Hindustan Times
Partners in sleaze
Political parties talk the same lingo, dish out identical arguments and almost invariably cite political compulsions to explain graft and continuation of tainted leaders in high offices. Take the case of A Raja and Y S Yeddyurappa. The explanation the PM gave for failing to act on time against the discredited Telecom Minister were no different from Nitin Gadkari’s statement in response to Sushma Swaraj’s frontal attack on Arun Jaitley to counter the popular perception that she patronized Karnataka’s infamous yet powerful Reddy brothers whose mining syndicate functions as the state’s super cabinet.
What Gadkari broadly said was that the Reddys were ministers because of the party, not any individual. Self-indicting though, the statement was, in relative terms, less embarrassing than his shocking defense earlier of Yeddy’s land grab that he termed as “morally wrong but legally right.”
If Manmohan Singh helplessly allowed Raja (a chosen man of Karunanidhi) to continue in his council of ministers, Yeddy was forced to drop in the interregnum his favourite minister Shobha Karandlaje (who’s since back), withdraw duty on iron ore and reinstate officers he transferred against the wishes of the Reddy clan. It was a clear case of breakdown of the constitutional machinery, what with the CM becoming an appendage of the de facto power center and forced to act at its behest rather than his own volition.
One need not go into the internal BJP rebellion against Yeddy, the disqualification of anti-Yeddy MLAs and their home-coming in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court judgment that held void the Assembly speaker’s action aimed at saving the BJP regime. The Congress has let Yeddy be not out of any love for democracy. Its hands are tied for lack of a majority in the Rajya Sabha where any use of Article 356 has to be ratified.
Myriad inquiries including those overseen by the highest court are currently underway into the Reddy mining business and its tentacles in Andhra Pradesh. Speculation is that the genesis of Sushma’s outburst against Jaitley lay in these probes. There is also another set of rumors doing the rounds about three BJP leaders and their proximity to a corporate honcho jailed in the 2G scam. Of the threesome, at least one could have real problems explaining his business/professional ties with the accused.
I suspect that sooner than later, the Congress and the BJP might be in another whirlpool of controversies over sleaze, kickbacks and questionable contacts. The CWG scam hasn’t seen the last of it with the imprisonment of Suresh Kalmadi and some games officials. Many other big names could come under a cloud in shoddy yet expensively executed CWG projects.
The list of the accused in the Adarsh scam must also get longer with at least one Central minister becoming a casualty. What awaits the country is a mass funeral of political reputations. With Kanimozhi already behind bars, the fires might engulf high-profile siblings across party lines.
(26 votes, average: 1.81 out of 5)
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Amar-Diggi-Vinod..
, 
) say far worse. Do we doubt their Indian-ness?
Rajeev Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 10:52 pm
I have never heard any male khan’s (SRK-Aamir-Salman) and female Khans (Saif etc.) getting threats from underworld…Why??
By the way SRK is closely linked with Congress?
[Reply]
shan Reply:
May 31st, 2011 at 2:15 am
SRK is closely linked with “pakistan lobby” in bollywood, which includes sajid khan , farah khan , . that is why in the film Mai Hu Na , indians are war monger , pakis are the doves. The same reason Abhijeet never again sang for SRK after he said all the pakistani singers in India are suspect. or we have much better singers in India
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Amit Reply:
May 31st, 2011 at 10:22 am
SRK linked with pakistan lobby and Conggies gandhis and shukla’s/ So he in fact is bridge between pakistan and conggies.
aur bhonkta hai ki pakistani khiladiyon ko lo.
Hun indians ne hi iase deshdrohi ko upar uthaya. neeche bhi girayenge
Daisy Boy Reply:
May 31st, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Look, I have no love for any Bollywoood personalities. However, it would do no good if you try to trivialise these scandals by baselessly accusing Shahrukh, Sajid or Farah of ****-love, only because they have successfully protrayed their humanitarian ideas on celluloid. Hatred mongering would only leave a sour taste in the mouth, without achieving any concrete results. Shahrukh is friends with Morani – but it is only and only Morani’s fault if he has played any role in the transfer of funds to Kanimodhi’s TV channel in the false hope that he would pocket the commission and would never be caught. Shahrukh or others have nothing to do with it – by the way KKR is owned by SRK, Juhi Chawla and her husband Ved Mehta – SRK hogs the publicity owing to his superstar status whereas the major shares are of Juhi & Mehta.
Observer Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 8:03 am
SRK is good person. I normally do not watch Hindi movies, but I did his movie “MY name is Khan”, which shows he is nationalist. But Pakistani fanatics such as Saed Naqvi of DAWN do not like him because to them he did not criticized Hindus.
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shan Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 12:02 pm
The same person(SRK) who shares a physical attribute with Observer , was MUTE AFTER 26/11, WHEN PREVOKED MUTTERED”I dont know what to say”
another from pakistan lobby Javed jaffrey , son of comedian jagdeep , said after 26/11
WE SHOULD TRY TO UNDERSTAND THEM(This is on reord in NDTV LIVE BROADCAST on the 27/11)