My Opinion

Never in India’s history since Independence was a Chief Secretary of senior IAS rank assaulted in Delhi by ruling party MLAs in the presence of their Chief Minister at the latter’s official residence. This shameful incident took place around midnight on Monday, when the Chief Secretary was summoned for a meeting by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.

The Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash is an experienced civil servant who has served in many positions. There had been no complaints against him. The Chief Secretary wrote a written complaint to Delhi Police alleging that he was abused, heckled and assaulted by AAP MLAs. His complaint should be taken seriously. Summoning a senior bureaucrat to the chief minister’s residence at midnight and then assaulting him is an act that cannot be condoned in a democracy. Kejriwal is on record of having once said that he cameto power, he would teach BJP and Congress leaders how to run a government. If this is the manner in which he wants to run his government, then God save Delhi.

Contrast this with Kejriwal’s predecessor Sheila Dikshit, who was Chief Minister of Delhi for 15 years. Out of these 15 years, there were six years during which the BJP was ruling at the Centre. There was not a single incident of misbehaviour with any officer of Delhi government during her tenure. At one cabinet meeting, one of Sheila Dikshit’s ministers spoke to a bureaucrat loudly, and the Chief Minister promptly took the minister to task in front of all. She then called the minister to another room and explained to him how to behave with bureaucrats. The erring minister came out of the room and apologized to the then Chief Secretary. What happened on Monday midnight was sordid. Such acts have no place in a healthy democracy.

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The arrest of three senior officers of Punjab National Bank – Bechhu Tiwari, chief manager incharge of Forex dept, Yashwant Joshi, Manager of Forex dept, and Praful Sawant, Officer, Export – by CBI in the Nirav Modi fraud case, on Monday clearly points toward a serious malady in the banking system. A handful of officers skimmed Rs 11,400 crore from the bank to favour jeweller Nirav Modi, who alongwith his family, has fled India.

In my Aaj Ki Baat show, I have shown how Rs 280 cr worth Letters of Undertaking were issued within a span of three days in favour of Nirav Modi’s companies. This fraud was going on in the bank since the last seven years. Nearly 150 LOUs worth Rs 6,000 crore were issued from the bank between 2011 and 2017, whereas after April 2017, 143 LOUs worth Rs 3,500 crore were issued.

The initial report prepared by the Income Tax department on Monday clearly shows the trail of Rs 515 crore worth initial transactions. It has also been revealed that fake sales were shown in documents instead of actual sale of jewellery. For the first time, Nirav Modi’s Hong Kong-based sister firm’s name has emerged as a beneficiary.

As far as the aam aadmi is concerned, the common perception is that while he or she has to submit various documents and collaterals to get loans for cars, homes and business, and has to face constant threats and intimidation from collectors whenever an EMI is missed, here is a case where Rs 11,400 crore credit is given to firms based on dubious transactions by a gang of officials in league with the businessman.

The common man is asking questions about how a businessman can wangle Rs 280 crore credit from a public sector bank within a span of three days with the help of corrupt officials.

The documents that I produced in my show point to one thing. Normally the government tries to ensure that no entrepreneur suffers because of lack of funds, because if a business gets stuck because of lack of funds, it can render thousands of people unemployed. The government, therefore, always tries to help business and industry to carry on with their work without hindrance. To prevent frauds, there is a strong check and balance system in place, but when the guardians and keepers of public money start eating through the fence, nobody can help.

This is exactly what happened in the case of Nirav Modi. The system was in place, those officials sitting at the system were committing outright fraud, the corrupt bank officials were in cahoots with Nirav Modi, all secret passwords were being passed on, Letters of Undertaking were being freely issued bypassing the system, so that the theft could not be traced immediately. Finally, when the ship started sinking, Nirav and his family members had fled the country, taking away Rs 11,400 crore of hard earned money deposited by the aam aadmi in the public sector bank.

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On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department further tightened the noose on the uncle-nephew duo of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, by raiding their homes, offices and showrooms, and the I-T deparment seizing all bank accounts of Nirav Modi and his family members. The overall picture that emerges is disturbing. The losses due to LOU frauds could escalate from Rs 11,400 crore to Rs 20-30,000 crore, as details of more such dubious transactions emerge.

The details clearly show that Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the owner of Gitanjali gems, had been skimming off money in connivance with public sector bank officials since 2011. A former director of Allahabad Bank, Dinesh Dubey, had openly complained about dubious transactions by Mehul Choksi in 2013, but instead of taking action on his complaint, the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took his resignation.

