The cables call her “a first-rate egomaniac” who “is obsessed with becoming prime minister”, tell how she made a minister do sit-ups, has institutionalised corruption and is consumed by the fear that she could be assassinated and narrate how her private jet flew empty to Mumbai to get a pair of shoes of her favourite brand.

Damning indeed! No politician would love this.

Assange won’t mind being called insane though. He has been called worse names before — sex offender, high-tech terrorist, enemy combatant and a few more. And there is no particular reason why he should pick a fight with Mayawati. He won’t even know who Mayawati is.

Mayawati is shooting the messenger — the messenger from hell for governments, one must say. It makes no sense when the real culprits are the guys in the US embassy.

That brings us to the question of Americans. Why are we so serious about what they mention in their diplomatic cables? These are a load of extracts from gossip, personal opinions and loose talk which are not verifiable and have little legal value.

The security in UP had improved after Mayawati took over, says one cable. It is because “Mayawati has institutionalised corruption with competitive fealty payments to her replacing shootouts…’’ It does not come across as a great revelation. The expression ‘institutionalised corruption’ is open to interpretation and it could apply to any state, and there is no way one could prove fealty payments. These are stuff of everyday gossip we suddenly find so exciting.

“Her revenue sources include payoffs and kickbacks from almost every interaction that large businesses have with the state government, standard practices in UP,’’ says another cable. Again, no big surprise here. It is a standard allegation against governments across the country.

Probably it assumes a halo because of the US link.

Mayawati is upset at the contents of the cable (October 2008) which says she had sent a private jet to Mumbai to get her a pair of shoes. The source are some journalists and mysterious other people. How come we never came to know of it earlier? It would certainly be a big story for any news organisation. Were the journalists feeding the US officials a lot of nonsense? We will never know.

The purpose here is not to hold fort for Mayawati, the point is to bring to notice our fawning obsession with the US.

An earlier WikiLeaks revelation had caused some red faces in the BJP when it quoted senior leader Arun Jaitley as telling a US diplomat that Hindu nationalism was only an “opportunistic issue” for his party.

Jaitley was quick to deny that the word ‘opportunistic’ was not his. “The use of the word ‘opportunistic’ in reference to nationalism or Hindu nationalism is neither my view nor my language. It could be the diplomat’s own usage,” he clarified later.

There isn’t a way it could be verified. But his denial underlines the fact that the content in the US cable could be pieces of creative writing.

But the party is quick to pounce on the recent cables to nail Mayawati. Senior leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the cables only ”expose the corrupt face and dual standards” of her regime. He also claimed that Mayawati was “arrogant” while making “derogatory” statements on the WikiLeaks report.

Did someone say double standards?

The WikiLeaks expose, interesting initially as a great whisteblowing act aimed at prying open the secretive world of governments, is turning out to be a nuisance. On the scale of ethics it has come to occupy a space similar to baseless allegations.

Time one learnt to ignore them.

soruce from FIRSTPOST

The arrest comes almost 21 months after a first information report against the company had been lodged by the CBI in December 2009, and testifies to the political clout of the Reddy brothers in both the states.

In fact, Janardhana Reddy, who continues to protest his innocence, had been given more than ample opportunity to remove evidence, cover his tracks and wipe clean any fingerprints that existed. Which is why it is rather surprising that the CBI still managed to reportedly seize more than 30 kg of gold and over Rs 1.5 crore in cash from the premises of the former minister. The only explanation for the seizures could be that the greed of the former minister and his family members knew no bounds.

The time was politically opportune for the arrest. The promoters of privately-owned mining companies in Bellary in Karnataka and in the adjoining Ananthapur district in Andhra Pradesh, who used to fund the activities of political leaders in the past, had become important politicians themselves and, what is more, bankrolled important leaders belonging to the two largest political parties in the country, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress.

Despite his denials, the proximity of Janardhana Reddy to YS Jaganmohan (‘Jagan’) Reddy— member of Parliament from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh, the richest MP according to his declared assets, and son of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh—is hardly a secret. Associates of Jagan Reddy and Janardhana Reddy also have business links through a company called Red Gold, which is associated with OMC.

By June this year, the writing on the wall was clear. It became apparent that the ground was slipping under the feet of the notorious Gali Reddy brothers, the principal protagonists responsible for large-scale illegal mining of iron ore in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which is largely exported to China.

Their mentors were deserting them. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had, in an interview to Outlook weekly on 6 June, sought to distance herself from the brothers and claimed that their rise was on account of their proximity to former chief minister Yeddyurappa and the support given to them by Arun Jaitley, Swaraj’s counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, and perceived as her rival in the party.

