Lucknow/New Delhi, June 5
The sudden descent of the police to disperse Ramdev and a large gathering of his followers from the Ramlila Ground last night, has evoked strong protests from the political class, with the BJP leading the charge announcing nationwide 24-hour dharnas and satyagrahas.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari was quick to react waking up bleary eyed journalists on a leisurely Sunday morning to wind up the national executive meet with the announcement in Lucknow of night-long vigil led by him Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh at Rajghat beginning this evening till tomorrow evening.

Simultaneous satyagrahas would also be observed in Lucknow and other places, he said. He recalled the Emergency days and declared “such brutality against an unarmed sadhu, women and children in the middle of the night is the worst form of tyranny.” He called the UPA government fascist.

He said, “In a democracy everyone has a right to hold peaceful demonstrations to articulate his or her point of view. Ramdev and his followers were merely agitating against the prevalent corruption and stashing away of black money abroad. They were teargassed and lathicharged at the instance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This deed to protect those with black money will only end up blackening the face of this government and its leaders.”

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the police action was carried out at the directions of the Prime Minister and had the “full approval” of the Congress president. She said the crackdown was carried out after consulting Home Minister P Chidambaram and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. “This is not democracy...the police cannot alone had taken such a step. It had the approval of the Prime Minister and full approval of the Congress president,” she said.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley also addressed the media in Delhi and condemned the UPA government for the “brutal” act and alleged this amounted to gagging the freedom of speech.

He said while the government refused to take action against separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who held a programme in the Capital, it took action against a “patriotic sanyasi”. “No action was taken against Geelani who held a programme challenging the Indian state. A person accused of sedition (activist Binayak Sen) is included in a government panel. But a patriotic sanyasi has no right to protest,” Jaitley quipped.

Senior party leader LK Advani also reacted on similar lines in Chennai. Describing the midnight crackdown on Ramdev and his followers as “naked fascism”, he demanded an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Bangalore, June 5
Condemning police action against Baba Ramdev and his supporters "in strongest terms", Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati today requested the Supreme Court to order a probe as "justice cannot be expected from the Centre" in the issue.

Mayawati termed the crackdown at the Ram Lila Maidan as "inhuman", "undemocratic" and "condemnable".

"Our party condemns this in strongest terms", she said at the beginning of her speech at the day-long conference of BSP's Karnataka office-bearers here.

Mayawati made what she termed as a request through the media to the Supreme Court to take "special note" of the developments and issue direction for independent and separate probe into the issue by National Human Rights Coomission, National Commission for Women and National SC/ST Commission.

"In addition, our party requests the honourable Supreme Court to order a judicial enquiry or whichever probe it deems necessary", Mayawati said — PTI

New Delhi, June 5
The CPM today termed the police action at the protest site of Ramdev as "deplorable and shortsighted", but found fault with the yoga guru for making the issue of black money "farcical" by entering into a secret agreement with government.

The party Politburo said there was no law and order issue involved here and the police action was "unwarranted".

"The midnight police action against Shri Ramdev and his supporters on the instructions of the Central Government is both deplorable and shortsighted. Scores of men and women have been injured, some of them seriously," it said in a statement.

However, the party found objectionable the manner in which Ramdev’s demands were drafted and the way in which he has conducted his interactions with the government. It is clear that the Congress party and the UPA Government are not in the least serious about tackling the issue of black money, the CPM said.

"...Coming to a secret agreement to withdraw the hunger strike on the basis of assurances, then reneging and announcing its extension, trivialised the seriousness of the issue of black money and made it farcical. — PTI

Lucknow, June 5
Describing the Congress as the biggest ‘thug’ of them all, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh today asked the Congress high command to teach some manners and etiquette to its leaders.

Reacting strongly to AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh’s remark calling Baba Ramdev a thug, Yadav described it as “unfortunate”. “If the Baba is a thug, why is the Congress getting so unnerved?” he asked.

