at AIIMS; and crony capitalism became the norm in DMK-run Ministries. Nor were Congress Cabinet Ministers more disciplined. Arjun Singh was on his own pseudo-radical trip; Mani Shankar Aiyar crafted his own foreign policy during his short stint as Petroleum Minister; and P Chidambaram never took kindly to even the gentlest hint of criticism. Meanwhile, political management was left to Ahmed Patel and Pranab Mukherjee.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Major incident ignored by English media
Prohibitory orders imposed following clash between two groups
Four temples were damaged. The miscreants also attacked the house of the former Mayor H N Srikantiah and ransacked furnitures
Four temples were damaged. The miscreants also attacked the house of the former Mayor H N Srikantiah and ransacked furnitures
Doubts about the success of President Barack Obama's strategy offering Pakistan a partnership to defeat insurgency
Pakistan could collapse within six months: report
Such dire prediction was given by David Kilcullen, a former adviser to top US military commander General David H. Petraeus.
Petraeus also echoed the same thought when he told a Congressional testimony last week that insurgency was one which could "take down" Pakistan, which is home to nuclear arms and al Qaeda.
Kilcullen's comments come as Pakistan is witnessing an unprecedented upswing in terrorists strikes and now some analysts in Pakistan and Washington are putting forward apocalyptic timetables for the country.
Such dire prediction was given by David Kilcullen, a former adviser to top US military commander General David H. Petraeus.
Petraeus also echoed the same thought when he told a Congressional testimony last week that insurgency was one which could "take down" Pakistan, which is home to nuclear arms and al Qaeda.
Kilcullen's comments come as Pakistan is witnessing an unprecedented upswing in terrorists strikes and now some analysts in Pakistan and Washington are putting forward apocalyptic timetables for the country.
Manmohan Singh and his government, instead of celebrating, seem to be worried at the success of eliminating banking secrecy
A deafening silence on funny money
It was unthinkable six months ago. Switzerland, once a pet of Western capitalism, is now its hate object. During World War II, the tiny nation was the common love of both the Allied and Axis powers, at war with each other. But neutral Switzerland, a friend of all since Napoleonic days, is friendless today. Its prime attraction, financial secrecy secured by law, has become its nemesis.
Germany first, France next, the US later, with the UK joining last, have, individually and together, declared a war against secret banking and tax havens like Switzerland.
It is a crusade by the West against the Swiss, says the media. Tax havens ask for no income tax from non-citizens and their banks ask no questions about their money. Modern capitalism had all along winked at secret banks and tax shelters; even nicknamed secret money ‘funny money’. But now the West chases secret money like it targets al-Qaeda.
Why this miraculous shift? The short answer: ‘financial crisis’. The Guardian of UK wrote (March 4), “European leaders grew increasingly agitated at how tax havens have fostered secrecy that has contributed to the collapse of banks the world over”. The newspaper’s Tax Gap Series estimated the unaccounted global wealth held in secret havens, including Switzerland, at $13 trillion. The annual tax evasion on the dirty fund, estimated at $255 billion was, the newspaper said, twice the global budget for poor nations. Der Spiegel, a German magazine, reported (March 3) that “Cash strapped governments around the world see the opportunity to finally put an end to bank secrecy” to access the money concealed by their nationals. It added “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are now joining forces” and “they have set their sights on Switzerland”.
The crusade against Swiss banks was started by Germany in early 2008 when its intelligence bribed — bribed? Yes — an informant in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein and got a CD containing the names of some 1,500 tax dodgers, and raided half of them, who were its citizens. It also offered, free of cost, the names of citizens of other countries. Many accepted the offer gratefully.
Thereafter, in the third quarter of 2008, Germany pressed the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to blacklist Switzerland for protecting tax dodgers.
Switzerland is an OECD member and twothirds of the Swiss speak German. Yet Germany couldn’t care less. Soon, France joined Germany.
“We want to put a stop to tax havens”, thundered Sarkozy.
At the preparatory G20 summit in Berlin early February, European leaders vowed to launch a global crusade against tax havens at the G20 meet in London, said the Irish Financial News. Europe’s anger was explicit in its refusal to allow the Swiss plea to be presented before the G20 in London.
The US moved even more menacingly. On February 18, the US Inland Revenue threatened the largest Swiss bank, UBS, with a lawsuit — that would have bankrupted it — unless the bank disclosed the names and accounts of some 300 American tax dodgers. A frightened UBS forthwith surrendered the secret data to the US before the account holders could stall it by a Swiss court order. Later, the Obama administration told the US Senate that it would bring laws to prise open the world’s most secretive tax havens.
At this point the UK joined the crusade.
Switzerland wilted under the pressure. Spiegel wrote that, for generations, the Swiss had held bank secrecy as “not negotiable”, and added that it was “no longer” so. The magazine quoted Swiss finance minister Merz as saying that they would have “to compromise”. The Swiss justice and foreign ministers, the magazine reported, had hinted that the country might have to stop protecting tax dodgers. Subsequently, a nervous Merz met Gordon Brown on March 14 with a deal to prevent any move in G20 to blacklist his country. The deal was that Swiss banks would adopt the bank transparency rules of OECD countries. Brown claimed that it was “the beginning of the end of banking secrecy”. Yet, the US is pressing ahead with a law to punish banking secrecy.
