Samanya Praja and His "Changed" Dilli...

Once upon a time, Samanya Praja, a man in his middle ages, lived in a middle class suburb of India's capital Delhi. He was very frustrated with Indian politics. He wanted change. He was feeling angry at 1000s of rapes happening in his city. He felt like kicking the politicians indulging in 2G, CWG, Coalgate and a thousand other scams. He used to tell his family that he has lost hope in the Idea of India. He felt very pessimistic at the prospects of jobs, progress and security of his son and daughter. He was concerned on how his wife and himself would get any quality healthcare in Delhi, after seeing corruption from cradle to grave in the society.

Then came a messiah.. A self declared corruption fighter named Arvind Kejriwal. A man who worked as a government babu, but miraculously managed to avoid transfer in his entire career.. a Guinness record in corrupt India! He always sat next to famous people of the society like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. He dressed like Samanya Praja, so there was a lot of connection. The simple shirt, the basic pant, a chappal, no big car, very pleasing mannerism.. Praja got very attracted. He heard Arvind a few times. He got very inspired at "Brashtachar khatam karo" slogans. He convinced himself and his family that this man can change Delhi. This man is the answer to all ills they had seen so far. They paid close attention to the charming words of Kejriwal. The most impressive speeches were always on how the highly corrupt Sheila Dikshit would be sent to jail if Kejriwal comes to power. They cheered when they heard that rapes would be stopped in Delhi. They loved it when they heard that Delhi would be a clean and green city. Praja jumped when they heard that they would be getting cheaper electricity 24*7, no more slums in Delhi, cheaper and reliable water, clean roads, children getting free WiFi, lots of new schools, upcoming great hospitals, perfect Lokayukta and Lokpal systems, perfect harmony in the society, absolutely no cheating by MLAs, security for senior citizen... oh the list was so long.. it felt like a Utopian dream world was just knocking on the door of Delhi..

Then a tragic accident. One bad evening, Samanya Praja got hit by a drunken driver. He descended into coma.

After great effort by doctors and his family, he woke up just before Diwali of 2015. The family cheered and prayed to Durga mata profusely. Thank you Devi ma.. Our Samanya Praja is back in walking state after sleeping unconscious for a long time.

After 4 hours of cheers, juice and light food, Praja asks.. Where am I? What date is it? How are things?
His family slowly answers them.

By evening, he got curious on how things are. He was thrilled to learn that his ideal politician Kejriwal had become the CM by winning the election by a huge margin. He was like.. Oohhooo!! His wife said.. Jee.. relax. You still need some rest for a week. Don't get excited. Praja was still cheering. You don't know dear. I waited for this moment for years. I hope Delhi is now a great place!

His wife and kids didn't show any smile. He got worried. He asked his son. Did you get the WiFi? He nodded left to right. He asked his daughter. Are girls safer now in Delhi? Rapes have stopped? She got tears.. Pappa.. it has gotten worse. Even 2 and 5 year old girls are not left now. Oh! Praja is shocked. He asked his wife. Is Sheila Dikshit, the horribly corrupt woman who ruined Delhi, in Tihar jail? She just looked down. He got furious now. No WiFi.. no safety for women.. no jail for Sheila? What the heck?

After 10 minutes of silence, he continued. Is there a Lokpal? Son nodded no. How about a Lokayukta sending all corrupt to jails? No daddy.. We only got a name-sake Lokayukta a week ago. We had none till now. So far no jail for any corrupt. Praja is furious.. then at least tell me that Arvind's government is working well. No corruption in the MLA circle. Right? His daughter got angry. Pappa.. this Arvind cheated us badly. His MLA gang is full of crooks. Law Minister went to jail for Degree fraud. More are about to go to jail for degree frauds. Former law minister is about to go jail for beating up his wife. His own MLA was caught in corruption needing a firing on live TV - just like for everything involving Kejriwal, his MLA firing also needed TV camera and action! His MLAs are now VIPs with big cars. Kejriwal himself got a 5 bed room bungalow after all preaching earlier of no bungalows. They spent 100s of crores on just giving radio and billboard ads. They kicked out Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and other uncles with whom you were on roads doing dharna earlier. This guy has become a power hungry dictator.. Worse, he has no portfolio under him, so that he can keep doing 24*7 drama across India, while our roads are full of stinking garbage. And there are still lots of slums and they are getting bigger. No new school or hospital in sight. I can't see any new job creation for Engineers, Commerce Graduates or Scientists. Traffic is getting worse. Yamuna is still full of froth. Road rage is very high. In fact, Kejriwal's party law makers like Alka Lamba were seen vandalizing a shop. Nothing pappa.. I repeat nothing.. got better after years of listening to Anna and Kejriwal speeches.

Praja is now really feeling dizzy. After months of coma, what he heard made him even more weaker. What are you telling children? At least tell me that he has not allied with any corrupt politician. His wife got furious now. This guy is an ally of Lalu Yadav's ghatbandhan.. the same chara chor who went to jail!! Worse.. even the 2G scam tainted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are in the same team for which Kejriwal is campaigning in Bihar! What more you want?

Praja became unconscious!

When he woke up after 10 minutes. His daughter gave lemon juice and told. Pappa.. we got fooled. That Sheila was corrupt, but she was 100 times better than this drama guy. Kejriwal and his irresponsible gang even watched a poor farmer from Rajasthan commit suicide 30 feet in front during a speech, but still didn't stop their speech blaming central government and police. This CM has no respect for the police who protect us. He even called them criminals and "thulla". All he does is keep fighting with police, Lt Governor, Home Minister and Prime Minister. Sometimes he gets mad at press too, in spite of his entire career being built by press and TV. I have never been cheated mentally like this before. He raised our hopes on every corner. Got our votes. We worked with his topi gang on streets for months. Now, all we get is ads using our own money, to blame the central government. We could have done that free, sitting on our sofa.. We Indians are experts in blaming politicians in our homes, for generations. Why did we need a Chief Minister who has no portfolio, spending crores of our money, to blame government that we are experts in blaming ourselves?

