Whispers Forum

I wish to share with fellow surfers my disgust and anger after reading Arundhati Roy's latest novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. I hope you all have heard the name of this lady who won the Man Booker Prize for her first book in 1997.She came out with this second book after 20 years. I found it among the New arrivals in the India International Centre Library and picked it up to read. What a waste of time ? The book is neither a fiction nor history. It is simply a tirade against India for 'occupying Kashmir' and killing innocent Kashmiris by torturing them. According to her innocent boys are caught by our security people ,tortured and killed for awards and medals. In the long conflict in Kashmir some aberrations have taken place but Ms. Roy has portrayed our uniformed men worse than devils out to kill harmless ,innocent people. For her other innocents killed by jihadis do not matter. For her India is forcefully occupying Kashmir through her military. The stories of torture in her so-called fiction narrative are too gory to absorb. She is outright insulting our present Prime minister by calling him "Gujrat ka Lalla' , Manmohan Singh is Trapped Rabbit. She has insulted many leaders by using humiliating expressions for them. The book is a real trash bordering on vulgarity for use of four letter words too often and some filthy abuses too. There is no plot. Starting with a story of a hijra she rambles on to Kashmir and politics. It is disgusting to find that the book has been included in the list for Manbooker Prize again. What will foreigners think of India after reading it ? Already in a review in the "New York Review of Books' conclusion has been drawn and I quote "Roy seems to be saying: This is the country i live in. This is a nation whose citizens are capable of greed, corruption, indifference, horrific mob violence" etc. Kashmiris and Pakistanis will of course adore her for what she wrote. She has all through supported Maoists and now militants in Kashmir endorsing what Pakistan wants. My advice to her, 'please leave this country. Go live elsewhere’.
Aarti Khosla

Prime Minister's experiments are failing because he is surrounded by IAS officers, who have tried to give an impression that they are the only Civil Servants of the country. They are also other Civil Servants in the country. A Deputy Secretary level IRTS officer posted in the Charkradharpur Division of South Eastern Railway gains more experience than any IAS officer of the country. He has 10000 people working under him/her on 24 hours basis. He has to deal with 2 steel plants, several iron ore mines, several coal mines, power houses and last but not the least his own Department wherein people work and train runs on 24 hours basis. No feudalistic mentality IAS people are bothered about the welfare of other services. On one hand they say that as that are shortage of officers at the level of Director and Deputy Secretary in the central Ministries/Departments , they need to induct people from out side but on the other hand hundreds of Central Secretariat Service Officers are waiting in the wing to get promoted since long. The Ministers give commitments but they are unable to honor the same as they are reigned in by the IAS officers. The CSS officers propose to take very soon a step of mass scale VRS. As a result the working of the Government of India is going to come to a stand still.
Nivedita

The two are not comparable. The psu officers have security of job, where they can continue in their jobs, irrespective of output. Does not apply to private sector executives. If they are so keen, let these psu officers opt for private sector,they will know the difference, when they get pink slip in no time!
Samir Chatterjee
Date with RTI
After the enquiry is over, the complete details should be provided to the public or at least the concerned officer. After all, what is there to hide? If it is a judicious process, the facts should be brought out in open and available for scrutiny. The information commissioners should sit together and take a common call rather than taking differing decisions which leads to conflicting decisions and confusion.
Umashakar

I would like to request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discard the use of word like Dalit, Backward Class (BC), OBC etc. Is it not a blot on a gentleman of India who is also first a human and last an Indian citizen. All Indians have equal rights, of whatever caste he may be. I watch media showing that atrocious deeds are being made against Dalits whereas the same may happen with any person. This use of word takes the communal happenings in India. Government should take measures to stop use of the same and must come out for some respectable word by making the people to know and understand. As on date if something happen with a Dalit/BC/OBC, it is highly highlighted which creates all the mess in India. Nowhere in the world these types of casteism remarks are seen or read. Hope we Indian will understand and themselves would come forward to stop calling Dalit/BC/OBC etc.
Ram Kumar Garg
Different yardsticks for different services in GoI
This colonial era discrimination must end sooner than later to adhere to 'Sab ka saath, sab kaa vikas'.
Parth