When the crusade of the West against Swiss banks is succeeding, here Dr Manmohan Singh and his government, instead of celebrating, seem to be worried at their success. Three bits of evidence expose the Congress-led government’s not-so-well-hidden worry. First, when Germany’s finance ministry offered the LTG bank secret data to any country that needed it, the government would not ask for it despite reports that it contained some 100 Indian names. When in April last year, L K Advani wrote to Manmohan, requesting to him to ask Germany for the data, the then finance minister responded evasively. Transparency International noted India’s “stoic silence over the issue” and that it “has not approached the German government for the data’’ (Economic Times, May 25 2008]. More, the revenue secretary in Delhi has reportedly advised the Indian ambassador in Berlin not to push Germany for the details as Germany might not like it – clear proof that the government is scuttling, not getting, the details.
Second, when, in the G20 preparatory meeting at Berlin, Germany and France were threatening to blacklist Swiss and other secret tax shelters, India’s silence at Berlin was deafening.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the PM’s righthand who, along with Dr Rakesh Mohan, represented India at Berlin, did not utter a word in support of Germany and France. India, a principal victim of banking secrecy, should have been leading the war cry against it. But it did not even morally support those waging the war.
Third, when on Sunday last L K Advani told Manmohan Singh that India should join in the G20 effort to break banking secrecy, the PM did not respond. The spokesperson of the Congress Abhishek Singhvi responded that G20 was not the forum for that, being blissfully ignorant of the fact that it was a main agenda of G20 meet.
In fact just ahead of the meeting, Sarkozy had threatened to walk out unless the G20 decisively acted against secret banks and tax havens.
No need to strain further to understand Manmohan’s compulsions. The fear that drove the ruling family to abort the 1987 probe into Indian monies secreted abroad is still evident. But Advani’s threat to turn the recovery of Indian wealth secreted abroad an election issue has got the PM and his party off guard. The party has blundered, saying G20 is not the forum, when it is precisely that. Now the prime minister cannot remain silent. He has to do something. At least make a show of doing. But can he? QED: Dr Manmohan Singh stands between the devil and the deep sea — between his party and L K Advani.
It was unthinkable six months ago. Switzerland, once a pet of Western capitalism, is now its hate object. During World War II, the tiny nation was the common love of both the Allied and Axis powers, at war with each other. But neutral Switzerland, a friend of all since Napoleonic days, is friendless today. Its prime attraction, financial secrecy secured by law, has become its nemesis.
Germany first, France next, the US later, with the UK joining last, have, individually and together, declared a war against secret banking and tax havens like Switzerland.
It is a crusade by the West against the Swiss, says the media. Tax havens ask for no income tax from non-citizens and their banks ask no questions about their money. Modern capitalism had all along winked at secret banks and tax shelters; even nicknamed secret money ‘funny money’. But now the West chases secret money like it targets al-Qaeda.
Why this miraculous shift? The short answer: ‘financial crisis’. The Guardian of UK wrote (March 4), “European leaders grew increasingly agitated at how tax havens have fostered secrecy that has contributed to the collapse of banks the world over”. The newspaper’s Tax Gap Series estimated the unaccounted global wealth held in secret havens, including Switzerland, at $13 trillion. The annual tax evasion on the dirty fund, estimated at $255 billion was, the newspaper said, twice the global budget for poor nations. Der Spiegel, a German magazine, reported (March 3) that “Cash strapped governments around the world see the opportunity to finally put an end to bank secrecy” to access the money concealed by their nationals. It added “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are now joining forces” and “they have set their sights on Switzerland”.
The crusade against Swiss banks was started by Germany in early 2008 when its intelligence bribed — bribed? Yes — an informant in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein and got a CD containing the names of some 1,500 tax dodgers, and raided half of them, who were its citizens. It also offered, free of cost, the names of citizens of other countries. Many accepted the offer gratefully.
Thereafter, in the third quarter of 2008, Germany pressed the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to blacklist Switzerland for protecting tax dodgers.
Switzerland is an OECD member and twothirds of the Swiss speak German. Yet Germany couldn’t care less. Soon, France joined Germany.
“We want to put a stop to tax havens”, thundered Sarkozy.
At the preparatory G20 summit in Berlin early February, European leaders vowed to launch a global crusade against tax havens at the G20 meet in London, said the Irish Financial News. Europe’s anger was explicit in its refusal to allow the Swiss plea to be presented before the G20 in London.
The US moved even more menacingly. On February 18, the US Inland Revenue threatened the largest Swiss bank, UBS, with a lawsuit — that would have bankrupted it — unless the bank disclosed the names and accounts of some 300 American tax dodgers. A frightened UBS forthwith surrendered the secret data to the US before the account holders could stall it by a Swiss court order. Later, the Obama administration told the US Senate that it would bring laws to prise open the world’s most secretive tax havens.
At this point the UK joined the crusade.
