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Showing posts with label PMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PMO. Show all posts

Friday, February 19, 2010

21st Century Governance

The following comment was published in the article 21st Century Governance by David Osborne of the Public Strategies Group on Forbes India Online


It is heartening that Shri Osborne and other fine minds outside India are applying themselves to issues of good governance.

In the culture of profiting from deceit and dysfunctionality that has developed in India, the problem is that even while the Indian political leadership spins technicolour dreams of 21st century superpowerdom, its "politics" are mired in the medieval anachronisms of what I have called the "patronage paradigm - the paradigm of shoddiness, irresponsibility, cronyism and corruption, that has cretinised us all"

In India today any "aspiration" for integrity, innovation or excellence, in the "common man" can quickly get "him" ostracised if not brutally killed.

The "common woman" does not even exist !

The recently exposed Ruchika Girhotra case and my own experience indicate that checks and balances have collapsed and coalesced into one corrupt predatory ruling class.

Very little difference between the judiciary, the administration, the legislature and the press.

They all know that while being "goody-goody" - can quickly mark you out for destruction, bad, perverse, dysfunctional behaviour is the capital with which money and power, beyond all dreams of avarice, are accumulated.

My fear is despite the fantastic growth figures, India is fast deteriorating into an administrative nightmare and a bit of a basket case.

Transparency and accountability are the mantras that will create the necessary paradigm shift into an autonomous, functioning society.

The Right To Information Act 2005 is a brilliant piece of legislation.

But count on the bureaucrats to racketeer on this too.

Even as we speak, Dr Manmohan Singh’s Office, “Daredevil” Pratibha Patil’s Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, State Information Commissioner CD Arha are all in a criminal conspiracy to deny me justice.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court in the inimitable manner of the Indian judiciary has misbehaved egregiously.

If you would like to know about the sheer impossibility of living a sane, unexploitative, equitable life in India, you and your esteemed visitors may want to visit and participate at sathyagraha.blogspot.com

Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09

RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- SIC Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09

Prejudiced CIC Laps Up PMO Lies 05/05/09

Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09

And India’s editorial class will not report the story!

Divakar's Sathyagraha

News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.

Now in its 18th year.

India's Home Minister has called on civil society to speak out against Maoist depredations. Will he kindly let me know why Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the Prime Minister's office have not taken appropriate action on the representations made on my behalf by the former Home Minister Shri Indrajit Gupta, Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao and others ?

Even as the Prime Minister's Office maintains a baleful and ignominious silence in my case, it appears to have jumped through hoops to heap honour on a businessman alleged to be a serial swindler .


A variation of the above comment was also published in the Wall Street Journal

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Mananiya Shrimati Pratibha Patilji , Are AK 47s The Way To Go ?

On the same day, the media bubbled over with the news that the President Of India, Pratibha Patil, got her photograph taken with Rukhsana Sultana, the Sherni Of Kashmir, there was a story in The Hindu about another young lady Ch. Anuradha who had attempted suicide.

ELURU: A whistle-blower of the Treasury Department in Andhra Pradesh, who was responsible for the arrest of four personnel in the Social Welfare Department, including a Deputy Director and another Assistant Director, in the Rs.30-lakh scholarship scam in West Godavari district, attempted to end her life. Ch. Anuradha (27), Senior Accounts Officer in the office of the District Treasuries department, was battling for life in the government hospital here after consuming sleeping tablets.

In a statement recorded by the police from her while undergoing treatment, Ms. Anuradha said the harassment by the sleuths of the Crime Investigation Department handling the case was the cause for her suicide bid. She said she had been subjected to harassment by CID personnel in the name of questioning her.

Unlike the leading lights of our ruling classes who affect a self aggrandizing cynicism and visible moral bankruptcy, both Ch Anuradha of Eluru, Andhra Pradesh and Rukhsana (Kausar? Sultana?)dealt with the failure of the State with courage and intelligence.

They asserted their dignity.

But the Indian State has shown a nearly ecstatic preference for Rukhsana.

What is the message?