Then power went off. It took 5 minutes for the critical machines to get generator power. Mosquitos were biting his tender skin. His wife was worried about Dengue and screaming to put a coil to prevent mosquito bites. By then the exhausted Praja had gone back to coma.

AAP: Lies and U-Turns

AAP is the latest novelty factor in India. TV Media is going 24*7 abuzz with how cool the bunch of activists turned politicians are. Print media is writing laurels for "aam aadmi" finally governing Dilli. Media "pundits" are going ga-ga as to how Arvind Kejriwal's phenomenon will be changing India's political landscape, dislodging the established players like Narendra Modi. And social media's AAP fans are all out to prove how great is this new find for India.

And then I asked after one week of Aam Aadmi Party's government in Dilli, to list out some of their lies, and outright u-turns. Within 2 hours, I got enough material to write this blog. These were tweeted mostly with #AAPLies hash tag on Twitter. Since they are coming in large number, you can check out the tweets with that tag, for the latest info.

All the material provided here are courtesy my Twitter friends. If any item has untruth or half truth in it, please post a comment with the correction. I will review it.

Here we go.. listing the top 10 sections of lies and u-turns.

Section 1: Master lists

Tweep @bechaara openly challenges folks to counter him, after listing some #AAPlies.

‏@SaffronZeppelin shares a very interesting video.

Arvind Kejriwal's famous lies get exposed, amongst others:
"I will never fight elections in my life" 
"I don't want to hold any post in my life" 

Then @shaksingh shares an elaborate list of 15 #AAPlies.

He's quite well versed with these topics, so feel free to challenge him for links, if you feel any of these are incorrect.

Then @ArinKamath shared 5 key u-turns of AAP, proving that they are not necessarily AAM. The most damning one is the #AAPCON government they formed with Congress support.

Section 2: AAP Taking Corrupt Congress Support

‏@RPrasad_7 asked: Why AAP is cheating people that BJP has offered them support? Only Congress offered support, not BJP particularly, when you focus on Congress giving unconditional support to form the government.

Another friend shared a video of Arvind Kejriwal & Yogendra Yadav being caught red-handed by Subramanin Swamy. Hilarious.. watch it.

Then @Purple_Truth shares the real truth of AAP & Congress relationship, poupularly known on the social media as #AAPCON government.

@SachsR also shared a similar #AAPCON drawing, this time from the funny Amul Baby.
"Hand in hand, Aam in Arm?"

Section 3: AAM Hesitating On Sheila Dikshit Corruption Cases

‏@nationalizer shared the most damning thing about how AAP has connived to save Sheila Dikshit's Congress corruption.

AAP had a page on its website called "Pol Khol" meaning expose them.
http://aamaadmiparty.org/PolKhol/Electricity.aspx

At the time of writing this blog, the page was missing. Hence producing the archive that @nationalizer provided.

Why would AAP remove this critical page from their website?

@niranjanprabhu shared a video where Kejriwal is exposed on his flip flop on Sheila.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152108859596346

Another similar expose shared by @chotivalebaba on Dr. Harsha Vardhan's charges and Kejriwal making a disgusting u-turn.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxI_xdOUuY

@dreamthatworks asked.. AAP said Congress corruption will be probed in 7 days and it is alraedy the 8th day, nothing happened. Why "Mr. Clean"?

@LostProphet77 asked the same. "Sheila Dikshit would be in jail within 7 days of AAP forming Delhi Govt". What happened?

Section 4: "Free" Water

@IamSrivatsanV saved an AAP Busting detail about water.

@gk125 asked - Is AAP Delhi water formula full of leaks?

"The people of Delhi may be in for a rude shock, following the new water pricing formula of AAP. They may have to shell-out 2-3 times more. Where meters are faulty, cost will be even higher"

Read the analysis: http://www.moneylife.in/article/aap-delhi-water-formula-is-full-of-leaks/35822.html

@IamSrivatsanV shared the Kejriwal's waterfront by Surjit S Bhalla, which talks about Reverse Robinhood episode where poor will pay for rich people's water consumption.

"Aap Ki Amir Party" Indian Express writes..

Read analysis here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kejriwal-s-waterfront/1215340/0

@ArinKamat shared the so called terms and conditions which make the application of this free water stuff difficult.

Of course, by now, most AAP supporters will be trying to find some material against BJP, instead of trying to defend the drama of AAP.

Section 5: Electricity

@IamSrivatsanV shared a comparison with older tariff. Unless you are very carefully watching the electrical meter, even one unit above 400 units can make you pay more. So this is not truly a power tariff cut that aam aadmi would understand or monitor closely.

Section 6: Rakhi Birla's car being "attacked"

@PawanDande claims, Rakhi Birla planted story of attack on car, while it was hit by cricket ball, even boy apologized, still nautanki & FIR

@TrustBJP shared a video explaining this more:

Why this drama Rakhi ji? First day shared auto, then sleeping in assembly, then getting Innova car, then no security claim, then this drama for personal car...

Section 7: AAP's Anjali Damania, known as "land shark" on social media.

‏@ArinKamath shared the details from Kejriwal's Headlines Today show in March 2013 and what was actually on AAP website (contradiction).

‏@gk125 shared the same video where Kejriwal lied about Anjali Damania. In fact the person who asked the question, tweeted to me on the same!

" She is a volunteer" drama exposed. 

Now the same "volunteer" Anjali, who is accused of being a land shark, against whom Kejriwal refused any probe internally, is Nagpur AAP's candidate in Maharashtra. If Anjali had some self respect, she would not be contesting from the party which disowned her on national TV!

