Swamy V Jaitley

On June 27 Arnab Goswami ran his interview of PM Narendra Modi on Timesnow. It was an over an hour-long interview which covered many topics. Most of the answers by Modi were smart and some just dodged the question or were vacant in his answers. What made me wonder is; why this sudden interview? There was no special reason for it or some occasion that BJP or Modi were marking that called for such an interview. On the same day India Today and other channels reported that Arun Jaitley was very upset with the attacks by Subramaniam Swamy on some of the FinMin officials and that he was cutting short his China visit:

One cannot be sure but it seems like AJ conveyed his anguish to Modi about the attacks by SS and forced Modi to go on air and let the world know whose side he is on. According to Arnab the interview was recorded in the morning of Monday, June 27 and aired the same day. Although it’s a suspicion, I strongly believe this:

From the whole interview the media, including Timesnow, picked up only one main issue – that of a question related to Raghuram Rajan and whether Modi had snubbed SS over RR and other FinMin officials SS had targeted in his attacks. Modi responded by stating RR is no less a patriot than anyone else. That’s a rather poor answer. Surely, RR’s work or performance is not going to be measured by his patriotism. And no; not even Modi’s work is going to be measured by how great a patriot he is, of which there is no doubt. The allegations against RR by SS have not been refuted and therefore SS has a right to stand his ground. That apart, being an RBI governor, for Rajan to utter nonsense like “one-eyed king” on the economy or idiotic political statements over the fraudulent “intolerance” campaign makes him unworthy of any high office in the Govt. He cannot act like a politician does. Other allegations were about strangling SMEs through high interest rates which are debatable. But certainly, RR had to go and the PM just sent him off with some back-handed compliments.

There are statements by SS on other FinMin officials like Arvind Subramaniam and Shaktikanta Das. None of these statements or allegations have been challenged or refuted either. In case of ArvindS, facts show that he was predominantly anti-Modi in the past and even against some Pharma interests of India versus the US. Das’ role in the Aircel-Maxis scam which involves P. Chidambaram and his son as also in the National Herald case is documented here. None of it makes pleasant reading. Therefore, the media, observers and many on the SM obviously made it a Swamy V Jaitley battle. I don’t think Swamy makes it any secret either.

Supporters of AJ in the media (and most of them are) and elsewhere ask if a person who has been loyal to BJP for 40 years should be rated over someone like SS who has changed loyalties in the past. It is true, SS has been erratic in the past, even helping to bring down the ABV govt once. AJ on his part is didactic and pompous, mostly in the media. SS does have some major accomplishments to his credit while AJ mostly has accomplishments as a party strategist and as an excellent lawyer. But here’s what matters:

When you go for a job interview, even with 20-25 years of experience, the one sitting opposite you is more keen to know what your major accomplishments were in the last 1-3 years. That’s what counts the most.

The comparison has to be who has more utility to India between AJ and SS. Right now, AJ doesn’t seem to have much utility for India as he is failing miserably in his job as minister of finance and also I&B. Mindless burdens on the middle class and almost daily empty blabber about the economy in the media. That is what AJ can boast about. And the only place where he conducts his Durbar is the media. From protecting Barkha Dutt in Radiagate and unwillingness to prosecute NDTV or having weddings of media-folks’ kids in his bungalow AJ is a media darling. In all his career you wouldn’t have seen one single article criticising him severely. Magic!

That’s where AJ fails miserably and SS stands out as a success. If CongressMuktBharat is a goal for Modi then SS has had an important to play in that. AJ had none. From 2G to National Herald to other issues, SS has led a severe, consistent onslaught against the Congress and their Chinese Gandhis and put them in a spot more than once. This has definitely helped BJP in cornering Congress as a corrupt party and scoring electoral wins in 2014 and many states after that. In what was a Modi-wave AJ lost a public election while SS did not get a party ticket. SS, to his credit, has at least two past public election victories to the LS while AJ has none. SS has a decent mass-base for a politician, including what he calls PTs on SM but AJ has none. AJ’s only mass base is the media and his Durbaris from it. What would you think of Modi if he were seen with some of the worst scumbags of media or with someone like Robert Vadra?

