Post-CAG report, Congress wants Raman Singh to quit

April 11, 2012

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New Delhi, April 11: The Congress on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, citing the contents of a Comptroller and Auditor General's report that has indicted the State government for flouting norms in the award of a coal block to a firm owned by recently elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ajay Sancheti who, the party said, is “close to BJP president Nitin Gadkari.” Interestingly, even BJP sources suggest that the two men have business dealings.

On Tuesday, Congress general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh B.K. Hariprasad, wheeled in the party's legislature party leader Ravindra Choubey and president in the State Nand Kumar Patel for a press conference here to highlight the CAG report, underscoring the fact that Mr. Raman Singh holds both the mining and power portfolios.

Mr. Hariprasad pointed out that while the BJP had, in Parliament, blocked proceedings demanding a discussion of leaked CAG reports on a range of issues, in Chhattisgarh, it had dismissed the CAG report as being of doubtful veracity.

‘Double standards'

He said: “It's a case of double standards. In Delhi, you demand discussions on CAG reports in Parliament. In Raipur, you don't allow them to be discussed. This is the height of shamelessness.”

For the Congress, which lost power in the State in 2003, the damning CAG report and the link between the beneficiaries of the scam and the BJP president and the State Chief Minister have come as manna from heaven, prompting the party to bring its battle to Delhi, hoping this will be the turning point in the run-up to the next Assembly polls in end-2013.

For Mr. Gadkari, under whose presidency the party has fared poorly electorally, the Chhattisgarh scam — and its possible link with him — has come at a bad time: this could cast a shadow over his chances of being re-elected president, when his term ends in December.

‘Open cast mine'

Meanwhile, the BJP sought to cover its embarrassment by disputing the veracity of the CAG report: the party's chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told journalists here that Bhadgaon II Extension — the coal block in question — is an open cast mine where mining costs less. “It is a part open and part underground mine. It is also near a river and so a wall has to be built to work as a dam to keep out the water,” he said.

‘Baseless allegations'

Responding to the Congress attack on the BJP, Mr. Prasad said, “We will not engage in the kind of campaign that the Congress is involved in. These allegations are baseless. We understand the worries of the Congress. They are involved in so many scams. But they should also learn a little about how to read and write.”

Ambivalent answer

On the key question whether Mr. Sancheti and Mr. Gadkari are business partners, Mr. Prasad's answer was ambivalent: he said a leader from any party can also be a businessman, provided his dealings are transparent. He then added, “Neither was Gadkari president then [in 2008 when the tender was allotted] nor was Sancheti an MP. Gadkari was BJP Maharashtra unit president. He became BJP president one and-a-half years later in 2010.”

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News Network
March 15,2024

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New Delhi, Mar 13: The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the State Bank of India (SBI) for not disclosing complete details of Electoral Bonds, including unique alfa numeric numbers, furnished to the Election Commission for uploading on the website.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the SBI seeking its response on Monday after the court was informed that the issuing bank for the Electoral Bonds has not disclosed unique alfa numeric number of each bond.

"They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India. All details have to be provided by the SBI," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said as per the Constitution bench judgment of February 15, 2024, all details were to be disclosed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted since the SBI was a party to the judgment, notice may be issued to it.

The court said the counsel for SBI should have been here.

"If you see the judgment, we have specified that bond numbers have to be provided," the bench said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the main petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

On an application by the EC, the bench said the details of Electoral Bonds furnished by the poll panel before the top court should be scanned and returned to it for the purpose of uploading on the website.

The Election Commission through advocate Amit Sharma filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to release data on electoral bonds furnished to the top court in terms of previous orders of April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023.

As per March 11, 2024 order, the Election Commission on Thursday uploaded the data on electoral bonds furnished to it by the SBI.

However, in an application, the poll panel said it had furnished to the Supreme Court a number of sealed envelopes, containing details on EBs encashed by the political parties, during the course of hearing in the matter.

It sought a direction for the return of those sealed envelopes to comply with the directions to upload it on the website as per order of March 11.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of Electoral Bonds and names of political parties redeemed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

It had then directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website on March 15.

In its February 15, 2024 judgment, the SC had declared the Electoral Bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties, as "unconstitutional" for being violative of the right to information.

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News Network
March 27,2024

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The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena Vijayan, her IT company and some others to probe a case of alleged illegal payments made by a private mineral firm to her and the company, official sources said Wednesday.

The agency has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is expected to summon the people involved, the sources said.

The ED case has been booked after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), an investigative arm of the Union corporate affairs ministry, they said.

The case stems from an Income Tax Department investigation that alleged that a private company called Cochin Minerals And Rutile Ltd (CMRL), made an illegal payment of Rs 1.72 crore to Veena's company-- Exalogic Solutions-- during 2018 to 2019, even though the IT firm had not provided any service to the company.

The Karnataka High Court had last month dismissed a plea filed by Exalogic Solutions against the probe initiated by the SFIO.

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News Network
March 25,2024

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will face Kerala BJP chief K Surendran in the high-profile Wayanand constituency this Lok Sabha election.

Wayanad, a Congress stronghold, has been with the party since 2009. Mr Gandhi won it in 2019 and retained his Lok Sabha membership, having lost his Amethi seat to Union Minister Smriti Irani.

His rival this time, Mr Surendran, has the significant task of challenging the Congress-Left binary in Kerala's political landscape. Both the Congress and the Left are in a national alliance though they remain rivals in this southern state.

Surendran has contested all three Lok Sabha elections since 2009 and also four Assembly elections. In 2021, he contested from Konni and Manjeshwar seats simultaneously. 

In 2019 general elections, Mr Surendran finished third in Pathanamthitta constituency behind the Congress and the Left. He had lost the 2016 assembly polls from Manjeswaram by merely 89 votes. He also contested a bypoll in 2019, but lost it as well.

He was appointed to head the BJP Kerala unit in 2020 and became the face of the protests against the entry of young women into Sabarimala years ago.

Mr Surendran, who is from Kozhikode, figured in the BJP's fifth candidates' list, which also named actor Kangana Ranaut and former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

Wayanad is the second Kerala seat to see a battle of titans after Thiruvananthapuram, where Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will face the three-time Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

The BJP has also fielded former vice-chancellor of Sree Sankara Sanskrit University K S Radhakrishnan from Ernakulam and actor-turned-politician G Krishnakumar from Kollam. T N Sarasu, a former educator, will contest from Alathur in Palakkad.

The highlight of the BJP's fifth list was the electoral debut of actor Kangana Ranaut from Mandi in her homestate Himachal Pradesh. The list, which named 111 candidates in 17 states, also featured new joinees like industrialist Naveen Jindal and Mr Gangopadhyay.

Mr Gangopadhyay, who joined the BJP recently after taking voluntary retirement, is the first former judge to join electoral politics. He has been fielded from Tamluk in Bengal and will face Trinamool's Debangshu Bhattacharya, a youth leader who had penned the party's "Khela Hobe" song.

Varun Gandhi, a sitting MP from Pilibhit, has been dropped and his seat has gone to Jitin Prasada, who switched to the BJP from the Congress in run-up to the election. His mother Maneka Gandhi has been fielded from her current seat, Sultanpur.

Actor Arun Govil, who played Ram in popular TV series Ramayan, will contest from Meerut. Union ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey and General VK Singh too were part of the list.

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