Section 8:  Election Commission Clean Chit

@rameshnswamy shared the truth that EC never giving any clean chit, as claimed by AAP after getting exposed with that Sting operation against Shzia Ilmi, Kumar Vishwas and a few more.

Read: http://news.oneindia.in/new-delhi/election-commission-quashes-aap-claims-of-being-given-clean-chit-1348855.html

According to Election Commissioner HS Brahma the commission has not verified the veracity of the tape. He also added that unless the AAP challenges it legally, no clean chit can be given to it. The party had earlier claimed that the EC had given a clean chit to the party and declared that the sting operation CD was doctored.

Section 9:  Where is JanLokpal?

@ArinKamath asks, where is Jan Lokpal? This was asked on 31st December, but we can understand the delay in forming the government. At least by 6th January some movement should have happened? That too after using Anna Hazare's name in spite of him clearly saying don't use?

Section 10: No Government Car

Coming to Arvind Kejriwal's famous tweet about "we never ever" part of government transport.

@masala_chaas busts that lie too quickly.
In Apr 2013: See the conditions in this video, put by AAP for giving tickets.

And  now in Jan 2014, giving gas guzzling Rs. 15 to 18 lakh (upper range) costing, foreign brand lavish cars to AAP ministers.

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party Ministers of Delhi, except Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, were today given Toyota Innova cars as official perks.

A number of ministers, including Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla and Saurabh Bhardwaj, came to Delhi Assembly complex in official cars.

Asked if coming by such cars was reflective of practising austerity, Kejriwal downplayed it saying the party never said it's ministers will not use official cars.

How convenient!
I have 100s of other tweets and information shared by online friends. But this is enough for now..

Can we really trust such political chameleons?

Strange Ways AAP Gets Surveys Done

I came across this week, a survey on the new Aam Aadmi Party's website. 47% of Dilli folks want to give AAP a chance.. Impressive for a new kid on the block.

But the surprise did not long for long. Started reading it through a bit.

The AAP website said further:

Aam Aadmi Party commissioned Cicero Associates(www.ciceroassociates.in), a New Delhi based consultancy firm, specializing in public opinion polling and survey research, to carry out the second round of a Delhi wide survey of a representative sample of Delhi’s voters.  The first wave of the poll was conducted in February 2013, while the data presented here is from the second wave.

Wait a minute.. we have seen this Cicero name somewhere on Twitter. So it took me to the second step. The website of Cicero Associates. Strangely, they are still "upgrading" the most vital piece of their website, the people who own the company.

That made me more curious, because that survey company claimed that their advice is based on results, and not intentions. If the intention is not important, why is the team page empty? Started searching.

Next I landed up on a news paper website.

Twitter was abuzz with charges about how AAP is a Congress front because it chose a company, which has a Congressman as one of the two directors. In the third phase of the survey, AAP had given itself a 28% vote share and Kejriwal as popular preference for the post of chief minister.

A link leading to an article “Proof that Aam Aadmi Party is a front of Congress, survey is false" on a web-based newswire site claimed that one of the two partners of Cicero Associates & Consultants is an office bearer of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC). The DPCC website on Wednesday showed Madhur’s photo and his Badarpur address.

By now it was truly amusing to me..  How can a company seemingly owned by a Congress person (party or fully), can do a survey projecting "massive" opinion in favour of the new kid in political arena, this AAP? The next step was even more better.

Landed up in that page quoted by the newspaper.

For the past few months, we are being bombarded with a survey in which Aam Aadmi Party has claimed victory in Delhi elections. The survey was done by Yogendra Yadav, using an unknown agency called Cicero Associates & Consultants Private Limited. The numbers claimed in the survey were hard for any agency to achieve. They claimed that the survey was carried out between September 5 and October 5 among all 70 assembly constituencies, covering 1,750 polling booths and 34,425 respondents.

As a data scientist, I am quite aware that modern market research is a science and the results cannot differ much from other surveys done by reliable agencies like AC Neilson. Conducting more than 1,000 surveys in a day seemed to be a no mean feat.

The website of Cicero Associates, which was registered just on May 30, 2013, lists their address as A-166, First Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi, Delhi, 110024. So the company did not have a public face before May 30, 2013. The snapshot of the page on that day by Archive.org lists a freshly hosted domain. I am quite familiar with Delhi and know that A-block of Defence Colony cannot house so many field agents to conduct a massive survey. So I decided to investigate.

Registrar of Companies data reveals that the authorised signatories of Cicero Associates are Sunit Kumar Madhur with the address of GA-34, Block GA, Pulpeladpur, New Delhi 110 044. The other Director is Dhananjay Joshi with the address of A-7/3 SFS Flats, Saket, New Delhi 110 017. An authorised signatory is the Karta Dharta of the company.
A simple Google Search reveals that A-166 First Floor, Defence Colony has the office of Langjobs, Interpreters India and other businesses. It certainly didn’t look like a market research entity.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee Site lists one of the Directors of Cicero, as a General Secretary - Shri Sunit Madhur, GA-34, Pul Pahladpur, Badarpur, New Delhi-110 044, 9311012007 as a General Secretary. His own twitter profile describes himself as: “Congress worker. Entrepreneur. Only the people who have to compromise& be pragmatic in their daily lives know the value of idealism and romanticism....”

A name and address like that is unique so both are the same set of people.
The other Director is a property dealer running a firm called Intouch Associates revealed from his profile at 99acres.com.

For Aam Aadmi Party, which is dead against Congress, it seems quite strange that it has to choose a dummy market research company, which is owned by a known Congressman to conduct a survey!

By now I was clear as to what was all this fake survey and worse.. the role of AAP as the B team of Congress as so many people on Twitter say. I initially didn't pay much attention to such theories, but looking at the details here, it was not hard to believe so any more. And this screenshot of research posted on that website, with data from Ministry of Corporate Affairs website confirmed that they had indeed a perfect research done. And you can spot at the left bottom corner of the image, a clear solicitation to get someone to youth or main Congress party. Download and zoom the image if you wish to read thoroughly.