These matters relate to the previous UPA government, but the most worrying aspect is that there are still black sheep working in PNB, who are acting as informers to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. These black sheep had been informing them about the internal enquiry that has been launched in the bank. It was because of this inside information that Nirav Modi, his family members and Mehul Choksi fled India, even as the internal inquiry was in progress.

The internal enquiry shows that a deputy manager in the PNB branch, Gokulnath Shetty, was hand in gloves with Nirav Modi. Gokulnath Shetty disappeared from his home in Mumbai six days ago, leaving behind his wife, children and brother. CBI teams are still trying to trace his location.

The immediate step that is required is to identify those employees and officers in PNB who had been helping Nirav Modi. The next step should be to identify those officers in the UPA government who did not take any action despite receiving complaints and were helping the absconding jeweller.

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It was a major scam that had been going on for the last 10 years. Jewellery merchant Nirav Modi’s companies had been taking undue advantage of the banking system to swindle away Rs 11,400 crores from Punjab National Bank. Senior banking officials were conniving with the swindlers and the can of worms opened up early this year.

Till now, nearly 150 fraudulent Letters Of Undertaking have been traced. Nirav Modi, his wife and brother left India in January. The speculation is that they are staying in Antwerp, Belgium. As CBI and ED carried out raids today at 20 locations across India, Nirav Modi’s group sent a letter to PNB stating that it was willing to repay the entire sum. But PNB officials are wary about this offer, and the ball is now in CBI’s court.

As reports of the scam snowballed across the country, the Congress came out with a January 23 official photograph of Nirav Modi standing with Indian CEOs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Davos summit. The Congress went to town with the photograph, and charges flew thick and thin between the BJP and the Opposition.

In public life, dignitaries and politicians get their photographs taken with thousands of people, and it is next to impossible for any dignitary to check the credentials of each and every individual. It is not proper to make an issue out of this. Even Congress President Rahul Gandhi had attended a jewellery exhibition of Nirav Modi in a Delhi hotel, and pictures of Rahul with Nirav Modi may surface too. What wlll the Congress do in such a situation?

Secondly, Nirav Modi left India on January 1. At that time, there was no case against his company. Even on January 23, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Indian industrialists, there was no case against his company till then, nor was he an accused. The CBI registered a case on January 31. Therefore, it is not proper to make his picture with the PM a controversial issue.

After the scam came out in the open, the shareholders of PNB will be the biggest losers. Within two days, the PNB stock price fell from Rs 160 to Rs 127 at the stock markets. The investors lost nearly Rs 6,000 crore. But the investigation agencies have speeded up their work in the last two days, and till today, they have seized Rs 6,400 crore worth assets belonging to Nirav Modi. One should hope that the loss would be recouped by the PNB, sooner or later, but it will be difficult to compensate the losses faced by investors.

Overall, the trust reposed by the people in PNB now lies in shambles. Though Nirav Modi has fled India, and the government will be taking action to extradite him, the legal tangle may linger on. Till the time Nirav Modi is not brought back to India, politicking on this issue will continue.

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AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday had questioned why the leadership was silent about praising five of the seven martyrs in Jammu attack who were Muslims. On Wednesday the Northern Army commander Lt Gen Devraj Anbu gave a brief reply: “Don’t communalize martyrs. There are no castes, no religions in army”.

Watching the visuals of thousands of mourners, both in Kashmir and Bihar, flocking at the funerals of martyrs, Owaisi may have realized his mistake.

In the Indian army, there are no distinctions based on caste or religion. A jawan lays down his life for the motherland. Everybody is an Indian. However, some Islamic clerics have been questioning why a Muslim regiment has not been raised in the army. Their argument: we have Rajputana Rifles, Gorkha Regiment, Maratha Regiment, Sikh Regiment, then why not a Muslim Regiment? The British rulers had raised these regiments based on social identities.

I think this should now end. We do not have dearth of national heroes, known for their bravery and valour, like Maharana Pratap, Rana Sanga, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Subhash Chandra Bose, Abdul Hamid. If the army starts naming regiments after our national heroes, nobody will raise such questions.

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Large number of local Kashmiris turned up at the funerals of army jawans in the Valley on Tuesday and after a long time, people spontaneously shouted ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ slogans.

The message that has gone out to the rest of the world is that the common man in Kashmir is fed up of continued mindless violence by terrorists. It is nearly 27 years now that the Valley has been thrown in the cauldron of violence by a proxy war unleashed by Pakistan on India.

