I neither have any sponsor nor a Godfather

I neither have any sponsor nor a Godfather- Raju Parulekar

Hello Friends, Kindly Click the Link mentioned above to read the article published on me in http://afternoonvoice.com/.

Thanx & regards,

Raju Parulekar

raju.parulekar@gmail.com

(M)- 9820124419

Rise against SAHARA……

In Allahabad High Court, before Chief Justice bench, my intervention in case against ‘Sahara Q shop’ and ‘Sahara Shahar’ is going on.

I am pleading in-person.

On behalf of Sahara, senior counsel and former speaker of UP assembly Mr. Kesrinath Tripathi is pleading the case.

The next date of the said case is 7th November.

This is the intervention petition.

According to me, Sahara Group is biggest “Scamster” since independence.

It is up-to the Honorable court now to judge and to probe into this serious matter.

Following is the said petition,

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

WRIT PETITION NO. _________OF 2012

UNDER ARTICLE 226 OF CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

 

DISTRICT: GAUTAM  BUDDHA  NAGAR

 

IN THE MATTER OF:

Raju Naresh Parulekar

Aged about 43 years

Son of  Shri Naresh Waman Parulekar

A-30, Sector-15,

NOIDA, UP

                                                ….              Applicant/Petitioner

 

                                                Versus

1.Union of India

(Through Home Secretary)

Ministry of Home Affairs,

North Block

New Delhi

 

2.Central Bureau of Investigation

(Through Director)

C.G.O. Complex

Lodhi Road,

New Delhi.        

 

3.  State of U.P.

 through Secretary, Urban Development department

Government of U.P.

Vidhan Sabha Annexe, Lucknow

 

4. Sahara India

Through Its Chairman

1, Kapurthala Complex

Lucknow

                            

5. Board of Control for Cricket in India

  Through Its Secretary

   Cricket centre 2^nd floor Wankhede Stadium

   Churchgate  , Mumbai : 400020, India    

 

 

…               Respondents

 

 

 

Writ petition under Article 226 of Constitution of India seeking thorough, independent and impartial probe by Central Bureau of Investigation into the money laundering and illegal grabbing of public land by respondent no. 4.  

 

To

The Chief Justice of the High Court and his companion Judges

 

 

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:

 

1. That the Petitioner is a well known writer, journalist, political analyst and blogger and is actively associated with anti-corruption movements in the country.

 

1. The Petitioner has no grudge against any particular person or organization, however, in order to ensure probity in public life, the petitioner approach the courts in the general public interest.

 

1. That the present writ petition is necessitated in view of a nefarious design of respondent no. 4 to defraud the public in general and convert its  black money into white.

 

1. That the respondent no. 4 has launched a scheme namely ‘Q shop’ for the promotion of the said scheme, the famous cricket players under the control of respondent no.5 are being used to lure the innocent public. However, the said Q shop is merely an eye wash and an attempt to camouflage the illegal design of respondent no. 4.

 

1. In fact, the petitioner has in his possession internal letters written by Sahara Group Vice Chairman Ms. Swapna Roy, Assistant Director Sanjay Arora and Chief General Manager of Sahara Mr. Sudhir C. Paramar whereby Sahara Group has issued a circular dated 29.9.2012 to all its employees that they have to purchase household requirements from Sahra Q-shops and they have made it mandatory to purchase goods worth Rs. 1,000/- if their salary is below Rs. 25,000/- per month and it has been made mandatory to purchase goods worth Rs. 3,000/- if their salary is more than Rs. 25,000/- per month.  It is also provided that the same amount shall be deducted from their salaries. The copies of the letters and the circular dated 29.09.2012 are annexed herewith as Annexure P-1 (colly).

 

1.  That under the guise of the alleged deduction, the respondent no. 4 is practicing a money laundering procedure. The respondent no. 4 is actually ensuring, on paper, the infusion of financial resources into its much hyped Q shop which is hardly in existence and on the other hand an amount equivalent to the amount deducted from the salaries of its employees is being reimbursed to the employees in cash. Therefore, a big money laundering procedure has been put in place by respondent no. 4 which does not appear to contravene any law. The same process is also being done by introducing fake customers in the accounts book. Thus, by pulling the wool over the eyes of the enforcement agencies and the general public, the respondent no. 4 with calculated use of the famous faces from respondent no. 5 has undertaken a big money laundering operation in India. The respondent no. 4 has claimed in media that more than Rs. 3000 crores have already been arranged and he expects the figure to reach around 33,000 crores of rupees in one year. Thus, the adverse effect of smart money laundering by respondent no. 4 for the Public exchequer may well be understood.

