Has Anna seen through Medha's game?

2/05/11

Has Anna seen through Medha's game?

The CD purportedly released by Amar Singh has raised many questions than it has answered vis-à-vis Shanti Bhushan and son Prashant the former being the Lokpal Bill drafting committee co-chair. 

What has confounded everyone is that a government lab had authenticated the conversation between  Shanti Bhushan and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and then party general secretary Amar Singh over the junior Bhushan allegedly influencing a judge.

 For those who are worried about the sanctity of the panel comprising members of the civil society, the real question is was Anna Hazare railroaded into accepting the father son duo through an emotional blackmail as Anna himself had admitted that he knew nothing of the Bhusans until they were co-opted in the panel?

 Though both the Bhushans have categorically denied any wrongdoing, the CD controversy has become murkier after the government lab’s categorical statement. What is raising the eyebrows is that Medha Patkar role in the whole affair.

 Medha was visible on dais sitting close to Anna at Jantar Mantar upto 4th april . Her actions seemed that she knew Anna well and she would be there to stay as long he continued fasting. However the day Supreme Court issued notice of perjury against her in Maheshwar project case i.e on 5th April, Medha had to run for the hills after it was clear that she had filed a false affidavit in the Supreme Court. Medha & Bhushan have had over 20 year relationship and Prashant Bhushan has been appearing for Medha not only in Supreme Court & High Courts but even in the Metropolitan Court. Today Medha has lost her credibility, her name and fame thanks to Supreme Court coming heavily down upon her. In a high-pitched campaign like Anna’s fight against corruption she is obviously a persona non grata. Has she cleverly then pushed the Bhushans forward by foisting her wily charms on an innocent Anna so as to make father son duo part of the Lokpal drafting committee?

Interestingly the NGO of Shanti & Prashant Bhushan had blamed several judges in the past for getting land from discretionary quota of govnment at cheaper rates, while Bhushans themselves are involved in the similar game. This could spell trouble in civil society’s fight against corruption which Anna is spearheading.

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties,
401 Vraj Avenue, C-2 Swastik Society,
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 009
Gujarat, India.
Phone No. +91 - 79 -26560979, Fax No. +91 - 79 - 26401892
Web: www.ncclindia.org, E-mail: nccl27@hotmail.com, 

Terrorism: Strange Action of a Senile Nation

22-05-2011

When terrorism became a curse of history, Osama Bin Laden turned into its infamous Fakir. He refined its forms, contemplated with due diligence and threw upon his enemies with great perfection.  And when he threw the curse, it stuck well and wrought havoc.  That killed people in hordes and brought shivers to the knees of mighty nations.  He established the largest underworld of terror governance and threw curses across the continents with high and unparalleled sophistication.  When he was incapacitated, albeit some questions of peripheral legality, no one raised a finger of disapproval.  Because, humanity wanted terrorism restrained, reduced, removed and erased.  And those who dared to risk their lives on the mission to kill the master of terrorism were rewarded and revered. 

I often wonder whether India is as resolute and responsible in thwarting the curse of terrorism! 

Take for example the terrorist and extortionist Sohrabuddin who was wanted in three states or Ishrat Jahan who, as per Central Intelligence bureau inputs, entered Gujarat with Pakistani nationals to kill the Chief Minister Modi.  When they were felled by Gujarat police, instead of celebrating the significant dent made on terrorism in India, a political party pursued Muslim appeasement policy by way of encouraging Teesta Setalvad to move a petition saying that the encounters were fake.   Unlike the accolades and rewards poured on those who opposed terrorism in the world, the cops who dared to take the terrorism head-on in India lost their jobs and even a Home Minister was jailed.  Sending those who strive hard to keep law and order to prison makes the Fakirs who send down the curse of terrorism - stronger, confident, brazen and successful.  When the underworld of terrorism is allowed to rise above ground, the over-world of law and security becomes terrorized and invalid.  With this, the Government supported NGOs like those of Teesta Setalvad become far more powerful .

The Central Government has an uncanny knack of chasing the wrong goose and killing the guardians.  It allows those who waged Kargil war to be guest speakers in New Delhi.  It goes overboard to shake hands with a Government that has planned and bred terrorism on its soil with a sole purpose of striking us in Kashmir and Mumbai.  The senility of top leadership in Governance has no vision of right against wrong.  

If Pakistan is a rogue State that breeds and broadcasts terrorism, we are a senile State that tolerate terrorism and wrongly punish those who oppose it.  If USA considers the killing of a terrorist an act of war that’s beyond the considerations of sovereignty of another nation, India considers the killing of a terrorist as an act that displeases a particular community.  If USA rewards and celebrates its heroes who decimate terrorists, India unseats and jails those who try to nip terrorism in the bud. If USA feels that the attack on WTC is violation of their sovereignty and then justifies killing even the unarmed perpetrator of violence on the soil of another country, India spends millions in keeping Afzal Guru safe and alive despite the Supreme Court order of capital punishment to the dreaded attacker of the Parliament. 

