Pinarayi Vijayan, a typical south Indian name...thats what I thought when I heard that name for the first time. But wait, there is something more to this name. This name is so powerful that a controversy related to that threw the current chief minister of Kerala, Mr. V.S. Achuthanandan was thrown out of politburo, of which he has been a member since...hold your breath 1985..thats 24 years...Wow...thats amazing...so what is it that really caused the ousting of VS??
For understanding that, lets go sometime back, when Pinarayi was a state electricity minister of the kerala government in 1998. The 3 hydroelectric power stations were to be upgraded to serve the state with better infrastructure. So the usual procedure started of declaring the project, inviting the tenders and so on....There were 2 major contenders for the project, a canadian company called as SNC Lavalin and an indian bidder in the form of BHEL and L&T consortium. But for the first time in the history the project was awarded to the HIGGEST bidder; SNC Lavalin. So how much did that cost to the state exchequer?? A whopping Rs. 374,50,00,000. Lets try to make that amount more readable...its Rs. 374.50 Crs.
So when the CAG report found that there is a fraud in this case and has to be acted upon. It informed the central government and as a usual procedure CBI was asked to study and form the case.
The CBI finally delivered its report and put the Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan as the accused number 7 in its report. The CBI also sought permission of governor of Kerala to prosecute him. Looking at the prima facie evidence, the governor gave CBI, a go ahead.
As usual the CPI(Marxist) responded with a shock. Calling it a political agenda of the Central government and claiming that the CBI was tool in the hands of central government. Few left leaders even went on to say that a left leader with a corruption allegation was a blasphemy. But the chief minister of Kerala, V. S. Achuthanandan was not surprised at all. He called the action of governor to be in accordance with constitution. (For the time being, lets keep the rivalry between V. S. Achutananda and Pinarayi Vijayan aside)
This really irked the left leadership at the politburo. It blamed Achutanandan for giving statements against Pinarayi publicly and discovered the great fact that he was the reason for Pinarayis current problems and decided to fire him from politburo; of which he was a member since 1985. Leaving the Pinarayi untouched of all the incidents.
Isnt it rare that the person accused of something bad goes unhurt and the person who felt the action was constitutional was punished?
Anyways...for those who think he really did not amass lot of wealth and he being a left leader, has to be clean of all corruption charges....
1. His son is studying MBA in the Birmingham university paying a fee of whopping 50 lacs
Thats a lot of money considering Vijayans father was not a very rich man and he was the youngest of the 14 siblings
2. Pinarayi Vijayan is accused to have suspended few of the young comrades who tried to visit his palatial mansion
3. Vijayan is allegedly very close to the land mafia of Kerala.
What is really surprising is, Mr. Prakash Karat who openly declared that the case against Vijayan was conspiracy by central government decides to pay no heed to the other cases like this? There were even articles against Mr. Vijayan in the official party mouth piece of CPI, but is anybody bothered?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Naxalism-A brief overview
I was reading the newspaper few days back in which the prime minister of India had declared that the single biggest threat to the Indian state was Naxalites/Moists.
This one really got me thinking, what is it about Naxalites that has really attracted so much of attention...Indian has enough of bad neighbours to worry about. Why worry something about somebody like Naxalites/Moists. I decided to get down for studying a bit about them. Below are my findings. The numbers are staggering...You will be shocked and then understand what prompted the prime minister to declare the Naxalites to be the biggest thread to Indian state.
Lets try and see everything from the birth of Naxalism to the current status.
(Note: This is my study based on the facts found online. I have never done any extensive research and verification/validation of the points mentioned below)
How was it formed?
In 1967, a part of Communist Party of India(Marxist) helped the peasants uprising against the landlords and upper caste people in a place called Naxalbari in West Bengal. The movement was led by a Communist Party of India(Marxist) member Charu Mujumdar; who was highly influenced by the teachings of "Mao Tse Tung" of China. He also advised that the only way peasants can come out of their problems is by overthrowing the Indian state and landlords/upper castes who were the main culprits for their plight.