And by the time I got to the twitter account of this Sunit Madhur, Director of this mysterious Cicero Associates, it was probably late. He has no bio there.

Now that you have read till here.. tell me honestly. If you were going to topple Sheila Dikshit's Congress government, why would you get your survey done by a firm owned (partly or fully) by a Congress regional General Secretary? Will you get a survey done by a firm owned by BJP General Secretary (hypothetically), if trying to topple Narendra Modi's government in Gujarat? Will you get a survey done by AIADMK affiliate's company if trying to challenge Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu?

Whom are you trying to fool with such "farzi" surveys, Mr. Kejriwal? Worse.. are there still some people who believe that there is no mysterious "hand" behind this sudden hype of a new kid on the block called AAP? :)

Sins of Congress in 2011

Now that we are done with New Year 2012 euphoria, how about spending some time to recollect some of the top sins of Congress party in the past year 2011?

One of my online friend joked.. even Rajnikanth wouldn't be able to count the sins of Congress. Another one cautioned that listing sins of Congress is like counting till infinity! But still, a *brave* voice inside me says, don't listen to naysayers.. try it once.

So here I go with the top 10 sins, more like, listing of the top-10 SIN sections as there is so much info shared by my Twitter friends. Feel free to add more in the comments section.

Sin #1: The Midnight crackdown at Ramlila and subsequent death of Rajbala: 

Refer to my earlier blog regarding Baba Ramdev and the UPA Government Face Off. All details of the outrageous midnight crackdown, for which almost no one got punished in 2011, is pictorially recalled.

Picture showing Rajbala, after the midnight crackdown

Similar sins: 

Here are three videos from 2011.

• - A group of three Congress ministers kicking an unarmed black flag waving protester at Phulpur, UP.

- Digvijay Singh, a veteran Congress leader, allegedly kicking a man for showing shoe at a press conference, on camera!

- Firing and killing of Jaitapur civilian protestors in Maharashtra.

Sin #2: Murder of democracy in Rajya Sabha, during Lokpal bill "debate" and vote:

In what most people who watched live on TV described, Congress manipulated and blatantly avoided an inevitable losing vote in the parliament in December 2011. CNN-IBN in fact showed right from 10.50 PM onwards, till midnight, exactly how Congress manipulated & used Lalu Prasad's party as a pawn in this murder of democracy at midnight. Utterly shameful sin considering that they had back-stabbed Anna Hazare team on a stronger Lokpal  bill called Janlokpal earlier.


Read more here:  http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-ensures-no-voting-for-lokpal-rs-adjourned/216174-37-64.html

In a cynical and blatant display of political manipulation, the UPA government ensured that there was no voting on the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha. As predicted, members of the Rashtriya Janata Party and Samwajwadi Party created utter chaos in the House during the reply of the government to the debate, which was being made by Minister of State (PMO) V Narayanswamy. 

Similar sins: 

• After initially promising multi-brand retail FDI, the government went back on its words and put it on "hold". Corporates fumed!
• While allthe drama happens, investors lost Rs.20,00,000,00,00,000 in the stock market and Rupee turned out to the worst performing currency in Asia, price inflation bothered common man for most of the year, including a series of fuel price rises.
• A tainted CVC appointment justified, in spite of BJP voicing its distrust in this CVC prior to the appointment.
• This after 2010, when Manmohan Singh was embarrassed and slammed by Court during A Raja prosecution case.
• The same Congress govt arrested MPs who exposed cash for votes scam from 2008 as whistle blowers, but never dared to act against those who benefited from this hand over of cash.

Sin #3: Harassing Subramanian Swamy for his crusade against 2G scam culprits, including an alleged attack on his house:

The year was hostile towards Subarmanian Swamy. Not just attack on his house which he told in multiple interviews as a handwork of Congress guys, he also got FIRs, notices and much more. The reason blamed was his article in DNA newspaper, but it was clear for a neutral observer that him putting Team Sonia in dock for 2G scam had a lot to do with the reaction.

Similar sin: 

• Filing FIR against him and moving ahead with it, while not acting upon the prosecution request he filed with the PM, against UPA chairperson.  
• Even for Congress' ally and a leader of the partner party in 2G scam, Karunanidhi, was not allowed to be prosecuted by a governor controlled by UPA regime.

Sin #4: Retaining Chidambaram as the Home Minister, inspite of a mountain of evidences/cases against him:

2011 was a very bad year for Chidambaram. His "best friend" Swamy kept on hounding him from court case to court case. He was blamed for Ramlila maidan midnight crackdown. He was blamed for many other things, including his shaky 2009 election. But he remains the Home Minister of India still.. shamefully..

So who did 2G scam? One or more? {source: OnIndia}

Read here: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/chidambarams-role-in-2g-scam-what-swamy-told-the-court/20111217.htm

The key aspect which Team Sonia is not able to convince Indians is that Chidambaram did not "help" Raja in 2G scam. 

Similar and Related sins: 

• Kapil Sibal's "Zero Loss" theory on 2G scam.
• Allowing SM Krishna to be the External Minister, in spite of an FIR against him in Karnataka for alleged role in illegal mining, when he was the Chief Minister. And protecting a guy who read a Portuguese foreign minister's speech at UN, shaming India!
• Remember, the same Team Sonia had claimed Raja also as innocent!
• Only Raja blamed, while Chidambaram saved. No one grilled the government as to why a key 2G scam witness Sadiq Batcha died?
• While Congress is busy protecting a tainted Krishna and Chidambaram,China is slowly moving into Indian areas. 11000 troops deployed in Gilgit which belongs to India, intrude into Ladakh and openly challenging India on Arunchal Pradesh.
• Bugging Finance Ministry with 'chewing gum'?
• Utterly shameful usage of the term 'Saffron terror'!

