Congress leaders have demanded immediate removal of Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdary for acting as ‘a vigilant slave' of the Government and an ‘agent' of Rakesh Asthana, Special Director of the CBI who is known to enjoy the backing of the Modi Government.
There is evidence of the CVC having approached the CBI chief Alok Verma for giving an impressive appraisal report in favour of Asthana. Verma ignored the request and all hell broke loose over his head. The CVC released the controversial report to enable the Government to oust Verma. The Congress is right in saying the CVC must go for violating the Constitution and conspiring against the state.
Very interestingly, there is strange news of Prime Minister Modi receiving a ‘never-heard of' award. Rahul Gandhi has derisively congratulated Modi for the goddamn award which is so unique that it never came through a scrutiny by any jury. No one knows why or how it came to be known as ‘Kotler Presidential Award'! Such an award has never been given to anyone before. It is organised by an unknown Aligarh-based company. Minimum research has revealed that the legendary American marketing wizard and author Philip Kotler has nothing to do with this award. Paid news says Modi has been given an award by members of an entity called ‘World Marketing Summit of India' for his uniquely excellent leadership with enviable achievements in marketing and management. Even hardcore Leftist leader Sitaram Yechury jibed saying, "My personal congratulations to Narendra Modi for winning the world's 'first-ever, superbly confidential' award. No one else could have won this award because no one else on the planet knows about it!" It is heard that one Tauseef Zia Siddiqui, calling himself the representative of Philip Kotler, now 87, has made it public that the super special award is a very confidential one given only to rarest of rare statesmen with exceptional knowledge and skills in marketing and management.
A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office says proudly, “The award focuses on the triple bottom-line of 'People, Profit and Planet'. Modi is the first recipient in the solar system and it will be offered annually, hereafter, to a chosen leader of a nation with the same skills as Modi’s.”
There is more disturbing news about the Modi administration too involving Chief Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Trade documents accessed by ‘The Caravan’ from the UK, the US, Singapore and the Cayman Islands show that Doval’s younger son Vivek runs a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands, an established tax haven. This fund was registered merely 13 days after the Modi Government announced demonetisation in 2016. Vivek’s business is linked inextricably to businesses run by his brother Shaurya, a BJP politician who heads the India Foundation, a think tank that enjoys close proximity to the Modi Government. That Vivek runs an offshore fund based out of a tax haven is notable in light of the established public position taken by his father in 2011. Ajit Doval authored a report that advocated a strict crackdown on tax havens and offshore entities.
Vivek, a chartered financial analyst who is a citizen of the UK and resides in Singapore, is the director of the fund, named GNY Asia Fund. According to the July 2018 document, Don W Ebanks and Mohamed Althaf Musliam Veetil are directors as well. Ebanks is named in the Paradise Papers, a leaked database of over 13 million documents regarding offshore entities, as the director of two firms, both registered in the Cayman Islands. He was formerly employed with the Cayman Islands Government and advised its Finance Secretary and Ministers. Althaf is a regional director for the Lulu Group International, which operates one of the fastest-growing chains of hypermarkets in West Asia. The legal address of the GNY Asia fund shows it is under the care of Walkers Corporate Limited, a firm that finds a mention in the Paradise Papers as well as the Panama Papers, another leaked database that includes attorney-client information of millions of offshore entities. Thus are the aching facts about the Modi Government.
Modi was doing fairly well in the beginning. But later, he began believing he is the greatest politician on Earth and kept messing up his own personality by his insane self-flattering blunders on a nonstop mode! What is most amusing around this time is the number of mad trips Modi is making to Odisha. That shows how terribly scared the BJP is of the invincible BJD headed by the magician Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The local BJP honchos are just a bunch of good-for-nothing chaps incessantly engaged in bragging about grabbing 120+ seats in 2019. They keep screeching about a make-belief anti-incumbency factor in Odisha, a mad claim. It is common knowledge that popular leaders from the Congress and the BJP are migrating to the BJD both openly and slyly. Quite a few are holding talks in hiding to only surface with the truth in good time. Modi has come at least three times in thirty days to boast of big deeds of nation building and helping the poor. The Naveen administration hasn’t even cared a damn about what Modi has been saying. Naveen has unfailingly organised matching parallel programmes to counter the saffron attacks and prove that the BJP has no power to pose any threat to the BJD. Modi, it appears, is in no mood to displease Naveen as 2019 may not have any pro-saffron wave. He is able to foresee a depleted number of seats well below the magic number. Hence, a pre-poll secret understanding is certain to come in handy while claiming to form government if at all the BJP emerges as the leading party. Naveen too is not averse to the BJP coming back to power yet again.
Back to the Odisha political climate now: When popular leaders are exiting from the Congress, State party chief Niranjan Patnaik says, “Politicians without any ideology do abandon home parties.” Naba Kishore Das, the Jharauguda heavyweight with the Robin Hood style of doing good to the poor, has decided to be part of the BJD as he is convinced that Naveen is the best statesman of Odisha and can ensure victory for long. More Naba Das-like leaders are on the tracks to follow suit.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)
