Vox Populi Issue 277

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 277                      Date: 15.04.2019

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:       

1. Nirmala Sitharaman's Immaturities On The Rafael Deal 

2. Deliberate & Orchestrated Raids By  Financial Enforcement 

    Agencies To Cow Down Opposition

3. Modi's Campaign Style In Present Lok Sabha Elections 

                                 

                       Nirmala Sitharaman's Immaturities On The Rafael Deal 

Nirmala Sitharaman as Defence Minister needs to brush up on government procedural matters and diplomatic protocol. This comment is being made in the context of the latest news from France as published by Le Monde, their leading newspaper, that Anil Ambani's Co., Reliance Flag had been given a substantial concession on tax running into millions of Euros, months after the Rafael deal was signed. That Nirmala Sitharaman voluntarily issued a statement that this had nothing to do with the Rafael deal made her sound like wanting to clarify the matter before any question about it was raised, making us feel that was there really a link? Like they say there is no smoke without a fire and then saying there is no smoke, no smoke when you can actually see it makes one ask - Where is the fire? The other thing it also seemed as she was the spokesperson for Anil Ambani, clarifying on his behalf where actually it was Ambani who should have come out and said that there is no connection between the tax refund and the Rafael deal, which he did but later. As for the truth of the matter only the prime players can tell like the then President of France, Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani but one must say that France as a country thrives on controversy and in international deals things like this can happen and the tax refund may have been part of the package given Ambani along with the Rafael offset deal. Coming back to Nirmala Sitharaman and her somewhat blaise  comments, just after the Supreme Court recently junked the AG's argument that the 'stolen' Rafael documents could not be accepted by the Court, she had said that Rahul Gandhi without knowing the full story is going to town with bits and pieces of the Rafael deal. What choice does the poor fellow have since those who have the full story will not come out with it, that is why he has to make do with the bits and pieces hoping one day that he will have the whole. It is time therefore that Nirmala Sitharaman puts out a White Paper on the Rafael deal. 

                   Deliberate & Orchestrated Raids By  Financial Enforcement Agencies 

                                                 To Cow Down Opposition

Arun Jaitley's claim that the raids by the IT, DRI & ED on mostly the Opposition parties and in States that are not run by BJP governments are based on inputs received and actual data need to be taken with a pinch of salt. If you look at the statistics of raids since 2014 almost all the raids conducted by the above named financial agencies have been against those inimical to the BJP. The present raids and those in the past show a clear agenda by the incumbent BJP government to intimidate or one can say even terrorise those that are opposed to its policies and programs. In the context of the present raids it is a known fact that in India cash is used during elections as an incentive to buy votes. So it does not need a large amount of intelligence or exceptional competence to raid the functionaries of political parties and seize large amounts of cash. If the financial agencies had raided the BJP party functionaries they would have found similar amounts of unaccounted cash. In fact there have been reports that in Andhra Pradesh a large amount of cash was recovered from a BJP leader and in Itanagar in Arunachal a Pradesh one of the cars in the PM's convoy moving to a political rally was found with cash in excess of Rs. 1 crore. Thus there seems to be a deliberate plan to use government machinery to serve the political ends of the BJP in the run up to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. At the same time the incumbent BJP government seems to be hesitant and chary to use the same enforcement machinery against its crony industrialists like the Ambani brothers. Apart from the quid pro quo of Anil Ambani getting not only the Rafael offset contract but also the tax refund on his Reliance Flag Co. deal that was hanging fire for years and which was cleared months after Narendra Modi signed the Rafael jet deal, we have the Dutch Co. involved in supplying equipment and material to a major gas pipeline Co. in India being hauled up in the Dutch courts for having laundered money in excess of US $ 1 Billion by overinvoicing and then channelising this money to a Singapore family owned Co. that is linked to the Indian Co. The media has attributed this to the Reliance Group of Cos. run by Mukesh Ambani, though the Group itself has denied any links with the Dutch case. This is a clear case where a large amount of money is involved for our enforcement agencies to ask the Dutch police or through government to government channels to get details of the Indian Co. so that this amount can be chased and brought back into the country. If this is done then at least some part of the promise that Narendra Modi made in 2014 to bring back black money from abroad can be achieved. Otherwise what has happened is that instead of black money coming back to India, we have had those with black money leaving the country at regular intervals like Vijay Mallya, Choksi, Nirav Modi and others so that they can enjoy their ill-gotten wealth abroad. Even in the manner that these named people have left the country there are pointers to large scale corruption being involved within the PMO, finance ministry officials, CBI, DRI & ED. Thus for all of Narendra Modi's claim of being a chowkidar his role even in that role has been at most patchy with the blackguards running circles around him and fooling him completely. 

                        Modi's Campaign Style In Present Lok Sabha Elections 

Narendra Modi comes across as a personality who thrives on controversy, is cheeky, chafes at restrictions and wants to push the boundaries. He has also a cockiness about him making him want to see how far he can go without being questioned or pulled up. Representative of these traits were the ASAT announcement, Modi biopic and NAMO TV  which are all clear pointers to skirt the boundaries of democratic norms and thus seek undue advantage in the upcoming elections.

Such behaviour is unacceptable in a leader at the level of leading a nation like that of a Prime Minister. The cutting corners syndrome by a leader encourages the people down the line to also do the same in their own way and manner which may end up in taking the law into their own hands. If the people exceed the boundaries such leaders are unable to pull them up. In the context of Modi we have seen this happening when the intolerance debate commenced soon after he assumed office then the lynching cases emerged linked to cow slaughter and beef eating. The long drawn out silence, reminiscent of his silence during the Gujarat riots,  not only encouraged the perpetrators but prompted the leaders in the BJP hierarchy make conflicting statements getting the party deeper into the morass of controversy. Even now on the beef eating issue we have a case in Assam where an elderly Muslim was assaulted and forcefully fed pork. This latter aspect of feeding pork is a new  dimension to the brutality being inflicted on simple folk going about their livelihood.

Again an orchestration is apparent in trying to take undue advantage in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections like in the planned release of the Modi biopic and the launch of NAMO TV along with coordinated raids by the IT, ED & other financial law enforcement on non-NDA parties and in States ruled by Opposition parties. This is apparent in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Just prior to elections if the raids are conducted then the authorities are bound to find something since the targeted entities are equal to sitting ducks. The same applies to the Agusta Westland case where the leaks about naming Ahmed Patel and the Gandhi family seem to be timely and the ED & DRI are playing the dumb ones by asking for a report on how the chargesheet was leaked to the press after maybe themselves putting it out. Michel, the Italian in custody in the Agusta Westland case has in the meanwhile said that he has not named anybody as being connected to him or as beneficiaries in India of the helicopter largesse.

Thus if you put all this together you will see we are no different from any country in Africa or that in Central Asia who use any and every means to tomtom their own views and publicise themselves during elections while going after their competitors or adversaries again with every means at their disposal to terrorise the opposition into submission or at the least unbalance them and disrupt their campaigns for the elections. 

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