Sin #5: Letting Rahul Gandhi get away with his claims of human ash and rapes at Bhatta Parsaul in UP:

 Earlier in 2011, Rahul Gandhi openly told the country and the PM that "people have been killed, people have been raped" at Bhatta Parsaul. See the video right next here to hear him say that.

It didn't take much time for National Human Rights Commission to come out and clarify that his statements were essentially lies.

Rahul Gandhi revealed that farmers told him about rape and murder during the protest. Ruling out Rahul Gandhi's claims, NHRC states that farmers hadn't lost their lives in numbers.

The 800-page interim report submitted by NHRC also ruled out the rape in the notorious Lakhimpur Kheri police station rape case.

Some of us are still wondering as to how he could mislead the country about 70 feet ash, when the press is openly pooh-poohing his claims!

And this "credible" guy could be a PM of India one day!

Similar sins: 

• Not just that infamous concoction in Bhatta Parsaul, Rahul Gandhi had his share of sins further more. He retorted to an insulting beggar comment in UP which backfired badly.
• He said he's "ashamed to be an Indian", which got plenty of flaks too. 
• The same guy even went to the arrogant extent of 99% terror prevention comment, when the country was mourning a fresh terror attack's victims, while his government feeds biryani to Afzal and Kasab, and giving away 10000 acres of land to Bangladesh instead of tackling illegal immigration!
• To ice the cake, Wikileaks revealed his low IQ when it comes to differentiating imaginary 'saffron terror' versus the menacing Jihadi terror. Wikileaks also exposed his failure as an MP. Navjot Sidhu went to an animated extent of asking Rahul Baba to go back to school.. LoL!

Sin #6: Indecision on Telangana, spoiling the economy of Hyderabad and career of students for almost the entire year:

The way Congress handled Telangana in 2011 was utterly shameful. The Andhra Pradesh state which elected the maximum number of Congress MPs in 2009, felt fully betrayed. The entire year, bandhs, violence and burning of public property continued. Hyderabad's booming economy suffered severe hit due to this indecision of Congress government for years now. The worst affected are the students who are used by politicians and are losing valuable years of their student career.

Telengana protestors burning Sonia Gandhi poster. {Source: Rediff}

Read more about Congress' dilly-dolling here: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_opposition-parties-in-andhra-slam-congress-over-telangana_1621764

Similar sins: 

• The same party also plays divisional politics in other spots too. Chidambaram's Mullaperiyar divisionary statement was so stupid that he had to withdraw it.
• Unconstitutional Muslim quota being talked in UP, breaking communities based on religion.
• Sonia Gandhi led Communal Violence Bill has been slammed as communal and unconstitutional too.

Sin #7: Saving Sheila Dikshit, the most corrupt Chief Minister of India, in spite of Shunglu Report, Lokayukta slamming, Ramlila crackdown fiasco, Batla House accusation and CAG report: 

Picture tells everything! {source: The Hindu}

It's a no-brainer to say that protecting a super corrupt Sheila Dikshit was one of the most unpardonable and hypocritical sins of Congress in 2011. Why? I had a lengthy blog already which would give you lots of facts and figures. Go through that please here: http://kiranasis.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-twitter-screamed-sack-sheila.html

Similar sins at state levels: 

• Blamed Kalmadi for everything in CWG scam, while saving Sheila. Even CAG squarely blamed Sheila Dikshit. 
• Misuse of CBI and making it a puppet organization.
• Misuse of Governor positions in Karnataka and Gujarat.
• Not punishing Omar Abdullah for Tiranga Yatra scuttling, while letting Pakistan flag in Lal Chowk!
• Goa Mining Scam Report was ignored and the tainted CM Kamat saved.
• Rajasthan CM saved even after massive hospital deaths and Banwari Devi Murder case.
• Abuse of CBI and tax authorities against Jagan Reddy, while never acting against the same YSR family when they were with Congress!
• Poschim Bongo's Mamata saved, in spite of big number of children dying in the hospitals, and no visible punishment for 2010 Deganga rioters who were linked to ally TMC.
• In Haryana, CM Hooda was saved in spite of clear violation of rules dealing with Rajiv Gandhi Trusts's land deal.
• 100s of crores lost due to the lengthy Manipur blockade, but no punishment to the Congress government there.

Sin #8: Not informing the nation of 1.2 billion people, who is paying for their government's head's foreign trips and surgery:

Why this hush hush about foreign trips? {Source: SamayLive}

India must be the only democracy, where the head of the government, in this case UPA coalition chief, gives no details to the fellow countrymen about her foreign trips or expenses for the trips/surgeries! Even the CIC told the PMO, but in vain.
Read more here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sonias-foreign-trips/803085/

It is anybody's guess as to why the Congress' nucleus, Gandhi family, does not care about Indians when it comes to their foreign trips.. It seems, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, both MPs, have not even informed their work place, the parliament, about any of their trips since June 2004!

Why this secrecy?

Similar sins: 

• While we worry about secrecy of government chief's foreign trips, RTI, which was a boon for informing citizen about government action, is turning out to be a murder trap for activists.
• The same Sonia/Manmohan government went to the extent of almost letting Pakistan off the hook for 26/11 and other terror attacks. Why?
• The same government which is so secretive about Sonia's trips, gives crores of public ads for tainted former PMs, giving credit for everything good in India to them.. Not telling what should be told, while telling things which no one cares!

