Gujarat govt's electoral contribution to BJP by cheque in 2009-10? No state dept knows who made the payment

Modi, Suresh Mehta

While it is well known that top business houses of Gujarat have liberally contributed to the BJP to meet its electoral expenses, putting Congress in an unenviable position, surprisingly, in 2009-10, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled the state, his government, too, made a contribution, albeit small, to the saffron party!
The 2009-10 list of donations of more than Rs 20,000, submitted by the BJP’s then office in-charge Shyam Jaju to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on December 1, 2010, has an entry on page 13, showing that the “Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar”, donated Rs 25,000 as electoral contribution to the party by cheque No 482811 of State Bank of India.
Former BJP chief minister Suresh Mehta, who dug out this piece information more than a year ago, told Counterview, “I have been filing Right to Information (RTI) pleas to ascertain who in the state government paid this money, violating all constitution norms. Yet, no state department, including the chief secretary’s office, knows who made the payment.”
In his RTI plea, Mehta, who resigned from the BJP in 2007, sought information for several of his queries, including under which budget head the amount was paid, who took the decision about paying the amount to the BJP, what was the justification for the payment, and which state departments advised to make the payment.
Seeking to see all file notings preceding the decision to send the cheque to the BJP, Mehta wondered whether the amount was paid under the “consolidated fund or any other fund” of the state budget, and how and when its “conciliation/appropriation” – a budgetary requirement – was carried out for making the payment.

Screenshot from the document showing GoG payment to BJP

Documents handed over by Mehta to Counterview suggest the state government departments, which could possibly be responsible for giving the donation to the BJP, including the chief minister’s office (CMO) have been, over the last one year, offering just one reply: That they “can’t find the information” about the donation.
The documents suggest that Mehta – who had filed his RTI to the CMO, the general administration department (GAD), the finance department and the parliamentary affairs department – got some very interesting replies. The first one, dated March 21, 2017, by the GAD, sought information from the ex-chief minister, if he had any, as it couldn’t find any!
Yet another reply by the GAD, dated May 22, 2017, told Mehta that he had sought information from “more than department”, but “we cannot find the requisite information you have sought even after visiting the Gujarat chief secretary’s office several times over.” It adds, “Nor is it clear as to which department is responsible for making a decision about the information you have sought”.
Failing to get information, Mehta approached the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), the state’s RTI watchdog, which in its order, signed by its commissioner Dilip P Thaker on April 17, 2018, asked the ex-CM to “furnish any information” he has to the GAD about the payment to the BJP within 15, adding, on receiving the information the GAD should “provide its reply” within a fortnight.
Complying by GIC order, in its final reply to Mehta, dated May 4, 2018, the GAD said, “After examing the cash cheque book for the year 2009-10, it has been found that State Bank of India’s cheque No 482811 of Rs 25,000, about which you have referred to, is not there the cash notebook, which means, the GAD and the chief secretary’s office have not made any such payment.”
Comments Mehta, “While the GAD says that it has not issued the cheque, the state government should come clean and say who, if at all, issued the cheque. Interestingly, the state government officials are even refusing to categorically state that the entry of making payment to the BJP was a mistake, or that the state government did not make the payment at all…”

Comments

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

What's wrong with those seeking to promote Sanskrit? An ex-Hindi professor has the answer

Ajay Tiwari I have always wondered why certain elite sections are so fascinated by Sanskrit, to the extent of even practicing speaking a language that, for all practical purposes, isn’t alive. During my Times of India stint in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat state capital, I personally witnessed an IAS bureaucrat, Bhagyesh Jha, trying to converse with a friend in Sanskrit.

Search This Blog