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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 22, 2012 AT 18:26 IST
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Edited At: Sep 22, 2012 18:26 IST
Aditi Phadnis in the Business Standard:
Singh conveyed to Chidambaram well before he was made finance minister that he was getting the job. Chidambaram had some conditions. “It is easy to be finance minister during a boom,” he told Singh. “But times are bad.” Just as PV Narasimha Rao had backed his finance minister (Singh), would Singh back him and keep the wise men of the party out of his hair? Singh told Chidambaram that he would get his full support. He also promised to intercede on his behalf with the party.
Actually, this was unnecessary. Chidambaram has a new place in the dispensation at 10 Janpath since he became home minister in 2008. He has taken a lot upon himself, including the blame for making an “announcement” offering to think about granting statehood to Telangana — when it wasn’t his idea at all but that of the MP from Amethi; in fact he had counselled against it. The party realised later that it was a mistake and it was left to Chidambaram to take the flak — which he did without complaining. When he became finance minister, Chidambaram met Congress President Sonia Gandhi several times to explain how delicately poised the Indian economy was, between stupendous success in hard times and complete disaster...
...at the end of the day, the transition from “with Mamata” to “without Mamata” has, if you think about it, been pretty smooth — leading the chatterati to ask why it wasn’t done sooner. The answer seems to be: because Chidambaram was not the finance minister...
..Is Chidambaram becoming to the government what Mukherjee was? Actually, a lot more. It is Chidambaram, with his unique powers of persuasion, who is now going to act as the channel of communication between 10 Janpath and the PMO. Unlike in the past, nothing will be lost in translation.
Read the full piece at the Business Standard: The Knight In Veshti
So why is the Rahul-was-behind- the-Telangana-statehood-announcement story out now? One obvious possibility: it was clearly a blunder way back then, but now when Congress is close to granting it, perhaps it wants some of the goodwill in the new state to transfer to the yuvraj.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 22, 2012 AT 18:26 IST, Edited At: Sep 22, 2012 18:26 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jul 31, 2012 AT 22:04 IST
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Edited At: Jul 31, 2012 22:04 IST
Yesterday it was the northern grid which tripped, and it repeated the performance today, with the eastern and north-eastern grids joining in, leaving more than 600 million Indians in 21 states powerless for several hours today.
The irony could not have been starker, as the power minister Sushilkumar Shinde was elevated as home minister today while the erstwhile home minister, P Chidambaram, was made the finance minister to step into the shoes of Mr Pranab Mukherjee.
As the country struggled with the world's biggest blackout, corporate affairs minister M Veerappa Moily was given the additional charge of power ministry.
Some of the reactions on Twitter:
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jul 31, 2012 AT 22:04 IST, Edited At: Jul 31, 2012 22:04 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 27, 2011 AT 23:42 IST
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Edited At: Oct 27, 2011 23:42 IST
Ashok Sanjay Guha in the Telegraph:
Selling an asset at a rate far below the market price has two sets of consequences. First, it creates an incentive for the first buyer to resell, directly or in a roundabout fashion, as soon as it is possible to pocket the enormous margin between his purchase price and the market price. Second, the possibility of such enormous profit generates an excess demand for the asset in the first round: potential buyers have, in consequence, an overwhelming incentive to offer bribes to the arbiters of the sale process so as to influence the allocation of licences in their own favour. These are not mere hypothetical possibilities. They can be predicted with perfect certainty as the inevitable outcomes of pricing below the market rate.
...When they decided on the 2G policy, were the prime minister and the finance minister totally oblivious of the logical implications? Had Manmohan Singh left his knowledge of economics behind at Oxford or at the Delhi School? Had Chidambaram forgotten his experience of corporate management and law? Having given their blessings to the sale of a scarce resource far below market price, was it not incumbent on them to exercise the strictest vigilance so as to avert the predictable consequences — bribery and loot? Instead, Singh instructed his officers to keep themselves ‘at arm’s length’ from the goings-on in the telecom department. Was this complicity or child-like innocence? I leave the reader to draw his own conclusions.
Read on at the Telegraph: A Saga of Personal Gains
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 27, 2011 AT 23:42 IST, Edited At: Oct 27, 2011 23:42 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 29, 2011 AT 23:47 IST
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Edited At: Sep 29, 2011 23:47 IST
So what purpose was today's farce of a joint press-appearance by two sparring ministers Mr P.Chidambaram and Mr Pranab Mukherjee supposed to serve?
Perhaps it was only to provide a face-saver to the former who had been sulking since Sep 21 when the controversial 'inter-ministerial background paper' was made public and to present a facade of unity for the cameras.