It is not possible for Sharad Yadav to topple Nitish Kumar for the simple reason that Nitish in a more astute politician. The fact that he joined hands with BJP instantly shows Yadav has his brain in the back and not in the forehead.
Chipti
What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment ?
"What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment of all Group A organised services? DOPT interprets eligibility for JS empanelment which benefits only IAS since DOPT is cadre controlling authority of IAS, by IAS and for IAS only. As per JS Empanelment ‘Guidelines’ of DOPT O.M. no. 12/3/2008-EO(SM-III) (Part-II) dated 24.07.2014, eligibility criteria is (i) Officers who have rendered 17 years of service in Group-A, AND (ii) Drawing pay in the scale of Rs. 37400-67000 + Grade Pay Rs. 10,000 in their respective parent cadre/service. The guideline does not discriminate between type of pay drawn. The only criterion is officer should be drawing GP of Rs. 10,000 in PB4 in his cadre. But, DOPT illegally interprets for NON-IAS that non-functional upgradation (NFU) to GP Rs. 10,000 does not fulfil criteria no. (ii) for JS empanelment. This discrimination violates Article-16 of Constitution. IAS is also not ‘actually’ promoted to GP Rs. 10,000, based on occurrence of any vacancy in this grade in his State cadre. IAS also gets non-functional upgradation to GP Rs. 10,000 in his state cadre due to time-bound upgradations (not vacancy bound), if any of his batchmate in any other State cadre gets higher grade pay. IAS drawing NFU GP Rs. 10,000 is treated as eligible for empanelment as Joint Secretary, while non-IAS are not eligible. 7CPC in Para-7.3.31(b) says that theoretically, an IAS officer need not ‘actually’ be promoted to the Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) to be considered for JS empanelment. It needs only one officer from a batch in any of the States to be promoted to the higher grade (of GP Rs. 10,000), to render the WHOLE batch posted in different States eligible to be upgraded to the higher grade (of GP Rs. 10,000). This condition is achieved in the minimum possible time (16-17 years) for being eligible as Joint Secretary in Govt of India. On the other hand, the officers of Central Services have to await for actual promotion to the SAG which is ‘vacancy-based’ and which could take anywhere between 18 to 25 years. In Para 7.3.24, 7CPC has recommended that officers drawing NFU GP of Rs. 10,000 would also be eligible to apply for deputation posts in the higher grade through empanelment in the Central Staffing Scheme as well as to posts outside the Central Staffing Scheme. In Para 7.3.41, Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy member have recommended following eligibility criteria for JS empanelment: 1. All officers of All India Services and Central Group `A’ Services participating in the Central Staffing Scheme who have put in 17 years of service will be eligible to apply. 2. The existing proviso for the AIS, viz., the appointment of at least one officer of the batch year of the Service from any State cadre in the (pre-revised) scale of ₹37400-67000 + GP ₹10,000 should be dispensed with. Hope DOPT listens and our PM acts more tough to get non-IAS officers also empanelled and appointed as JS. DOPT dared to defy PM’s order of June 2015 that all non-IAS officers upto 1995 batch should be empanelled as JS by 31st December 2015.
Bharat
Joint Secretary empanelment
The eligibility conditions should be relaxed 1. Any officer in GP 1000 should be eligible 2. Count deputation to any ex cadre post in place of mandatory requirement of CSS deputation at director level
Rajesh
What about PM’s directives on Joint Secretary empanelment?
It is high time that these directives are followed in letter and spirit and that too without delay.
Parth

Madras High Court has ordered singing of Vande Mataram to be made compulsory for two days in a week in all schools ,colleges ,Universities and other educational institutions of Tamil Nadu. They have even given their preferred days as Monday and Friday. Desire to inculcate patriotism among students is laudable but one wonders whether it is the job of the Court to lay down such rules. It seems our Judges have forgotten their real work to show activism in areas which are not within their purview.
Aarti Khosla
Protect officers from blackmailing
Axe on IAS officers -While it’s a welcome step to improve efficiency, step shall be taken to protect officers from blackmailing by powerful & political persons.
S K Rana

