New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that demonetisation has failed to reduce corruption or prevent black money laundering, and instead made poor people’s life “miserable”.

“Demonetisation has not targeted black money or corruption; it has, in fact, increased it and given rise to a new market for the illegal exchange of old notes,” Gandhi said at a press conference on Tuesday, flanked by leaders of other Opposition parties like Trinamool Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Gandhi called demonetisation a failed experiment, saying it has increased unemployment in the country.

“Gareeb logon se paisa khicho, aur ameeron ko sicho (Grab money from the poor and fortify the rich),” Gandhi said of the government’s move to demonetise higher currency notes.

He added that the exercise was an attack on the country’s rural poor, who have to make do without currency notes. “There is no cash with farmers, small traders and labourers,” he added.

The joint press conference by opposition parties came after a tea-party meeting convened by Congress to ramp up the attack on the NDA government, and alleged “personal corruption” by Prime Minister Modi.

Citing noted economists’ opinions on the demonetisation drive, Gandhi said this was a huge move and the government’s promises of the situation normalising within 50 days was very ambitious. “It will take six-seven months to normalise. So, the question remains, ‘who will take responsibility for the hardships caused?'” he asked.

Terming demonetisation, “a failed experiment”, Gandhi hit out at Modi for the alleged corruption charges against the prime minister in the Sahara diaries issue. He said that when the diaries surfaced, Congress ministers associated with it had resigned. “Even LK Advani resigned. But will Modiji resign?” he asked.

Gandhi also wondered why would Modi, known for his oratory skills, is shying away from answering questions on his honesty and integrity. Referring to Sheila Dikshit’s name cropping up in the same documents, Gandhi said the former Delhi chief minister is ready for a probe, but the prime minister is running away. “You launch a corruption probe against anybody, we will support you 100 percent. But when even the details of payments made out are mentioned in some documents, how can you ignore it?” Gandhi asked.

Gandhi also mocked Modi’s 50-day promise, stating that when things didn’t improve in 47 days, what miracle is the prime minister expecting in the last three?

“Modi had said that by 30 December, everything will be fine. That date is is just around the corner but there is no respite to the people. Now who will take responsibility for the irrational assault on the poor,” Gandhi asked.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee seconded Gandhi’s views, and called demonetisation the biggest scam since independence. She said that the Indian economy has settled down like never before, and each man on the road, from farmers to labourers is suffering because of the prime minister’s “whims”.

She also questioned Modi about the completion of the 50-day window. “Modiji, you had said that after 50 days things will be alright. Everybody suffered to give you the time, but who will now answer about the future of this scheme? Will you recall the restriction after 50 days?” Banerjee asked.

Cornering the BJP further, Banerjee sought the prime minister’s resignation if he fails to keep his promise to improve things about the 50-day window. “Will Modi take the responsibility for this and resign if things don’t improve after 50 days? In the name of ‘acche din’, you looted the entire country,” she said.

Blaming the government for bringing on an economic slump, she said, “The country has regressed by 20 years. The rabi crop has suffered, landless labourers are going hungry, development projects are all stalled.”

She added that the present government has ruthlessly destroyed the federal structure. “Even if there is an ordinance in the country, it must be passed through the House, otherwise it lapses. Demonetisation is such a huge issue, and yet no statement came from the government. They did not take Parliament in confidence,” Banerjee said.

“Did you even say a one line on the table of the House?” Mamata asked, adding that this was “not only unethical, but also illegal and unconstitutional.”

The RJD also extended its support to the movement against demonetisation. An RJD representative at the press conference termed it as “Jan Virodhy” and “Gareeb Virodhy” (anti-people and anti-poor), he said.

Meanwhile, Ravi Shakar Prasad issued a prompt rebuttal on behalf of the government, saying it was customary of Rahul Gandhi to level baseless allegations. The Union minister, instead of answering Gandhi’s questions on the Sahara diaries, invoked past scams in the UPA regime. Prasad implored Gandhi to tell him what he had to say on the 2G and coal scams.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Days after his government unveiled plans to introduce 100 per cent local quota for blue-collar jobs, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said it is high time to think about reservation in private sector and it should be achieved through debate and dialogue.

“It is high time to think about reservation in private sector. It should be achieved through debate and dialogue,” he said at the Ninth National Conference of the Indian Association of Lawyers here.

The Siddaramaiah government has kicked up a row inviting criticism from various sections of society over its plans to give 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in all private sector industries, barring IT and biotechnology firms, which avail concessions under the state industrial policy.

Several industry captains have pointed out that introducing reservations could create hurdles in growth due to dearth in skilled labour and hurt chances of attracting investments in the state.

The draft amendments to the Karnataka Industrial Employment (Standing orders) Rules, 1961, providing for 100 per cent “horizontal reservation” for Kannadigas has recently been thrown open to the public for objections or suggestions.

Siddaramaiah also said the need of the hour was to provide education, secure employment, housing and health facilities for the oppressed and underprivileged classes, without any further loss of time.

“Our government has realised the same and taken various positive steps in this direction,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said his government took the decision to conduct door-to-door social and educational survey of people of the state in January 2014.

“The same is executed by the State Commission for Backward Classes. The data is awaited from the Commission. This exercise is the first of its kind since 1931,” he said.

He said the idea behind the survey was to collect the current demographic data and various aspects relating to living conditions of people and accordingly configure developmental policies and programmes to achieve an egalitarian society through socio-economic justice.

“On several occasions judicial pronouncements by our respected judiciary also pointed out the need for collection of updated empirical data by conducting survey of the entire populace to decide whether the reservations in favour of OBC groups are proportionate or not,” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A mere four days before the demonetisation deadline of December 30, by when the pains of customers are supposed to allay — as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said — bankers seemed to nurse no hopes of any comfort and expected long queues to slither into the new year and into the months that follow.