The breakaway faction (Charu Mujumdar) of Communist Party of India(Marxist) went on to become Communist Party of India(Marxist-Leninist). Which later on went on to merge with Maoist Communist Center of India and become something known as the Communist Party of India(Maoist). The merger happened in year 2004. The party is considered a political face of Naxalites and is also referred by the same name. The party was declared a terrorist organization by the government of India on June 22nd, 2009.
Now try and analyze some facts, that may have prompted Prime Minister to declare them India's biggest threat.
Current Status.
Maoists now occupy the area of 92,000 square kilometers and are currently active in 160 out of 604 districts of India. That's staggering 26%. The area of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan is 78,114 square kilometers and area of Kashmir occupied by China is 42,685 square kilometers. As can be seen from the figures, the Moists occupy the largest area of India right now.
Why Sudden Cry About Maoists Now?
Last year in November, chief minister of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's convoy was attacked by Moists in which he was left unhurt, but 6 policemen were seriously wounded. The attack as early as November 2008 proved that Maoists had a considerable stronghold in those areas. Then happened the 2009 elections, which changed the face of West Bengal. For the first time in around 40 years, left parties had lost their stronghold from WB and they were reduced to minority. The Trinamool Congress-Indian National Congress alliance won with thumping majority and Maoists who had allegedly backed TC were a happy lot. The change in power also brought in some unexpected changes, locals and Maoists attacked the CPI(Marxist) offices and ransacked them. "Allegedly" large amount of arms and ammunition were recovered from their offices (A charge which all left parties have vehemently rejected). People boycotted the police from society and stopped them from buying even essential items/supplies. This forced police to leave their places and chowkis and go to safer zones. This made the area of Lalgarh, a non administered zone, as there was not even a police in any chowki to maintain law and order. The Maoists grabbed the opportunity with both hands and declared the area of Lalgarh to be a "Liberated Zone", which was not under the influence of any government.
Realizing the lurking danger, central government asked the WB government to take charge and bring area of Lalgarh under the civil administration. The challenges faced by police were already known, plus a lack of preparation coupled with arms and ammunition falling in the hands of Maoists, WB government did not want to take any risk and requested the paramilitary forces, who were going to support the police.
The fierce opposition from the people and couple of attacks from Maoists forced the paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF take things in their hand and as the started liberating the area, police started joining the chowkies and make sure things come under civil administration. By the time I started writing this blog, around 22 villages of Lalgarh were liberated from Moists and were under the civil administration and the operation was still continuing.
Where Maoists have a stronghold?
These are mostly the areas where there is very little or no development. The Maoists claim to represent the tribal and poor people and hence the states where Maoists have a considerable presence (around 20,000 cadres) are WB, Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Chattigarh, Orrisa, AP and eastern part of Maharashtra.
The possible road ahead?
Development seems to be the keyword. But Maoists themselves are opposing that to a great extent.
The Maoists oppose the idea of land grabbing by government and at the same time warn against industries coming up on agricultural land. Even though their view seems right, there may not be enough barren land left to put up the industries and if the investment and development is needed, there will have to be some greater sacrifices made.
Few Alleged Involvements of Naxalites/Maoists
1. It is largely feared that Maoists and Trinamool Congress together fought the armed battle of Nandigram against the WB government; which left several people dead and many injured.
2. Jindal Steel which tried to open its steel plant in a area called Salboni in WB has come under severe criticism from Maoists; as it opposed the idea of any industrial plants on the tribal areas. It is also feared that, Naxalites/Maoists may blow up the Jindal plant which is supposed to bring investment of Rs. 15000 crore to the state.
3. Naxalites hijacked the train in Jharkhand just ahead of polls in 2009. Later on, the train with all passengers (around 800 to 900) was released.
4. Naxalites attacked the police and voting booths during 2 phases of elections, leaving many people and policemen killed.