Sin #9: Systematically maligning Anna Hazare, Sri Sri Ravishankar and anyone else who spoke against corruption: 

Anna getting Rajiv "Samaj Seva" award from Digvijay

 Once upon a time, Digvijay Singh had presented Anna Hazare with the Rajiv Gandhi "Samaj Seva" Puraskar for his outstanding service to the society. Of course, that was long before Anna had started his anti-corruption war directly against Team Sonia.  In 2011, a virulent campaign was launched against Anna Hazare, calling him an RSS Agent and an Army Deserter. Giving company to Digvijay Singh, the usual rabble-rouser Manish Tewari went one step further calling Anna, "corrupt from head to toe"! The sickening attack on Anna Hazare was well coordinated by multiple angles of Congress machinery in 2011.


Similar sins: 

• The same Diggy who constantly attacked Anna, also called a dreaded 9/11 terrorist Osama bin Laden as Osama Ji! Some "balance" here.
• Congress party's apparent mole with Team Anna, Agnivesh was exposed talking to Kapil Sibal about a sabotage deal.
• They didn't even leave Sri Sri Ravi Shankar..

The message was clear in 2011. You talk about Congress' corruption and we will come after you.


And the Final Top-10 Sin: Attempts to curb freedom of speech over internet, by Kapil Sibal:

Protest against Kapil Sibal. {Source The Hindu}

No need to talk anything more about Kapil Sibal's highly ridiculed attempt to censor social media, than the picture accompanying here. By the way, I heard Congress even acted against these placard holders! 

Read more here: http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2709388.ece

Similar sins: 

• As expected in 2011, Congress attacked WikiLeaks, dismissed the damaging exposure in late 2010.
• On the highly controversial Radia Tapes which exposed media honchos and industrialists along with politicians, no action was taken beyond the initial court hearing. 
• Remember in 2010, a techie from Hyderabad was arrested for exposing Electronic Voting Machine fraud? Nothing happened beyond then. EVMs are still in use, in spite of voices in the courts that they are being abused.

There is more.. lot more.. but this is enough for one blog.

How long will this saga of sins continue? Maybe the biggest sin of BJP, Communists and regional parties, is their inability to pin Congress down in 2011, in spite of such massive failures.

Why Twitter Screamed "Sack Sheila"?

Twitter was abuzz recently with #SackSheila calls. Of course, you wouldn't see any major media house going after the CM of Delhi, like it goes after a few other CMs of India.

Did you wonder why media, particularly the TV section, shields Sheila Dikshit, even after Shunglu report, Lokayukta hits and a whole lot of administrative failures over the past decade? By any chance, is it being in the 'good books' of the all powerful dynasty?

Sheila Dikshit with Rahul Gandhi. {Image: Paisawala.com}

Browsing through a few hundred tweets, I found the salient pieces of information shared by Twitter users. Go through them, and the links of blogs or newspaper reports with them, to get a fair idea of why #SackSheila was such a big buzz on social networks recently. Since it was India's topmost trending topic, there were literally 1000s of tweets, so my presentation below is only a microcosm of them, in no particular order.

1. Let's start with Lokayukta and Corruption Charges part. Delhi Lokayukta (Ombudsman) asked the President of India to pull up Sheila Dikshit. By any standard of indictment, that must have been a huge deal. But did the President listen? No way..If you are an expert in getting into the 'good books' of the dynasty, President of India will give you a clean chit herself. It did happen in this case for sure.
2. Do you know that even an ordinary minister of Congress CM, Sheila Dikshit, has guts to hit back at a Lokayukta? 

3. 

   Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin {Image: facenfacts}

   Many screamed, Dear Mrs. Pratibha Patil, why not act firmly on Lokayukta's plea?
4. Sheila Dixit alleged to be responsible for Rs.200 crore power privatization scam from 2002-03. Forgotten now?
5. "Delhi case different from Karnataka, says Sheila".  Why? Is Delhi Lokayukta a second class Lokayukta compared to Karnataka's?
6. Let's check the crime in Delhi part: Delhi has highest rate of crime against women 27.6 compared to national avg 14.1 per 100,000. If one goes through National Crime bureau's record website, there's a clear indication that Delhi is probably the worst, if not THE worst among 35 major cities of India, when it comes to crime against women.
7. Annual increase in rape cases in Delhi since 2001 is 18%. This is from Delhi Police's official figures on their website. How much more pathetic this administration can be?
8. Why do thugs in The Capital City feel they cant do whatever and still be free? One shameful example was Three rape in moving car for six hours!
9. Sheila said 'One should not be adventurous' when journalist Soumya was murdered in Delhi. What a terrific advice to women, that too to a journalist! 
10. Not one but two abduction attempts in Delhi/NCR the same day? Case 1 & Case 2
11. Sheila Dixit gave parole to Jessica Lall murderer Manu Sharma despite Home Ministry advice not to do so.  
12. Police assaulted on sleeping men, women & kids at Ramlila grounds during Baba Ramdev fast episode. Even though the decision might be from UPA government, the way Sheila Dikshit handled the situation was deplorable.
13. Now let's focus on the all important mega corruption of Commonwealth Games (CWG): Commonwealth Games scandal was India's worst in sports history.  V.K. Shunglu report squarely blamed the Delhi CM. But, not just her, even the media cleanly pushed it below the carpet. Dikshit madam went to the extent of 'trashing' it !!
14. Here is the power of Indian media. Four months after Shunglu report, protests, arrests, now Sheila is "clean" :)
15. Sheila Dikshit, Sonia Gandhi and Congress used Kalmadi

    