On 27 July, a few days before he retired, Justice N Santosh Hegde, the then Lokayukta (or people’s ombudsman) of Karnataka, presented his final report on illegal mining in Bellary which raised a political storm, not just in the state but in the entire country. The detailed document sought to indict Janardhana Reddy, and refuted his contention that he was not involved in illegal mining in the state. It also alleged that he had laundered money through international tax havens.

On 4 August, DV Sadananda Gowda was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka and when he constituted his cabinet he not only dropped Janardhana Reddy as minister but his brother Gali Karunakara Reddy, who was Revenue Minister, and the “fourth” of the Gali Reddy brothers, B. Sreeramulu (who was Health Minister, who is a close associate of the Gali Reddy brothers and belonged to the backward Valmiki community) as well. (The least controversial of the three brothers, Gali Somasekhara Reddy, continues as president of the Karnataka Milk Federation.)

Like former chief minister Yeddyurappa, the Gali Reddy brothers came from a humble background and then became fabulously rich. The father of the three Gali Reddy brothers served as a police constable in Cowl Bazar in Bellary. The brothers had started a chit fund business which went under.

Bellary has not only been an important arena of state politics but of national-level politics as well. Important politicians who have chosen to contest parliamentary elections from the constituency include Sushma Swaraj and Sonia Gandhi. The two women had contested elections to the parliamentary constituency of Bellary in 1999, which was won by Sonia Gandhi.

All subsequent (national and state) elections were won by BJP candidates as Bellary ceased to remain a “stronghold” of the Congress party – which it earlier used to be.

For years, it seemed that the Gali Reddy brothers were invincible, that they would never be arrested or apprehended. The political influence of the brothers did not diminish despite allegations—by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) besides the Lokayukta—to the effect that state boundaries had been trespassed and that forest laws had been violated during mining operations.

The Reddy brothers and their associates brazenly denied (and continue to deny) these allegations and claim that they do not control any mining leases in Karnataka, even though the brothers and their associates control OMC in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

It has been alleged that the Reddy brothers control mining operations in Karnataka through illegal third party links, including “raising contracts” through which their associates extract iron ore out of areas that have been officially leased to other individuals and firms.

Reports prepared by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) under the Union government’s Ministry of Mines as well as by Justice Hegde have indicted the manner in which iron ore mining has taken place in the area in blatant violation of the laws of the land, thereby destroying the livelihoods of local people, degrading the environment in which they live and quickly depleting mineral reserves in a rapacious and unscientific manner.

In November 2009, after the then Chief Minister Yeddyurappa decided to call for a ‘contribution’ of Rs 1,000 from the owners of each truck carrying iron ore out of Bellary for those affected by floods in the state, the Reddy brothers displayed their clout by precipitating a political crisis that threatened the continuance of the state government. The crisis was resolved only after the BJP leadership in New Delhi intervened and after the then chief minister removed one of his ministerial confidantes (Shobha Karandlaje, former minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) and transferred key government officials.

Soon after K Rosaiah became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in September 2009 after YSR’s untimely death in a helicopter crash (the Congress ‘high command’ ignored his son Jaganmohan Reddy’s aspirations to hold the position) Rosaiah announced that the CBI would inquire into allegations of violations of laws by OMC.

Even as legislators were preoccupied with the agitation for a separate state of Telengana carved out of Andhra Pradesh in the second week of December 2009, the CBI conducted search-and-seizure raids on the homes of (and offices controlled by) the Gali Reddy brothers.

The brothers have also been accused of influencing the judiciary. In December 2009, a letter sent by a non-government organisation, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform (CJAR), to representatives of major political parties seeking their support for impeaching controversial Justice PD Dinakaran, former Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, claimed that the judge “has played a major role in helping the mining mafia of the Reddy brothers to continue with rampant illegal mining”.

On 9 July 2010, the Karnataka High Court issued an interim order directing the customs authorities to stop all exports of iron ore by 10 private companies from the ports of Mangalore, Karwar and Belekeri in the state, till an investigation was completed into the disappearance of 500,000 tonnes of iron ore – out of the 700,000 tonnes of ore that were seized in March 2010 at the instance of the then Lokayukta, Justice Hegde.

The ore was transported to the Belekeri port in an allegedly unauthorised manner. Ministers in the Karnataka state government offered unconvincing reasons for the disappearance of the iron ore.

