National Shame!
The UPA Government has lost all credibility and right to rule after the severe condemnation by apex court on brazen misuse of country’s premier investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in their favour. In fact, after Supreme Court’s censure on May 8 and its strongly-worded observations about them, their faces are smeared in coal black, and the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his accomplice, the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, should have resigned from their posts. Both are guilty of brazenly misusing the CBI to cover up their misdeeds.
The matter assumes serious proportion in view of the apex court’s denunciation of the officials of PMO and Coal Ministry for blatantly altering the status report of coal scam to suit their interests. According to CAG’s final report tabled in Parliament, the scam cost the nation Rs 1.86 lakh crore. What remains alarming to us all is the fact that even though 11 FIRs have been filed in this case, the investigation is not complete in any of these. Hence, no chargesheet against anyone so far.
Not only the Supreme Court, entire nation wants to question the Congress-led UPA II regime as to why the PMO and Coal Ministry officials saw the status report before it is filed in the court? Whom they wanted to protect and at whose behest? The questions raised by the Court get additional weight when we come to know that the officials not only perused the report, but also changed the course of investigation. By now it has become crystal clear, and is shocking that PMO officials altered the report to the extent that it lost its substance. In this situation, how can the Congress or its alliance partners protect the guilty PM and his colleagues?
Our heads hang in shame when we learn that our Law Minister indulged in malpractices and our Prime Minister blatantly protected him, revealing the kind of proximity that exists between corrupt Congress leaders. How can the government maintain its self-respect when its officers and ministers are caught red-handed in one of the biggest thefts of the country? What stuns the nation is the fact that instead of confessing the crime, the Congress and its allies are brazenly justifying their misdeeds. They are using ridiculous logic in their defence. It is beyond any doubt that the Parliament has been deliberately adjourned sine a die only to avoid further embarrassment.
This is a fact that the Parliament was not functioning because of the repeated attacks by the united opposition, which had solid grounds for their continuous onslaughts. But the question is who is responsible for this uproar? Only the UPA. It is impossible in a democracy that Parliament follows the command of the ruling alliance alone. It is extremely disappointing that even after repeated raps from the country’s top court the ruling party remains adamant. The Court has directed the UPA government to make provisions for granting concrete autonomy to the CBI. But keeping the past records in view people of the country have doubts about it? There is greater possibility that this brazen regime finds some or other excuses to refrain from it. We may recall that even in the year 1996 the same Court had directed the central government to free CBI from political influence. But nothing happened. Rather new records of its misuse were set in the following years. If the CBI today becomes a ‘caged parrot’, only the Congress party is responsible for it.
There can be no second opinion on it that the country’s premier institutions like CBI, CAG, Election Commission, etc. should be independent, autonomous and fully out of political influence. And these norms ought to be followed by all the future governments, if we really wish to strengthen the democracy. It is also imperative if at all we dream of becoming a super power in future. There can be no compromise on it.
Government of dealers and brokers
Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal earned a new title for corruption-ridden UPA—the government of dealers and brokers where every decision was up for sale. His involvement in ‘job for sell’ scandal was beyond any doubt, but the PM and Congress managers were defiant at defending him till the last moment when he resigned on May 10. Is this the way the Congress wants to run the show? Though, Bansal’s nephew was arrested for accepting Rs 90 lakh bribe in exchange for a top job on Railways Board and the telephonic conversations too left no scope for further doubt, Bansal got full back from the PMO and 10 Janpath. This is another brazen example how the corrupt are shielded under this regime.
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