Readers’ Forum

His culpability exposed, Manmohan hides behind Sonia’s belligerence (Organiser, 2.9.2012); This  is with reference to , ‘His culpability exposed. Manmohan hides behind Sonia’s belligerence, in Organiser, by Dr R Balashankar. Coal Scam CAG report should be final. Normally, CAG reports  are referred to PAC or JPC ( in a special case) to  study and recommend the corrective measures, or taking departmental or legal action against  defaulting executives, if any. Since Prime minister is himself indicted for giving  the approval to allotment of coal blocks, therefore he and his Cabinet collegues are upset and  are proposing only a fruitless debate on CAG report in the  Parliament. If it is referred to PAC or JPC, the government nominees will do what  he wants as seen in the case of 2G Scam. Here most serious scam will be buried to give respite to UPA-2 for sometime. As such it is pertinent to explain briefly the  audit procedure followed by the CAG office. It raises observations on auditee departments and concludes audit paras/reports after a long and detailed study over the matter under scrutiny. First of all audit officer in course of audit raises preliminary audit querries/inspection reports to be replied by concerned audited department. If reply is not satisfactory, then observations are sent at higher level for reply. If still no satisfactory reply is  received, the observations are passed on to head of department or ministry level for reply. Secondly in support of all observations raised, CAG office collects and  maintains the comprehensive record of key documents, which are the extracts or photocopies of file notings, letters,  opinions, decisions, minutes of meetings, etc relevant to the matter under audit,  from auditee department. Thirdly, audit officers of CAG office are professionally  qualified and experienced personnel. It takes a couple of years for them to reach the conclusion  and finalise the audit para/report. Prime Minister in his speech (IE 28.8.12) has  said that he takes the full responsibility, but CAG report is flawed on many counts. What a self contradictory statement? The inconvenient observations in CAG report, which now PM is pointing out, the ministry of coal has failed to satisfy audit in its replies. Kapil Sibal opines zero loss, but CAG office has clarified that this allotment has boasted the valuation of allotted companies. (IE 29.8.2012). Jaiswal, the coal minister has said, that coal auction will increase the power price (IE 28.8.2012). It is very ridiculous. How can he be assure, that benefit arising to private parties on the coal blocks allotment in question, as  calculated by CAG, shall be passed on to consumer of electricity. Manish Tiwari writes (IE 28.8.2012) that CAG has no constitutional mandate to make his own policy prescription  to compute notional loss and gain. It is clear cut intervention in CAG’s Independence of Audit, which Constitution has empowered  him. CAG does “Propriety Audit”. Therefore he is free to rely upon hypothesis considered appropriate to assess and project the likely loss in future to exchequer. Now the government is trying to divert the public attention towards CAG’s calculation of loss. Two different figures have been quoted i.e. Rs 1.21 lakh crore and Rs 0.35 lakh crore in Indian Express (31.8.2012) against 1.86 Lakh core calculated by CAG. It is immaterial which one is correct, but audit objective is to highlight the huge loss resulting from the wrong decision to benefit the vested interests. CAG being a constitutional authority has declined to jump into any debate against PM’s remarks, that his report is flawed. However CAG’s office has stated that matter would be clarified at an appropriate forum when required (IE 29.8.2012). This means that CAG still sticks to his observations in his report. As such it is imperative on the part of Opposition to remain firm and demand an action on the report and should not agree for a debate to hear the government’s views at this  stage, which have not satisfied CAG before finalisation of  report.
HS MEHTANI, 89/East Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi-26
Internet as an avatar of the charkha (Organiser, 23.9.2012); This  refers to the news item and an article in Organiser dated 16 and 23 of September on the book Music of the spinning wheel: Mahatma Gandhi’s manifesto for Internet Age,written by Sudheendra Kulkarni, a member of the BJP’s National Executive, and praised by Shri LKAdvani. One must know, that this music of Gandhi’s charkha was responsible for the slaughter  of ten lakh Hindus and Sikhs in West Pakistan during Partition days in 1947, and abduction, rape and dishonouring of more than one lakh Hindu/Sikh women and girls, apart from suicide by thousands of women. Our family was at Sialkot (now in Pakistan) during those days, and while passing through Sialkot on his way from Jammu to Lahore, Gandhi had a short stoppage at Sialkot Railway Station. There he advised the frightened and dying Hindus to “Sit in home and spin charkha” and assured that nothing is going to happen. Perhaps Gandhi thought, that the ‘Music of spinning wheel’ would do wonders and keep the horrible Muslims away, completely ignoring the facts that, what the Muslims had been doing to the Hindus during the last one year starting from August 1946 when call for “Direct Action” was given by Jinnah and the Muslim League. It would not be out of the way to mention here my exchange of thoughts with a person who was directly a victim of Gandhi’s dangerous and stupid advice of ‘Spinning Charkha’. It was in December 1972, that I happened to go to  Ferozpur along with my wife, where her aunt was living. On Sunday, I along with my wife attended the weekly satsang of Arya Samaj ‘Turi Bazar’. It was very cold and the attendance was hardly ten, therefore our new faces attracted the attention of the president of Arya Samaj, a tall respectable person, aged about 65, and wearing a turban. At the end of the satsang he very  affectionately  talked to us and wanted our introduction, which I gave. Then I also asked for his introduction. He told that their family was at Sheikhupura (about 40 kilometers from Lahore) in 1947.  