Switzerland wilted under the pressure. Spiegel wrote that, for generations, the Swiss had held bank secrecy as “not negotiable”, and added that it was “no longer” so. The magazine quoted Swiss finance minister Merz as saying that they would have “to compromise”. The Swiss justice and foreign ministers, the magazine reported, had hinted that the country might have to stop protecting tax dodgers. Subsequently, a nervous Merz met Gordon Brown on March 14 with a deal to prevent any move in G20 to blacklist his country. The deal was that Swiss banks would adopt the bank transparency rules of OECD countries. Brown claimed that it was “the beginning of the end of banking secrecy”. Yet, the US is pressing ahead with a law to punish banking secrecy.
When the crusade of the West against Swiss banks is succeeding, here Dr Manmohan Singh and his government, instead of celebrating, seem to be worried at their success. Three bits of evidence expose the Congress-led government’s not-so-well-hidden worry. First, when Germany’s finance ministry offered the LTG bank secret data to any country that needed it, the government would not ask for it despite reports that it contained some 100 Indian names. When in April last year, L K Advani wrote to Manmohan, requesting to him to ask Germany for the data, the then finance minister responded evasively. Transparency International noted India’s “stoic silence over the issue” and that it “has not approached the German government for the data’’ (Economic Times, May 25 2008]. More, the revenue secretary in Delhi has reportedly advised the Indian ambassador in Berlin not to push Germany for the details as Germany might not like it – clear proof that the government is scuttling, not getting, the details.
Second, when, in the G20 preparatory meeting at Berlin, Germany and France were threatening to blacklist Swiss and other secret tax shelters, India’s silence at Berlin was deafening.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the PM’s righthand who, along with Dr Rakesh Mohan, represented India at Berlin, did not utter a word in support of Germany and France. India, a principal victim of banking secrecy, should have been leading the war cry against it. But it did not even morally support those waging the war.
Third, when on Sunday last L K Advani told Manmohan Singh that India should join in the G20 effort to break banking secrecy, the PM did not respond. The spokesperson of the Congress Abhishek Singhvi responded that G20 was not the forum for that, being blissfully ignorant of the fact that it was a main agenda of G20 meet.
In fact just ahead of the meeting, Sarkozy had threatened to walk out unless the G20 decisively acted against secret banks and tax havens.
No need to strain further to understand Manmohan’s compulsions. The fear that drove the ruling family to abort the 1987 probe into Indian monies secreted abroad is still evident. But Advani’s threat to turn the recovery of Indian wealth secreted abroad an election issue has got the PM and his party off guard. The party has blundered, saying G20 is not the forum, when it is precisely that. Now the prime minister cannot remain silent. He has to do something. At least make a show of doing. But can he? QED: Dr Manmohan Singh stands between the devil and the deep sea — between his party and L K Advani.
UPA refuses to get back Indian tax money stashed abroad
Secret wealth abroad
Switzerland has been accused of giving shelter to black money
and there has been a lot of inflow of such wealth from India and other countries of the world.” This is not L K Advani, on election mode, speaking last Sunday, but the Swiss ambassador to India briefing the media in Delhi last year.
The occasion was the 60th anniversary of Indo-Swiss Friendship Treaty. Admitting that Indian black money gets hoarded in his country, he added that the new law in Switzerland would, not stop it, but control it “up to a certain limit”.
The Swiss diplomat authentically answers the first of the FAQs, that is, whether a lot of Indian money is really stashed away in Swiss banks. Swiss banks are not the only secret destination. There are 37 such shelters in the world, says US Inland Revenue. The secret owners of the secreted monies operate in secrecy — venal businessmen, corrupt politicians, public servants, drug lords, and criminal gangs like the D-company. The slush monies are the financial RDX for terror, besides weapons of mass destruction of national and global finance. That there is secret money is no more a secret. Only the amounts and persons are secret. But how much of India’s stolen wealth could be stashed in Switzerland? Specific estimates of this later. Before that, here is a sideshow, but a relevant one.
In the late 1980s, at the behest of The Indian Express, while investigating the Reliance scam, I had attempted to trail the Indian monies secreted abroad. In the course of the probe, I had contacted Fairfax, a US investigative firm, to uncover the Indian wealth stashed abroad. Impressed by their skills, I persuaded the Government of India to engage the firm for the task. Fairfax agreed to work for a slice of the black wealth uncovered by them as fee.
According to Swiss sources then, the Indian money secreted in Swiss banks was some $300 billion. That was enough to excite Fairfax to go for the kill. But, soon my efforts landed me in jail on March 13, 1987, when the CBI arrested me on charges that later turned out to be bogus, but were enough to stop the probe. The whole nation knew then that the real reason why rulers struck was their fear that the probe had targeted the Bofors payoff and secret money of the ruling family abroad. Rajiv Gandhi, who was the prime minister then, moved honest and bold civil servants like Vinod Pandey and Bhure Lal out of the probe and eventually sacked V P Singh who, as finance minister then, had authorised the efforts.
The chain of events that followed led to corruption emerging as the major issue in the 1989 polls in which Rajiv Gandhi, who had wiped out the opposition in 1984 elections, was defeated, and V P Singh became the prime minister. But there is a great lesson in these developments that often goes unnoticed. And that is, the way the bold national interest initiative to unearth the Indian black wealth abroad was aborted clearly confirmed that the ruling family was mortally afraid of any probe into secret money abroad. This fear haunts the family-led Congress party even today. That is why the 1987 episode is relevant now.