In fact, the way the Government of India addresses terrorism is in itself terrorising. In the recent goof-up of dossier sent to Pakistan asking to hand over 50 terrorists, a few have been traced to India.  The Government does not know who it is searching for & who it has found. The icing on the cake is the appointment of Binayak Sen to a Committee of the Planning Commission, a convict of no less a charge than sedition. 

At a time when we have to move forward with head held high, we have begun to move backwards on sly.  

My own country is beginning to appear strange to me.  

V K Saxena 
President 
National Council for Civil Liberties 
401 Vraj Avenue, C - 2 Swastik Society, 
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 009 Phone +91-79-26560979, Fax +91-79-26401892 
web: www.ncclindia.org e-mail: nccl27@hotmail.com

An open letter to Anna Hazare

To,

Shri Anna Hazareji
Village and Post Ralegan Siddhi
Taluka Parner
Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra 414302
INDIA 
Phone: (02488) 240227

Date: 25/05/2011

An open letter to Anna Hazare

Respected Anna Hazareji

NCCL, an NGO, is in the forefront of India’s collective efforts to ensure civil liberty, public safety, right to quality livelihood and communal harmony. The NCCL’s prime objective is to fight evils that deter the peace and progress of the society, in all forms by all means.

I am writing this open letter to you both with a sense of happiness for your visit to my state of Gujarat on 26^th May and with a foreboding over ‘certain type’ of people who may be actually guiding your destiny.

As one of India's well-acclaimed social activist your reputation for probity has been speckles. Your campaign of fast-unto-death in the nation’s capital early this year demanding greater public participation in the formulation of an anti-corruption bill known as the Jan Lok Pal Bill had brought cheers in every Indian’s grief-ridden heart. It had also focused upon your courage and conviction in taking the might of the state. Your role in upgrading the ecology and economy of the village of Ralegan Siddhi of Maharashtra needs no reiteration. Yet all these brilliant achievements could be at stake if you are not cautious enough in the way things have been moving around you.

As a great fan of yours I seek your indulgence in pointing out certain facts about certain people which needs reiteration even at the cost of sounding repetitive. For one there are people like Medha Patkar, Shanti & Prashant Bhushans, PUCL & Mallika Sarabhai. 

Medha Patkar, often seen frequenting you in public glare. She is known for her anti-development activities in Gujarat and though she had been successful in covering her tracks well was finally unmasked when the Supreme Court reprimanded her for filing false affidavits and misleading the courts. The apex court even went to the extent of cautioning all courts across the country not to be swayed and be careful when entertaining her petitions. Medha’s association with you will paint you anti-development. 

There is another issue that is troubling every citizen of this land and it is the case of Naxal sympathizer Binayak Sen who also happens to be the vice-president of PUCL. Sen has been convicted for sedition that is quite a serious charge to face as it involves impinging on unity and integrity of our nation. PUCL’s association will paint you as a sympathizer of Naxal’s.

 As to the father-son duo Shanti and Prashant Bhushan it is regrettable that both face charges of corruption. Prashant is said to have procured a huge farmland of 10,000 square metres in Noida apparently as a gift from Chief Minister Mayawati. Prashant could not have achieved this largesse without his father Shanti Bhushan support. The latter has been entrusted by the civil society led by you to redraft the Lokpal Bill and in this connection appointed co-chairman while his son too is a member of a reconstituted panel. Both also face charges of evading stamp duty in Allahabad. Their association with you will paint you for double standard. 

Finally danseuse Mallika Sarabhai who seems to have motivated you to make a journey this far to Gujarat is now playing hostess to you. She too was facing criminal charges of illegal human trafficking in a case filed by her own student Manushi Shah. Thanks to the incompetency of Gujarat police, a C-summary was filed in the case that helping her wriggle out of her embarrassing predicament. Her association will not add any strength to your struggle. 

The nation has witnessed in the recent past that it has become an unfailing practice with celebrities caught in the act of illegal actions to dismiss the issue as one of harassment by the government & or authorities. Hence, it will be proper to disassociate yourself from such people & organization who indulged themselves in unpatriotic chauvinism. 

I appeal to you to kindly see my letter in proper perspective, I appeal to you to associate yourself with “Aam Aadmi” instead of celebrities who stain our democratic course of law. 

With Warm Regards

Yours Sincerely.

 V K Saxena

President 

National Council for Civil Liberties 

401 Vraj Avenue, C - 2 Swastik Society,
Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 009
Phone +91-79-26560979, Fax +91-79-26401892
web: www.ncclindia.org e-mail: nccl27@hotmail.com