We wrote this a long time ago. We are reposting it in the wake of revelations made by Sushma Swaraj in Loksabha:
Hamara Mai-Baap Kaun Hai?
Youth Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi (left) and Smt Maneka's marriage register being signed by a witness Mohammed Yunus (right) as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (2nd left) looks on, in New Delhi on August 1, 1974.You need to know the following before I make my case.
Adil Shahriyar, the son of Muhammad Yunus, who was almost a part of the Indira Gandhi family, and a mentor of both Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, was tried in a US District Court by a jury, and convicted on an indictment of five counts ( including trying to blow up a ship, illegal possession of firearms and carrying them across State borders and drug trafficking) and sentenced in 1982 to 35 years hard labour in prison.
All of the power of the GoI was thrown behind this criminal Adil but to no avail. Proximity to Gandhi family does not carry any weight in the USA. But then some thing happened which was essentially godsend i.e. Union Carbide gas leak that killed over 3000 people. This tragedy presented a great opportunity for the Yunus family. The Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson was in an Indian lock up under the purview of the Gandhi Family faithful Arjun Singh. Anderson was released and given the VIP treatment out of India. On the other end, Ronald Reagan, the leader of the most powerful nation (at least at that time) took time out of his very busy schedule and pardoned Adil Shariyar’s sentence. From what I know of the US pardon system, small time criminals like Adil do not get noticed by a President. The implication is obvious. A deal must have been negotiated. Safe passage for Warren Anderson for the pardon of Adil Shahriyar! Can you fathom the implication here? Maybe India was going to let Anderson go anyway. But someone at that time of extreme tragedy was thinking of this criminal. That in it’s own right is mind numbing.
Corruption is not new to Congress. There is no shortage of examples of that. In fact, it has become institutionalized. People like A Raja would be drawn and quartered in most countries. In India, the man is still enjoying fruits of his crimes.
Prof. Vaidyanathan has hit another one out the park with his latest. He correctly points out that there are people in the GoI to take care of criminals close to the powerful families. He writes:Another example is more bizarre. Naga political and student groups have been starving the Manipuris for more than two months by blockading the state. Petrol sells for Rs200 per litre and everything is scarce. But the Centre is still requesting (cajoling/begging) Naga militants to lift the blockade. Now imagine what would have happened if it was the other way round: the Manipuris blockading the Nagas. It would not have continued for more than one day. The global Baptist Church would have created a ruckus and many delegations of leaders from Europe and the US would have rushed to India and our PM would have been forced to go to the north-east to make amends. But Manipur can starve since they don’t have a lobby.
In Delhi, we thus have a US lobby, a Chinese lobby (even unelectable Jairam Ramesh lobbies for Chinese businesses), a Middle Eastern lobby and, of course, a Pakistani Lobby. Obama’svisit reveals the power of the US lobby. It appears that in the last few days nothing of importance has happened in any part of the world. It’s just Obama all the way. Then there are lobbies for the IT industry, for pharma, for liquor barons, for global arms merchants — lobbies for everyone from Aruba to Zimbabwe.But the question he asks is : Who lobbies for India? Aam aadmi ka maai – baap kaun hai? He is right, in India the one thing that matters the least is the aam Indian. That is a sad commentary indeed!
The article can be read at: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_so-many-lobbies-in-delhi-but-none-to-bat-for-india_1464044
However a better researched article can be read at:
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