Even Arnab would have been somewhat embarrassed to be seen on the same table with the likes of Barkha, Nidhi or Vikram Chandra. That AJ’s relatives have Congress links is also known but that need not be of any consequence. His loyalty to the party is unquestionable and he’s a great defender of the party in the Parliament and outside but that is just about all. He filed a case against Kejriwal for defamation. However, when it comes to the party or the PM, AJ bothers least about the mindless venom, hatred and fake news that the media spews. And this, when he has the power to punish genuine wrong-doings. A Caravan Magazine article last year chronicled this Durbari and the web he weaves in Lutyens and Timesnow deleted this quote of his:

True to that quote, Outlook magazine in a recent article stated “Last year, when a less-than-flattering profile of the portly Union finance minister appeared, the few advertisements the publication received from PSU banks apparently started drying up because someone made phone calls from North Block. There is, of course, nothing to prove gossip like that”. Outlook probably refers to the Caravan article without naming it. Wow! Punishment for writing a long article about Jaitley? What’s the punishment for those media outlets who lie day in and out about the GOI? What’s the punishment for those outlets that constantly slander and lie about PM Modi? NOTHING! And post the Arnab-Modi interview the media went on a rampage against SS with bogus allegations and twisted headlines:

The day AJ was made Finance Minister I was the first to call him “PC in Pajamas”. His policies have the same tone as those of PC. His proximity to P. Chidambaram has had many wondering if he will let off PC and his family in multiple scams they are reported to be involved in. AJ is on record stating on NDTV that the NatHerald case can be closed if the Gandhis returned the money. And all this from the FM of a govt in which Modi has promised to punish the corrupt. As for black money, I never expected it to come back.  I would be just happy if more black money didn’t get warehoused abroad. Swamy too wants to be FM. He has stated he will abolish personal income tax and still have the treasury benefiting. All Modi or AJ need to do is ask him how and have a discussion. They will not.

So why is AJ a minister in ModiSarkar? After having lost the LS election which Navjot Siddhu (who had to vacate the seat for him) should have easily won? The answer is simple. AJ and Modi have long been chums from the early days of AJ in BJP and the days when AJ was election manager in Gujarat when Modi was CM. Besides, there could be another dangerous reason. With AJ in charge of I&B the vicious lies and attacks on Modi have still not stopped. Just imagine the hitjobs if he is out of the Cabinet. But a time has to come, and it surely will, when Modi will have to put Country ahead of his friendship with AJ. He can be in the Cabinet but better off with another portfolio. This consistent nurturing of anti-BJP, anti-Modi durbaris of media by AJ simply cannot go on forever without the party and Modi having to pay a severe price. And there is even a back-handed, sly acknowledgement of AJ’s credentials by the motor-mouth from Congress:

What Diggy says about Jaitley continuing PC’s legacy may only be partly true. But AJ has two ministries and in both he needs a sidekick MoS. One of the MoS (Rathore in I&B) is woefully incompetent. BJP and Modi supporters on SM and Twitter battle hard almost every day to dismantle the lies and crap peddled by media against BJP and Modi but these ministers sit like statues of Rodin in their offices doing nothing. This is where SS scores with the public. And why should SS be silenced to protect the ego of a non-performer? There is nothing that Swamy has said that is inappropriate or against the party (his tweets are sometimes caustic but that is no offence). Continuing with Congress stooges in the govt has serious problems. Ishrat files have disappeared and who knows how many other files have disappeared. Who knows how many corrupt people from the Congress years are being protected? These are not imaginary threats that SS talks about.

Like I stated before, in this battle our interest should not be which individual we are more supportive of. I do not follow or directly support either of them. Our simple concern has to be which one offers greater utility and service to India. The competition is not in patriotism, the competition is in productive and measurable results and impact for the country. And in that AJ fails miserably as a self-serving, self-protecting, survive-under-any-cost politician. SS may have been erratic in the past but in the last few years he is the one who has delivered more for India, the BJP and Modi in political success and in bringing the corrupt to account. That benefits India and that is what should count. 