5. The Naxalites many times capture policemen from the Naxal dominated areas and kill them.
Looking at all the above the things, we can see the reason why government considers the Maoists to be the biggest danger to the state and hence their action of declaring it a "Terrorist organization" can be understood.
From the current mood of the government, it seems that it wants to deal with the problem of Naxalites with a iron fist. It has neither called any Naxal leader for talks nor it has offered the peace keeping pact to the Naxals. Whatever may be the method, lets hope that government will be able to solve the problem and bring in the necessary development to those backward areas.
This one really got me thinking, what is it about Naxalites that has really attracted so much of attention...Indian has enough of bad neighbours to worry about. Why worry something about somebody like Naxalites/Moists. I decided to get down for studying a bit about them. Below are my findings. The numbers are staggering...You will be shocked and then understand what prompted the prime minister to declare the Naxalites to be the biggest thread to Indian state.
Lets try and see everything from the birth of Naxalism to the current status.
(Note: This is my study based on the facts found online. I have never done any extensive research and verification/validation of the points mentioned below)
How was it formed?
In 1967, a part of Communist Party of India(Marxist) helped the peasants uprising against the landlords and upper caste people in a place called Naxalbari in West Bengal. The movement was led by a Communist Party of India(Marxist) member Charu Mujumdar; who was highly influenced by the teachings of "Mao Tse Tung" of China. He also advised that the only way peasants can come out of their problems is by overthrowing the Indian state and landlords/upper castes who were the main culprits for their plight.
The breakaway faction (Charu Mujumdar) of Communist Party of India(Marxist) went on to become Communist Party of India(Marxist-Leninist). Which later on went on to merge with Maoist Communist Center of India and become something known as the Communist Party of India(Maoist). The merger happened in year 2004. The party is considered a political face of Naxalites and is also referred by the same name. The party was declared a terrorist organization by the government of India on June 22nd, 2009.
Now try and analyze some facts, that may have prompted Prime Minister to declare them India's biggest threat.
Current Status.
Maoists now occupy the area of 92,000 square kilometers and are currently active in 160 out of 604 districts of India. That's staggering 26%. The area of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan is 78,114 square kilometers and area of Kashmir occupied by China is 42,685 square kilometers. As can be seen from the figures, the Moists occupy the largest area of India right now.
Why Sudden Cry About Maoists Now?
Last year in November, chief minister of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's convoy was attacked by Moists in which he was left unhurt, but 6 policemen were seriously wounded. The attack as early as November 2008 proved that Maoists had a considerable stronghold in those areas. Then happened the 2009 elections, which changed the face of West Bengal. For the first time in around 40 years, left parties had lost their stronghold from WB and they were reduced to minority. The Trinamool Congress-Indian National Congress alliance won with thumping majority and Maoists who had allegedly backed TC were a happy lot. The change in power also brought in some unexpected changes, locals and Maoists attacked the CPI(Marxist) offices and ransacked them. "Allegedly" large amount of arms and ammunition were recovered from their offices (A charge which all left parties have vehemently rejected). People boycotted the police from society and stopped them from buying even essential items/supplies. This forced police to leave their places and chowkis and go to safer zones. This made the area of Lalgarh, a non administered zone, as there was not even a police in any chowki to maintain law and order. The Maoists grabbed the opportunity with both hands and declared the area of Lalgarh to be a "Liberated Zone", which was not under the influence of any government.
Realizing the lurking danger, central government asked the WB government to take charge and bring area of Lalgarh under the civil administration. The challenges faced by police were already known, plus a lack of preparation coupled with arms and ammunition falling in the hands of Maoists, WB government did not want to take any risk and requested the paramilitary forces, who were going to support the police.
The fierce opposition from the people and couple of attacks from Maoists forced the paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF take things in their hand and as the started liberating the area, police started joining the chowkies and make sure things come under civil administration. By the time I started writing this blog, around 22 villages of Lalgarh were liberated from Moists and were under the civil administration and the operation was still continuing.