From Drop Box


In the collective subconscious of India's ruling class, the quick and easy way of the AK 47 trumps the grotty uncertainties of the sathyagraha.

Incidentally, on that very day, the President Of India had presented Rukhsana a "memento" presumably something that will at least help Rukhsana scrape her tongue, the officer who is handling my case at Rashtrapati Bhavan,all the stuff that is on this blog has been available since months, if not years, with the babus of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the Prime Minister's Office, banged the phone down on me.

"I am busy, man!" he cried "Do you think you are the only person, I must talk to?"

I am shameless. I called him right back.

He banged the phone down again. I called him again.

The telephone operator at Rashtrapathi Bhavan could sense something was afoot."Sir, Didn't I just connect you ?" she asked.

This time he relented. A bit.

"I have to sign hundreds of letters !" Bang.

All my emails have been addressed to the Principal Secretary, to the Rashtrapathi.

And the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Is it unthinkable that they just might come on the line to say a friendly "hello"?

Other than generating a couple of papers, if the Rashtrapathi's office has done anything else to heal a ravaged Constitution, it has certainly kept it well hidden.

In the case of the PMO, the section officer has told me, "no action will be taken".

It is not just some lowly policemen in the badlands of Andhra Pradesh or Bihar who torture and humiliate the sane. The whistle-blowers and RTI petitioners. The sathyagrahis.

The Chief Information Commissioner, the State Information Commissioner, The Chief Justice and Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Prime Minister's Office, India's editorial class and a fellow traveling "human rights' ngos; they all do it.

They have all rubbished the RTI Act 2005 and the Indian Constitution.

And now the Rashtrapathi and the ruling elite glamorizes, AK 47 wielding vigilantes and desperadoes.

But one has to keep one's chin up, right?

Maybe, sanity will surface.

Maybe they will get the right message from the Anuradhas and Rukhsanas of this country.

This Deepavali, will the Indian State come up with a message of life ?

Or will it wring its hands, in "helplessness" and surrender gladly to death?

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Central Information Commissioner Does A CBI

Last week, out of the blue , I received a notice of hearing from the CIC.

I am an optimist. But not an idiot.

I correctly predicted the CIC's textbook authoritarian response.

A response that does not possess even a whiff of the RTI Act 2005.

A response that is analogous to the CBIs exemplary indulgence of the heinous.


A Matter Of My Life And Liberty. File No. CIC/WB/C/2007/000653 Notice to PMO dtd April 16 2009

from divakar snatarajan
to pkp.shreyaskar@nic.in
cc whabibullah@nic.in
date Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 1:42 PM
subject A Matter Of My Life And Liberty. File No. CIC/WB/C/2007/000653 Notice to PMO dtd April 16 2009
mailed-by gmail.com



Pankaj P Shreyaskar
Deputy Secretary & Joint Registrar
Central Information Commission
New Delhi.


PMO's Forced, Belated and Lame Response.


Sir,

Your notice has forced the PMO to come up with a response,nearly two years after my application.

It is noticeable that the PMO is unwilling to step out of its nest of denial (of information) which is built out twigs of fragile rationalisations.

As I have observed in my email to you of Mon Jan 21,2008 titled Release My Life And Liberty,

"the delinquency of the PMO is clearly not a minor glitch, but a deliberate and dastardly campaign of silence that is threatening and torturous to me."

To a trained eye, it is obvious that the PMO is looking for some outside help to bale it out of this mess.

Going by the performance of the CIC in my case this far, the PMOs fervent prayers will probably find a torrent of sweet sympathy at your office.

As The Hindu, most delicately observed in an editorial comment on the aftermath of the shoe thrown at Home Minister incident, "our institutions generally exhibit an establishment bias." Or words to that effect.*

I have already replied in detail, in my appeal to Ms Vini Mahajan, Appellate Authority, (email of August 14,2007, Don't Let The RTI Down. Administer RTI in the right spirit.)to PMO's weird contention that emails "not readily traceable due to data pertaining to that period is no longer available in our computers"

The PMOs contention that applicant has "now" filed an second appeal, merely shows that time has a way of congealing in the PMO.
My urgent appeal to the CIC is dated October 12, 2007.