Sonia Gandhi's Fake Victimhood

The Congress has been badly dumped by the people in the last elections. There are chances they may be dumped from some states in the upcoming elections in a few months. Yet, our media still reports on their silly utterances as if Sonia Gandhi still rules the country. During the last few days Subramaniam Swamy has boldly said “Sonia Gandhi is a crook” and that “BJP is soft on the Gandhis”. Take a look at how Gandhi-slaves NDTV report on the sleeping beauty called Rahul Gandhi:

They show the video, they show RG yawning, they show RG falling off to a quick sleep and then they report “BJP alleging RG sleeping in parliament”. Even their tweet on July 9 says the same. What are these people, blind idiots? If the man is caught sleeping on video does it take for anyone to “allege”? Such are the slaves at NDTV who still twist ordinary news reports into an act against the Gandhis. Oh! You can’t do that! See the Gandhis are like “sacred monuments”. Having played the idiotic “alleged” tape the channel then goes to a Congi who goes one step better (I’m not sure but I think it was Rajiv Shukla but that doesn’t matter). The Congi says “It is inappropriate for LSTV to show such images”. Okay, so it’s not inappropriate for the bumbling Pappu to doze off but it’s the camera’s fault. It doesn’t even occur to the Congi that the camera is not focused on RG but on an MP who is speaking in parliament and RG just happened to be in Zombieland right behind him. That’s the lighter part though.

There are many misdeeds that the Nehru-Gandhi clan has to answer for. Our historians and media have conveniently washed off those sins. Recent revelations about the 1962 war appear to show Jawaharlal Nehru goofed up badly. Monuments are made for him. Indira Gandhi went unpunished for Emergency crimes. More monuments! Rajiv Gandhi had no accountability for 1984. Some more monuments! All three were happily awarded Bharat Ratna; two of them during their own tenures.  This fake greatness to the family now even extends to the Vadras. This is why, regardless of what one might think of Swamy, he is doing a monumental job in prosecuting the Gandhis for their crimes in the National Herald scam. Predictably SoniaG and Congress cry “vendetta”. It’s time people and GOI stopped listening to such nonsense. Courts don’t rule based on someone’s vendetta else Narendra Modi would be in jail instead of being the PM. The Congis who carried out the biggest witch-hunt India has ever known against Modi are now screaming “vindictiveness, vendetta”.

In bogus defence of the NH scam there is a lawyer called KTS Tulsi who even grandly claimed “Young India” (76% owned by the Gandhis) which scammed NH was formed to promote “democracy and secularism”. Really? And what’s the Congress supposed to promote? Minority appeasement? Even AK Antony has now rubbished the Congress’s “secular credentials”. The TOI report says: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said a court summoning Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and herself in connection with the National Herald case, smacked of 'political vindictiveness' by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government… Sonia also confirmed that the income tax department has served her party notices in a case that alleges that she and other party leaders misappropriated funds of a company that used to publish the erstwhile National Herald newspaper. "This kind of political witch hunt will only help us and help us to come back faster (to power)," she said.

So Sonia Gandhi and her son will keep on committing misdeeds but no one should act against them? The woman is seriously hallucinating if she thinks the IT notice and imaginary “vindictiveness” will bring them back to power faster. She probably thinks she will be fortunate like IndiraG who could topple a “Khichdi” govt in 1980 and return to power. It appears that the pathetic number of 44 that Congress got hasn’t taught her any lessons. At the other end of this saga of misdeeds her “Damaad” quietly closes down six spurious companies he floated to carry out all kinds of dubious dealings. He is so brazen he doesn’t even file annual returns for these companies. Read this: Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Gandhi, is quietly closing down six companies set up just two years ago.The firms have never filed annual returns or balance sheets, an examination of company records by HT shows. Lifeline Agrotech, Greenwave Agro, Rightline Agriculture, Future Infra Agro, Best Seasons Agro and Prime Time Agro are all private limited companies established between June and August 2012, purportedly as agriculture or agro-processing firms. Vadra is named as managing director and promoter in company records.

Had it been you or me or any ordinary citizen we would be hounded by the authorities and made to pay heavy penalties for not complying with statutory requirements. Vadra quietly winds up companies but still retains his security and exemption from security checks. Who the hell are these people? And the BJP guys in GOI don’t have the courage to act on him? This is why Swamy makes sense when he says BJP is soft on them. For all the scams and misdeeds of the Congress, SoniaG and some ministers should be hounded the way Al Capone was hounded with a special task force. The new govt may be in its early days but if they let them off for their crimes against this country it will be one promise that Modi would seriously fail to keep. Following the court summons to the Gandhis in the NH scam the IT department was compelled to issue a notice on the tax exemption. If they hadn’t done that someone would have again gone to court and forced them to act.  