Where Maoists have a stronghold?
These are mostly the areas where there is very little or no development. The Maoists claim to represent the tribal and poor people and hence the states where Maoists have a considerable presence (around 20,000 cadres) are WB, Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Chattigarh, Orrisa, AP and eastern part of Maharashtra.
The possible road ahead?
Development seems to be the keyword. But Maoists themselves are opposing that to a great extent.
The Maoists oppose the idea of land grabbing by government and at the same time warn against industries coming up on agricultural land. Even though their view seems right, there may not be enough barren land left to put up the industries and if the investment and development is needed, there will have to be some greater sacrifices made.
Few Alleged Involvements of Naxalites/Maoists
1. It is largely feared that Maoists and Trinamool Congress together fought the armed battle of Nandigram against the WB government; which left several people dead and many injured.
2. Jindal Steel which tried to open its steel plant in a area called Salboni in WB has come under severe criticism from Maoists; as it opposed the idea of any industrial plants on the tribal areas. It is also feared that, Naxalites/Maoists may blow up the Jindal plant which is supposed to bring investment of Rs. 15000 crore to the state.
3. Naxalites hijacked the train in Jharkhand just ahead of polls in 2009. Later on, the train with all passengers (around 800 to 900) was released.
4. Naxalites attacked the police and voting booths during 2 phases of elections, leaving many people and policemen killed.
5. The Naxalites many times capture policemen from the Naxal dominated areas and kill them.
Looking at all the above the things, we can see the reason why government considers the Maoists to be the biggest danger to the state and hence their action of declaring it a "Terrorist organization" can be understood.
From the current mood of the government, it seems that it wants to deal with the problem of Naxalites with a iron fist. It has neither called any Naxal leader for talks nor it has offered the peace keeping pact to the Naxals. Whatever may be the method, lets hope that government will be able to solve the problem and bring in the necessary development to those backward areas.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Satyam Saga
Just to give a brief info about this company that we are talking....
Satyam was founded in 1987 by Ramlinga Raju and at the start of 2009 the company had operations in around 60 odd countries and around 53K employees. with 185 of the fortune 500 companies as its clients. and of around Rs. 7.3K Cr. It was Indias fourth largest software company..
And then came june 7th 2009...the day probably very few people will forget...
Ramlinga Raju...wrote a letter...explaining to the world...that "The Satyam Saga" was infact a fraud...and they didnt have money to play around....the game was almost over..
Now lot of people already know what is happening...and will know whatever happens to satyam and its founder...Ramlinga Raju....through the newspaper...But what the guys working in satyam are thinking...and what is going to happen to the guy who committed the fraud..
Lets consider the situation of a Satyam employee....
As somebody employeed by satyam...it is definitely a scary situations....there are rumours that the company may close down...as they dont have money to run the organisation.... As an employee...whats the worst that can happen????? They may have to go to other organisation...for a job...like TCS, Infy and Wipro... and they will start working there...but what really hurts is the feeling that you worked in an organisation...which lied to the whole world...about its standards...and directly ro indirectly..or may be by mistake...employees were part of that... Feel deeply hurt... but everybody knows...its not their mistake.. now they can go home and post the resume on the Naukri.com or Monster.com...get some good offer...and move on...
For a minute consider the staff strengh of Satyam. Its around 50K!!!!! that is HUGE.....Govt is not idiot enough to let them be jobless in an election year...it surely would try do some justice to these 50K+ people... They will get some good jobs elsewhere... and there are standards with other MNCs so you wouldnt be working on a paltry sum.... you will be getting what you were getting earlier. As a satyam employee you are save safe....may be you will be doing a job hunt for some time...but you will surely get anothe job...and you could be happy there... the satyam employee at the end of the day is safe...saved....
Lets consider the issue for the Ramlinga Raju....
