Monthly Archives: August 2018

New Delhi, January 30 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested businessman Anoop Kumar Gupta in connection with a money-laundering probe into the over Rs 3,600-crore VVIP choppers purchase scam case, official sources said on Saturday.

They said Gupta, the joint managing director of KRBL Limited that sells India Gate basmati rice, has been sent to five-day custody of the central probe agency after he was produced before a special court for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) here.

ED sources said Gupta was arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP choppers deal case and alleged he was not cooperating in the ongoing probe.

His custodial interrogation was necessary in the light of some fresh evidence gathered by the Enforcement Directorate that pertains to “proceeds of crime” or alleged kickbacks of the deal being paid to a firm “controlled” by Gupta, they said.

Gupta’s lawyers told the court that his arrest was “not justified” and pleaded that he should not be sent to ED custody owing to his medical condition as he suffers from diabetes and other ailments.

The agency, in its remand application, said two streams were used for channelling about Euro 70 million worth “proceeds of crime” or bribe money to various political persons, bureaucrats and Indian Air Force officials in return of swinging the 12 helicopters deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

“It is submitted that IDS Information Technology and Engineering Sarl,  Tunisia has received proceeds of crime to the tune of Euro 24.37 million from AgustaWestland and out of this about Euro 12.4 million were further transferred to Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius.” “The proceeds of crime were further transferred to various companies including Rawasi Al Khaleej General Trading (RAKGT) LLC Dubai which was incorporated in 2007 by KRBL DMCC, Dubai and accused Anoop Gupta was one of the director of this company,” the ED alleged.  This company (KRBL DMCC) was a subsidiary of KRBL Limited (India), it said.

The ED said that “in 2009, the entire stake (49 per cent shareholding) of KRBL DMCC held in RAKGT was transferred in the name of one Anurag Potdar but in fact, even after this, RAKGT is under the control of KRBL Limited through Gupta and part of the proceeds of crime received in RAKGT were transferred to KRBL Limited.” It claimed that it obtained some documents in December last year pertaining to these purported links and they show that Gupta was “controlling” the financial transactions of this (RAKGT) company.  Gupta has been named by the ED in another alleged defence deal scam involving aircraft manufacturer Embraer.

The businessman was named in a charge sheet by the agency in December in that case that pertains to payment of alleged commission by Embraer to clinch the USD 208-million deal with India, in which it is suspected and alleged that kickbacks were paid.

The ED slapped money laundering charges to probe allegations of irregularities in the now-cancelled deal to purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland. The deal was scrapped by India in 2014. — PTI

Chandigarh, January 30

The combined annual training camp of the Chandigarh NCC Air Wing is being organised at the NCC Complex here, with a total of 35 cadets, including 21 girls, participating in the event.

During the camp, cadets were being exposed to intensive training regimen, which include both outdoor activities and classroom lectures, said camp commandant Group Captain MR Pandeya.

In addition to drill and weapon training, various topics being covered are history of the Indian Air Force (IAF), precautionary measures during flying, role of air traffic control, meteorology and navigation in aviation, first-aid procedures, fire-fighting and selection process in the IAF.

Inaugurating the camp, Col DK Sharma, Training Officer, Chandigarh NCC Group, an ex-NCC cadet himself, said the NCC imparts discipline and promotes fitness amongst the youth. He exhorted the cadets to excel in all fields, enjoy the training and develop camaraderie and friendship among themselves. — TNS

Natasha Badhwar

My family and I spent the last two weeks travelling through Punjab to Dharamkot in Himachal and back home to a Delhi suburb. As we drove away from the capital city, we were cheered by the sight of tractors and cars with banners and flags of farmers’ unions going towards Delhi. On our way back, we found ourselves joining the cavalcades arriving at the protest sites on Delhi’s borders for the Tractor Parade on Republic Day. On the night of January 25, the traffic on the highway had swelled so much that we were unable to find a way to enter the city. We had become one with the farmers.

We didn’t mind. A historic people’s movement led by farmers is taking place right now and it is impossible to be untouched by it. What hurts the farmer today will not leave the rest of India unscathed. Those who have risked their lives and livelihood to confront the powerful need to be protected from state repression and false accusations of anti-national activities and sedition. They need visibility. Their demands and point of view need to be amplified by those of us who have smartphones and social media on fingertips.