 

1. That the Sahara Group’s Q-shops are not seen anywhere in the market but in order to prevent negative media reporting arising out of illegal activities of Sahara Group and Q-shops, Sahara is releasing advertisements of hundreds of crores of rupees of non-existent Q-shops to different news channels and print media, a big part of which are misleading advertisements.

 

1. That it is further submitted that a scrutiny of accounts book of respondent no. 4 would reveal that funds being shown as expenses incurred on advertisements are more than 1000 times the alleged sale of goods from such Q-shops.

 

1. That on 27.10.2012, SEBI issued an advertisement in all the leading newspapers which supports the case of the petitioner. According to the advertisement of SEBI, the respondent no. 4 group is forcing the investors to switch over their investments to other schemes like Q shop. A copy of the advertisement dated 27.10.2012 is annexed herewith as Annexure-P2.

 

1. That, therefore, in public interest, it is humbly submitted that this Hon’ble Court may order an independent probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the money laundering procedure adopted by respondent no.4.

 

1. That another instance of illegalities committed by respondent no. 4 is the unauthorized usurpation of public land in connivance with some officials of the respondent no. 3. It is shocking that despite knowledge the respondent no. 3 has not initiated concrete steps to free the public land from the illegal possession of respondent no. 4.

 

1. That a letter dated January 2000 written by Secretary, Urban Development Department, Govt. of U.P. reveals that the transfer deed for 170 acres land between the respondent no. 4 and Nagar Nigam is unenforceable and void and that appropriate steps should be taken to claim the land back. However, nothing appears to have been done by respondent no. 3 because of the influence enjoyed by the respondent no. 4 over the Government machinery. It is learnt that even some crucial documents have been deliberately misplaced by officials to facilitate the respondent no. 4. A copy of the letter dated January 2000 and other letters are annexed herewith as Annexure-P3.

 

1. That the license for 170 acres of land in favour of respondent no. 4 has been purportedly executed on a stamp paper of Rs. 100/- only and according to information available from the file notings, even the original license deed is not available on file and it appears to have been deliberately removed by some unscrupulous person. The copies of some file notings are annexed herewith as Annexure-P4.

 

1. That the Vice Chairman of Lucknow Development Authority passed a detailed order dated 08.11.1999 which contains several findings which are undisputed. Therefore, as a corroborative material to establish the illegal grabbing of land by respondent no. 4, a copy of the order dated 08.11.1999 is annexed herewith as Annexure-P5.

 

1. That both the incidents abovementioned require a thorough inquiry by an independent agency which is not controlled by the State Government and after receipt of the report, this Hon’ble Court may pass appropriate orders as deemed fit in the public interest.

 

1. The Petitioner further submits that he has not filed any other petition for similar reliefs either in this Hon’ble Court or in any other court.

 

P R A Y E R

It is therefore, most humbly and respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to:-

(a) Order an independent probe by a Special Investigation Team comprising of officers from CBI, SEBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department to investigate into the money laundering exercise by respondent no. 4 in the name of Q shop and submit a report to this Hon’ble Court;

(b) Direct the respondent no. 5, not to permit the cricket players to participate in any advertisement or promotion of ‘Q shop’.

(c) Restrain respondent no. 4 Sahara Group from issuing further advertisement promoting Q-shops till the aforesaid enquiry is complete;

(d) Order an independent inquiry into the illegal occupation and possession of land developed as ‘Sahara Sahar’ which was secured by the respondent no. 4 in collusion with the officers of the respondent no. 3

(e) Pass any such order or further order as deemed fit to the facts and circumstances of the case.

 

FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS THE PETITIONER AS IN DUTY BOUND SHALL EVER PRAY.