Till recently there used to be incidents of local youths pelting stones at army jawans in order to shield terrorists. No more. Times have changed and the thought process of the common man in the Valley has changed. People want to free themselves from the scourge of mindless terrorism. The common man in the Valley wants peace, and the army has emerged as their protector. People turning up on their own at the funerals of jawans is therefore a good sign.

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The early dawn attack on an Army station in Jammu by three terrorists led to the martyrdom of five jawans and a civilian, and ten people, including women and children, were injured. On Monday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Jammu and said that the attack was perpetrated by Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who were controlled by their handlers based in Pakistan. Sitharaman clearly said, from evidences gathered from the slain terrorists, it was clear that Pakistan planned the attack. The Defence Minister issued a warning to say that ‘Pakistan will have to pay for this misadventure.’

Three things are clear from the Defence Minister’s statement. One, India has concrete evidence to establish Pakistan’s hand behind the attack, and because of this, Sitharaman had to say that the evidences will be shown to Pakistan and the whole world. Naturally, the Defence Minister was not going to reveal at the press conference as to when and how ‘Pakistan will have to pay for this’, but one thing is sure. Pakistan will have to face the consequences .

Secondly, it is now clear that the Pakistan army has changed its overall strategy. Terrorist attacks are being carried out in places close to the border, and in those places, which have civilians or families of armymen in large numbers. During such attacks, it becomes difficult for the army to retaliate, keeping in mind the prospects of collateral damage in the form of civilian casualties. In such situations, the lives of innocent people are at stake.

The third and most vital thing is, these terrorists could not have carried out such brazen attacks without the support of some local people. Such fifth columnists will have to be identified and action must be taken against those who provided refuge and support to these terrorists.

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For the first time, a senior member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Maulana Syed Salman Nadvi has supported the construction of Ram Janmabhoomi temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. He has also said that the mosque can be built on an alternative land near the disputed site. Maulana Nadvi alongwith some other ulema had been in talks with spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to break the logjam on Ayodhya dispute.

In reality, the breakthrough was not achieved in a single day. Sri Sri toiled hard in bringing the Muslim scholars together to resolve this vexed issue. Sri Sri first spoke to more than 100 Muslim ulema and maulanas in Lucknow via video conferencing on January 19. He persuaded them to accept building of the temple on the disputed site and a mosque elsewhere. He then invited nearly 60 prominent Muslim leaders of South India to his Bengaluru ashram and persuaded them.

On February 3, Maulana Salman Nadvi called more than 100 Muslim scholars to Lucknow and Sri Sri spoke to them via Skype. On February 8, the Muslim ulema approved Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s formula to break the deadlock. There are several hurdles ahead. One one side is the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and on the other side is Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and both the organisations need to agree.

One should appreciate Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s efforts to find a breakthrough despite several difficulties. Most of the leaders were of the view that there could be no way out, and the Muslim Personal Law Board went to the extent of questioning Sri Sri’s credentials as a mediator. Undeterred, Sri Sri continued with his efforts and a formula is being thrashed out to address the concerns of both sides.

It is unfortunate that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has rejected the formula. However, there is still time to reconsider and if a breakthrough emerges which respects both the faith of Hindus and the sentiments of Muslims, it will be good for the nation as a whole.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday replied to all queries raised by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale aircraft deal. Jaitley made it quite clear that details of defence deals are never made public due to security reasons, and this had been the convention over the years. When Pranab Mukherjee was Defence Minister, his party MP Janardhan Poojary had sought details on all defence deals during the preceding three years, but Mukherjee declined to reveal details citing reasons of national security.

In 2007-08 when A K Antony was Defence Minister in the UPA government, CPI-M MP Sitaram Yechury had sought details about the missile deal with Israel, but Antony declined to divulge details. There are nearly 15 instances during the Congress regime, when the Defence Ministers declined to share details on grounds of national security.