Now back to the main story.
Illicit money is the dirty outcome of modern capitalism. But, after 9/11, the US realised that not just the buccaneers in business, but Osama bin Laden could also hide his funds in secret havens and use them to bomb the world. Campaigns against dirty money as high security risk commenced with the path-breaking research done by Raymond W Baker, a Harvard MBA and a Brookings scholar. He published his research as a book Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free- Market System. The book was published in 2005. This set off intense debate in the US as the exposure linked dirty business and dirty money with terror and national security.
Raymond Baker had estimated, using authentic data, tools and reasons, the dirty wealth secreted in banks at $11.5 trillion to which, he found, one more trillion was being added annually. He added that in the process the West was getting an annual bounty of $500 billion from the developing countries, India included.
Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a global watchdog headed by Baker to curtail illicit money flows, has recently brought out detailed estimates of the black wealth hoarded in secret havens from different countries. GFI research shows that during the period 2002 to 2006, annually $27.3 billion was stashed away from India, making a total of $137.5 billion for the five-year period. That is, in just five years, Indian wealth amounting to Rs 6.88 lakh crore has been smuggled out of India. This gives a clue as to how much Indian money would have slipped out of India in the last 62 years, particularly during the Nehruvian socialist regime when the income tax (97.5 per cent) and wealth tax (almost equal to the income earned on investments) together constituted double the income earned.
It is undisputed that the Nehruvian socialist model forced huge sums out of India. So the amount of Indian black wealth secreted away in the last 60 years — estimated at from $500 billion (Rs 25 lakh crore) to $1400 billion (Rs 70 lakh crore) — does not seem to be wide off the mark. Economists call it flight of capital. This is the people’s money stolen from them.
See the consequence even if part of it is brought back. A portion of it would make India free from all external debts which is now over $220 billion; India will transform into an economic superpower; some 10 or 15 Indian rupees could buy a US dollar which today 50 Indian rupees cannot; a litre of petrol on our roadside would cost Rs 15 or even less, against today’s 50 plus; the cost of imports in rupee terms would be down to a third or half; India’s entire infrastructure needs can be funded; India will become so energy efficient and costcompetitive that exporters may need no sops at all; India will lend to — not, as it does now, borrow from — the world; Indian housing can be funded at affordable cost; rural poverty can be wiped out... The list is endless. But, then, is it possible to bring back the secreted monies? What are the roadblocks to such efforts?
comment@gurumurthy.net
About the author:
S Gurumurthy is a well-known commentator on political and economic issues
Switzerland has been accused of giving shelter to black money
and there has been a lot of inflow of such wealth from India and other countries of the world.” This is not L K Advani, on election mode, speaking last Sunday, but the Swiss ambassador to India briefing the media in Delhi last year.
The occasion was the 60th anniversary of Indo-Swiss Friendship Treaty. Admitting that Indian black money gets hoarded in his country, he added that the new law in Switzerland would, not stop it, but control it “up to a certain limit”.
The Swiss diplomat authentically answers the first of the FAQs, that is, whether a lot of Indian money is really stashed away in Swiss banks. Swiss banks are not the only secret destination. There are 37 such shelters in the world, says US Inland Revenue. The secret owners of the secreted monies operate in secrecy — venal businessmen, corrupt politicians, public servants, drug lords, and criminal gangs like the D-company. The slush monies are the financial RDX for terror, besides weapons of mass destruction of national and global finance. That there is secret money is no more a secret. Only the amounts and persons are secret. But how much of India’s stolen wealth could be stashed in Switzerland? Specific estimates of this later. Before that, here is a sideshow, but a relevant one.
In the late 1980s, at the behest of The Indian Express, while investigating the Reliance scam, I had attempted to trail the Indian monies secreted abroad. In the course of the probe, I had contacted Fairfax, a US investigative firm, to uncover the Indian wealth stashed abroad. Impressed by their skills, I persuaded the Government of India to engage the firm for the task. Fairfax agreed to work for a slice of the black wealth uncovered by them as fee.
According to Swiss sources then, the Indian money secreted in Swiss banks was some $300 billion. That was enough to excite Fairfax to go for the kill. But, soon my efforts landed me in jail on March 13, 1987, when the CBI arrested me on charges that later turned out to be bogus, but were enough to stop the probe. The whole nation knew then that the real reason why rulers struck was their fear that the probe had targeted the Bofors payoff and secret money of the ruling family abroad. Rajiv Gandhi, who was the prime minister then, moved honest and bold civil servants like Vinod Pandey and Bhure Lal out of the probe and eventually sacked V P Singh who, as finance minister then, had authorised the efforts.
The chain of events that followed led to corruption emerging as the major issue in the 1989 polls in which Rajiv Gandhi, who had wiped out the opposition in 1984 elections, was defeated, and V P Singh became the prime minister. But there is a great lesson in these developments that often goes unnoticed. And that is, the way the bold national interest initiative to unearth the Indian black wealth abroad was aborted clearly confirmed that the ruling family was mortally afraid of any probe into secret money abroad. This fear haunts the family-led Congress party even today. That is why the 1987 episode is relevant now.