The case continues to have political significance as one of the accused was the late Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, who had close family links with the Sonia Gandhi . It was Quattrochhi who introduced Rajiv Gandhi to the Bofors. The corruption scandal was seen as a major factor in Congress's defeat in 1989 Lok Sabha elections. The current re-surfacing of the scam might see all culprits behind the bar.
The scam remained buried for over three decades under successive governments headed by V P Singh, Chandrashekhar, Deve Gowda, I K Gujral and Atal Behari Vaajpeyi and finally Manmohan Singh ( with Sonia Gandhi at the helm as de facto PM ) under UPA-II.
Even the Judiciary seemed helpless. A bona fide court-monitored investigation was not ordered by the Apex court to get the facts verified on priority so as to bring all those responsible to justice. Delay led to suppression of truth that shook people’s faith in democracy.
With a mass of unimpeachable documentary evidence, this was an Open-and-shut case despite Rajiv Gandhi's persistent denials. In an interview with the BBC, Rajiv claimed that “to the best of my knowledge, there have been no payoffs to Indians.” He pre-empted the sensitive investigation by expressing his “view” that “commissions” to neither the “middlemen” nor “Indians” were paid .
Recall some key events and names of bureaucrats, politicians, extra- Constitutional authorities, which were in circulation in those obscure and morally questionable days.
Bofors’ chief jurist had briefed an official team comprising S. K. Bhatnagar, the then Defence Secretary, P. K. Kartha, the then Law Secretary, Gopi Krishan Arora, the then Special Secretary to Rajiv Gandhi, and N. N. Vohra, then Addl Secy in MOD , later, Secy ( Defence Production ) and Ronen Sen, the then Joint Secy in PMO. The team was assisted by T. K. Bannerjee, the then Joint Secretary (Ordnance) in MOD.
Strangely, according to General K. Sundarji’s revelations published in India Today (September 15,1989), Mr. Morberg was due to come to New Delhi at the head of a Bofors delegation in July 1987 to give the information the Government of India “wanted,” before Rajiv Gandhi who initially himself scuttled the idea (leading to resignation of Arun Singh, the then MOS, Defence).
Involvement of Hindujas brothers and Win Chadha was open secret.
How were charges and proceedings by the trial court quashed by the Delhi high court (M K Chawla) and bail granted to the accused when the Law did not provide for it?Hinduja brothers were given clean chit. Worse, appeal against quashing of chargesheet against the Bofors , was not allowed by the UPA –II government to be challenged in the Supreme court?.
The Principal investigator ( of Bofors scam) Sweden's investigative agency , Sten Lindstrom , in an interview to TV channel , has revealed it all by accusing the late Rajiv Gandhi as the alleged mastermind behind the Bofors cover-up in collusion with Olof Palme , the then Swedish PM.
The Congress has obfuscated discussions in Parliament. Sonia Gandhi terms it as a black day for democracy. Rahul Gandhi predicted that the GOI will not be able to prove anything even after investigating it for another 30 years. No further reaction by them except throwing papers on Speaker (LS)
The country wants answers on the following questions :
(a) How did Rajiv Gandhi enter into a secret understanding with Olof Palme, Swedish PM, who was later killed ? Who, in GoI, pressured the Bofors to give a clean chit to the Gandhis ?
(b)How did the then ruling dispensation manipulate the escape of Quattrochhi by deliberately delaying the exit of CBI officers to London during Cong-led UPA-II?
(c) What was the murky role of steel-frame of bureaucracy of MOF and the Cabinet Sectt in making good the escape of Quattrochhi?
(d) Who ordered de-freezing the Bofors payoffs in London, get the same transferred to Italy ? By the time the CBI reached London and then Argentina, Quattrochhi had crossed over to Italy ?CBI could not arrest him .
(e) Why was the CBI not given permission by DOP&T ( in-charge of CBI) in 2005 to file the SLP in the Supreme court for quashing the judgement of Delhi High court ? Suresh Pachauri was MOS (Personnel) who took orders direct from the Congress supremo, which used to be later legitimised by the de jure PM Manmohan Singh. Interrogation of Principal Secy, Secy and Joint Secy to PM will give a mine of sensational information?It may be recalled that V P Singh,the then Defence Minister ,resigned under protest.
(f) What are details of Bank Accounts held by late Rajiv Gandhi ( inherited from his mother,late Indira Gandhi) which are now being operated by the Congress supremo?
(g) What is the guarantee that relevant records kept in boxes, have not been tampered with? These boxes were brought from Sweden to India by a Joint Secy of MHA or MOF, without associating the CBI.
I am raising the doubt as, certain Directors of the caged parrot had dubious credentials. A P Singh and Ranjit Singh,are in question.They might have helped the UPA-II in fiddling with documents.
(h) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), while casting doubts on the Government's version of selection of Bofors guns, did little to unravel the mystery of the kick-backs.
What next ?
Against this background, it is high time that the boxes are opened in presence of CJI, CBI , forensic experts and the Media. All documents must be kept in public domain for public scrutiny. A court-monitored investigation by the SIT within a pre-determined time frame could be ordered by the Supreme court.
A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)
Delhi University should innovate
The Delhi University is reported to have denied admission to a girl who had 5 languages as subjects of study, as not more than two languages can be counted for best of 4 subjects criterion for admission. No dispute about the rules but it is about the outlandish attitude to languages. Instead of encouraging advanced studies in languages and grooming new generation computer linguists, the university is still stuck up with subjects of stressed employment opportunities. In modern times when communication growth has opened up newer opportunities of employment e.g. in broadcasting, tevevision, social media, print media, online publishing, mass open online courses etc the requirements of trained personnel has increased tremendously. National and international corporations, as also legal services, need multi-lingual professionals. In view of this fact, the DelhiUniversity must revise its criterion to admit students with best of the four even in different languages. There are 122 Major Modern Indian Languages and thousands of dialects. The All India Radio broadcasts in about 179 languages. There was the Word in the beginning! Respect the Word. Can the Delhi University authorities please think out of the box and be innovative before others set better example?
M L Gupta