I guess one of the most important things to consider is...this guy generated jobs for over 50K+ people over the span of around 20 years...50K is huge number...may be some organisations will see the generations of people before they can even think of achieving something as magnanimous as that.. but he did that by falsifying the accounts and using shoddy practices... and now he is not able to find the way out of the big hole he himself dug..so he declares that he used bad practices...and now he has run out of options..and he is ready to face the law...I mean..what is he trying to do now?? Show his honesty? Show his integrity?? Where was that till the scam became so big? I dont understand this whole game. Until now..since he was able to get his way around the things....so he was happy to do so....but today he has run out of options...so he goes on top of the building and shouts that he committed a scam and he is ready to face the law? Is it some kind of joke? I hope he understands that he has jeopardised the life of nearly 50K people..
I never met him personally in life...or neither I have any chance of meeting him...so I cant make a personnel remark about that person...but I dont think anything achieved with fraudalent practices can ever be appreciated... I mean...I am sure he is a great leader...and he did create 50K jobs...he did create lot of wealth for lot of people..none of the above things are possible without being a very good leader.
But whats the use of it???? At the end of the day..people dont see the gray shades of human nature; all they see is things to be black or white...and his actions definitely fall into the black region which is enough to call him the "bad guy" everybody would want to kick right now. I guess thats the human nature and thats the way world wants to run.
Lot of people may have sympathy for him now but there is little they can do. He himself has confessed to be a fraudster and has to be punished. We have to make some stringent laws and follow them so that people dont even think of doing some like that again.
But there are few questions still left to be answered and would be glad to know answer to all of them
1. What were the auditing firm PWC(PriceWaterhouseCoopers) doing for so long? I mean you take millions of rupees as their charge and then for every question the customer asks you charge him certain amount and at the end of it still give you fudgy output.?
Are they involved in the scam? Honestly I dont know but what I do know is hiding such a thing is not an easy task and a big hole of about Rs. 7K Cr is something auditors can surely catch.
I guess PWC already facing a case for its complicity in case of GTB(Global Trust Bank) and honestly people will start looking at every firm audited by PWC to be a fraudalent one if PWC doesnt improve its standard. More importantly if the govt is going to punish Raju, I would like to see the PWC also facing the heat because...on the surface it looks like they are partners in crime..nothing I can prove..but there is a very simple human logic and it looks pretty obvious. Doesnt it?
2. Is the govt also blind enough that it could never find any discrepancy? Isnt that hard to believe? May be it relied on the reports by its auditors who were also corrupt..
Whatever may be..it looks like the Raju is going to face big problems and the satyam employees are safe for now but who knows...in India situations can always alter...and that too...within few days..and you would be amazed at the speed at which these things happen...
PS: I guess we all should appreciate the govt for the swiftness with which the govt has moved and appointed the new board which will make sure the company doesnt burst and so many people are left jobless. The govt may have shown complicity at lot of times...where we expected it to move but this time its really appreciable the speed with which they have moved. For once lets congratulate the govt for doing a good job...and on time....most importantly...saving life of around 50K people....
Satyam was founded in 1987 by Ramlinga Raju and at the start of 2009 the company had operations in around 60 odd countries and around 53K employees. with 185 of the fortune 500 companies as its clients. and of around Rs. 7.3K Cr. It was Indias fourth largest software company..
And then came june 7th 2009...the day probably very few people will forget...
Ramlinga Raju...wrote a letter...explaining to the world...that "The Satyam Saga" was infact a fraud...and they didnt have money to play around....the game was almost over..
Now lot of people already know what is happening...and will know whatever happens to satyam and its founder...Ramlinga Raju....through the newspaper...But what the guys working in satyam are thinking...and what is going to happen to the guy who committed the fraud..
Lets consider the situation of a Satyam employee....