FILED BY

(                                                     )

ADVOCATE

FOR THE APPLICANT.

Place:                   ALLAHABAD

Filed on:         .2012

The Footage of beginning of “an End of Anna Movement”

The Footage of beginning of “an End of Anna Movement”

An old Interview with Dr. Prakash Kothari on “SexLife & Ecstasy”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

What went wrong with Raj Thackeray ?

What went wrong with Raj Thackeray?

As a child I have seen and experienced horrific fear psychosis of Balasaheb Thackeray. It was when Shivsena Corporator from Thane,  Khopkar was murdered. Later, the then Thane Shivsena President, Anand Dighe’s mother died under natural causes Shivsena called for Thane bandh. Both incidences of ‘Bandh’ have left a mark on my mind. One active and another is passive. After so many years I have realized same kind of fear psychosis, lawlessness, defeat of collective wisdom of society  when Raj Thackeray, nephew of senior Thackeray started passing diktats about ‘On collecting Toll’, ‘Sur Kshetra’, passing diktats on Asha Bhosale and public humiliation of artists, thinkers, journalists, intellectuals. The society is the same who is following his diktats, debating on his diktats but nobody surprisingly even government is not questioning his authority to passing such diktats.

Recently, Raj Thackeray has created major controversies. Before heading in to those controversies we have to understand what exactly went wrong with Maharashtra since Bal Thackeray’s rise.

Many Indian thinkers did not bother to give a thought to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s imprints on Maharashtra’s socio-political life. Modern Maharashtra’s four towering personalities left their mark on history as well as contemporary thought process of sensible Marathi manoos (Maharashtrian): Veer Shivaji, Mahatma Phule, LokmanyaTilak and Dr. Ambedkar. There were many others but these four were spearheads of making of ‘Modern Maharashtra’.  Among them Dr. Ambedkar was last of the Roman. He was not only greatest Indian but he was political leader as well as socio-economic political thinker and philosopher. This unique combination made him a legend like never before. Today we are thinking in the context of Maharashtra’s current politics so we are taking Dr. Ambedkar’s influence and tragedy categorically in context of Maharashtra. After Dr. Ambedkar’s death within a decade Shivsena rose to being a reactionary force. It was not a co-incidence. Dr. Ambedkar in his life lost elections and failed in electoral politics because Congress was completely against Dr. Ambedkar’s originality and philosophy. The entire movement of Dr. Ambedkar was a political and social movement for liberal democracy. Like today whole political ruling class, mainly Congress, was against any original and liberal democratic thought which goes against their electoral policy of nurturing the herd mentality. So after Dr. Ambedkar’s death Congress politics always nurtured reactionary forces like Bal Thackeray. A very simple example I would like to give. Congress valiantly opposed Ambedkar’s thought and policies but the same Congress supported wholeheartedly Mr. Bal Thackeray and his violent, thoughtless reactionary politics. Once upon a time Maharashtra was a hub for independent and original socio-political thinkers. But Congress, time and again used self-proclaimed political forces like Bal Thackeray to nurture leadership of Maharashtra in hands of people like Pawar and Thackeray who are reactionaries, cerebrally bankrupt and absolute corrupt. Congress is conveniently ignoring Raj’s diktats and his politics which is in league with his uncle’s style. Congress is doing the same with Raj what they have done with Bal Thackeray. Infact, by doing so Congress is not helping Raj in long run but restricting Raj to a small violent force which will not convert or replace Congress in Maharashtra as a ruling party. Whether Raj is aware of this comprehensive politics or no nobody knows but he seems to be content with the small time glory and fame. By doing this Raj is contradicting his promises which he made when he left Shivsena.  Initially and even today large numbers of people are looking at Raj as better alternative to rule Maharashtra. But it seems he is neither aware of it nor taking it seriously. Today, if Raj is exact replica of his uncle then why did he form a new political party with the word ‘Navnirman’. This is the question which arises in every sensible mind.