Ten companies had filed a batch of writ petitions in the high court in April 2010 seeking the release of iron ore which had been seized during the raids conducted by government officials on the directions of the Lokayukta. The Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karwar, R Gokul, had appealed to the high court in June 2010 to direct the Commissioner of Customs, Mangalore, not to allow export of iron ore from ports in the state.

Subsequently, Gokul was sought to be suspended from his post by the Karnataka government’s Minister for Ports. This led to Justice Hegde resigning his position on 23 June 2010. He withdrew his resignation a fortnight later after the intervention of, among others, senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani.

On 28 June 2010, the Election Commission issued notices to Karnataka ministers Karunakara Reddy, Janardhana Reddy and Sreeramulu on a complaint by Congress legislator KC Kondaiah, seeking their disqualification for using “political positions to further their business interests”. Kondaiah sent the complaint to Karnataka Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj.

When the Governor summoned the ministers, they questioned his authority “to act like a court of law”. The Governor then forwarded the complaint to the Election Commission who asked the ministers to respond to the allegation that they are holding offices of profit. The BJP responded to Governor Bhardwaj’s public call for the resignations of the ministers by describing him as an “agent” of the Congress.

In July, 45 MLAs belonging to the opposition Congress party in Karnataka staged a protest inside the state legislative assembly and refused to vacate the premises even at night, demanding a CBI probe into illegal iron ore mining in the state. Yeddyurappa and two of the Reddy brothers came to Delhi on 18 July, met important functionaries in the government and in the BJP.

Thereafter, they stated that there was no evidence on record to indicate the involvement of the Reddy brothers in illegal mining, that they had not misused their public positions to earn personal profits and that they were completely innocent.

Janardhana Reddy claimed he was as “pure as 24-carat gold”. He counter-alleged that the charges against him, his brothers and their associates were drummed up by their political opponents and business rivals. Yeddyurappa also ruled out a CBI inquiry into the allegations of illegal mining in the state while suggesting that exports of iron ore be banned.

With Yeddyurappa out of the way, the CBI has now moved in to finish the job.

source from FIRSTPOST

Many of the cables are surprisingly succinct and contain detailed analysis of the Indian film industry that churns out almost 1000 films a year and generates billions of rupees in revenue.

The documents look at different aspects of Bollywood, including its profitability, connections to organized crime, growth opportunities, and the Bollywood-Hollywood partnerships. India’s movie industry generated an estimated Rs 10,700 crore in revenue in 2008, and that is expected to increase by an average of 11.5 per cent a year to 2013, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a study.

Hollywood-Bollywood partnerships

Two documents that analysed the Hollywood-Bollywood partnership are critical of the Hindi film industry and the scope of US film studios in the second fastest growing economy.

“Hollywood film studios, amongst the world’s highest revenue earners, are increasingly beginning to stake their claim in Bollywood,” a document said. “Though not without challenges, major US studios have started to try to capture a piece of this potentially lucrative market. US studios ranging from Sony, Disney, and Warner Brothers have co-produced Hindi movies attracted by the growth potential and opportunities in Indian cinema,” it said.

The embassy cable said while big budget Hollywood action films – dubbed in vernacular languages – have done relatively well in India, success has eluded Hollywood-Bollywood co-production partnerships so far.

Black money

A leaked diplomatic cable also said that Bollywood welcomed funding from gangsters and politicians, known in India as “black money.”

While there is no direct reference of Dawood Ibrahim which allegedly financed a number of movies, the cable said that in recent decades, Bollywood has been associated with the notorious Mumbai underworld, at the nexus of gangsters, money, and politics.

According to Jehil Thakkar, Head of Media and Entertainment for (KPMG), this association stemmed from the financing needs of the industry; until 2000, by government fiat, the film industry was ineligible for bank credit, private equity, and other means of legitimate commercial financing.

Bollywood and US visa

Following intensive investigation which also included a visit to the shooting site of ‘My Name is Khan’ the US Consulate in Mumbai in 2009 concluded that Bollywood generally does not misuse the US visas issued to its crew. Home to one of the largest entertainment industries in the world, Mumbai sends many stars and production crews to the US on O1 and O2 visas, it said, adding that the investigation was based on reports of fraud in other categories of visas.

“The study found that O2 travelers have a low overstay rate of 1.6 per cent. Site visits to major Indian production houses and no evidence of fraud for O2 applicants further suggests that most entertainment companies in Mumbai do not intend to misuse their US visas,” said the US Consulate in Mumbai its cable dated December 14, 2009, which was released by WikiLeaks on August 30.