After SoniaG reacted with her statement about vindictiveness bringing her back to power soon, TimesNow ran a headline “Sonia warns BJP”. So for these media crooks she is so powerful? Rahul Kanwal on July 9 ran a poll on his nightly show on Headlines Today asking people if this was “vindictive politics”. Some 50% seem to have said “yes” to that stupid question and who knows who or how many vote on these silly polls. It’s a stupid question because it is not the right question. And these dumb morons pass off as journalists and editors to fool the viewers. The right question would be “Have Sonia and Rahul scammed NH”? The facts of the case clearly indicate they have indeed scammed NH along with others. They have also rented out properties of NH when they had no business to do so. Swamy has also written to the SIT on Black Money formed by the new govt asking for investigation into foreign bank accounts of the Gandhis. Is this all a figment of his imagination? Is all of it vendetta?

The NH scam broke sometime around November 2012. The media washed it off and would have liked it to be buried. If Sonia and Rahul actually have any high morals as they cry vendetta, why didn’t they act then? They could have reversed the transactions and sought a political closure to the case. They did not. They were brazen because they thought they could somehow still cobble up a “Coalition of the Corrupt” in 2014 and get away with the scams. Unfortunately, events did not turn out like that. Fake victimhood may have worked in the past when most people in the country did not have information. The South voted for IndiraG after Emergency because most states there didn’t experience the brutality of that period and because of censorship not much information travelled. It is not possible to escape now. Subramaniam Swamy is absolutely right in pursuing the cases against the Gandhis and the govt should actually back him. If corruption has to stop, the cleansing has to start from the top.  

 

The Political End Of The Gandhis

There’s something common about all corrupt leaders at the top. They manipulate systems, try and destroy democratic institutions and make every effort to destroy political opponents. They keep it at it till the end is inevitable. The most prominent one is the case of Richard Nixon. He and his loyal foot-soldiers manipulated every institution and destroyed many political opponents to ensure electoral success for his second term. Unfortunately for Nixon he kept tapes of the conversations at his office which eventually caused his downfall. Whenever in trouble, Nixon and his little coterie always managed to “get around” the hurdles. They somehow “managed” it; until the US Supreme Court ordered the tapes be surrendered as evidence. Here’s a little exchange between Alexander Haig (then White House Chief of Staff) and Nixon (from his bio-pic) during the last days of office:

That date being referred to, June 23, 1972, is the date of reports a few days after the Watergate burglary (June 17). The burglary itself didn’t cost Nixon all that much but it led to the discovery of a whole web of corrupt operations. Nixon wasn’t after any personal monetary gain or wealth. Alexander Haig tells him “It’s the SC, you don’t get around it”. In what Robert Vadra calls a “Banana republic” Nixon would have happily continued. In “Banana republics” even SC judges can be bought. You just have to hear Prabhu Chawla in the Radia tapes to understand that. The Congress and Sonia Gandhi have also manipulated and destroyed many democratic institutions. You just have to know the modus operandi. The National Herald scam involving the Gandhis is one such operation. It has even attracted an IT notice for a political party lending money to a commercial business house. There doesn’t seem to be a way to “get around it” as many of the Congress and alliance ministers have “got around it” in the last decade. The question is: why were these people so brazen?

Although they aren’t showing it, it must be the biggest heartache for Congress and their clones to find that the man they wanted to burn in hell is now the PM. It must hurt them that he has outsmarted all of them to secure a clear majority in the elections. Nothing explains how the Congress hoped to come back to power or support a “khichdi govt” formed with its support than Dileep Padgaonkar’s belated confession (Read here). Padgaonkar wrote: “The dread possibility of ‘communal’ forces coming to power, we believed, would override all other concerns of the electorate”. In other words, fear-mongering, fake secularism, Muslim-appeasement and tainting opponents would help the Congress somehow control power at the centre. Media crooks like Padgaonkar, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami and Intellectual Morons like Amartya Sen, Ram Guha and others hoped and expected BJP would fail to get a clear majority. Here’s part of the coterie that Sonia Gandhi, Congress and media crooks hoped would see them through:

We all know how Mulayam and Maya were continuously hounded and manipulated through CBI. DMK was a partner in crime. The murderous CPM is an “ideological” spouse of the Congress. The JDU driven by one man’s lust for power that broke up with BJP. The step-child of Congress called the AAP. The NCP that has equal number of scams to its credit. And key media crooks cleverly campaigning for Congress-UPA to return. One can recall Arnab’s non-stop slavery of Priyanka Vadra as if she was the next queen of India. SoniaG and Congress had hoped that somehow these clones would garner enough seats to either support the Congress to form a govt or they would form a govt that also includes AIADMK, TMC, BJD etc which the Congress can prop up from outside to keep the evil “communal forces” out of power. In particular, they hoped that would stop the man they wanted dead from becoming PM.