In this context rise of Raj Thackeray, on wrong path drawn by his uncle, is partially his own and majorly belongs to convenient ignorance by Congress.  The agenda on this path is lack of vision, cerebral bankruptcy, arrogance of inferiority, creating fear psychosis among people, propaganda of hatred, reaction of thoughtlessness and ultimately power of corruption. Raj imitates his uncle adding contemporary touch.  This is in itself dangerous for young politician like him. It’s a political fatal attraction! As mentioned above after Dr. Ambedkar’s death Maharashtra has lost its collective wisdom and originality. This has not happened overnight or in a day. It has taken years. After the end of Ambedkar’s era Maharashtra became follower and has lost its visionary capacity in any Pan Indian movement. Suddenly thinkers faded and disappeared in the five decades and politics of goons and white collared mafias ruled over Maharashtra whenever and wherever required. Raj Thackeray is the child of Maharashtrian people’s this inferiority complex in context of Pan Indian socio-political existence.  Raj Thackeray is not the first one. He is repeating old story of his uncle Bal Thackeray. But here I would love to quote Marx- ‘History repeats itself, first time its tragedy and second time its Farce’. Marx wrote in his book about Napoleon and his nephew, Louis Napoleon. But here in a different context we can cite one similarity; Bal Thackeray represents tragedy of Marathi Manoos which leads to his own tragedy ultimately. Now after 45 years of tragedy intellectual bankruptcy of Maharashtra leads to a farce in Pan Indian context and Raj Thackeray has happily chosen himself to be an ideal representative. This is a sad and unfortunate inning by young politician like him. If you see and hear his speeches its nothing more or less than melodrama heading towards nowhere. Same thing applies to today’s Maharashtra.  So in a wrong sense Raj Thackeray represents Maharashtra, so contemporary youths feel that Raj Thackeray is their ‘Man’. What appeals to contemporary generation are his style quotient and his farcical behavior! He is here to change the mind of youth for development of Maharashtra and nation ultimately for bigger, larger and global reasons. People love him so he should spread love among his followers to nurture creativity and originality of Ambedkar and pre-Ambedkar era.

What Raj is speaking about ‘Maharashtra Dharma’ and ‘Biharis’ is absolutely shallow and lacks any philosophy, even philosophy of hatred.  After six years of forming a party he still speaks about such things and imitates Shivsena’s agenda, it looks like Raj doesn’t have any grand strategy for Maharashtra or any strategy for his followers. He is surviving on tactics which are supported by ruling class as a policy. In reality this support will go against his larger interests in future. These tactics of hatred are not really based on any integrated thoughts but is based on piecemeal ideas like Popcorn. Why he violently humiliated Asha Bhosale, he himself may not be able to answer this question. Same are his thoughts about Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Bihari, Non-Bihari and people from UP. Think for a moment, given freedom, will he be able to fight his make-believe enemies? How will he define his enemies? If he is working within geographical limits of Maharashtra and contesting elections, doesn’t he understand that if Pakistan and Bangladesh are a problem, they are a problem of Union Government of India and not for Maharashtra! Since formation of Shivsena Bal Thackeray is saying, ‘give the military in my hands and I will solve the problems of Kashmir.’ So many questions have not been put up to Bal Thackeray for many years. Whom is he asking to give military in his hands? Who stops him from taking military in his hands? What are his constitutional status and relationship with military and Union Government of India? Ultimately what is to be done to solve our problem through Bal Thackeray’s ideas? Same applies for Raj. What he is talking is absolutely insignificant, irrelevant and nothing to do with his party and himself. But what he wants to do by doing that is very relevant. He is creating terror in minds of budding intellectuals, thinkers, journalists, writers and artists and whoever is in capacity to oppose him or his petty political vested interests. In the beginning of this write-up the fear psychosis which I have mentioned in people’s mind (about Bal Thackeray), in later years I have seen that similar kind of fear psychosis in many part of countries of small time or big political goons. But what I don’t understand is the compulsions of Raj Thackeray to choose this tried and tested static path!