“Leaders, who are calling Ramdev a thug, should bother about their own state, where the BJP is ruling,” he said hinting at the BJP rule in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

Pointing out that the midnight action against Ramdev had increased his support base, the Samajwadi Party chief said, “Even those who do not like Ramdev will now sympathise with him after this brutal crackdown.”

According to Yadav, the Congress will have to pay the price of spurning the public protest.

New Delhi, June 5
While the Congress and the UPA government will have a tough time fending off the combined attacks of political parties and civil society groups over the midnight crackdown on yoga guru Ramdev in the coming days, it has to deal with the far more serious issue of having to combat the RSS and other Sangh Parivar outfits that are exploring alternate routes to enter the electoral fray.

This issue dominated discussions when Congress president Sonia Gandhi conferred with senior party leaders to discuss the political fall out of the police action on Ramdev and formulate a strategy on taking on the RSS-BJP combine. The view was that instead of being unapologetic, the Congress should take the Sangh Parivar head on.

“We are not so concerned about the police action on Ramdev but what is more worrying is the manner in which the RSS and the BJP is seeking to compete with us in the electoral arena. The RSS could never fight us politically, but it has now devised different ways of doing so...we have to guard against this,” remarked a senior Congress leader.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Congress media department chief Janardan Dwivedi said the party had accepted the challenge to combat these forces and would be asking all its state units to take this message to the people and to counter the opposition propaganda by highlighting the Centre’s achievements.

Hitting out at the RSS-BJP combine, he said communal and political forces had again joined hands, adding that there were political forces that were using threats and fear to regain form after being routed in elections.

Congress insiders said the party was not overly concerned about the police action against Ramdev, but serious objections were raided over the manner in which four ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had gone all out to mollify the yoga guru, which had given the impression that the government was wilting under pressure.

In fact, the government’s decision to forcibly evict Ramdev from Ramlila Grounds late last night was meant to dispel the widespread public perception, which has gained ground over the past year that the ruling dispensation was weak and incapable of tough decisions. The government was particularly relieved that there was no loss of life during the crackdown and that the incident had not provoked any violence in the country.

New Delhi, June 5
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today took exception to diesel subsidy being "enjoyed" by mobile companies and owners of luxury vehicles and suggested that the measure be instead extended to people in the forest areas in the form of cooking gas rebate to help save the trees.

"Diesel subsidy was meant to benefit the users in the agriculture sector. But today the diesel subsidy is being enjoyed by drivers of luxury vehicles and people like you and me -- the users of mobile phone," said the minister, who had kicked up a controversy recently by stating that the use of diesel-guzzling vehicles like SUVs on Indian roads was "criminal".

"We have 4,50,000 mobile towers in our country, which are all run on diesel. Why should that diesel be subsidised?" Ramesh asked the reporters here after releasing the UNEP "Green Economy and the Forest" report on the occasion of the World Environment Day. According to a recent study by an NGO, Greenpeace, diesel consumed by telecom companies for providing power at telecom towers is causing an estimated loss of Rs 2,600 crore annually to the government in the form of subsidy.

Arguing for cooking gas subsidy for 1,72,000 villages of the country, which are in the forest areas or in the periphery of the forest areas, the minister said the single most important measure the government could take to protect the forests in these areas was to provide subsidised cooking gas to these villages.

He said the people of the 1,72,000 villages were dependent on forests for firewood and it was leading to a cycle of deforestation and causing health problem, particulary among women due to the black carbon emission from firewood. "So, just one subsidy that I would argue is subsidy for cooking gas to this 1,72,000 villages, and save our forests," Ramesh said. Earlier, chairing a seminar on “Nature and Livelihood: Women's Perspective”, the Minister said, he had given representation to the Prime Minister as well as the Petroleum Minister, requesting them to take steps to provide cooking gas for the villages in and around the forest areas of the country. — PTI

New Delhi, June 5
Even as Assam hunts for a hangman to execute Mahendra Nath Das, whose clemency petition the President of India rejected earlier, global human rights groups have started to become active in seeking pardon for the convict.

