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Showing posts with label Prime Ministers Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prime Ministers Office. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Thanks To Fumiko Nagano At The World Bank. The Prime Minister's Office and Rashtrapathi Bhavan Could Learn From You.

Unless I am very mistaken, Ms Nagano visited twice before choosing to place my comment on her blog.

I appreciate that act of responsibility. I appreciate the opportunity to get my plaint across.


India's Corruption Quaqmire
Submitted by divakarssathya on Thu, 12/31/2009 - 00:46.

While the idea of the zero rupee note is commendable, it looks in the wrong direction.

India's pervasive corruption is more a function of the self serving sluggishness of the ruling class - 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 bad, perverse, dysfunctional behaviour is the capital with which to earn money and power. The old "Pinch the child and then rock the cradle" idea.

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.

The RTI ACT 2005 as a piece of legislation is brilliant.

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.

In contrast, Rashtrapathi Bhavan is quiet happy to remain blizzzzfully ignorant.

The panjandrums at PMO will probably send out a black cornered notice, through some men in black suits and neuralyze my comment off the blog.

Looking further into the future, the Men In Black from PMO will probably decide to neuralyze themselves and disappear among the milling crowds of NYC and start new identities marketing biryani on the streets of Manhattan.

Unless of course they decide to sample the booze on the flight back home,get frisky with our havaii sundaris and end up on the screens of our news channels.

In which case the PMO's Media Adviser will be seen neuralysing all the people going into and coming out of the studios.


There was also this , alas, anonymous, comment:

Agree with divakarsathya
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/03/2010 - 11:02.

I agree with Divakarssathya. While the zero rupee note is an interesting idea, what real tangible impact it will have is questionable.

It's not like we're unaware of the corruption that plagues this country, and most officials brazenly abuse their power- even if they might give it some seemingly harmless (borderline warm fuzzy) name (chai-paani). That one can appeal or wake their conscience with a zero rupee note does make for a good story and an interesting read.

However, as pointed out in the comment above, the RTI Act is the way to go. The more Indians are aware of this Act the more effectively it can be used and the more realistic our hopes towards a system that is rid of corruption.

@divakarssathya I just went through your blog. It is a brave attempt. Please don't give up. May you see success soon.

PS: This comment was also published on

bitterwallet.com

New Paradigm Digest



The Telegraph.co.uk

Thursday, April 30, 2009

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

The Prime Minister's Office Does Not Care

from divakar snatarajan
reply-to divakar snatarajan
to baru@pmo.nic.in
date Thu, May 12, 2005 at 12:12 PM
subject Clear Message From The Mystic Microscope
mailed-by gmail.com

Dr Sanjaya Baru
Media Adviser to
the Prime Minister of India
New Delhi May 12th 2005.


Sub: Clear message from the mystic microscope.

Dear Sanjaya,

With the benefit of the insight provided by the passage of one and a half decades, it would be safe for me to say that "Hyderabad. August 1948" the documentary that I conceived, researched, scripted, edited, presented in Urdu and produced in 1990, had hit a rare "sweet spot" in our national consciousness.

As I have never tired of telling you, the vibrant and insightful review that you wrote in the Economic Times has been a pillar of my strength and sanity.

But while your response was articulated with a refreshingly incandescent conviction and vitality, you know it was not unique. Freedom fighters, distinguished historians and the reviewing fraternity within the press, they all welcomed "Hyderabad. August 1948".

In all these years, I doubt that any other Doordarshan/Prasar Bharathi commissioned work has received the kind of response that "Hyderabad. August 1948"enjoyed.

Neither the "legendary Allah Baksh" ("Allah Baksh versus Savarkar", Anil Nauriya, The Hindu) nor the Goa liberation struggle ("Dangerous Currents" Maria Aurora Couto, The Hindu, 6th Jan '04) appear to have received the kind of treatment they merit.

Clinching proof of a monstrous witch-hunt.