The Congress knew the tide was against it but it was this hope that they can somehow cobble up a non-BJP govt that fuelled the belief that they can “get around it”. That even if court cases came up against the Gandhis, they would “get around it”. It is this brazenness that led to many scams, including the National Herald one. The magistrate who has summoned the Gandhis and others on August 7 has observed: “It appears that Young India was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Associated Journals Ltd assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore”. The DNA article linked here adds “K Vikram Rao of Indian Federation of Working Journalists states that the alleged misappropriation of Rs 2,000 crore is ' the tip of the iceberg. We are planning to implead ourselves in the petition in the court. It is a huge scandal and needs to be probed by the premier investigators of the country. This scam is bigger than Sahara," said Rao, whose father was the founder editor of Associated Journals in 1938”. 

The case is not going to be concluded anytime soon and will drag on for some years as most Indian cases do. The unfortunate part about that, in this one, is that it may keep the Gandhis embroiled in a legal tangle. Years ago such a case would not have dented the Gandhis too much because of equity the Gandhi name had with people. After all, there are millions who believed these fake Gandhis are somehow related to MKGandhi. But the thrashing they got in the recent elections which resulted in a miserable 44 seats to the Congress is proof that Indians have finally woken up to the fake Gandhis. Time and technology dismantles many myths and lies. Leadership is often tested more in adverse situations than in good ones. Both Sonia and Rahul aren’t really great leaders in the first place. The latter is more a useless burden on the party. SoniaG could claim some credit for restoring the Congress party’s standing after the previous NDA govt but much of her political capital has eroded since then with the corruption taint. The third left-over Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, has shown immaturity in her political campaigns and other than emotional and childish gibberish had nothing to offer. I therefore believe that this is the end of the Gandhis politically.

Historically, the only thing Congress knew when they were in opposition was how to manipulate, horse-trade, bribe, induce and bring down govts. Every non-Congress govt in our history has been brought down by the Congress except the last term of AB Vajpayee and it is not because Congress did not try. This time, the Congress is in no position to bring down the BJP govt which has a single-party majority. This is something no politician, no pundit and no media crook ever imagined would happen. That is one of SoniaG’s biggest hurdles for a return. In case of Indira Gandhi, the serious cases against her for the Emergency crimes got wiped out because she could bring down what she called the “Khichdi” govt and return to power. The NH case is not going to be wiped out. On the contrary, one can expect more cases to follow and there is every reason why even Robert and Priyanka Vadra may also face court cases for land deals. Also, Subramaniam Swamy who is following the Sunanda Pushkar murder case has alleged that the Kochi IPL scam money belongs to Robert Vadra. Things get even murkier.

They say it’s a serious mistake to write off politicians. Well, I have done that before and I am starting to enjoy it. I predicted in “Reincarnation of Arvind Kejriwal” that he is finished and AK helped himself to doom. AK even insisted on realising his last dream of ending up in jail as that post hoped he wouldn’t. His recent utterances do not indicate he has learned any lessons. AK, of course, has age on his side and can re-invent himself if he so chooses. But SoniaG doesn’t have that advantage. By 2019 SoniaG will be 72 and given Congress claims of her health it is unlikely she will be able to cope with anymore gruelling campaigns. Even in the 2014 LS campaign she had a much restricted campaign and the gaps were made by RahulG and Priyanka Vadra. Rahul and Mrs Vadra filled the gaps quite badly to leave no future expectations from them. A senior Congress leader in Kerala called Rahul a “joker”. Even the family poodle Digvijaya Singh now says RahulG lacks temperament and avoided leadership by not becoming head of the Congress LS group.

The worst truth was to come in the form of a belated confession by AK Antony who said “People have lost faith in the secular credentials of the party. They have a feeling that the Congress bats for a few communities, especially minorities”. The confession is half-hearted. He should have clearly said Congress bats for Muslims and Christians. Sonia’s inner coterie would reflect that kind of batting. The UP results have shown even Muslims aren’t buying the Congress “fake secularism” anymore. All the elderly Congis are suddenly finding the nerve to speak which they couldn’t when they were in power. There is good reason to believe this country has moved on from the dynasty. I see no way that the Gandhis will command the influence they did in the past. They will not disappear but the last elections and current events certainly signal the end of the Gandhis.