Amnesty International today issued a global appeal for mercy for Das, and called for support to stop the convict’s execution. The appeals will be submitted to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Amnesty International argued that Das was sentenced to death in August 1997, and his mercy petition was kept pending for long years. “The judicial process was completed after the High Court confirmed the death sentence in February 1998 and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in May 1999.

A mercy petition was sent to the Government of India in 2000 but was only decided upon in May 2011,” Amnesty International said, adding that it was concerned that the 11-year delay in announcing the verdict of the mercy petition and the resultant prolonged stay on death row may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, particularly since prison conditions in Assam were poor.

Amnesty International has cited the Chief Justice of India, who described the time spent by a condemned prisoner on death row as “living death”. The Supreme Court, it said, had ruled that delay in executing the death sentence was a factor in deciding on the commutation of the death sentence.

New Delhi, June 5
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar completed two years in office recently, with a lot of creditable work to flaunt, especially stuff that women would be particularly proud of. In the 15th Lok Sabha, Kumar, as custodian of the Constitution and the welfare of LS employees, managed to do something that had not been done in a long while-set up a formal complaints committee to redressal issues of sexual harassment of women employees at workplace (read the Lok Sabha).

Until late last year, when this committee was formed, there was no formal system of investigating the sexual harassment complaints by women workers of the Lok Sabha. “Former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had created a departmental mechanism where such complaints would be marked to administrative officers for investigation as and when they were made. But there was no dedicated committee to look into the matter,” Lok Sabha secretariat officials said.

Kumar however broadbased the system, bringing it in line with the directions of the Supreme Court in this regard. In the famous Vishakha judgment, the apex court had ruled that all government and private establishments must provide for a sexual harassment complaints redressal committee for women. On the Lok Sabha sexual harassment complaints panel, Kumar has nominated Member Secretary of the National Commission for Backward Classes Chitra Chopra as chairperson, apart from bringing in NGO representatives to ensure objective investigation.

Besides, the Speaker, for the first time, also made it incumbent upon the Lok Sabha Secretariat to arrange for a free drop back home for every woman employee who works in the Parliament beyond 7 pm. This she did at the peak of lawlessness in Delhi, which, last year, saw a sudden surge in rape and molestation cases, especially involving women who worked late in call centres.

In another bid to make the Lok Sabha secretariat gender-just, Kumar has reportedly created a system of preferential treatment to single women in matters of house allotment. “Otherwise there would be a long queue and women would never get a chance. But now, single women get priority followed by married women and men,” officials said.

What the fuss is all about

The UPA government feels it is on a strong wicket vis-à-vis demands raised by Yoga Guru Ramdev to curb black money. A section in the government on Sunday rued the fact that the Yoga Guru’s bluff and bluster was not called earlier. They also felt that the government has actually done more than any previous government to curb black money and wondered what more it can still do.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) claims to have recovered Rs 30,000 crore of black money during the last two years. The figure, it says, shows that the Department has gone after 'big people' and not small shopkeepers. The Department has also set up a Criminal Investigation wing this year to prosecute the guilty. The CBDT, however, is battling the public perception that tax inspectors are themselves corrupt and unfair and that they are capable of looking the other way for considerations paid and services rendered.

Ramdev made the following major demands :

• Declare accounts of Indians in tax havens as national assets.
• Declare parking black money in tax havens as national crime.
• Remove high denomination currency notes to curb black money.
• Ensure speedier trial of corruption cases and economic offences

The UPA government has been contesting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by KPS Gill, Ram Jethmalani and Subhas Kashyap among others in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to the government to take positive steps to bring back black money stashed abroad.

The counsel for the petitioners, Anil Divan, has argued that the Union Government first showed no inclination to accept a CD containing names of Indian account holders in the tax haven of Liechtenstein and offered by Germany; and then when they finally accepted the CD last year ( in 2010), it made no move at all to take punitive action against the 26 Indians named in the CD.