What do these farmers have to offer us in return? Are we doing them a favour by paying attention? Why should the farmers’ agitation matter to the rest of us?

At a time when the state and administration have abdicated from people-centric governance and the judiciary as well as large sections of mainstream media seem to have forfeited their role to provide the checks and balances that keep democratic processes in balance, the farmers’ protest is like a shot in the arm of Indian democracy. While it is the three farm laws that have finally catalysed lakhs of farmers to leave their homes and sit in protest in the bitter cold, their mode of protest as well as the capaciousness of their demands is a reminder of some of the basics of humanity — of the power of solidarity, fraternity and unity among people. Of the need for dignity, equality and agency of groups and individuals.

On International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2020, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) — the largest farmers’ union at the protests — held an event in which protesters held up pictures of incarcerated intellectuals and human rights activists who have been booked under grave laws, such as the UAPA. Despite a backlash from sections of the media, farmers’ leaders defended this act of solidarity with eloquence and candour, reminding us that the need for stable livelihoods and that of dignity and autonomy cannot be separated into binaries.

“These people have been incarcerated in jails for speaking the truth. Through their writing and work, they have explained how the corporate sector adversely affects agriculture as well as the public sector. These intellectuals and activists have exposed the fascist mindset of the government. If we do not raise our voice for them, then who will?” a speaker asked rhetorically from the stage at Tikri border. Off stage, men and women held posters of each of the activists. “These people are freedom fighters, not anti-nationals,” a woman farmer said.

On January 18, Women Farmers’ Day was celebrated at the protest sites, just days after Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, while staying the implementation of the new farm laws, had also commented, “We don’t understand why old people and women are kept in the protests.”

In a rousing speech on the Singhu border, researcher Navsharan Singh challenged the patriarchal and condescending attitude represented by this statement. “Do not forget that this is the same government which maligned Muslim women who were protesting against the highly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act last December in Shaheen Bagh. It is the same government that has denied bail to four young women — Devangana Kalita, Gulfisha Fatema, Ishrat Jahan and Natasha Narwal,” she said.

“They want you to go back not because you are weak, but because they are threatened by your fearlessness and empowered presence. Their armies and weapons are not as strong as the determination and courage of unarmed women.”

As police violence and political backlash against the protesting farmers escalates, the settlements on the borders of Delhi have only continued to grow in response.

The ongoing farmers’ protests are a contemporary example of the power of a peaceful people’s struggle against marginalisation. It is a wake-up call. Will we stand up for those who are risking their all for the rest of us?

Chandigarh, January 30

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh called Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tarun Chugh’s remarks on his Army background “reprehensible”.

“What does the BJP or its leadership know of Army honour or the grace of the national flag, in which the bodies of our Punjabi brothers come wrapped from the borders every second day,” a press release quoted him as saying.

“We in Punjab know the pain of seeing the bodies of our sons and brothers, wrapped in the national flag, come home every second day,” he said, adding that the BJP clearly has no empathy or sensitivity towards the soldiers losing their lives to protect India’s honour and integrity.

Neither Chugh nor his party could relate to the anguish of those very soldiers on seeing their farmer fathers and brothers being beaten up and tear-gassed while fighting for their rights, said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister slammed Chugh for deliberately spreading lies on an issue relating to the honour of Indian soldiers fighting for the safety and security of the nation at the borders. Lambasting the BJP national general secretary over his remarks on the ‘Republic Day grace’, he said the BJP, which had systematically ripped the Constitutional fabric apart over the past 6 years and most notably over the draconian Farm Laws, had lost all moral and ethical right to talk of the honour of the R-day.

“What was wrong in my statement that ‘maligning the farmers’ (for the Red Fort violence) could cause the morale of the armed forces, 20 per centof which is from Punjab, to go down? How does that amount to insulting the Republic Day grace and my own Army background?” asked an angry Amarinder, hitting out at Chugh for misleading the people with baseless allegations.

“What happened to the grace of the R-day when the central government, which the BJP leads, trampled over the federal and Constitutional rights of the states to unilaterally bring in the Farm Ordinances without consulting anyone? Where is the grace in letting the poor farmers, who are feeding you along with the billion plus people of India every day, shiver out in the cold on the roads, with many of them dying out there?”