“The rush is still there and there’s no hope of any respite. How can there be any when the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is providing only 20-30 per cent of total cash required at the banks?” All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS.

“The situation has not improved much. We had written to even RBI Governor Urjit Patel, apprising him of the situation. But then this is India, you cannot expect a swift reply from anyone. There’s no transperancy,” he said.

Venkatachalam expressed his anger also at the sorry state of bank employees who are being targets of disillusioned customers’ wrath for no fault of theirs.

He blamed RBI for eroding customers’ confidence in the institution of banks by not coming up with any satisfactory answers for the instances of new currency being seized all over the country, while none of this is reaching the legitimate candidates.

“Why doesn’t RBI give an answer for the currency leakage? The customer is naive; he sees the news in the paper or TV and thinks it’s the doing of the bank officials, that the money is being siphoned off by them. It disillusions him further,” Venkatachalam said writing-off the motive of eradicating black money too as a red herring.

He was seconded, in part, by a bank official from a HDFC branch in Noida, who said that money accorded to banks is just as little as before, however, the rush has attenuated.

“The crowd of customers is not as massive as before; partly because of the ATMs, some of which have finally found some cash,” Samiksha Sandle, Manager, HDFC branch Noida Sector-16 told IANS.

Despite this time being the holiday season, the bank officials have been persuaded to not go on leave, she said.

“As an emergency measure, we have not approved any long leave for our employees,” Sandle added.

(IANS)

Mangaluru: A UAE-bound man, who had been taken into custody by authorities on ‘suspicion’ at Mangaluru International Airport last week, later became an ‘ISIS terrorist’ for a section of media.

Even though 41-year-old Munaf Rahman, a resident of Old Kent Road, Mangaluru, was released by the NIA officials, who found him innocent, a few Kannada television channels on December 25 claimed that NIA had taken him to New Delhi for further inquiry.

A section of media went on to claim that Munaf had ISIS links and that he had planned to officially join the dreaded terror outfit after flying into Syria.

In fact, Munaf had gone to the Airport along with his wife and children to board the 9W 504 Jet plane bound for Sharjah on December 23. When Airport authorities questioned the intention behind visiting Sharjah, he said that he was on his way to meet his wife’s sister Ashika who stays there.

When authorities continued to question him, Munaf lost patience and reportedly behaved rudely. His behaviour gave rise to suspicion in the minds of immigration authorities and hence they took him to custody and handed him over to Umesh Rai, an officer of the NIA. Munaf’s wife and children were sent home.

Despite subjecting Munaf to a rigorous interrogation, NIA officials failed to get any evidence against him. Hence, they released him after impounding his passport and asked him not to leave the city without permission.

According to sources, Munaf is a native of Thalassery in Kerala and he has been residing in Mangaluru for past five years along with his family. He is engaged in crockery business both in Kerala and Karnataka.

Interestingly, a Gujarati youth, identified as Arjun, was also detained on the same day at the same Airport by the authorities for carrying a live bullet in his pocket. Neither he was handed over to the NIA, nor he was treated like a terrorist.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A Delhi court today dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking certain documents from the Congress party and Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) in the National Herald case filed by him against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen rejected Swamy’s application while giving him the last opportunity to submit the list of complainant witnesses in the case in which he has accused the Gandhis and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs 50 lakh through which Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL owed to the Congress.

Besides Gandhis, other accused-Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda-have denied the allegations levelled against them.

The court has now put up the matter on February 10 for pre-charge proceedings.
On Swamy’s plea, the trial court in its January 11 and March 11 orders had sought documents from Ministries of Finance and Urban Development, Department of Corporate Affairs and Income Tax Department and 2010-11 balance sheet of the Congress party in the case, which were submitted by the INC and AJL on April 8.

However on July 12, Delhi High Court had set aside both the orders of the trial court saying they were passed in a “casual manner” and “without application of mind”.

Swamy then filed a fresh application before the trial court seeking summoning of certain documents while the Congress leaders and AJL sought the return of documents including its balance sheet, which had been submitted in the court.

In this application, Swamy had sought documents relating to a loan given by the Congress to the AJL, the holding firm of the National Herald, saying these were necessary for the purpose of trial.

During the hearing on December 9, the counsel appearing for the accused had told the court that Swamy was seeking a “fishing and roving enquiry” in the case by calling for documents from the party and the AJL as he wanted to make out a “new case” against them.

Swamy, however, had termed the allegation as baseless and said his demand was legitimate.

The court had on June 26, 2014, summoned Sonia, Rahul, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda as accused in the case besides YI.

It had on December 19, 2015, granted bail to Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes and Dubey, who had appeared before it pursuant to summons. Pitroda was granted bail on February 20 when he had appeared in the court.

Sonia, Rahul, Vora (AICC Treasurer), Fernandes (AICC General Secretary), Dubey and Pitroda were summoned for alleged offences under section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

(Agencies)

Jaipur: Patidar leader Hardev Patel was on Friday arrested here and he tweeted that a police officer told him that this was done because of danger to his life.

Patel said he was arrested on landing at the Jaipur airport.

“Jaipur Police cited threats to my life as the reason” he was taken into custody, Patel said. He quoted an unnamed senior police officer as saying that there were “orders from above” to arrest him.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah faced a lot of embarrassment after he mixed up names of two places in a tweet.

CM Siddaramaiah wanted to tweet that he had met a Chinese delegation led by a Lee Zong from the Sichuan province in China to discuss Bengaluru’s infrastructural development. But he messed up the tweet when he used Siachen (a Himalayan glacier in the Karakoram range, on the Indian side of the Line of Control between India and Pakistan) instead of Sichuan.

However, as soon as the mistake was realized, the tweet was deleted.