    Suresh and Sheila..Let's get CWG "done" together! {Source: Hindu}

    & then snubbed him after CWG scam. But later Kalmadi hit back! Read both sides of the story and you will know which side is weaker. Some feel that unfortunately only a smaller player in CWG scam went to Tihar jail, while the other roaming free. Worse.. Kalmadi now has 'dementia' which means, his words won't be credible anymore!
16. Kalmadi was not innocent by any means. But he was made the only scapegoat by CBI, apparently protecting Sheila Dikshit.
17. Do you recall how Patriotism was "re-defined" by Sheila Dikshit, in the corruption context?  
18. Looking back at "CWG Scam: We will come out clean" statement, we know exactly what she meant, don't we?
19. Explain the delay in auditing Games: Shunglu to CAG -- Which essentially could mean a coverup right from beginning of Commonwealth Games.
20. Sheila Dikshit on Shunglu report: 24th Mar 2011, she said "No Idea" -  by 29th Mar, she was read to say it was "Self Contradictory".  Valuable tricks to learn as to how to trash a meticulous report showing glaring failures of a CM!
21. Now to nepotism charges: Have you read this about Sheila's relatives? Rajeev Sreenivasan's blog tells a lot more.  
22. Mushrooming dynasty, was another angle Twitter users highlighted. It's not just bringing kids to politics, but what happens after that (see Kanchan's blog linked below).
23. How about security and anti-terrorism track record? Delhi continuously hit by terror attacks - 22 Dec 2000, 13 Dec 2001, 29 Oct 2005 and 13 Sept 2008. All during Sheila Dikshit's CMship!
24. Delhi 2005 terror attack, 62 dead. Dappened during Deepavali time. Pahranganj, Govindpuri, Sarojini Nagar. Any chief planner(s) punished?
25. September 13, 2008 Delhi blast Victims still wait for justice. Sheila remembers to forget and media forgets to remember this.
26. Afzal Guru, the chief perpetrator of the 2001 attack on the temple of Indian democracy, the parliament, was shielded quoting some votebankish, 'sensitive nature of case' excuse :(
27. Now to some healthcare and public safety mega faults: Integrated Government Health Scheme cost us 775 kids. Nipping out next generation in the bud. 
28. Do read Kanchan Gupta's blog on how Sheila Dikshit & her MP son, shamefully washed hands off 66 deaths.
29. This March 2011 report indicates crime rate still on the rise in Delhi. How many terms this CM had to fix the crime in Delhi?
30. Delhi Buses are considered major killing machines. Govt of Delhi cant do anything about it. Recent death - 8th May.
31. While Delhi Bus accidents are more of a normalcy, Delhi also saw Metro accidents. Here's a list. 
32. In 2009, seven pregnant women and 882 children enrolled with the ICDS died. Year after year, the same sad story of poor administration costing lives.
33. Commonwealth Games Scam is methodically kept away from Delhi CM, by most media houses. India Against Corruption's Arvind Khejriwal cites that and appeals to India. Sheila's name must figure prominantly in that based on Shunglu report.
34. To avoid embarrassment during CWG, Delhi Blueline was off road. Sheila cant fix problem, instead evades! How many more terms does she need to fix these killer buses?

I would stop here. If you want more, just search Twitter archives for #SackSheila and you can browse through literally 1000s of tweets from across India and Indians abroad. After this snapshot of a bigger picture painted on Twitter by public, isn't it time for big name media houses to sing.. #SackSheila ?

Would they? Your guess is as good as mine.

Did it get too *hot*? Enjoy a spoof..
"My name is Sheila.. Sheila ki jawani"

Are You Wondering if B.S. Yedyurappa Will Resign?

It is now about 48 hours prior to the official release of Karnataka Illegal Mining report to be make public by the Lokayukta (Ombudsmen) Justice Santosh Hegde. Anything can happen in the state as well as national politics after that. Speculations are abound. The English 'mainstream' TV media should be salivating for *breaking news*, to take the focus away from the *heart-breaking news* of scams of the other party, for which there seems to be a cushy soft corner.

To help you kill some time during this period, some interesting points and questions.

B.S.Yedyurappa, in short BSY, has built BJP and its earlier avatars, meticulously in Karnataka from ground up for nearly 4 decades. He achieved something impossible to even imagine just 25 years back.. a majority government headed by a 'north Indian' BJP, in a south Indian state! Kudos to him as well as the marvelous list of achievements his government has pulled off over the past three years.

You can listen to a very long list of achievements of Yedyurappa government, from the horse's mouth itself here:
http://yeddyurappa.in/news-and-events/three-years-of-bountiful-development/

B.S. Yedyurappa. Image from Rediff

Since, I am not writing this to present Global Investor's meet, or 20-point implementation or the dozens of awards the state won on development efforts, lets get back to the mining part. If you followed Delhi based 'national' media, you might have only heard of 3 things: a) land scams. b) illegal mining. c) why isn't he resigning. :)

Here we go with some thought provoking questions, not in any particular order, while leaving the conclusion to yourself ...

1. How many channels screaming Karnataka,Karnataka, told you that Sonia Gandhi won from the same mine district Ballary? Has anyone bothered to investigate who supported on the ground with manpower and finances?After all mining in Ballary didn't start yesterday.... even in 1999, Ballary had nearly 25% of India's iron ore deposit and all political parties had close mine connections.
2. Did NDTV or Times Now inform that Karnataka Lokayukta might be indicting Anil Lad, based on leaked portions of the reports? Anil became a RS MP with Sonia's blessing. If never heard of Lad family, please check this out from Congress4India website.
3. Amazing NDTV! They talk about politicians mining Ballary - But Sonia Gandhi, who became an MP from the same Ballary, isn't even mentioned :) How 'neutral'!
4. It's so funny that media channels talk about BJP's double standards on corruption, while they ignore Delhi Lokayukta's damning reports against a sitting CM and her government. We will cover that a bit later right here.
5. What Times Now or NDTV wouldn't tell is that, Hegde's report might show Rs.20000 crores of loss (per leaked reports) since the year 2000. In that Yedyurappa government's tally during the past 14 months might be Rs.1827 crores. Simple maths tells me that Congress and Janata Dal Secular's portions might be as high as 90% in that case. Why aren't they being slammed on national channels? You guess..
6. If Yedyurappa has to resign, don't you bet that he should take Deve Gowda family MPs,  Congress MP Dharam Singh, UPA minister SM Krishna? By the way where is that Rameshwar Thakur who allowed plenty of mining licenses as a governor during president's rule? Hmn... I don't know if any other 'Presidents' rule ever allocated so many licenses, so 'urgently' :)
7. Now you want some numbers? Here we are: Mining licenses recommend by CMs versus granted by Government of India: Dharam Singh (CON): 43/33; HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) 47/22; UPA government headed by Sonia Gandhi (during President's Rule) 22/14; and Yedyurappa (BJP) 22/2. What? So Yedyurappa, the big bad boy, only got two mining licenses in the entire decades of super busy mining industry of Karnataka? Numbers are making a bit more interesting now.
8. Now to some very thorough & hard reading exercise: The same Karnataka Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, had published his first report in December 2008. See Page 161 from that very detailed original report copy, for which the link was just provided. Congress CM Dharam Singh was held responsible  for causing a big loss of Rs.23,22,11,850 to the exchequer. Nice... I didn't see any 'national' TV channels going ballistic on Dharam Singh even today, while he is prettily sitting as a Lok Sabha MP in the parliament!

