Modi's demonetization implementor Shantikanta Das is Chidambaram man, not fit as SEBI chairman: Swamy

Shantikanta Das

By A Representative
Hardline BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy has directed his guns against Union economic affairs secretary Shantikanta Das, who has been one of the chief implementors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's November 8 demonetization move, calling him a "Chidambaram confidante", and asking Modi not to make Das new Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman.
Belonging to Tamil Nadu, Das, who is known to have defended Modi's noteban as no one else, retires from IAS in February this year. Das is Swamy's third major target in Modi's economic team, the first (click HERE) being former Reserve Bank of India director Raghuram Rajan, followed by chief economic adviser to the Union finance ministry Arvind Subramaniam (click HERE). Rajan resigned in September 2016.
In a letter dated January 7, 2017 to Modi, Swamy, Rajya Sabha MP, has accused Das of siding with the corrupt, saying, the latter "was widely perceived as acting to protect the interest of Chidambaram in his financial affairs", in cases such as "2-G scam, Aircel-Maxis scam, NSE fraud, manipulation of stock market etc."
Swamy cites a report in a well-known pro-BJP daily as saying that Das is “all set to become the next SEBI chief after the extended tenure of UK Sinha, who has been at the helm of the watchdog since February 2011, ends on March 1 this year.”
According to the report, three senior bureaucrats, including Das, have been selected for the top SEBI post, including Unio power secretary PK Pujari, a Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat, and additional secretary in the finance ministry Ajay Tyagi were also included in the list.
Swamy traces “close” relations between Chidambaram and Das to the latter's former postings in Tamil Nadu, where, according to the BJP leader, Das came under “very adverse attention for several corruption matters from land allotment to foreign collaboration agreement.”
Swamy says, Das "helped Chidambaram by delaying unduly investigations that were being done" under the Supreme Court, giving the example of a letter forwarded by former CBI director Anil Sinha to Das on September 17, 2015, "wherein the CBI director pleaded" with Das to provide "necessary clarification" in the Aircel-Maxis scam.
Das, says Swamy in the letter, "stalled the further investigation by not replying and thus the interrogation of Chidambaram", adding, "The matter has now been brought out from the cold storage of the Ministry of Finance after Rakesh Asthana took over as acting director."
The result is that, Swamy says, on January 6, 2017, "in the court of Chief Justice of India my interloculory application No 78 on Aircel-Maxis cam was taken for the purpose of proceeding with further investigation into Foreign Investment Promotion Board illegal clearance approved by Chidambaram."
Accusing Chidambaram's son of "receiving payments as beneficiary from Maxis company of Malayasia, as revealed by the investigation by the Enforcement Directorate in 14 countries", Swamy says, under such circumstances it would be "wholly improper" to appoint Das as chairman of SEBI, calling such a move to be "entirely inconsistent" with the "anti-corruption campaign" of the BJP.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Counterview

Search This Blog