Now your appointment by our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, as his hand picked media adviser is clinching proof that over 14 long years, successive Doordarshan managements have made a mockery of their duties of care and reasonableness.

That they have abused their power to denigrate my work, nefariously withhold and thus steal the recognition, rewards and maim the opportunities that are due to me.

By their conspicuously incongruous response, they have not only cast aspersions on my competence and character but most unconscionably on the legacy of the brave Shoebullah Khan. ("Why has Mandi House Murdered Shoebullah Khan Again?" V H Desai, The Deccan Chronicle, Jan 17 ,1993)

They have repudiated and denigrated appeals for consideration from freedom fighters and some of the nation's most eminent luminaries on my behalf.

By their bureaucratic autism they have wreaked a black hole where the light of reason has never been allowed to penetrate.

They have harassed and defamed me with a preposterous litigation (value Rs 25,000/-) since 1998, on precisely the same matters on which a year earlier (1997) the then Chief Minister of my state had requested the attention of the then MIB Shri Jaipal Reddy.

There is no escaping the conclusion that the successive managements of Doordarshan have monstrously abused their immense power by demeaning my distinguished offering, crippling my career, and terrorising me and my family by pursuing a most perverse and predatory witch-hunt over fourteen long years.

Ringing endorsement of an ultra-peaceful, non-partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption

Considering Dr Manmohan Singh's extraordinary reputation for fairness and integrity, your appointment is a ringing endorsement of the petition submitted by some of our finest and most creative minds to the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Endorsing Shri Chandrababu Naidu's representation that Prasar Bharathi commission me as a "filmmaker of acknowledged eminence" to make films to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our Independence, Sarvashri Soumitra Chatterji, Shyam Benegal, Derek Malcolm, Jean Claude Carriere, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Siddhartha Kak, Om Puri and others observed,

"Given that his Doordarshan commissioned documentary, "Hyderabad.August 1948" has been nationally acclaimed for celebrating our nation's core values and given the abundance of open support that he has received, it appears credible to us that he is being severely punished for his resistance to corruption in Doordarshan".

Abetting the witch-hunt

It is another depressing fact that despite the glittering words that he had written as
Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) and despite the phenomenal support that he had received from Shri Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh and Convenor of the "secular" United Front and Shri Indrajit Gupta, Minister of Home Affairs in the United Front government, Shri Jaipal Reddy did nothing to stop the witch-hunt.

In a representation to the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, endorsing the Shri Chandrababu Naidu's recommendation that I be commissioned as "a film maker of acknowledged eminence" to make films to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our Independence and forwarding similar representations from Hon'ble Ch Vidyasagar Rao, then Minister of State for Home Affairs, Hon'ble Shri R Kumaramangalam, then Minister for Power, Hon'ble Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, then Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Employment, Hon'ble Shri Bangaru Laxman, then Minister of State for Railways, Hon'ble Shri Ram Jethmalani, then Minister of State for Law Justice and Company Affairs, Prof M L Sondhi, then Chairman, ICSSR, Hon'ble Shri G M C Balayogi, then Speaker , Lok Sabha, Hon'ble Shri K Yerranaidu, MP and Hon'ble Shri Prafulla Goradia, then MP (RS), Shri Indrajit Gupta, former Minister of Home Affairs observed,

"… the recommendations have also noted the extreme mistreatment that Shri Divakar has received at the hands of previous administrations of Doordarshan /Prasar Bharati.
Indeed even the thoughtful recommendations made by your kind self, in your capacity as Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, has not yet been implemented.

Crucial correspondence from the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh and Hon'ble Ch Vidya Sagar Rao, had been misplaced and had hence not been considered at an earlier date.

Despite the enormous personal costs that he has had to pay, over a period of more than eight years, Shri Divakar has stayed the course. He has not sought to 'buy' his peace. Nor has he accepted defeat. Instead he has tolerantly but tirelessly pursued his case through our legitimate, democratic processes.

