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India is not under Aurangzeb's rule: Veerappa Moily on Birla case

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  • India is not under Aurangzeb's rule: Veerappa Moily on Birla case

    NEW DELHI: As industry voiced concern over the CBI naming industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla in a case, oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said investigating agencies and the judiciary must ensure that India does not become like Russia, where investors are not prepared to go and billionaires are put behind bars.

    Moily said India is not under "Aurangzeb's rule" but under rule of law, where action has to be taken based on cogent evidence, not just on mere perception.

    "I am not here to give a value judgment on that, but at the same time I think the time has come to ensure that whatever we do should be in accordance with strict rule of law. And ultimately, on mere perception you cannot proceed against anybody unless there is cogent evidence to proceed with," he told reporters here.

    Moily was replying to a question about the CBI naming Hindalco Industries chairman Birla in an FIR against the aluminium and copper maker as part of its probe into alleged irregularities in the allotment of coal-mining licenses.

    Moily said the CBI has proceeded in the matter on certain lines, which, if based on evidence, "nobody can question" but if not, then "we should be careful."

    "Because ultimately India cannot become just like Russia, where investors are not prepared to go and billionaires are put behind the bars. That should not happen here," he said.

    The job of ensuring that India does not become like Russia rests not just with the government but also with the judiciary and the CBI, he said.

    "After all, we are not in the regime of Aurangzeb. We are in the regime of rule of law. When rule of law is concerned it applies to government, it applies to Supreme Court, it applies to everybody.

    "If all of us work in accordance with rule of law, if rule of law is implemented, we are all safe, investors are safe, people will be safe," he said.

    A joint venture company of Hindalco had received mining licenses for two coal blocks in Odisha in 2005. The CBI on Tuesday said it plans to probe whether the company and its chairman were involved in a criminal conspiracy and irregularities.

    Birla is the most prominent businessman to be named in the probe by CBI, which has triggered sharp reactions from the industry. With an estimated wealth of $7.9 billion, Birla was ranked 150 on the Forbes list of world billionaires.

    TimesofIndia
    Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

  • #2
    Now that all of you know, do not invest even a single penny in India. Pathetic policy governance results in pathetic economic conditions, zero job creation, investment outflows. MMS, a fucking retard,
    Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

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    • #3
      Why does this warrant a thread?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Firestorm View Post
        Why does this warrant a thread?
        Because it affects me, and many others.
        Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

        Comment


        • #5
          What's new? It is just one of a zillion scams that the present Indian government seems to have its greasy paws in and they are as usual trying to deflect the blame.

          Your call of course. I'm not a mod. Just didn't see the point.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Firestorm View Post
            What's new? It is just one of a zillion scams that the present Indian government seems to have its greasy paws in and they are as usual trying to deflect the blame.

            Your call of course. I'm not a mod. Just didn't see the point.
            You're correct. However, everyone of us need to collectively name and shame bad governance & policies in whatever way we can. Not doing so, will only strengthen their belief that the citizens don't care, and that they can get away with it. In this age of social media, I am quite certain the GoI monitors sites such as this to gather public perception and gauge the mood, which in turn influences decision making.
            Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Oracle View Post
              Moily said India is not under "Aurangzeb's rule" but under rule of law, where action has to be taken based on cogent evidence, not just on mere perception.
              Moily is right. We are not under Aurangzeb's rule. At least Arrangzeb knew what he was doing. We are under Tughluq's rule.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by ajhax View Post
                Moily is right. We are not under Aurangzeb's rule. At least Arrangzeb knew what he was doing. We are under Tughluq's rule.
                I'd say it's more like Mohammed Shah. We're fiddling away while Rome's burning.

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                • #9
                  Alright, if we are continuing with this, here's an excellent article by Swapan Dasgupta

                  Rot stems from ill-conceived coal nationalization plan

                  Subhash Chakravarti, a legendary Chief of Bureau of Times of India, recently recounted an encounter between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the West Bengal Congress supremo Atulya Ghosh in the early-1960s.

                  “I have heard”, Nehru told Ghosh accusingly, “that you are a bit too friendly with Calcutta’s Marwari businessmen”. Never inclined to kowtow to someone he regarded as a poseur, Ghosh’s reply was characteristically blunt: “What you have heard is right. Our party needs money, not merely for Bengal but for UP and Bihar too. Who do you think funds us? Without that money you wouldn’t be wearing that rose on your lapel.” :red:

                  Nehru was taken aback by this insolence and complained to his old friend Dr B.C. Roy who was Chief Minister of West Bengal. Dr Roy laughed it off but delighted in repeating the story to others. These probably included S.K. Patil, the Bombay Congress boss with a reputation for being pro-business and pro-US. Patil used to rue that he was the target of unending radical derision except before elections and when it was time to lobby Washington for food aid.

                  The tendency to look upon India’s corporate sector as the proverbial ‘kept’ woman who could only be visited stealthily and in the dead of night (I thank the late Pramod Mahajan for this imagery) has been an undesirable Nehruvian legacy. If Nehru shared the upper-class English socialist disdain for ‘trade’ and new money, Indira Gandhi was positively vengeful towards Indian business following her battle with the Syndicate, and Rajiv Gandhi was plain confused over how much elbow room should be given to the private sector. However, there was one common dynastic consensus: business must pick up the tab for political expenses. A highly regulated capitalism, it was decreed, must underwrite India’s experiments with socialism.

                  It was an expedient arrangement that allowed patrician socialists to serve the poor without being preoccupied with where the money was coming from. One Nehru sibling who enjoyed global fame was, for example, particularly forgetful about settling shopping and hotel bills.

                  When the private sector proved unable to deliver the full booty—and this began to happen as the license-permit raj began to be excessively suffocating for business—the necessary surplus was creamed off from state funds. A breed of politically loyal but parasitic contractor class was created by Indira Gandhi to offset the influence of old money. Additionally, exceptional discretionary favours were doled out to business houses which were considered ‘reliable’. Business, as Dhirbuhai Ambani famously said, became a matter of “managing the environment.”

                  What we are today witnessing are big cracks in a system whose principal objective was income generation for the ruling dispensation rather than the economic growth of the country. The CBI clearly erred if its reason for wishing to prosecute a former Coal Secretary and industrialist Kumaramangalam Birla was the fact that Hindalco ate into a coal allotment initially been made to a public sector unit. To treat the private sector as a poor cousin or, indeed, a predator, makes no sense. However, the real reason for widespread suspicion of influence-peddling and corruption is that the coal block allotments were governed by discretion, the Prime Minister’s Office having earlier rejected the more transparent process of auctions. It was this flawed selection system which resulted in a large chunk of India’s coal reserves being parcelled out to those who were either linked to the ruling party or were willing to pay a political cess for every ton of coal extracted.

                  However, it is reassuring that the CBI’s peremptoriness has generated a sense of outrage. In part the issue is all about a senior bureaucrat being punished for following a political order and an industrialist pulling strings to further his very legitimate business interests—there was no other option. But the real rot stemmed from an ill-conceived coal nationalisation that has proved an unmitigated disaster and which has cost India dearly.

                  It is curious that the Hindalco chairman was named after Mohan Kumaramangalam, the charismatic Communist-turned-Congressman who presided over coal nationalisation and other socialist excesses. Today, to take liberties with Karl Marx, the fawning of an earlier generation must be weighing “like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”
                  If you really want to make a difference, go out and vote in the Lok Sabha elections. And not for the people who continue to follow the policies of their forefathers (and mothers). Policies which have proved to be absolute disasters for India while proving amazingly profitable for the ones making them.
                  Last edited by Firestorm; 22 Oct 13,, 19:56.

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