9. 

   Ballary Mines. Image from Deccan Herald

   Getting unnerved by numbers? Don't worry, here's is a short, but very factual summary of what Karnataka illegal mining saga is all about. Must read if you didn't get a full flow of what's happening till now - by a self professed 'vertebrate' journalist, Vicky Nanjappa.
10. Are we missing a big fish over here, while focusing too much on the 'evil' BJP government? Let's see.. In May 2008, BJP came to power on its own. Right after 3 months, in August of 2008, Karnataka High Court quashes 36 mine licenses sanctioned by a 'former' Chief Minister from 2003.  So who could that 'former' CM be? Even Mr. Hegde skipped the one and only one, Mr. S.M. Krishna :)
11. How could Hegde not have ONE mention of SM Krishna's name in 2008 or 2011 mining reports (per leaked info), when High Court quashed 36 Krishna sanctioned licenses? Aha.. now you are asking the questions..
12. I wanted to ask at this point: Dear Mr. Hegde, 128 out of 152 Karnataka mining lease recommendations were sent by SM Krishna, HD Kumaraswamy, Dharam Singh and Governor Thakur. Were they all 100% "pristine" & law-abiding in terms of execution? We know  you might name one or two of them, but why not ALL?
13. Are we forgetting someone else? Let's see.. Oh yeah, in fact, it was then mining minister V Muniyappa under SM Krishna's government in 2003, who allowed quarrying even in forest areas! Jairam Ramesh would have tore his hair in the public if it was in 2010:)
14. You thought that was extreme? You have more fun, just in Karnataka: It's not just in 2003, but much earlier in 2000, the same Muniyappa and SM Krishna combo had allowed private parties mine in forest areas! Hello Mr.Jairam Ramesh :)
15. Now that you have heard about some 'partners in crime', how many told you that Yedyurappa was the first CM of India who banned iron ore exports? (Incidentally, it was the Congress Rajya Sabha MP & Spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was the lawyer for anti-ban teams!) Also, it was him, who ordered the Lokayukta investigation to go beyond the year 2008 duration? I guess not many.. Oh.. did you at least know, that when Karnataka banned ore export from 9 ports under its control, Manmohan Singh's UPA government didn't bother to ban the 10th port, under central control, even after repeated pleading?
16. After 15 questions, your head might be spinning.. So we were told that Yedyurappa was the 'baddest' guy occupying a CM's seat in India by the English media. Let's see how does the same media treat others? 
17. First, our dearest Sheila Dikshit. The other side of Indian media immediately pops up. Four months after the Shunglu report, protests, arrests, this Delhi Congress CM is 'Surf Excel' clean :)
18. Not just that, do you know that even an ordinary minister of this Congress CM has guts to hit back at a hapless Lokayukta? You must be wondering by now, why is Karnataka Lokayukta is 'special' for media, while that hapless Delhi Lokayukta never comes to prime time TV shows to hit at his state's CM?
19. Not just corruption, but do read Kanchan Gupta's blog on how the same Sheila Dikshit & her MP son, shamefully washed hands off 66 deaths:
20. Aha.. is it dawning to you by now that if you are in the good book of 'some' dynasty,  even the President of India will give you a clean chit herself, no matter what the Lokayukta screams!
21. That's enough on Delhi's CM and that state's Lokayukta. How about a couple of other cases, specifically focusing on illegal mining? It has been one year since the late Congress CM YSR's son-in-law & brother-in-law's huge illegal mining issue in AP came up in the state assembly. Has the 'national' media done even one prime time show on this? 
22. If I have to start writing on the *famous* Reddy brothers of Ballary, where they came from in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh, what was their connection for a long number of years with the then Congress strongman YSR, I might need another blog for itself.. For this blog, its enough to mention that, Karnataka politics knew for long time who might have shielded Reddy brothers, from the other side of the border!
23. Even as late as 2008, large scale illegal mining was happening in Haryana, despite the ban.  Did the media bother to do any investigation by itself?
24. Here's the most notable thing: While a big portion of Indian media's efforts were to lose sleep on why Yedyurappa hasn't resigned, Time magazine published a list of the worst abuse of power in the entire world, cutting across generations. Surprise.. surprise.. Sonia Gandhi's greatest achievement as the chairperson of UPA, just happened to be 'crowned' the all time 2nd WORST abuse of power in the world!-  TIME: Top 10 Abuses of Power : India's Telecoms Scandal - By Ishaan Tharoor Tuesday, May 17, 2011  . Ironically, that page was written by none other than Kerala Congress MP's Shashi Tharoor's son, Ishaan :)

So, are you still wondering if Yedyurappa will resign?
Will he?
Should he?
Should he alone, while the others mentioned above, roam free?

Drop in a line of comment so that me and others reading this can get your point of view.