We have seen some latest interviews of Raj Thackeray wherein his body language is offensive and he himself raises questions. This clearly shows that he is indulging in intellectual void coupled with arrogance. This is a problem with the entire contemporary generation. They have lost their identity, their jobs, they don’t have any philosophies and they have lost their center’s within. So, they want some tool or weapon to survive, to overcome any superior foreign or global power. Now because of Raj Thackeray, in this era of globalization, larger number of Maharashtrian youth thinks that power is arrogance, mediocrity, hatred and narrow mindedness. Even many media person who interviewed Raj were co-conspirators of his tactics. What they want to gain is easy fame and what Raj is achieving is easy power through his grandly accepted terror. Pawar, his party (NCP), Bal Thackarey and his party (Shivsena) have not done anything for Mumbai, forget about Maharashtra, compared to likes of Jagannath Shankarsheth and Jamshed Jeejabhoy. When opportunity is there Raj is not taking chance for constructive & developmental politics. A young leader like Raj Thackeray should introspect this reality in present context of his violent politics before it’s too late.

Whatever Raj speaks about Marathi, non-Marathi and what his uncle speaks about Hindus and Muslims is a hoax. They don’t have comprehensive understanding of even an imaginary problem they are talking about. I repeat, for example Bal Thackeray always says, ‘Give Military in my hands and I will solve Kashmir problem.’  Raj is imitating such hollow statements about Bihari’s and North Indians.

If Raj Thackeray accepts his current political style is a benchmark then he is accepting Maharashtra’s decay and degeneration without any objection and leading towards more decay and degeneration.

When Raj formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, sky was the limit for him. Initially he behaved in a cultured manner. Two of his famous great quotes from initial days of his parties, which most of the people have forgotten, ‘I will create a Maharashtra which will be envy of the world’ and ‘if your child follows me, their life will not go to waste’. Then Raj realized that to make these statements a reality it required hardship, real ideology, intellectuality and liberal democratic framework. Whereas the path his uncle chose shown to him by Congress that is to destroy originality of Maharashtra. It is much easier short cut for him and his cortege. So he set upon that path very seriously and rest is fear.

In Republic of India, there are some problems within states, especially problems with state’s rulers. Some problems are synthetic and some are real. Within a Constitutional framework we are allowed to fight with each other. Sometimes it could be political, sometimes cultural while at times it could be economical. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand; nobody is exceptional. But we must not stretch these fights and debates to racial discrimination which is crime against humanity and not allowed by Constitution of India. We are here for co-existence that has underlined an outer limit of states within state. We are citizens of India and no one is above anyone. These principles are set by architect of our Constitution mainly Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar because he knew how discrimination by caste, religion, region kills one’s originality and creativity. Here in this context Raj Thackeray is discriminating Biharis and people from UP and terrorizing Marathis subtly; either join hands with me or I will close your chapter.  This is destruction of democratic fabric of mindset of any budding creative personality. Any budding creative person either will go for herd mentality or rebel in a void and ruling class will easily target him by calling him dog and shoot him. This is a journey of a society to abyss and nobody is really serious about it, forget about ‘Maharashtra Dharma’ Maharashtra is now almost bankrupt and mediocre cerebrally. It is difficult to believe that it is the land of Veer Shivaji, Mahatma Phule, Lokmanya Tilak and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Cerebral bankruptcy is disastrous to Maharashtra and without an ideologue, social thinkers, intellectuals, creative artists within democratic set up and value, it is impossible to build global state which will be envied at a national level.

I don’t know what went wrong with a generous person and artist whom I knew named Raj Thackeray but most probably his petty minded coterie and followers and their political ambition which is out of proportion in race of time unfortunately make him what he is today. One thing is very certain in democracy, ‘there is no place for diktats and one who passes diktats should be aware that if you look through Indian Constitution then these diktats are nothing but satanic verses’.

Once Raj Thackeray accompanied me to playwright Vijay Tendulkar’s house. Raj had newly formed his political party then. Tendulkar had some wise words to share with Raj. This is directly from the obituary that I have written in memory of late Vijay Tendulkar. Vijay Tendulkar said, ‘In old age (Tendulkar mentioned himself and Bal Thackeray) when old people cry it is not necessary for a specific reason. He can see glimpses of his entire life. Chunks of pieces from his life make him cry. There is nothing much he can do. He arranges and re-arranges the jigsaw puzzle of his mistakes in his mind. Then he realizes he has made a mistake. Then he starts crying. What else can he do? Hence young people should ignore when old people cry. Our generation has made Himalayan blunders. You have to bear the consequences. The next generation will bear the brunt of your actions. Then you will cry. Your cries should not be taken seriously then. At least commit some mistakes now. You have your old age to cry for!’ When Tendulkar says ‘Commit some mistakes’ he means ‘you follow new path and commit mistakes instead of following the path chosen by our generation.’