As somebody employeed by satyam...it is definitely a scary situations....there are rumours that the company may close down...as they dont have money to run the organisation.... As an employee...whats the worst that can happen????? They may have to go to other organisation...for a job...like TCS, Infy and Wipro... and they will start working there...but what really hurts is the feeling that you worked in an organisation...which lied to the whole world...about its standards...and directly ro indirectly..or may be by mistake...employees were part of that... Feel deeply hurt... but everybody knows...its not their mistake.. now they can go home and post the resume on the Naukri.com or Monster.com...get some good offer...and move on...
For a minute consider the staff strengh of Satyam. Its around 50K!!!!! that is HUGE.....Govt is not idiot enough to let them be jobless in an election year...it surely would try do some justice to these 50K+ people... They will get some good jobs elsewhere... and there are standards with other MNCs so you wouldnt be working on a paltry sum.... you will be getting what you were getting earlier. As a satyam employee you are save safe....may be you will be doing a job hunt for some time...but you will surely get anothe job...and you could be happy there... the satyam employee at the end of the day is safe...saved....
Lets consider the issue for the Ramlinga Raju....
I guess one of the most important things to consider is...this guy generated jobs for over 50K+ people over the span of around 20 years...50K is huge number...may be some organisations will see the generations of people before they can even think of achieving something as magnanimous as that.. but he did that by falsifying the accounts and using shoddy practices... and now he is not able to find the way out of the big hole he himself dug..so he declares that he used bad practices...and now he has run out of options..and he is ready to face the law...I mean..what is he trying to do now?? Show his honesty? Show his integrity?? Where was that till the scam became so big? I dont understand this whole game. Until now..since he was able to get his way around the things....so he was happy to do so....but today he has run out of options...so he goes on top of the building and shouts that he committed a scam and he is ready to face the law? Is it some kind of joke? I hope he understands that he has jeopardised the life of nearly 50K people..
I never met him personally in life...or neither I have any chance of meeting him...so I cant make a personnel remark about that person...but I dont think anything achieved with fraudalent practices can ever be appreciated... I mean...I am sure he is a great leader...and he did create 50K jobs...he did create lot of wealth for lot of people..none of the above things are possible without being a very good leader.
But whats the use of it???? At the end of the day..people dont see the gray shades of human nature; all they see is things to be black or white...and his actions definitely fall into the black region which is enough to call him the "bad guy" everybody would want to kick right now. I guess thats the human nature and thats the way world wants to run.
Lot of people may have sympathy for him now but there is little they can do. He himself has confessed to be a fraudster and has to be punished. We have to make some stringent laws and follow them so that people dont even think of doing some like that again.
But there are few questions still left to be answered and would be glad to know answer to all of them
1. What were the auditing firm PWC(PriceWaterhouseCoopers) doing for so long? I mean you take millions of rupees as their charge and then for every question the customer asks you charge him certain amount and at the end of it still give you fudgy output.?
Are they involved in the scam? Honestly I dont know but what I do know is hiding such a thing is not an easy task and a big hole of about Rs. 7K Cr is something auditors can surely catch.
I guess PWC already facing a case for its complicity in case of GTB(Global Trust Bank) and honestly people will start looking at every firm audited by PWC to be a fraudalent one if PWC doesnt improve its standard. More importantly if the govt is going to punish Raju, I would like to see the PWC also facing the heat because...on the surface it looks like they are partners in crime..nothing I can prove..but there is a very simple human logic and it looks pretty obvious. Doesnt it?
2. Is the govt also blind enough that it could never find any discrepancy? Isnt that hard to believe? May be it relied on the reports by its auditors who were also corrupt..
Whatever may be..it looks like the Raju is going to face big problems and the satyam employees are safe for now but who knows...in India situations can always alter...and that too...within few days..and you would be amazed at the speed at which these things happen...
PS: I guess we all should appreciate the govt for the swiftness with which the govt has moved and appointed the new board which will make sure the company doesnt burst and so many people are left jobless. The govt may have shown complicity at lot of times...where we expected it to move but this time its really appreciable the speed with which they have moved. For once lets congratulate the govt for doing a good job...and on time....most importantly...saving life of around 50K people....
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