Now back to the main story.
Illicit money is the dirty outcome of modern capitalism. But, after 9/11, the US realised that not just the buccaneers in business, but Osama bin Laden could also hide his funds in secret havens and use them to bomb the world. Campaigns against dirty money as high security risk commenced with the path-breaking research done by Raymond W Baker, a Harvard MBA and a Brookings scholar. He published his research as a book Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free- Market System. The book was published in 2005. This set off intense debate in the US as the exposure linked dirty business and dirty money with terror and national security.
Raymond Baker had estimated, using authentic data, tools and reasons, the dirty wealth secreted in banks at $11.5 trillion to which, he found, one more trillion was being added annually. He added that in the process the West was getting an annual bounty of $500 billion from the developing countries, India included.
Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a global watchdog headed by Baker to curtail illicit money flows, has recently brought out detailed estimates of the black wealth hoarded in secret havens from different countries. GFI research shows that during the period 2002 to 2006, annually $27.3 billion was stashed away from India, making a total of $137.5 billion for the five-year period. That is, in just five years, Indian wealth amounting to Rs 6.88 lakh crore has been smuggled out of India. This gives a clue as to how much Indian money would have slipped out of India in the last 62 years, particularly during the Nehruvian socialist regime when the income tax (97.5 per cent) and wealth tax (almost equal to the income earned on investments) together constituted double the income earned.
It is undisputed that the Nehruvian socialist model forced huge sums out of India. So the amount of Indian black wealth secreted away in the last 60 years — estimated at from $500 billion (Rs 25 lakh crore) to $1400 billion (Rs 70 lakh crore) — does not seem to be wide off the mark. Economists call it flight of capital. This is the people’s money stolen from them.
See the consequence even if part of it is brought back. A portion of it would make India free from all external debts which is now over $220 billion; India will transform into an economic superpower; some 10 or 15 Indian rupees could buy a US dollar which today 50 Indian rupees cannot; a litre of petrol on our roadside would cost Rs 15 or even less, against today’s 50 plus; the cost of imports in rupee terms would be down to a third or half; India’s entire infrastructure needs can be funded; India will become so energy efficient and costcompetitive that exporters may need no sops at all; India will lend to — not, as it does now, borrow from — the world; Indian housing can be funded at affordable cost; rural poverty can be wiped out... The list is endless. But, then, is it possible to bring back the secreted monies? What are the roadblocks to such efforts?
comment@gurumurthy.net
About the author:
S Gurumurthy is a well-known commentator on political and economic issues
Friday, April 3, 2009
BJP Manifesto
BJP releases election manifesto
National Identity Card for all Indians
Bid to strength party's pro-jawan image
Conversion issue raised
Uniform civil code for gender equality
'Parl nod for internat treaties to be mandatory'
National Identity Card for all Indians
Bid to strength party's pro-jawan image
Conversion issue raised
Uniform civil code for gender equality
'Parl nod for internat treaties to be mandatory'
Convict Sanjaay Dutt talks morality
Sanjay Dutt: Pawn-who-would-be-Queen
Cine star Sanjay Dutt, convicted in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and now general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, crossed the limits of normal and political decency by insinuating that Law Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj was responsible for the Supreme Court decision to deny him permission to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
So grave are the implications of his virtual challenge to the ruling dispensation and judicial independence, that Chief Justice of India, Mr. KG Balakrishnan, had to take the utterly unprecedented step of formally and personally denying the allegations.
While it is debatable if the Chief Justice of India should himself have issued the denial, the fact that the Supreme Court as an institution felt pained and compelled to do so, has taken us to a new low in public life. Possibly the Honourable Court felt that the Law Minister’s admission that he received Sanjay Dutt at his residence on 30 March after Dutt alleged that he had a ‘sting’ CD, cast a shadow over judicial probity and independence. Whichever way one looks at it – a convict on bail has thrown mud at one of the high institutions of the land, and he has dared to do so only because he is politically well-connected and well-heeled.
Bhikkuni Ma Dhammananda - Colonisation through faith
Conversion: Colonization through Faith
"Looking at the unethical conversions that Christian missionaries have been working very hard for, they can offer only material support. We should not trade material comfort with our spiritual liberation. The message is direct and strong. We will not be shaken by the unethical and evil approach, trying to look down upon Buddhist belief and practices.
"Looking at the unethical conversions that Christian missionaries have been working very hard for, they can offer only material support. We should not trade material comfort with our spiritual liberation. The message is direct and strong. We will not be shaken by the unethical and evil approach, trying to look down upon Buddhist belief and practices.
Our Sri Lankan sisters told us what Christian missionaries do. They made the Buddha into a culprit by picking on the fact that he left his new born baby and responsibility to his family. Buddhists must realize that the Prince chose to leave his family only to return to deliver them spiritually. The spiritual deliverance is much more long lasting and he not only brought about spiritual freedom for himself, his family, but also humankind. The Buddha’s message was the greatest achievement of the human era.
When a Buddhist has not studied Buddhist teaching properly, how can he or she put it into practice? How can he or she defend the teaching? How can he/she differentiate the false accusation bombarded against the Buddha and his teaching through unethical conversion?
