By punemsexesena:NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda today asked the civil society members of the joint drafting committee of Lokpal Bill not to quit from it in the wake of an alleged campaign against them by "vested interests" who want to "divert the focus" from the Bill.
Gowda said he was "pained to learn from media reports that Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde is reconsidering his decision to be on the committee."
Criticizing the "forces trying to sideline the real issue of rampant corruption," Gowda said it was not fair to question the honesty and the integrity" of the members after formation of the committee.
"All these allegations are to sideline the issue of bringing a very powerful weapon (against corruption). The issue should not be sidelined," he said.
Describing corruption "a cancerous disease", Gowda said it was Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa who tried to "clip the wings" of Justice Santosh Hegde from taking action against his corrupt dispensation.
"In Karnataka, the Lokayukta cannot move without the prior permission of the government," Gowda alleged.
"Hon'ble Justice Hegde has never hesitated from calling a spade a spade and he remains an outstanding crusader against corruption, whether it be committed by the BJP government in Karnataka or the UPA government at the Centre," he said.
"It is my humble appeal to one and all, including the media, not to derail this great golden opportunity to draft and bring about a much-needed and highly effective Lokpal Bill by raising petty issues, totally irrelevant to the ongoing process," he said.
"Any such attempt to divert the focus from the Bill, which has been pending for over four decades, would only serve to strengthen the hands of the vested interests, who want to dilute the process," he added.
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By punemsexesena:New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said that she did not believe “in the politics of smear campaign” in a reply to social activist Anna Hazare's letter to her accusing the “corrupt” of conducting a witch hunt against civil society activists campaigning for an anti-graft law.
The controversy over former law minister and co-chair of the joint committee on the Lokpal Bill, Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan's (also a member of the joint committee) land holdings in Uttar Pradesh, and a CD which tries to show fixing of judges by them, had prompted Hazare's letter to Gandhi.
Gandhi, distancing herself from the controversy said that “you (Hazare) should not doubt my commitment to fight for probity in public life.” She added that she “strongly supported the institution of Lokpal that is consistent with the practices and conventions of our parliamentary democracy.”
Gandhi then went into details of how her...
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By punemsexesena:The former Union Law Minister and senior advocate, Shanti Bhushan, on Monday moved the Supreme Court for a directive to initiate contempt proceedings against the former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, for allegedly fabricating a compact disc containing his conversations with him and party president Mulayam Singh.
In his application, Mr. Shanti Bhushan said: “The alleged contents of the CD have been fabricated with a malicious intention to interfere with the administration of justice as it tries to create an impression that a particular Bench of the Supreme Court [one of the judges of this court has been named in the CD by the contemnor] can be managed through the informant's son [Prashant Bhushan].”
“The object behind fabricating the said CD is quite sinister as the attempt is apparently to derail the hearing of all important cases being/have been argued by the informant's son — before that particular Bench [of Justice G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly] — and thus, interfere with the administration of justice and to attempt to interfere with the continued hearing/judgment in important cases of public interest in which judgment has been reserved by that particular Bench,” he said.
Mr. Shanti Bhushan pointed out that one of the public interest cases in which judgment was reserved was that relating to the release in the public domain of the contemnor's tape-recorded conversations. “The attempt seems to be to try and make the judge recuse himself from the case by adding his name and suggesting that Mr. Prashant Bhushan is on very good terms with the judge and is in a position to influence him. This is totally false, and the scurrilous suggestion is a clear attempt to embarrass the judge and to interfere with the administration of justice.”
Quoting from the reports by two renowned laboratories to show that the CD was fabricated through splicing of different conversations, he said: “Once it becomes clear that the CD is fabricated, the question then arises as to who has fabricated this CD.”
He said: “It seems clear that Mr. Amar Singh must be involved in this fabrication as he states in the purported conversation that Mr. Shanti Bhushan is sitting with him. The fact of the matter is that the informant has never met the alleged contemnor, and, therefore, if this sentence is continuous and is, as it seems to be in Mr. Amar Singh's voice, then clearly Mr. Amar Singh has either engineered the CD or has cooperated in its fabrication. Thus, he has been made an alleged contemnor in this information which is being led before this court.”
He said: “Further, such a CD could only have been made with the help of various other persons, including experts in the field, and this is the result of a clear conspiracy. It is thus imperative that an investigation be directed to be done by a special investigation team which will… establish who are the persons involved in this serious conspiracy to interfere in the administration of justice.”
The applicant said “the act of fabricating the CD and then sending it anonymously to various news channels and newspapers is a serious attempt to bring not only the informant but also the judiciary under the cloud, and needs to be taken serious cognisance of.
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By punemsexesena:HYDERABAD: Former MP and president of newly-floated YSR Congress Party Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is perhaps one of the richest politicians in India, with declared assets of Rs 365 crore. In 2009, Jagan had declared assets of Rs 77 crore.
The son of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Friday declared movable and immovable assets of Rs 365 crore while filing his nomination for the May 8 bypoll to Kadapa Lok Sabha seat. He submitted an affidavit to the returning officer declaring his assets.
With this, Jagan has overtaken Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Nama Nageswara Rao, who has assets worth Rs173 crore as per his affidavit filed with his nomination papers from the Khammam Lok Sabha constituency in 2009.
Jagan's wife Bharati owns assets worth Rs 4133 crore. He owns houses, land and other property in Hyderabad, Kadapa and Bangalore. Interestingly, Jagan has no personal vehicle.
Majority of Jagan's assets are in the form of bonds and shares in various private firms, including Bharati Cements and Sandur Power Project company.
In 2009, while filing nomination for Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, Jagan had declared assets of Rs 77 crore.
Jagan, who resigned from the Lok Sabha seat and the Congress party in November last year, floated the YSR Congress Party last month.
Both the ruling Congress and the main opposition TDP are targeting him for amassing huge wealth, allegedly through misuse of power between 2004 and 2009 when his father YSR was the chief minister.
The TDP has demanded a CBI probe into Jagan's wealth after he reportedly paid Rs 84 crore as advance tax in September last year. The party alleged that he owns assets worth several thousand crore rupees.
The 38-year-old businessman has interests in cement and power projects in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and other states. He also owns Telugu daily Sakshi and the TV news channel by the same name.
Interestingly, most of the richest MPs come from Andhra Pradesh. The Congress party's L. Rajagopal in 2009 declared assets of more than Rs.100 crore while another party MP, G Vivek, filed an affidavit declaring assets of Rs 73 crore.