It seems that Raj has chosen to imitate even mistakes of Vijay Tendulkar’s generation. This is a real tragedy within a farce.

-Raju Parulekar

raju.parulekar@gmail.com

(M)- 9820124419

“Opium of Ramleela” – Cover & Back Cover Pages of my forthcoming Book

 

Cover Page

Back Cover

Anna’s twisted lies – Part 4 (9th August 2012)

My Outlook

These pages are self-explanatory about support given to Anna by Congress NCP and Government and how the organizations run by him and his ‘WORK’ was funded by government time and again.

 

HAZARE’S APPEALS  TO VOLUNTEERS

Mr. Anna Hazare has recently said that BhrashtacharVirodhi Jan-andolanNyas will be going to recruit volunteers from across the country in order to expand his anti-corruption movement. He also expressed that he would undertake developmental work simultaneously in 100 villages across the country and change these villages into “Ideal-Model-Villages”. So, he appealed the youth of India to come forward and join the movement.

In 1992, he had similarly appealed the youth of Maharashtra to join the AdarshaGaonYojana (AGY) and to develop their villages into “Ideal-Model Villages”. Showing faith in Hazare’s words, more than 30 youth joined Hazare as ‘karyakartas’ and stayed in Ralegan Siddhi for more than 1½ years. They were mostly SSC (10^th) and HSC (12^th) from the rural areas and were very devoted and dedicated volunteers. Mr.Hazare cleverly used these ‘karyakartas’ as labours for constructing buildings of the training centre, where they underwent training of 45-days duration after 1½ years of tireless toiling. Theirs was the first batch of “village-level-workers” for the AGY. Two more batches of about 40 to 50 volunteers each underwent training at Ralegan Siddhi. Till this time, the training programmes were entrusted to YadavbabaShikshanPrasarakMandal, headed by Mr.Hazare, by the Govt. of Maharashtra under AGY.

In the mean time, in February 1995, some of Hazare’s close aides from Pune advised him to float another NGO solely for the purpose of AGY and to recruit graduates and post-graduates (in Agriculture, Civil Engineering, Social Work, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Husbandery, etc.) instead of matriculates and to extend the duration of training programme from 45 days to 6 months. Mr.Hazare applied for registration of another trust, named Hind Swaraj Trust, to the Asst. Charity Commissioner, Pune, in the month of February 1995. Subsequently, he submitted in March 1995 a proposal on “National Level Training Centre at Ralegan Siddhi” to the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India, New Delhi, which got approval on 31^st March 1995.  It is interesting to note that the grants were released by the MoRD even before the Trust got registered with the Asst. Charity Commissioner’s office at Pune.

Then, once again, Mr.Hazare appealed the youth of Maharashtra, particularly graduates and post-graduates, to join the AGY. There was an overwhelming response from the youth, as they thought of Hazare as a selfless and dedicated social worker who transformed his native village into an ideal village (AdarshaGaon). Some of them had even quit their present jobs to join the village development movement. They all joined the programme of “AdarshaGaonYojana” of Anna Hazare with great enthusiasm and fervor.

The programme was financially supported by the Govt. of Maharashtra and was implemented by Hazare’s organization, Hind Swaraj Trust. A meager honorarium of Rs. 3,000 per month was paid to the volunteers by the Hind Swaraj Trust out of grants received from the Govt. of Maharashtra. The volunteers were intoxicated by Hazare’s appeal for social work to such an extent that they never imagined that one day Hazare would leave them astray. They were so overcome by the blind-faith in Hazare that they never thought that Mr.Hazare could have ulterior motives. Actually, Mr.Hazare was thinking to launch a state-wide movement against corruption in 90s; and for that purpose, he needed manpower. Under the AdarshaGaonYojana, he organized the trained youth plus the villagers of the project villages, i.e. the AdarshaGaon villages. But, unfortunately his idea could not crystallize and, after his fast against the then Sena-BJP govt., he resigned from the Chairmanship of the AdarshaGaonYojana.