The so-called Buddhists would choose material support as offered by the missionary readily, as it is direct material gain. They do not have spiritual value which would enable them to have a happy life. It will take them a long while to realize that life with material wealth as offered by a Christian missionary can support them only temporarily. On the other hand, they are uprooted from their own culture which comes with all the social values as the foundation of the society of our forefathers.
While we are affirming that Buddhism can withstand the storm of conversion, Buddhism is definitely relevant to modern society; it is only Buddhists who can prove that such belief can become a reality in their own commitment, in their own lives.
The change must happen now. They cannot keep Buddhism alive and active for the future generation if Buddhism is not lived in this generation.
Dhammo have rakkhati, Dhamma carim
Dhamma protects one who practices dhamma
But we must also protect dhamma by making it real in our lives and not only on our lips."
My response to the article -
| good analysis by author of the political proclivities of the Abrahamic religions and the purely spiritual dimension of the Eastern Dharmas. One must also add that conversions are colonialism through subtle means. The existing way of life and thought is suplanted with one that is foreign. Conversions everywhere has had a huge political and social impact on the people and land. Example is the north east of India where a war against the coutry is being fought in the name of Nagalim for Christ. Where Christians are in a majority the larger Christians nations are brought to bear pressure to effect a partition like in the case of East Timor. Conversions must be stopped and combated by all means possible. GopalKrishnaiah, you have swallowed the Christian propaganda hook, line, sinker and all. Caste system is the one thing that christists constantly beat the Hindus with. If you sincere about discussion and convincing anybody, you will also mention that each caste in India strives to maintain its caste identity irrespective of how much Christists shout from rooftops about how the "lower" castes are oppressed. the concept of hierarchy arose due to the European steeped in the eurocentric thinking, projecting his own social structure on to the Hindu way of life. I ask you to speak to a Kuruba or a Madiga and ask him if he wants to be a Brahmin, the loud and resounding answer will be a NO. Each caste/tribe is proud of its identity and beliefs. Violence that happens are due to struggles for increasingly scarce resources and the jockeying for political space by both groups. This is normal in any country including ones where there is no democracy. Hogwash is what Christists claim to be a utopian society. There are separate churches for different castes and there is no intermarriage. Now Christists are claiming reservation! Why do you need reservation when you are no the oppresssed class anymore? | ||
| vijay | ||
| 03 Apr 2009 |
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Clean Chit for killer of Sikhs, NSA for Varun Gandhi
Tytler gets clean chit in 1984 riots case, Sikhs protest
Reacting strongly to the CBI's clean chit, Phoolka, who has spearheaded one of the longest and most tortuous legal battles to gain justice for the victims of the 1984 riots, said the verdict was "upsetting".
"It is upsetting. Ever since the case went to the CBI, the agency has been eager to give Tytler a clean chit. We will not give up our fight yet. Money and political muscle will not last long," said Phoolka.
"It is sad to see that even before the seal of the final report was opened, Tytler knew that he had got a clean chit."
Reacting strongly to the CBI's clean chit, Phoolka, who has spearheaded one of the longest and most tortuous legal battles to gain justice for the victims of the 1984 riots, said the verdict was "upsetting".
"It is upsetting. Ever since the case went to the CBI, the agency has been eager to give Tytler a clean chit. We will not give up our fight yet. Money and political muscle will not last long," said Phoolka.
"It is sad to see that even before the seal of the final report was opened, Tytler knew that he had got a clean chit."
Religious conversion-‘is God’s work
A befitting rebuttal to Sister Prema, the Superior General of Missionaries of Charity
Sr Prema further explained that, ‘Every human being has the right to believe. Each person is born with dignity. Religious conversion is God’s work’. The contradictions galore within the two sentences are glaring. If every person has the right to believe then where is the need to initiate that person to something new and strange and in something in which that person is not born in? Should one god be exorcised out of the person and another god be installed to uphold the dignity with which this person was born with? This is actually what conversion is all about. Why this rupturing of the person from what he/she was .So what Sr Prema really means is that every person has a right to be converted and hence the right of the person to believe is conditioned and restricted to only believing in the god in whom Sr Prema and her whole church believes in. This is what Sr Prema articulated when she so naively asserted that every person has a right to believe and every person is born with dignity. That this god is only 2000 years old and somehow seems to be always in the company of those who invade the land of others is another dimension which needs a longer treatise.
Sr Prema has unwittingly exposed the bluff of the Congress and the UPA leaders. We are told that conversion is not taking place. Conversion takes different forms-globally, it is disguised as a military coup, violence and very often a deception of service and development is the sheen given to this violent conversion. Yes conversion is violence wrought on a person-to deprive the person of his/her dignity which according to Sr Prema every person is born with-to tear the person off his affinity, his religious heritage and made him/her an alien is a psychological bleeding to death. Christianity and conversion are two sides of the same coin. Where ever Christianity went it was bloodshed-destruction, and a hidden agenda of political power, economic aggrandizement, and pauperization of the victims. In the words of the Kenyatta (the Kenyan freedom fighter) ‘when the missionaries came they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray,’ We closed our eyes, when we opened them, they had our lands and we had the Bible’. This is true not only in Africa but all over the globe. Those countries which broke away from the stranglehold of Vatican became progressive-like Canada, Australia, England but those colonized by the catholic powers like Spain, Portugal Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Italy are mired in military rule and church tyranny. Christianity today likes to be seen as a peace loving, compassionate religion of brotherhood. But far from it-the religion was born in blood and grew in bloodshed. Economic and political powers are its hidden agenda covered with service organizations, education institutions etc.