Mr Mukherjee has been blamed by many for having diluted his position, so it's important to pay attention to what he said today:
A number of stories on 2G Spectrum had appeared in the media in January 2011. A view was taken that a harmonized note based on facts should be produced for use by various representatives of the Government. A group of officers prepared an inter-ministerial background paper which was sent to PMO on 25th march 2011.
Apart from the factual background, the paper contains certain inferences and interpretations which do not reflect my views.
The policy of the Government in 2007-2008 was continuation of the policy adopted in October 2003 and as reiterated by TRAI
If anything, Mr Chidambaram's response — "I am happy with the statement made by my senior and distinguished colleague, the finance minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee. I accept the statement. As far as all of us in government are concerned, the matter is closed" — only confirmed the rift that the Congress and UPA spokespersons and even the PM had been denying and dismissing as rumours spread by opposition through the last eight days. 
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 29, 2011 AT 23:47 IST, Edited At: Sep 29, 2011 23:47 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 21, 2011 AT 19:29 IST
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Edited At: Sep 21, 2011 19:29 IST
A letter dated March 25, 2011 sent by the finance ministry to the Prime Minister office (PMO), over a month after former minister A Raja was arrested and had to step down from the Department of Telecom (DoT), has brought out the UPA's worst kept secret: a war within between its two seniormost ministers, home minister P. Chidambaram and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The 14-page letter, written by Doctor PGS Rao, a deputy director in the finance ministry and addressed to Vini Mahajan, joint secretary in the Prime Minister's office (PMO) at that stage, was part of the factsheet on 2G submitted by Mr Subramanian Swamy at the Supreme Court today.
The revelations come a day after the CBI strenuously opposed Mr Swamy's plea for probing then finance minister P Chidambaram's alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam case.
The March 25 letter, which specifically mentions "this has been seen by the finance minister" [Pranab Mukherjee], says that if Mr Chidambaram , who was Finance Minister in 2008, had "stuck to his stand," spectrum could have been auctioned, instead of being given at throwaway prices on a first-come-first-serve basis.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Sep 21, 2011 AT 19:29 IST, Edited At: Sep 21, 2011 19:29 IST
POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Jul 14, 2011 AT 23:21 IST
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Edited At: Jul 14, 2011 23:21 IST
P. Chidambaram: Whoever planned this attack worked in a very, very clandestine manner. It's not a failure of intelligence.
Rahul Gandhi: We will stop 99 per cent of the attacks. But one per cent of attacks might get through and that is what I am saying...It is very difficult to stop every single terror attack ... We've improved in leaps and bounds, but terrorism is something that is also increasing in leaps and bounds.
Digvijay Singh: Even the US has to go through the 9/11 attacks. We are a country of 1.2 billion people. We have made progress. We have improved our intelligence network. We are comparatively better than Pakistan where blasts take place every day, every week.
Raj Thackeray: Maharashtra crime rate has increased in the last 10 years. Examine from where the people perpetrating the crimes come from. Every time we can not blame the police department or failure of intelligence as it is not possible to control the number of people due to migrants. I trust the Mumbai Police but the influx is so much that there will be intelligence failure and such type of terror attacks would keep happening.
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POSTED BY NewsEd
ON Jul 14, 2011 AT 23:21 IST, Edited At: Jul 14, 2011 23:21 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 08, 2011 AT 23:46 IST
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Edited At: Jun 08, 2011 23:46 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jun 08, 2011 AT 23:46 IST, Edited At: Jun 08, 2011 23:46 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Mar 22, 2011 AT 06:51 IST
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Edited At: Mar 22, 2011 06:51 IST
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has now charged that Union home minister P Chidambaram and son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadra, too are involved in the multi-crore 2G Spectrum scam.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Mr Swamy also claimed that Tamil Nadu chief minister’s wife and daughter, who were recently examined by the CBI, may also be made accused in the case, the DNA newspaper reports.
The Times of India also has a newswire story today which quotes Mr Swamy as saying:
"I will seek the PM's sanction to prosecute Chidambaram. I will also seek the sanction of the PM for the prosecution of Sonia Gandhi, heading the National Advisory Council, for corruption"
While the story does not cite any reasons why he seeks to prosecute Ms Gandhi, the agency story has a cryptic remark on Mr Chidambaram:
He said a cabinet committee had directed former communications minister A Raja and the then finance minister, Chidambaram, to arrive at the price at which the 2G radio waves were to be sold. Swamy alleged that after becoming the home minister, Chidambaram did not pass the information to Raja.