Then he removed the trained youth from the payrolls of Hind Swaraj Trust. The volunteers lodged a case against Hind Swaraj Trust in the Labour Court of Pune (1997). Unfortunately, the volunteers lost the case, as they had furnished a one-sided bond before joining the AdarshaGaonYojana. The agitated volunteers went straight from the Court to the office of Hind Swaraj Trust (where Hazare used to stay during his visit to Pune) to gheraoMr.Hazare. But, Mr.Hazare had fled just minutes before, as soon as he got the message that the volunteers are marching to Hind Swaraj Trust.

Mr.Hazare falsely claimed in the Daily Lokmat of 16/04/2011 that 96 devoted and full-time volunteers are working throughout Maharashtra for rural development and each one of them has an army of more than 20 volunteers. There is nothing like that. In reality, he deceived 300+ volunteers and left them astray. He is making false claims in order to attract youth to join his anti-corruption movement, so that he could use them to bring the nation to standstill during his ‘fast-unto-death-dramas’.

AdarshaGaonYojana (AGY):

It has been learnt that the AdarshaGaonYojana (AGY) Committee has selected Mr. Anna Hazare’s Hind Swaraj Trust for imparting training in watershed development to NGOs working under AGY and for monitoring and evaluation of ongoing and completed projects under AGY.

Actually, Anna Hazare was responsible for the failure of AGY in the period 1992-1997 when he was the Chairman of the state level AGY Committee. Instead of working for the development of 300 villages under AGY, he engaged himself in the anti-corruption movement. After his resignation from the office of Chairmanship, he removed all the Technical and Social Coordinators working in Hind Swaraj Trust under the AGY scheme. Thus, he played with the lives of about 300 youth who had been trained at Ralegan Siddhi in his training centre and who were working with dedication. These youth, who suffered from Hazare’s autocratic nature, had also filed suit in the Labour Court of Pune in 1997 against Hazare’s Hind Swaraj Trust. But, unfortunately, they lost the case as Mr.Hazare had taken a one-sided undertaking from them on a bond-paper. As per the undertaking, the employees could not leave their jobs under AGY, but Hind Swaraj Trust could remove them without any reason. This proves the autocratic nature of Hazare, who treated the employees of AGY as “bonded labourers”. The AGY staff was working on meager amount of honorarium on temporary basis.

Not only that, Mr.Hazare misused his authority of chairmanship of AGY and allotted the printing of stationery worth lakhs of rupees to one of the Trustees of Hind Swaraj Trust, Mr.PradeepMunot, who owns a printing press, named Prabhat Printing Works at Gultekdi. After his resignation, instead of returning the stationery to AGY office, Hazare sold the stationery to waste-paper recycling industry in Pune and earned money.

Instead of taking action against Mr.Hazare, the Govt. of Maharashtra has appointed him as the Chief Advisor to AGY Committee, which is unbelievable. It seems that the Govt. has surrendered before his threats of “fast-unto-death” and offered him the post of Chief Advisor.

Is there any dearth of good and competent NGOs in Maharashtra, from Chanda to Banda, to conduct such training programmes? Is Hind Swaraj Trust selected through proper procedure? Were Expressions-of-Interest (EoI) invited from the reputed NGOs in the field? Is there transparency in the selection procedure? Hind Swaraj Trust is an incapable and incompetent organization. It has failed in all projects it undertook since its inception.

The quality of training at Ralegan Siddhi is very poor due to the lack of well qualified and experienced staff. Due to Hazare’s autocratic nature, good staff left the training centre and joined other organizations. Now, only third-grade staff is left for imparting training. Many NGOs and Govt. Depts. conduct training programs at Ralegan Siddhi due to craze of its reputation which is false. After completion of training, they realize the hollowness of everything. But, due to Hazare’s clout and name, they could not complain.