The PMO has in its arbitrary, self serving fashion decided that emails referred to in the application were personal communications.

My observation in my emails that the PMOs silence was "morally bankrupt" does not make them personal communications.

Quite the contrary, the stubborn delinquency of a PMO that publicly takes great credit for the RTI Act 2005, is a matter of considerable public interest.

My correspondence contains appeals from the former Home minister to the former Prime Minister, Padma Vibhushan Kaloji Narayana Rao to the former PM, Appeal from eminent filmmakers to the former PM and Dr Baru's published review of my documentary.

The context for the above are publicly described in my blog http:// sathyagraha.blogspot.com especially Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong.

So the PMOs contention regarding so called private correspondence is nothing but thinly veiled bragging of over weening authoritarianism, perversity and vindictiveness.

Once again the PMO admits to have misplaced the first appeal.

Why did it not occur to the PMO to write to me to reassure me about their competence and sincerity and request another copy?

It is truly intriguing that the PMO appears to find it so much easier to blandly confess to the CIC regarding its serial incompetence and delinquency !

Sincerely,

Divakar S Natarajan

*"The Indian experience is that law enforcers and investigating agencies almost invariably incline towards the ruling establishment."
Exorcising 1984.The Hindu April 13, 2009


India's editorial class of course is as pure as Bislerijal !

The CIC Sends Me To The "Dungeon" !

The following is the last exchange I had with the office of the CIC.
Till last week.

Release My Life and Liberty !

from divakar snatarajan
to pkp.shreyaskar@nic.in
date Mon, Jan 21, 2008 at 5:13 PM
subject Release My Life and Liberty !
mailed-by gmail.com


Dear Shri Shreyaskar,

Further to my email to you of 17 th January 2007, I have been trying to reach you on the phone all day.

Given that I have not heard anything further, must I assume that the copious and irrefutable evidence that I have presented to support my case for hearing on an out of turn basis, has not been considered at all?

Even as I write this, I have to consider the irony of my defending myself, whereas the law and evidence of delinquency that I have presented make it crystal, that it is an incorrigibly delinquent PMO that has to answer.

Also, this delinquency from the PMO is clearly not a minor administrative glitch, but a deliberate and dastardly campaign of silence that is threatening and torturous to me.

The CIC must consider matters with a warm empathy and not take any offense to my candour, which I have been careful to back up with a flood of prime evidence.

After all, despite all the the gratuitous and barbaric torture and humiliation, there has been no duplicity or double standards in my behavior over all this time.

I look forward to hearing a positive verdict from the CIC, with his kind blessings, at the earliest,.

Sincerely,

Divakar




from Pankaj
to divakar snatarajan
date Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 10:13 AM
subject Re: Release My Life and Liberty !


Dear Shri Divakar
I had received your CD in the matter. I had gone through that and had placed all of them on the file. Insofar as an out of turn hearing is concerned no such decision has been taken so as on today. However you will be hearing from us about the date in due course. You could not speak to me over telephone since i was in VC hearing for some time.
Regards

Pankaj K P Shreyaskar, ISS
Deputy Secretary & Joint Registrar
Central Information Commission
Old JNU Campus
New Delhi 110067
011-26717354


from divakar snatarajan
to Pankaj
cc whabibullah@nic.in
date Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 5:09 PM
subject Re: Release My Life and Liberty !
mailed-by gmail.com


Dear Shri Shreyaskar,

Thank you for speaking with me this morning.

I am truly disappointed that CIC has not yet responded to all the information that I have sent.

As you observed, it is unlikely that a citizen resisting corruption,would seek recourse to a claim of threat to life and liberty, if this were not substantially true.

Why would anybody seek out of turn anything, if the normal process was tolerable?

More germane is the incorrigible delinquency of the PMO.

With due respect, why humor bad behaviour?

In the absence of any reasonable response, I am beginning to lose my confidence in this process.

Sincerely,
Divakar