Chiranjeevi’s political foray

A fan who committed suicide citing actor Chiranjeevi’s indecision about entering politics, may have helped the “distraught” Telugu film star make up his mind, according to a leaked embassy cable made public by WikiLeaks.

The March 5, 2008 cable that was published August 8, 2011 said Chiranjeevi was toying with the idea of floating his own political party at that time. According to the cable, the actor appeared distraught and explained that one of his fans had committed suicide. The fan left a note saying he killed himself because he could no longer stand waiting for his hero to decide whether to enter politics.

source from IBNLIVE

Implementation of the Lokpal bill will hopefully reduce corruption in India.

The basic idea of the Lokpal is borrowed from the office of the ombudsman in other countries.

It provides for filing complaints of corruption against the prime minister , other ministers and members of parliament with the ombudsman.

Anyone, except for a public servant , can file a complaint and the Lokpal has to complete the inquiry within six months.

Advantage of Lokpal Bill

1. Major advantage of this bill is all about solving the No.1 problem of India is CORRUPTION.
2. Who will be the decision makers this time, nonpoliticians, non-bureaucrats, not a police officer.
3. This bill is proposed to the government again and again in last 50 years so this holds the believe of generations and we all think this can change the system.
4. The decision will be faster than what we have right now, the proposed decision will be 1 year and punishment will be executed in 2 years.
5. People will not have to go through the grueling system to complain the crime.

Major Disadvantages of Lokpal Bill

This is not a mature bill, still lot many open issues, I will write them all here before I write about the possible fix for it. I could be an ignorant about the complete bill but I tried to read it from various places and I didn’t notice anyone describing these issues.

1. Huge burden on government to run this, it needs huge money to manage the head counts.
2. I don’t understand why it needs 1 year for decision and another 1 year for the punishment.
3. How someone can guarantee there will be “No minister or bureaucrat influence on their investigations.”
4. How can it be assured that Lokpal members are not corrupted? Don’t we have corrupted “judges, citizens and constitutional authorities”, who says only the politicians are corrupted?

I believe we are responsible for the corrupted system and we should be the one to fix it, government will have to support us as we support the government. Here are my thoughts.

• How can we reduce the monetary burden on government and solve the problem? We don’t need to hire the 100% decision makers, we can hire only administrative people to manage the system and the decision makers will be the regular citizens. We all solve some issues on daily basis and we don’t need to be qualified to solve them. There are more than 70% issues in India that don’t need be investigated at all. Lets say I applied for a passport renewal and the department lost it, there are 3-4 people responsible for handling the passport and everyone should be punished equally. Let them all pay Rs 10,000 each and find out who the real culprit internally. This way I get some compensation for losing the passport and the office work as a group rather than an individual. It is a common problem in India that the staffs think them to be individual than a group and they make you run from one to other for a small task. To make these kind of simple decisions we don’t need fulltime and highly qualified people. Who will be member for this case will be auto selected and everyone will be paid something to show up at the decided place. People who are not going to show up will end up in paying huge amount so that it becomes everyone’s responsibility to participate, there can be some excuses for emergency reasons.
• We don’t need 1 year to solve a case now, major part of the complains can be solved in 3 months and punished in 2-6 months if we make everyone to come and participate. Now the government will have at least 60 billion staff to handle the cases.
• People participating in the cases will be informed at the site on the details so there is no upfront information available or relation build before the D day. There can’t be any influence as no one gets time, influence will come in when we give time to the case and people on the case are known.
• How can a Lokpal member be corrupted now? Person doesn’t know anything, goes to solve a problem and takes a decision on the spot.
• For the case that needs to be investigated properly needs some fulltime employees as the decision makers. Give an opportunity to people above the age of 50 to retire from their regular job and join the department. They have 50 years of track record to prove if they are uncorrupted or not, this head count can be 50%. Other 50% can be fresh candidates from various ages.
• Every case should involve audience, if a person is not satisfied with the decision then he can take an audience poll for reapply. If audience support him to file again then he is not charged to re-file else he is going to pay good amount for reconsideration. Failing 3 times will lock him to the punishment and can’t apply for reconsideration to any of his cases for next 5 years.

There can be many things added to this bill to make it incorruptible. If we are just trying to shift from one corrupt system to another then there is no point in passing this. Making this bill a best one is the job of the government and we all have to participate and make it work from approval to execution. Do you agree with me, let me know here, I am open to any kind debate.

To Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s endorsement Monday of a ‘reasoned’ debate on the Lokpal Bill, an adamant Anna Hazare has now made it clear that no one less than the PM’s own representative will do for negotiations.