Keki Daruwalla

If reality is so harsh and crude, is it worth looking at? Let us leave the fatigued farmers on the Delhi borders, the government which did not spend a day before rushing the Bills, now stonewalling, a dozen meetings and riots with Deep Sidhu and Co. Leave the Nishan Sahib at Red Fort. We are into fiction. Story telling, painting deer or a jackal on a rock wall in a cave are the oldest examples of the creative urge in human beings; not forgetting poetry of course, and drums and dance from Africa. All cultures evolved their stories, legends — evil was always vanquished, whether it was Grendel or Ravana or Kans. In India, religion and faith got woven inextricably with stories. You sat around with children and grownups, and stories evolved, right triumphed over wrong. From epics, often a collective effort of a generation, we moved to novels. The gods came down from the sky and joined us.

Utopia too was fiction in a way, so was dystopia. Can fiction be a reflection of reality that can depress or excite at will? More important is the question if reality itself is a mirror of fiction. There are numerous cases where the mind envisaged something and it came to pass. What I am trying to get at is that much of fiction is so depressing that reality seems to follow where fiction has led before.

For two months last year, I read about 30 or more novels — was a member of a jury and so had to. The dismal caught my attention, but we need to start with the celebratory. Dionysius must take the chair. Though there were just two notable volumes of short stories, one by Aruni Kashyap, who teaches creative writing at Georgia, USA, and one by Kalpish Ratna, Mumbai surgeons Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed who write jointly under one name. In their book ‘Synapse’, Kalpish Ratna rightly make fun of Vedic science and Brahminical eugenics and tackle ghostly seductresses. If I may venture to say, even flesh and blood seductresses are hard to tackle!

The finest novel I read in 2020 was ‘Kintsugi’ by Anukrti Upadhyay, who has post-graduate degrees in management and literature, works with a wildlife trust and writes in Hindi and English. Anukrti divides her time between Singapore and Mumbai, and has worked in Hong Kong. She knows her beat well. Her research in jewellery-making in Jaipur is flawless and her narrative is seamless. She gives a feminist angle by showing women can also be good sunars. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold dust, and here it is used as a metaphor for patching up lives. The narrative starts with jewellery-making. A work of fiction is known by the strength of the narrative, and the depth the writer brings to it. Hers is the story of a girl Leela, daughter of a dead goldsmith, and the Japanese Haruko who comes to Jaipur to learn the sunar’s craft, not just designing, and runs into a bull and gets a broken leg. The section on Japan is flawless, even though it ends with a lesbian suicide. The rest of the novel is sunny. It gladdened my heart to read it.

But we need to move towards the depressing if not dystopian. Is that a reflection of an age? Are writers disenchanted with what is happening around us in India? Or is it the norm the world over? Dystopia has almost become a fashion. The narrative would go along perfectly till it nears the end. A woman goes to her ancestral house in Assam where her mother had been badly treated, since she had married outside the community. Then, unaccountably, the novelist dispenses with her in a flood, and she drowns. What is more noteworthy, as in the novel ‘A Burning’ by Master of Fine Arts student Megha Majumdar, the villain triumphs in the end. We have a right-wing madam who becomes Chief Minister and raises a PT Sir, physical trainer at the college, to a party boss. An innocent woman is hanged because the PT Sir does not pass on her mercy petition. Right-wing goons attack a Muslim house, kill the family, loot gold bangles, then open the ice box. There are chickens in it, no beef! That’s the modern version of epiphany. The MFA student-novelist has made a political point, but the plot creaks, whines, squeals like a bad machine badly in need of lubrication.

What about blurbs? Amitav Ghosh writes, “The best debut novel I have come across in a long time.” The publishers, Penguin Hamish Hamilton, say, “Taut, symphonic, propulsive and riveting right from the outset, ‘A Burning’ has the force of an epic.” Cyrus Mistry in his novel ‘The Prospect of Miracles’ puts his characters in Kerala. The protagonist marries a pastor, who is a debauch. In the end, she goes off her rocker, the insanity triggered off by the pastor’s widow meeting the gardener Yesu Das. The name Yesu acts as a trigger for setting off hallucinated meetings with Jesus and angel Gabriel. In ‘The Cliffhangers’ by Sabin Iqbal, a right-winger, Balannan, gets into a clinch with a foreigner and rapes her. When he confesses, the Inspector files the case as ‘inconclusive’. Charging him would invite mayhem.

Is our fiction a mirror to our reality? Do both act as depressants?