The Solicitor General, Gopal Subramaniam, told the apex court that under a treaty such information could not be disclosed or shared because that would violate the confidentiality clause.

The argument enraged the Supreme Court Bench, which accused the government of hiding "behind niceties" and expressed its displeasure over the government's indecision to punish the 'mind boggling crime'. " This relates to the plunder of the national economy, theft of national wealth and you are talking of this treaty and that treaty," observed Justice Nijjar before the Bench turned down the Solicitor General's plea to dismiss the PIL.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL INTEGRITY:

The issue of black money flowing out of India received a fillip following a study undertaken by a Washington D.C. based think-tank, Global Financial Integrity ( GFI), and funded by the Ford Foundation into the "Absorption of Illicit Financial Flows" ( IFFs ).

The study used economic models to estimate that Rs. 1,36,466 crore were stashed away annually in foreign accounts by Indians between the years 2002-06. In five years, at that rate, it was estimated that unaccounted money worth Rs 692,328 crores would have been parked in foreign accounts.

One of the authors of the study, Dev Kar, summed up the findings of the study in these words : " Black money tends to flow out and away from the reach of regulatory agencies; and once it flows out, it hardly ever comes back."

Kar also quoted a US State Department report that estimated Hawala transactions in India to range between 13 and 17 billion US dollars annually.

SWISS BANKS:

The banks in Switzerland , under their law, can disclose details of accounts only if it is proved that the money was generated through illegal operations. Few countries have been able to produce such evidence, largely because nothing is known about the accounts in the first place. But under a particular clause, Swiss banks can share revenue generated from their interest-income accrued from investing the funds parked by citizens of particular countries. The European Union, according to reports, has got into such an arrangement with the Swiss banks. The Government of India too, it has been suggested, can get into a similar arrangement. Besides generating some revenue, howsoever small because Swiss banks pay only 1.25 per cent interest on personal savings accounts and lend at rates far lower than in India, it would provide the Indian government some idea of the volume of the black money parked in Swiss banks by Indians.

AMNESTY SCHEMES:

The Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has spoken of offering amnesty or a Voluntary Disclosure Scheme. This has been tried six times since Independence but yielded very little. The last time it was offered was in 1997. Judging by the prevailing mood in the country, it will not go down well with the people, who will see it as yet another attempt by the government to protect the rich and the dishonest.

Mumbai, June 5
The Maharashtra Government is considering quotas for minority communities, including Muslims and Christians, in housing schemes undertaken by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), sources said.

The scheme that was mooted by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was revived early last year by his successor Ashok Chavan. However, the proposal was put on the back burner after he was replaced as the Chief Minister.

Now, sources say the government is considering such a move which has the backing of statutory bodies like the Maharashtra Minorities Commission. Last year, the governing body of MHADA mooted the inclusion of specific minority communities in the list of groups eligible for reservation. As of now, MHADA allots flats in the low income, middle income and high income categories with reservations for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, physically challenged persons, artists, accredited journalists and bureaucrats. In all, 49 per cent of the houses under various MHADA schemes come under reserved quotas.

Tiruvarur, June 5
Defending daughter Kanimozhi, jailed in the 2G scam case, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today said it was he who insisted on her being a shareholder in Kalaignar TV, to which the money related to the spectrum allocation was routed. "Kanimozhi's mistake is my mistake. It was I who compelled her to become a shareholder in Kalaignar TV with a view to settle her a base for her future," he said addressing a public meeting in his native constituency.

The 88-year-old former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister claimed that CBI, which is probing the case, had named his daughter, a Rajya Sabha member, since it had to hold someone accountable.

"What was earlier estimated to be a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore (caused to the exchequer by the alleged wrongful policies of jailed former Telecom Minster A Raja), has now shrunk to Rs 30,000 crore. What affected the company (Kalaignar TV) affected Kanimozhi," he said.

Kanimozhi was "languishing in Tihar jail" in conditions not so favourable, he said. — PTI