Sr Prema further explained that, ‘Every human being has the right to believe. Each person is born with dignity. Religious conversion is God’s work’. The contradictions galore within the two sentences are glaring. If every person has the right to believe then where is the need to initiate that person to something new and strange and in something in which that person is not born in? Should one god be exorcised out of the person and another god be installed to uphold the dignity with which this person was born with? This is actually what conversion is all about. Why this rupturing of the person from what he/she was .So what Sr Prema really means is that every person has a right to be converted and hence the right of the person to believe is conditioned and restricted to only believing in the god in whom Sr Prema and her whole church believes in. This is what Sr Prema articulated when she so naively asserted that every person has a right to believe and every person is born with dignity. That this god is only 2000 years old and somehow seems to be always in the company of those who invade the land of others is another dimension which needs a longer treatise.
Sr Prema has unwittingly exposed the bluff of the Congress and the UPA leaders. We are told that conversion is not taking place. Conversion takes different forms-globally, it is disguised as a military coup, violence and very often a deception of service and development is the sheen given to this violent conversion. Yes conversion is violence wrought on a person-to deprive the person of his/her dignity which according to Sr Prema every person is born with-to tear the person off his affinity, his religious heritage and made him/her an alien is a psychological bleeding to death. Christianity and conversion are two sides of the same coin. Where ever Christianity went it was bloodshed-destruction, and a hidden agenda of political power, economic aggrandizement, and pauperization of the victims. In the words of the Kenyatta (the Kenyan freedom fighter) ‘when the missionaries came they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray,’ We closed our eyes, when we opened them, they had our lands and we had the Bible’. This is true not only in Africa but all over the globe. Those countries which broke away from the stranglehold of Vatican became progressive-like Canada, Australia, England but those colonized by the catholic powers like Spain, Portugal Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Italy are mired in military rule and church tyranny. Christianity today likes to be seen as a peace loving, compassionate religion of brotherhood. But far from it-the religion was born in blood and grew in bloodshed. Economic and political powers are its hidden agenda covered with service organizations, education institutions etc.
The bane of being Hindu
To kill a mocking bird Bane of being Hindu
The Congress is openly seeking the support of ulemas of Deoband, Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulavis of Bahralvi, Imam of Jama Masjid and Bangladeshi infiltrators on purely communal lines. But neither the Election Commission nor the media accuses it of communal politics. The media does not expose them either. In Mizoram, Nagaland and other North-eastern states, the Congress plays Christian card promising the land of the Bible, but it gets away in the name of secularism. Any number of Bishops have written to the Congress high command demanding tickets for their nominees and many of them were given ticket.
More blatant is the crass minorityism cynically being promoted by the CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, BSP and others. CPM’s closest ally in Kerala is Madani, a religious fanatic whose links with various terrorist incidents in the country is well-known. Another fanatic leader who wants to introduce shariat in the country, Kantapuram Musaliar is a bosom ally who is canvassing for the CPM. All these people are known for their communally charged vitriol.
A report from Uttar Pradesh said the Samajwadi Party and BSP together have fielded nearly fifty candidates with serious criminal record, mostly from the minority community and it is likely as many as two dozen of them would enter Lok Sabha. The Samajwadi Party which defended terrorists from Azamgarh who attacked Delhi and insulted the memory of the slain police officer MC Sharma by offering his widow a fake cheque has no qualms about its crass communal politics. All these go scot-free not only because the Constitutional authorities are biased, but also because the political milieu in the country is such that only the word “Hindu” is objectionable and communal.
The Congress is openly seeking the support of ulemas of Deoband, Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulavis of Bahralvi, Imam of Jama Masjid and Bangladeshi infiltrators on purely communal lines. But neither the Election Commission nor the media accuses it of communal politics. The media does not expose them either. In Mizoram, Nagaland and other North-eastern states, the Congress plays Christian card promising the land of the Bible, but it gets away in the name of secularism. Any number of Bishops have written to the Congress high command demanding tickets for their nominees and many of them were given ticket.
More blatant is the crass minorityism cynically being promoted by the CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, BSP and others. CPM’s closest ally in Kerala is Madani, a religious fanatic whose links with various terrorist incidents in the country is well-known. Another fanatic leader who wants to introduce shariat in the country, Kantapuram Musaliar is a bosom ally who is canvassing for the CPM. All these people are known for their communally charged vitriol.
A report from Uttar Pradesh said the Samajwadi Party and BSP together have fielded nearly fifty candidates with serious criminal record, mostly from the minority community and it is likely as many as two dozen of them would enter Lok Sabha. The Samajwadi Party which defended terrorists from Azamgarh who attacked Delhi and insulted the memory of the slain police officer MC Sharma by offering his widow a fake cheque has no qualms about its crass communal politics. All these go scot-free not only because the Constitutional authorities are biased, but also because the political milieu in the country is such that only the word “Hindu” is objectionable and communal.