Anna’s close aide Kiran Bedi posted on Twitter the Gandhian wants the government to come forward to talk the Janlokpal Bill. “Let the PM send his representatives,” she tweeted as Anna’s wish.

She also rubbished all ongoing negotiations as “rumours”.

This would mean Anna Hazare and his team are not happy with the ‘back-channel’ talks already in progress with senior Maharashtra babu and seasoned Anna pacifier Umesh Chandra Sarangi and spiritual guru Baiyyuji Maharaj.

Anna’s demand came within hours of the Prime Minister saying in Kolkata the government is open to a “reasoned debate” on the Lokpal Bill and that the Parliamentary panel examining it can propose changes.

source from IndianExpress

The meeting was attended by his close associates Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Shanti Bhushan and Manish Sisodia. Activist Medha Patkar was also present.

Team Anna took stock of the situation as well as deliberated on the future course of action, activists said.

Although Government and Team Anna on Saturday spoke of the need for a dialogue on the Lokpal issue, no such channel of communication has been opened so far.

Hazare had on Friday raised the political stakes by giving a deadline to the government to pass the Jan Lokpal bill by August 30 failing which he would continue his fast “till my last breath”.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking on the issue yesterday, had affirmed that there was “a lot of scope for give and take” and that the government was open to “discussion and dialogue”.

Source from Sify

“Anna’s health is fine. The jail doctors are looking after him and Dr Naresh Trehan’s team is monitoring him 24 hours,” Kejriwal told reporters outside Tihar Jail.

He added that Delhi Police had granted Team Anna permission to hold the fast at Ramlila ground for 15 days.

“We have been given the Ramlila ground for 15 days, and have also been assured by the Delhi Police that if we need the ground for more days, we can stay there,” Kejriwal said.

“The conditions imposed on us earlier have also been withdrawn,” he added.

Hazare, 74, had planned to begin his fast for a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal Bill from the J.P. Park in the ITO area Tuesday. However, Delhi Police imposed certain conditions before allowing the protest. Hazare refused to sign the undertaking, following which the police detained him and his other team members Tuesday.

He was arrested and subsequently released but refused to leave the jail until allowed to carry on the protest without any conditions.

Kejriwal said they were waiting for the Ramlila ground to be cleaned up before the stage and tents could be set up for the fast.

“The Municipal Commissioner of Delhi K.S. Mehra spoke to me and said that the deputy commissioner has taken charge of clearing the muck at the Ramlila ground. Only after the ground is prepared, will Anna leave Tihar,” he said.

He did not specify a time for the protest to begin, saying it could begin “today or tomorrow”. Even so, supporters in massive numbers have started pouring in at the Ramlila ground since early Thursday.

“Our demand is that a proper draft of the Lokpal bill which will effectively fight corruption should be presented in the parliament. And we will continue our fight for that…but it will all be peaceful,” Kejriwal said.

A Tihar Jail spokesperson said that Hazare was likely to be out of the jail in the afternoon.

Hyderabad: YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Monday accused the Congress of a witch-hunt because he had left the party and of maligning his late father, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

The MP from Kadapa also announced that he would challenge in the Supreme Court the Andhra Pradesh High Court order of a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into his alleged illegal assets.

Addressing a section of the television media, Jagan, as he is known, hit out at the Congress for targeting him for leaving the party and denied allegations that he misused power to amass huge wealth when his father was the chief minister.

The young leader also rubbished the allegations that the investments into his companies were made as a quid pro quo arrangement in return for favours that his father had shown to the investors.

Jagan alleged that the Congress had unleashed income tax and other agencies against him after he quit the party in November last year and later through a minister who filed a case against him in the court.

‘It is all because they don’t want a man who has left the Congress party to come back to power in the state,’ he said.

‘This is the first time in the country that a dead man is being attacked,’ Jagan remarked while referring to allegations against his father YSR, who died in a helicopter crash in 2009.

Defending YSR, Jagan said the decisions to allot land or provide other benefits were taken by the entire cabinet.

Denying that he ever influenced any decision of the government, Jagan said he never visited the chief minister’s camp office or the secretariat. ‘In fact, you should ask the likes of Ahmed Patel (political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi) as to how many times they called up the chief minister to influence the decisions.’

Claiming that it was because of his father that the Congress came to power in 2004 and retained it in 2009 both in the state and at the centre, Jagan said a man who did so much for the party was being targeted and maligned two years after his death.

‘Just because my dad is no longer alive and because I have left Congress party, they are using the power to target a helpless and a young man, who has no backing of anybody,’ said Jagan.