He was an active and influential worker of the Congress, and as per advice and utterances of Gandhi, he persuaded the Hindus and Sikhs to stay, and not to migrate to India or other safer places. The result was that entire 22,000 male population was killed in just 48 hours, and all females were abducted. He and his family somehow escaped. Due to this, he felt personally guilty, and very shocked, and was not able to concentrate on any work, but was trying to spend his time in religious and social activities. But just see. Gandhi never felt guilty of misguiding the Hindus and Sikhs, and went to the  extent of telling a deputation of Hindu and Sikh refugees, not to come to India as it was the duty of Jinnah and Pakistan to protect them, and they should die there in Pakistan as no ‘special training was needed for the art of dying’. (See page 33, Delhi Diary,  published by Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmadabad). One can see that Gandhi was never relevant, at least for India. Root cause of all the problems, that India is facing today, has its origin in Gandhi. I would appeal to all the leaders of the BJP and Sangh Parivar to at least stop  praising Gandhi. Gandhi has already proved to be a big disaster for India and the Hindus, and all those who speak in praise of him will have to own all the sins and wrongs he had done.
ANAND PRAKASH, 72/Sector-8, Panchkula-134 109
Leaders pay homage (Organiser, 30.9.2012); You have described Dr Keshavrao Hedgewar as Sarsanghachalak  of the RSS since  1925, i.e. its inception (see the caption to his photograph  in the Organiser,  dated September 30,  page 9). This is incorrect. Dr Hedgewar was selected Sarsanghachalak on November 10, 1929, although he was officially made its ‘Pramukh’ on December 19, 1926. He died on 21.6.1940 and Shri Golwalkar became Sangh’s Chief on 3.7.1940.
AJAY K MITTAL, 97 Khandak, Meerut
Supreme Court’s ruling on natural resources Supreme Court Bench has given a clear ruling on Presidential reference on allotment of natural resources. Silver lining is that both the Government and President are not chastised for such frivolous questions and wasting court timing. Khehar is more explicit in asserting and declares that there cannot  be dissipation of material (Natural) resources free of cost, etc. It tantamounts to follow already well laid rule  of law and fair practice else it will be struck down. It is like spanking a brat to behave else stick will be used to lash. Like the brat feeling jubiliant for not getting a thrash, Congress men and President are happy at the SC ruling . Probably Congress men have gone blank in their heads like a saying Din mein tare dekhne lage akkalmand.
VENKATGIRI, Sahkar Nagar, Bengaluru
Cauvery issue—CRA meeting (Organiser, 14.11.2012); Karnataka State Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar came out of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting in protest after learning from our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu. After criticism came from all corners for such an act, now, we see a statement from him supporting the release of water to Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister should have put forward  Karnataka’s water crisis  issue and appealed for justice before the Prime Minister, taken an all party delegation to New Delhi to pressurise the Central Government, taken our lawyers in confidence, agitation should have been carried out in an appropriate way and the  matter should have been resolved. Instead he behaved in an negligent and immatured manner, due to which the condition has become from bad to worse. Irrespective of any political party, whether Jagadish Shettar, Bangarappa or any one else, we find our State leaders lack political diplomacy in handling State affairs. Can we ask them when will they learn to act maturely?
SETURAM ASPARI, e-mail:asparam@rediffmail.com
Manmohan Singh’s career is following   Peter Principle (Organiser, 7.10.2012); I feel the recent PM’s  address to the nation is unlikely to cut ice with his intended audience for basically two reasons. Firstly by deliberately sacrificing national interest for the sake of party gains in connection with the recently exposed scams, Manmohan Singh has lost  much of his credibility. Today he is in no  position to defend his economic policy on the grounds of national interest. Secondly Manmohan Singh has asked for support from those parties who are openly opposed to such economic measures as foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. By doing so, Singh has created a bizarre situation wherein he is recruiting his enemy’s soldiers to fight his own battles. This has only made the public further suspicious of him and  the government he leads.
ARCHANA SHARMA, Flat No 5, Deep Vatika, Ratanlal Nagar, Kanpur
A split It is very unfortunate that  the erstwhile Team Anna suffered what all political parties in the country are accustomed to—a split. But in Team Anna’s case, the split has occurred not only before it could float a political party but indeed on the very question of whether  or not it should enter electoral politics. Either way one can only hope that both Arvind Kejriwal who will presumably lead the new political party and Anna Hazare who is expected to continue presiding over the anti-corruption campaign will reflect more carefully upon their future goals and aims and how they wish to achieve the same.
J AKSHAY, Bengaluru