Hindu children taken away from parents in New England
State faces suit over foster family placement
Imagine that the state took three children from an orthodox Jewish family and housed them with Christian foster families who brought them to church on Sundays and served them pork chops for dinner.
The state Division for Children Youth & Families has done just that, except that the three children are Hindu, according to a lawsuit their parents filed against the state earlier this month in U.S. District Court.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Hindutva movement is the product of this struggle against communalism
True colours of communalism
The true genesis of communalism lies in an obscure document called the Pirpur Report. This report was published in 1938 and lists Muslim “grievances” as under:
- Being insulted by the singing of the idolatrous anthem Vande Mataram
- Not recognising Urdu as a national link-language
- Mahatma Gandhi’s appeals against cow slaughter
The main opposition to communalism ensued from the Hindu Mahasabha, and not the Congress Party. In several ways, the present-day Hindutva movement is the product of this struggle against communalism. The Hindu Mahasabha’s manifesto was to abolish communalism and make India a democracy without separate electorate or communal quotas. However, the Congress defended its compromise with communalism by assuming symmetry between the Muslim League and the Mahasabha. The irony can’t be harsher: While the Muslim League demanded — and got — separateness, the Hindu Mahasabha was reprimanded for fighting against this very demand for separatism.
Organized religions are inherently POLITICAL organizations
Missionaries are Colonialists
Organized religions are inherently POLITICAL organizations. There is a fundamental difference between the financial enterprise and political machinations of an organized religion versus a mass of independent, unaffiliated believers, philosophers, and mystics who do not support any organized religion.
Christianity and Islam are known as proselytizing religions because they make an organized and systematic effort to gain converts, and they often provide services, products, or employment to attract converts. Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism show far less zeal about gaining converts, which is why you almost never hear about Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist missionaries.
Secular state? Not in Christian Andhra Pradesh
YSR’s son-in-law threatens action against attackers
Please note that YSR's son in law does not hold any publicc position. So i wonder what action he is threatning to take?
He goes on to bash the Orissa and Karnataka governments for failing to protect minorities while the incident happened in AP.
Even as Kumar maintained that he is not into political Campaigning, other religious leaders present with him gave a call to Christians to vote for the Congress in the upcoming assembly and general elections this month.
A case was registered against him in Khammam district last week while Rs 10 lakh was seized from a group of pastors who organised a meeting with him in Karimnagar two days ago.
Seems like Anil Kumar is not just answering the call of the Christian Gods but also that of his political god and his father-in-law Samuel Rajashekara Reddy. EC scanner now on this incident.
Varun on the hit list for calling himself Hindu
Shakeel man’s entry baffles Intelligence
Intelligence agents as well as the police are wondering how Rashid Malabari alias “Double” hired by Pakistan-based Chota Shakeel to kill BJP leader Mr Varun Gandhi and Sri Ram Sene’s Mr Pramod Muthalik managed to sneak into the country via sea route and land on the coastal Karnataka’s Mangalore city.
UP in denial as to how a victim of terrorism and religious fascism can be slapped with an act, the NSA, that is designed to catch the perpretators of terror. Varun Gandhis security upgraded to Z for what reason then?
Further confirmation of Rasheed Malabaris involvement with the Chota Shakeel gang comes from the phone calls received demanding his release or else....
Wonder if the PM is losing any sleep now. Oh yes he probably is, Rasheed Malabari is "wrongfully" in jail isnt he? Commies and Congies protests coming soon baying after Yediyurappas BJP government. If any blood is to spill, rather be of the lowly Hindoo.
Religion of peace on a peace mission
Trained pilots in India on terror mission
All security agencies have now been briefed about a group of 20 people entering India. A source said, "A group of 20 people, who could be Pakistani nationals, have entered the country to carry out terror strikes or a plane hijack. The group includes seven trained pilots and 13-14 women."
How on earth did they enter the country?? Barbarians are at the gates and we have a bunch of fools at the center who slap NSA on Varun gandhi and are busy carving out votebanks for themselves. The people of Bharat deserve to have their country returned to them.
Love Bharat or return it to Bharateeyas.
Kasab gets legal representation
Will fight Kasab case if security is provided to me
Anjali Waghmare, defence lawyer in the Mumbai terror attacks case, will fight the case for Mohammad Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’ after the Special Sessions Court here ordered a security cover for her. The court’s decision to provide security to Ms. Waghmare comes a day after a mob of Shiv Sainiks attacked her house and pressured her to withdraw from the case.
Mistake 1 - Treating Kasab like an ordinary criminal and having him go through the legal system like any other Indian national accused of any ordinary crime.
Mistake 2 - Shiv Sainiks attacking the lawyer asssigned to defend Ajmal Kasab. Did Anjali Waghmare volunteer? No, she didnt. If Kasab doesnt get adequate legal representation, his conviction might not happen in the light of inadequate legal representation for him. Just let the lady do her work and lets take this to its logical conclusion. Hopefully Kasab will hang (assuming the Congress dont come into power again).
Note - If the anti national Congress comes back to power again, maybe Kasab will be given Indian citizenship and a Congress ticket to contest the elections form Mumbai. After all he has made a "big" impact there already.
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