There could be two reasons behind this. One, if details of weapons are shared in the public domain, the enemies will have access to all details relating to the armaments. Two, in most of the defence details, there is a provision in the agreement which clearly stipulates that the details of the deal will not be made public. Rahul Gandhi will have to understand that declining to divulge details of defence deals does not mean there is corruption. If there are issues of corruption, then questions will also be raised about Pranab Mukherjee and Antony not sharing details of defence deals during their regime.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in his elements in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, and his hard-hitting speeches against the Congress and Nehru-Gandhi dynasty rattled the opposition party. For the first time, the Prime Minister narrated on the floor of Lok Sabha how Congress party denied the prime minister post to Sardar Patel and gave it to Nehru disregarding the wishes of state party chiefs, how Rajiv Gandhi insulted his own party’s Dalit chief minister T. Anjaiah publicly in Andhra Pradesh hurting Telugu pride leading to the creation of NTR’s Telugu Desam party, how Rahul Gandhi publicly tore up the Cabinet resolution of the then PM Dr Manmohan Singh. He rubbed more salt into the wounds by saying that had Sardar Patel been the PM, the entire J&K would have been part of India. Modi said, the nation is paying the price for what he called the “sins” of Congress.

The Prime Minister replied to most of the queries raised by the Opposition, some old and some new, but the most important fact he disclosed related to the mounting non-performing assets of public sector banks during UPA rule. Modi cited figures to show that while in 2008, NPAs of public sector banks were Rs 18 lakh crore, it went up to a whopping Rs 52 lakh crore by 2014. And yet, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that the Modi government was favouring five or six top industrialists. This is a matter to ponder over.

Rahul Gandhi had been questioning why the details of the purchase of 36 Rafale aircrafts from France were being kept secret. The Defence Ministry, on Wednesday, disclosed some of the details, but declined to reveal details of hi-tech equipments and armaments to be fitted on these aircraft, saying it could harm national security. During the UPA government, the then Defence Minister A K Antony had refused to share details of missile deal with Israel citing security concerns.

Modi gave a hard-hitting speech on Wednesday because Rahul Gandhi had been making personal attacks against him of late. Political semantics apart, I would like to point out one thing: it is the time-honored convention of Parliament that whenever the Prime Minister speaks, he is never heckled, but on Wednesday, Congress MPs went on shouting during the entire length of PM’s speech, and Rahul Gandhi, who was present in the House, did not try to stop them. This is an insult to democracy and democratic conventions. It amounts to denigration of the Constitutional post of Prime Minister.

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The huge crowds that turned out at the funerals of two Kashmiri policemen, Babar Ahmad Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed on Tuesday evening after the terrorist attack on a Srinagar hospital highlights the common man’s anger against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The two policemen alongwith their colleague were escorting six militants to SMHS Hospital for a medical checkup, when terrorists struck. One Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt alias Abu Hinzala, escaped with the attackers. Naveed was one of the commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba in the valley. He had come from Pakistan to foment violence.

We should salute the courage of Jammu and Kashmir policemen who foiled the terrorists’ plan to carry out mayhem inside the hospital. The information about the terrorists being escorted for medical checkup was somewhat leaked, and the attackers were waiting for them to arrive at the hospital. Nobody had imagined that terrorists would target a hospital.

In my Aaj Ki Baat show on Tuesday night, I showed images of serving Pakistani armymen sneaking into the Valley in the guise of terrorists. Pakistan’s role in fomenting terrorism in Kashmir has now become brazen. Pakistan army openly trains terrorists, sets up launch pads, and then push them into India under cover of firing at the Line Of Control. Even US President Donald Trump has realized that the Pakistan army is openly backing terrorists both on its Afghan and Indian borders. He has consequently stopped payment of US funds to Pakistan because of its role in fomenting terrorism. Pakistan has openly set up ‘factories’ that are rolling out terrorists who are spreading violence and mayhem in both Afghanistan and India. It is now time that the world wakes up to this fact and take corrective measures against this failed state.

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Pakistani army continues to shell Indian positions on the Line Of Control, and in the latest incident in Rajouri sector, it has martyred an Indian captain and three jawans. Reports from army sources say, Pakistan may have used the Bakhtar Shiqan anti-tank guided missile to target Indian bunkers which caused these casualties. This Bakhtar Shiqan missile is the Pakistani variant of the Chinese HJ8 anti-tank missiles, which the latter had given to Pakistan and had shared its technology.

India has warned Pakistan many times about ceasefire violations, there had been talks between both sides, and a surgical strike was carried out to destroy terrorist launching pads. Our jawans are replying to Pakistani shelling with more vigour. And yet, Pakistan refuses to calm down. The people of India hope that the army will now give Pakistan a stinging reply.

There is growing demands from several quarters that India must carry out another big surgical strike on Pakistan at a time of its own choosing. Naturally, such an operation is always kept secret by those who wait for the right time and opportunity. The nation should exercise patience and let the armed forces do their job.

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