DNA newspaper has more details and a by-lined story by Kumar Chellappan quoted Mr Swamy as saying:
“Vadra has 20% stake in Unitech, one of the telecom operators which benefited through the allocation of second generation mobile telephony spectrum by former union minister A Raja. He is the beneficiary of illegal payments generated through the spectrum scam and Commonwealth Games contracts,” Swamy said.
“The prime minister had asked Chidambaram, then the finance minister, to sit with Raja and decide the price at which the second generation mobile telephony spectrum could be sold. The duo decided to sell spectrum at 2001 prices, causing huge loss to the government. Moreover, Chidambaram did not inform the prime minister about the decision till 2008,” Swamy said.
He said Chidambaram was informed by the then home minister Sivaraj Patil that Etisalat and Telenor, two foreign telecom players, should not be allowed to operate in India. “Etisalat had links with the Pakistani spy agency ISI and Dawood Ibrahim while Telenor had Chinese links. Chidambaram did not tell Raja about this information. Later also when he took over as the home minister, he kept the information to himself,” Swamy said.
The Janata Party president said he would approach the prime minister seeking permission to include Chidambaram as an accused in the second generation mobile telephony spectrum case after the Tamil Nadu assembly election. “It will be better for Chidambaram to resign by that time,” he said.’
Unlike the TOI story, however, the DNA story is silent on his alleged remarks on Ms Gandhi. Mr Swamy had last week claimed on Twitter that he "may file for sanction to prosecute" Mrs Sonia Gandhi "this mid-April".
Last week, there had been reports of Mr Vadra's association with leading real estate firm DLF, on which The Financial Express had editorialised:
....we welcome Vadra’s statement when he says, he has served a legal notice on realty firm BPTP Ltd for claiming that several of its projects were part-owned by Vadra. For the government and the Congress party, however, the problem is more serious. Given how many clearances a real estate firm needs from government, for land-usage to be changed, for FSI levels and a lot more, there will always be fingers pointed if the UPA chief’s son-in-law has business dealings with a firm getting these permissions. The onus is now on the government and the Congress party to show that the clearances it is giving are not under any form of influence.
There has been a buzz that the BJP was hesitant to make it into an issue because the son-in-law of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Ranjan Bhattacharya, has also been under the scanner, as his name cropped up during Radia tapes and then again in the Wikileaks cables:
[Satish] Sharma mentioned that he was also exploring the possibility of trying to get former Prime Minister Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya to speak to BJP representatives to try to divide the BJP ranks.
In this regard, on Twitter, Mr Swamy was asked:
@Swamy39 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya seem 2 B well connected w/ congress.What makes him so close 2 congress?
To which he replied:
@seshadri :Because he is a crook.He rose from being waiter-Oberoi- to 5 star Hotel chain owner in six years of his father in law as PM.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Mar 22, 2011 AT 06:51 IST, Edited At: Mar 22, 2011 06:51 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Mar 16, 2011 AT 09:49 IST
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Edited At: Mar 16, 2011 09:49 IST
The Hindu revelations of India Cables through WikiLeaks continues. A revealing cable sent on May 13, 2009 to the State Department by Frederick J. Kaplan, Acting Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate-General in Chennai, outed by the Hindu says:
Bribes from political parties to voters, in the form of cash, goods, or services, are a regular feature of elections in South India. Poor voters expect bribes from political candidates, and candidates find various ways to satisfy voter expectations. From paying to dig a community well to slipping cash into an envelope delivered inside the morning newspaper, politicians and their operatives admitted to violating election rules to influence voters. The money to pay the bribes comes from the proceeds of fundraising, which often crosses into political corruption. Although the precise impact of bribery on voter behavior is hard to measure, it no doubt swings at least some elections, especially the close races.
Mr Kaplan sent the cable after meeting Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s son, Karti Chidambaram, of the Congress, M. Patturajan, confidant of Union minister for chemicals and fertilizers M.K. Alagiri and former mayor of Madurai, and member of Parliament Assaduddin Owaisi of the Majlis-e-Ittenhadul Muslimeen. The cable details novel methods of cash distribution including
Can I get another morning paper?
