Rafale deal overtakes Bofors scam
There are two things that BJP uses as a defence to escape its responsibilities. One is that Indira Gandhi imposed emergency during her tenure as PM of this country. Another one is Bofors, a political and defence scandal involving former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s name. Congress is paying heavily for these mistakes since a long time. The first person to speak against Bofors was former PM V P Singh, who was in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. He quit Congress and waged a war against it.
Bofors scandal cost Rajiv Gandhi very dearly. His reputation of ‘Mr Clean’ suffered a massive set back. He was forced to bear the brunt of mistakes committed by someone else. Rajiv Gandhi was a political visionary who took India to another level with his foresightedness as far as IT is concerned. Even courts have denied the role of Rajiv Gandhi in Bofors scandal. But then, BJP has continued its tirade against Congress using this topic.
BJP also refers to emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi quite often. Ironically enough, PM Narendra Modi has brought in emergency-like situation in India since the last four years. Common people and media have got a taste of this. Just the way as the press and commoners were targeted during emergency and sounded a death knell to anyone who spoke against Indira Gandhi or the government, the same situation exists even now with Modi at the helm of affairs. No media can dare criticize the government or ministers now. The journalists who have exposed the government’s misdoings are being threatened in different ways.
The IT raid and attempts to stop NDTV was a ‘caution’ issued for having criticized the government. Three journalists ABP channel had to lose jobs owing to their expose against the government.
That common people had to queue before the banks to get their own hard earned money is the darkest phase of post-independence Indian history. People didn’t have to face this even during emergency period.
Law on sale of cattle is another sort of emergency for sure. Goondas and rowdies have been reaping benefits of this new order which denies the farmers their right on their cattle. This law can even provide impetus to killing of a farmer if he takes his cattle for sale. Mob lynchings have become an order of the day in Modi’s India. Having landed the country at this juncture, Narendra Modi does not have any right to criticize the days of emergency. More than anything else, BJP government is using Bofors as its defence even after Congress was proved innocent in the matter. Modi government has been holding this out, while being so unmindful of its own involvement in Rafale deal, which is way bigger than Bofors. This is not the first time NDA govt is being caught in a defence deal. In a sting operation carried out by Tehelka tabloid, NDA led by Vajpayee was caught in a very sorry state of having accepted bribe for the defence deals. The desh bhakts were caught in a very compromising situation. A scandal in the deal of buying coffins for martyrs was also unearthed.
But looks like Rafale deal will overtake all of them in sheer size of corruption. This deal with France-based company to provide war planes is being currently termed as the bigger corruption than Bofors in its size and magnitude. Government entered into an agreement with France to buy 36 war planes at a cost of Rs 58,000 crores. Though Rahul Gandhi kept referring to this time and again, the media was successful in keeping this topic under wraps.
But now, former BJP leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha have spoken against this. There is a huge difference between opposition leaders talking about this and former senior partymen speaking against this issue.
Arun Shourie was in the forefront when Bofors news appeared in the press in 1989. Now, the same man says “Rafale deal is much bigger than Bofors.”
Modi government has blundered more number of times as far as mingling with the army is concerned. They politicised surgical strike and opened doors for FDI in defence sector. Now Rafale issue has cost them quite a bit of reputation. Though such a massive scam is being levelled against the government, Modi isn’t opening his mouth at all. If Narendra Modi is innocent in all of them, the same could have been issued as an order. But Modi thinks such false allegations are something he must wear on his shoulder.
If Rafale is not a transparent deal and the country has been lied to, it is equivalent to anti-national behaviour. This would have massive impact on the psyche of soldiers who are working to safeguard the country. Audit of this deal is a must to protect reputation. Modi must offer an explanation to this issue and in complete consciousness of the fact that Bofors cannot be a reason to defend to Rafale deal.
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
