Black Money In Swiss Bank Accounts: The Fourth Kejriwal Expose Installment!

New Delhi, November 09, 2012, 1.30 PM. Time for anti-corruption campaigner cum politician Arvind Kejriwal to release the fourth expose installment. And dot on time the India Against Corruption (IAC) functionary  added one more to the land of allegations…call it India. This time it was against black money allegedly stashed in alleged Swiss bank accounts owned allegedly by over 700 Indians with the Government allegedly helped by HSBC, industrialists and ministers allegedly not allowing it come into the country.

The issue of black money has been doing rounds in this country since time immemorial. Various political parties when not in power raised this issue in various times asking questions while the political parties in power did the answering. The anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare started the movement on the general issue and Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was quick to join in attacking the specific issue of black money. But it always needs Arvind Kejriwal to bring it out in the open for the hungry media and for the affected parties to deny or the unaffected to demand probes.

Kejriwal is clever enough to keep the suspense on by equally distributing his expose installments between various politicians of various affiliations with their presumed partners so that nobody knows who he is going to expose next. And, each time, he leaves it at the allegations level only never trying hard enough for providing real proof so that each installment drama continues till the next.

As usual, the BJP, cornered in the last installment and still sweating from it, has already rejoiced since the affected party was the government along with its paraphernalia this time. The main national opposition party slammed the government demanding serious probes into the Kejriwal allegations. As usual, the affected parties have started crying denials counter alleging that all these are false allegations. The 4^th installment drama is set to last for a long time since Kejriwal made very serious allegations about the country’s economic sovereignty being threatened by the black money cover-up corroborated by his six major demands including disbanding operations of the international bank, HSBC, in India.

We are all acquainted with the EMI syndrome in our loan liabilities. Now we can rightfully create another syndrome called the EKI meaning Equated Kejriwal Installment. I think we are justified in using ‘equated’, because as we have already explained that Kejriwal has been equating and evenly distributing his installments among the corrupt parties…sorry allegedly corrupt parties.

 

The nationwide wait begins now for the 5^th EKI. Who is the next beneficiary…sorry the victim? Right, allegedly! The land of allegations needs some more! 

Monsoon Mix: Flood Waters Sweep In Black Money!

The traditional date of arrival of the South West Monsoon in Mumbai is 10^thJune. This year the monsoon officially hit Mumbai on 16-17^th June, 2012. But there have been no rains thus far. As I was writing out this post a heavy downpour started and looked set to continue. Alas! It dried up very fast as if not at all in a mood.

For the coming days the met office has no optimistic forecast. But the met office is hardly taken seriously around this part of the world. Whenever it forecasts heavy to very heavy downpour in the next twenty four hours people think they can leave their umbrellas safely at home! The greatest deluge in recent times and many other major rain disasters caught the met office totally unawares.  

Apart from causing uncertainty for the Maharashtra farmers the no-rain situation worries the city as the authorities have declared that the city has a water reserve to last only 19 days more. After that water scarcity looms large, if monsoon does not still get into a mood.

Meanwhile the north eastern state of Assam has been reeling under flood with many areas in almost all parts getting inundated, streets and houses submerged. Due to incessant rains for the last three days flood waters have invaded roads and lanes and have sneaked into numerous houses in the city of Guwahati too. Our ancestral house where we enjoyed the beginning of the rains only recently has two-inch of water inside! 

And then the absurd! Flood waters in a wetland in the city have swept in a currency note bonanza. Local inhabitants while coping with rising water levels noticed currency notes of high denomination floating around! 

For two days now, they have been busy collecting the notes. The local authorities have done nothing so far despite people continuously searching for the windfall and demonstrating and drying up their find and one youth dying tragically in the mad rush. Maybe somebody’s treasure house of black money got devastated by the flash floods or maybe somebody took up the ‘natural’ opportunity to ‘legalize’ their black money! The police and the local authorities could be trying to hide somebody’s identity, perhaps! Nature cannot tell!

Meantime the rains pounced down again…and dried up again! 

Movement Against Corruption: Leadership Slots Still Open!

Basically, the politicians of India have failed miserably to deliver on curbing the menace of corruption and black money. Huge and huger scams kept on surfacing making the masses disillusioned. So, social activists, saints, god-men and the like have come to occupy the center stage starting a movement against corruption. Anna Hazare, who was relatively unknown outside Maharashtra, sat on fast in the national capital in April, 2011 and became a national hero eliciting unprecedented mass support. Many political parties and leaders wanted to be a part of this, but Anna was firm keeping the movement non-political.

Ramdev Baba, the Yoga-guru who made his billions all over the world running two television channels and stigmatized by the alleged murder of his own guru, saw this and thought why not have some political power and clout. He picked up black money issue which is only the other side of a larger issue of corruption. He started his fast unto death at Ramleela Ground, New Delhi yesterday, the June 4th. Some frustrated political parties with right-wing leaning joined him at the platform. Incredible things happened yesterday, the ambiance, the huge crowd, Ramdev's loud and punching speeches beating his normally calm Yoga preachings, the live press conferences, the Government of India coming now and then for the continuing talks for ending the fast and so on.. Live on most news channels all over India that electrifying show would have put Bollywood blockbusters to shame.

When things were marching towards an exciting end with the Government agreeing to most of the demands, the Baba thought otherwise maybe unwilling to leave the 'live' platform. So, the Government's indignation led to the midnight mayhem with New Delhi police uprooting Baba and his supporters from the venue with tear gas shells, lathi charge and maybe firing of bullets in air. Well, the Government would hardly tolerate the apparently right-wing political drama happening right in front of their courtyard in spite of their genuine efforts, but the tactics they adopted were indeed undemocratic almost reminding of British atrocities in the pre-independence era. Now, they have given an extended lease of life to desperate political parties for taking forward their opposition drives almost on everyday basis from now onwards.Worse, Anna Hazare had to condemn this too and now his movement against corruption is on uncertain grounds.

When Anna Hazare along with his civil society members in the Lokpal (Ombudsmen) committee against corruption were carrying on the fight effectively where was the need for another movement? But as we have said political leaders were desperate for being a part of it and now the Ramdev Baba episode have thrown open an unending stream of slots for leadership for which the bids must have started already.

But what about the issue of corruption? Well, I already told you to be personally honest and enjoy!