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation follows the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to replace street lights by LED ones. They have signed an agreement with TPDDL and Havells. This developing scandal under the Narendra Modi, India Against Corruption noise makers and other state governments needs urgent remedial action. There are more than 4 lakh street lights in the area administered by these two corporations. The public is exploited in numbers in crores. The turnover is huge and so are the profits, kickbacks, black money and tax evasion- may be even manipulation of foreign exchange, money laundering and duty drawback also. It is so because the whole market stands captured by Chinese products of suspicious quality standards violating the law applicable to household electrical goods. Traders don’t keep products of popular brands but on asking give a smirk. Nobody keeps Phillips or Havells products because the Chinese goods give traders huge profit margins. Demanding only non-Chinese goods one gets Havells LED tubelights @650/390 apiece. A look at the packaging reveals that the printed MRP on it is Rs. 1190/745 apiece followed by “imported by Havells”. The name of the country of import is not printed. So Havells do not manufacture it in India! It too is likely to be a CHINESE product without disclosing the country name! Hindi Chini Lutaayee khusaayee. If these are the retail prices, the wholesale price will be even less than Rs 40, the same as that of a conventional branded tube light of Phillips. Is this how the Indian consumers should be allowed to be exploited? Is this how government agencies should loot the tax revenue in the treasury? These Chinese tube lights are not even “tube lights” in the conventional sense but a strip sold @25 rupee a metre on Diwali, wrapped in a tube! Is this the Make In India achievement? Is this pricing the usual business (or ease of doing business) in medical devices, medicines, heavy industrial machinery, defence equipment et al? Who looks after consumer interests? Should these products be not banned? Can’t the citizens’ watchdogs like the Competition Commission or the NCDRC take any action suo moto ? Or printing such prices is another trick for maintaining account books to show loss in business ? Only governments at the centre and the states can answer.
M L Gupta

On the outset I congratulate Sanjay Kothari on his elevation and new role as Secretary to the President of India. He is an honest and upright officer who is born with inherent qualities of manoeuvring his team to embark upon his mission with ease. The constructive work and positive contribution that Kothari has made in shaping the path of development of this country is applauded in government and political circles across party lines. He is an asset and his vast experience shall help the President office in matters of crucial decision making in the larger interest of society. I wish him all the best .
O P Sharma, Ex Government Officer
Friendship culture on the wane
Friendship culture among'st the batch-mates is on the wane because of the Television and Mobile Culture.
Anurag Shrivastava
Brilliant choice
Raveesh Kumar is a brilliant choice. We served in Indian Embassy Jakarta in mid 90s.
Kishore Dudani