The Thirumangalam campaign that Azhagiri ran for the DMK was notable for how the money was distributed, in addition to the amount distributed. Rather than using the traditional practice of handing cash to voters in the middle of the night, in Thirumangalam the DMK distributed money to every person on the voting roll in envelopes inserted in their morning newspapers. In addition to the money, the envelopes contained the DMK ""voting slip"" which instructed the recipient for whom they should vote. Annamalai pointed out that distributing the money with the newspapers forced everyone to receive the bribe. ""This way makes it impossible to refuse the money,"" Annamalai noted. Patturajan confirmed the newspaper distribution, but questioned its efficiency. He pointed out that giving bribes to every voter wasted money on committed anti-DMK voters, but conceded that it was an effective way to ensure the bribes reached every potential persuadable voter.
Read the full cable, and the story based on the cable here.
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Mar 16, 2011 AT 09:49 IST, Edited At: Mar 16, 2011 09:49 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jul 27, 2010 AT 01:46 IST
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Edited At: Jul 28, 2010 01:46 IST
Mani Shankar Aiyar's ire at Mr Suresh Kalmadi or the very idea of New Delhi hosting the Commonwealth Games (CWG) has never been a state-secret. But why is he suddenly publicly saying that he would be unhappy if the games are successful?
"Just imagine if we would have spent the Rs. 35,000 crore in providing training to the children, we would have won medals in every international sporting event," he said today, arguing that successful hosting of these games would mean bigger games -- Asian, why even the Olympics -- coming to India which the country can ill-afford.
These remarks coming in the midst of daily adverse reports about the poor preparations for the CWG and the party's recent directive to its leaders to stick to subjects within their domain, have predictably set tongues wagging, particularly because Parliament is in session, the games are round the corner, the Congress is under pressure on mismanagement and corruption in the organisation of the CWG from an otherwise totally discredited BJP.
While Suresh Kalmadi, was the ostensible target, Congresswallahs point out that the not-so-hidden target in Mani's "those who are patronising the Games can only be evil; they cannot be God," barb was actually the mummy-beta duo of Sheila and Sandeep Dikshit whose photographs are featured in some of the posters printed for the games.
Aiyar is an old Gandhi loyalist and his latest outburst in typical Congress fashion led to whispers doing the rounds that his fulminations could only be a result of a clear signal from the asli mummy-beta as a snub to the Delhi chief minister. Given the woeful state of preparedness for the games, some also saw the Gandhis distancing themselves from the CWG, should they turn out to be a disaster.
Different points of view in the Congress are not a new thing. It's a Big Tent, as the conventional thinking goes, which offers unity in diversity and also many things to many people. The conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, are pointing to all this as the lead-up to the battle to succeed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally calls it quit, there is much hype over Rahul Gandhi taking over the mantle. But most insiders say that Rahul Gandhi's "inner-voice" might tell him to follow the path shown by his mother and thus enjoy power without accountability.
Should that happen, given that Mr Pranab Mukherjee is already ruled out by age, among the top contenders would be Mr Digvijay Singh and Mr P. Chidambaram. Mr Singh joining issue with Mr Chidambaram is preparing for being seen as a signal to the latter not to take his candidature for granted.
As an op-ed piece in the New Indian Express points out today,
It goes without saying that positioning by Congress leaders would have relevance, if there was a vacancy at the top. For some reason, the buzz in the party refuses to die down that Manmohan Singh may throw in the towel in 2012, either to walk into the sunset for health reasons or to move into Rashtrapati Bhavan. And that Rahul Gandhi may decide not to take over the reins of power after the UP elections, even if the Congress does well. Or he may decide even in 2014 to play the role of Sonia Gandhi, at least for some more time.
So what happens if Manmohan Singh does decide to retire before 2013 when, as the above piece reminds us, Mr Digvijay Singh’s political sanyas ends? Who other than Mr Chidambaram could be the contenders for the throne?
Family loyalty would necessarily be a big qualification. Significantly, insiders underline, Mr Aiyar had also supported Mr Digvijay Singh "one thousand percent" in his opposition to Mr Chidambaram's "militaristic approach" to tackling Maoists/Naxals.
Post Script:
When given a chance to 'retract' his statement on a TV show, Mani Shankar Aiyar said, "What would be anti-India would be flop games". He went on to say that he was only showing a mirror to the authorities and that his remarks were selectively blown out of proportion.
When asked pointedly, "Would you be happy if the games were a success?" he said he would answer in the words of TS Eliot's Wasteland (which, he added, would possibly need to be translated for Mr Kalmadi):
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest
He said, as sports minister he had foreseen and warned against just what he fears now. He was again asked to spell out his position whether he would be happy or not at the successful hosting of the games. He said:
"If I were to become the Prime Minister, I will be very happy. But that my friend," he said, ain't going to happen."
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON Jul 27, 2010 AT 01:46 IST, Edited At: Jul 28, 2010 01:46 IST
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