In his courageous resistance to the "patronage paradigm – the paradigm of irresponsibility, shoddiness, cronyism and corruption that is crushing the spirit of our grand nation and making pygmies out of us all," Shri Divakar has rendered an exemplary service to the cause of the values of a civil society and sane polity.

It is my deep regret, that despite my best efforts, the UF government was not able to make the best use of this young man's potentialities. We failed to give him the justice he deserved."

Herd behaviour? Shri Chandrababu Naidu's insouciant ingratitude.

I have detailed the well-documented negligence of the Andhra Pradesh government and specifically the negligence of the former Chief Minister in my email to you.
Kindly take a moment to respond to it.

Startling vindication of a fourteen year old "experiment with truth"

Given how almost everybody who has spoken out for me has been inquisitorially denigrated into ineffectualness, there is this mystical "untouched – by – human - hands" quality to your appointment that marks what is clearly and irrefutably my vindication.

It is like some wrathful and impatient God of Truth and Justice dropped this steaming, trumpeting challenge for Justice bang in the most powerful office in the land.

How rare is it that the one person respected for his unimpeachable character, picks as his advisor for the most challenging and powerful job of his life, a man who has written the most affirming review of the work of another who has spent the best part of his adult life battling against "the waste caused by violence and irrationality"?

And even if one is not given to peering through mystical microscopes*, there is a powerful message here.

India – a productive economy, not a predatory society


That the task of apologising and officially vindicating and restoring me and possibly others like me, who have demonstrated the power to rise above prejudice and to persuade and who have stuck to our faith in achieving positive purposes through benign means and who have been loyal to the monumental sacrifices of our freedom fighters and their dreams for India and who have held our ground against tsunami like odds and humiliations, mostly inflicted by rogues in Government, is not one that is peripheral to your administration.

There must be no doubt that the task of rehabilitating with an exemplary indulgence persons like me, who have been gouged and maimed by successive governments, and to restore to us our full justice, honour and dignity and to take responsibility for our vitality and vigorous performance in society is a rare honour, opportunity, central political strategy and responsibility of your unique and extraordinarily special government.

To acknowledge this existential mission is to be ambitious about curing our wounded society of the "colonial hangover".

To conspicuously honour the idea of the dignity of the rule of law, the principles of equity and fairness in relationships between citizens and to relentlessly pursue accountability in order to help India develop as a productive economy, not just proliferate as a predatory society.

Better Things To Do?

Consider this. The very first act of the new AP government was to free many prisoners serving life sentences. Among them was an alleged Lashkar E Toiba activist who had shot and killed a Superintendent of Police.
This release was described as "inadvertent".
In my case, a whole year has gone by without any substantial response from you or the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
I am baffled by your defensiveness. Your silence is disturbing.

Time to Kill?

This is a perilous circumstance where some of the most powerful, unscrupulous and evil people appear to have ranged themselves against me.
But like Shoebullah Khan and Sathyendra Dubey, I am a proud citizen but a Non Privileged Indian. A non-scion. A common man.
I have already been made to serve a life sentence and if you don't step on it there is nothing that prevents anybody from doing a Sathyendra Dubey on me.

Dr Manmohan Singh's special obligation?

It is during Shri P V Narasimha Rao's time that the good folks at Doordarshan took it upon themselves to reward a young man's "powerful debut" (your words, Sanjaya) with a despicable witch-hunt.
As a path breaking Finance Minister during Shri Rao's time and now the Prime Minister, Dr Singh may feel a singular outrage at my violation and a special obligation to ensure full justice.

A Proud, Young Indian's 14 Year Sathyagraha Urgently Invites The Honour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's edifying touch

As a proud Indian who feels himself to be second to none in this world, I feel uniquely privileged that an intellectual and person of the calibre, reputation and experience of Dr Manmohan Singh is my Prime Minister. I am thrilled to consider the extraordinary opportunities that his leadership represents.
As I have never tired of telling you, I am proud of you.
And I now urgently look forward to being instructed and restored by a fitting and productive "healing touch" administered by your august mentor.
Sincerely,


Divakar S Natarajan
*my coinage