Mr.Hazare has not even spared Mr.PopatPawar. Mr.Pawar has dedicatedly worked for the development of his village, Hiware Bazar, under the AGY. Hiware Bazar was included in the AGY in 1992, and it is the only village which could be shown as a success story of AGY. There are some other villages also which have done commendable work. Mr.Hazare has recently (April 2011) given a statement that Mr.Pawar is his ‘product’ and took all the credit of Hiware Bazar. In Marathi – AnnaniPawarancha ‘popat’ banawla.

Mr.Hazare has also falsely claimed that there are 96 full-time karyakartas (volunteers) working in Maharashtra at grassroots level and each one of them has a staff of 20 to 25 full-time workers. According to him, they are changing the rural scenario under his guidance. A nicely fabricated story! In reality, these are the same Technical and Social Coordinators who were removed by Hazare and suffered a lot. Actually, Hazare deceived them all in the pretence of ‘social service’.

AdarshaMahilaMandal (AMM)

AMM implemented a project on nursery which was funded by CAPART Regional Office, Ahmedabad. The real beneficiaries are not benefitted by the project. The income earned by selling saplings of horticultural plants is taken by SSYSPM, another organization which is not at all concerned with the project. Thus SSYSPM earns lakhs of rupees through the sale of plants. The green houses of the nursery are located in the premises of SSYSPM. Mr.Hazare controls the Organization, although he is not a Member / Trustee of the AMM.

SantYadavbabaTarunMandal (SYTM)

SYTM implemented a project on construction of crematorium and distribution of cows. Cows are distributed to workers close to Mr.Hazare, and not to needy and poor families. Mr.Hazare controls the organization, although he is not on its Board.

BhrashtacharVirodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA)

Mr.Hazare, who confined himself to rural development in the first two decades of his career, entered the “Right-to-Information” movement in 1995 after coming in contact with Mrs.Aruna Roy who had started the movement in Rajasthan way back in 1980s. He cleverly used this movement to broaden his base from village to state level. He himself lacked organizational skills. So, he tactically used the organizational acumen and mass-support of Dr. Baba Adhav, Mr.AvinashDharmadhikari, Mr. G. P. Pradhan, Mr.GovindbhaiShroff, Father Francis Dibreto and Prof.PushpaBhave in expanding his “BhrashtacharVirodhi Jan Andolan” (BVJA) throughout Maharashtra. After achieving his aim, he removed all of them from the state level committee of BVJA and recruited second grade workers who were having ability to blackmail corrupt government officers, builders and contractors. Some of his district level committees were headed by notorious criminals. They helped Mr.Hazare by collecting ‘donations’ for the movement.

Mr.Hazare is the President of the BVJA which is a registered Society with about 30 district level branches spread all over Maharashtra. In 1998, Mr.Hazare distributed donation receipt books to about 25 district unit heads for collection of donations. Out of them, about 10 receipts books were ‘lost’. In reality, the collected money of donations was collectively appropriated by respective district heads and office bearers. Mr.Hazare submitted a false affidavit before Enquiry Commission. There is corruption under the nose of Hazare in BVJA.

The district units are nothing but collection centres of illicit money. Some of the district heads are notorious criminals (clippings available on youtube). Most of the district heads blackmail corrupt officers, builders and contractors and make money for both BVJA and themselves. They forward complaints with evidences to Mr.Hazare against officers / contractors who do not pay  bribes. There is a competition for appointment as District Head, which inevitably breeds corruption in the movement. The office bearers of BVJA made money out of appointments of district unit heads. Some of the District Heads paid regular bribes to them during 1999 to 2009.

There are so-called documentary evidences of corruption against Mr.GovindraoAdik, Mr.PatangraoKadam, Mr. Sunil Tatkare and Mr.SushilkumarShinde lying with Mr.Hazare. All of these stalwarts surrendered before Hazare as soon as they got the news through some confidential. These leaders poured money in Ralegan Siddhi in the form of funds / grants through different Govt. schemes during their tenure of influential position or office. This is nothing but an innovative form of corruption.

There are District Level Committees constituted by the State Govt. for each district for checking corruption. The District Magistrate (Collector) is the Chairperson of this committee and the other members are drawn from various Govt. Depts. There is one Non-Governmental Member nominated by the District Collector. Mr.Hazare exerted pressure on the State Govt. to give him powers to nominate the Non-Governmental Member. The Govt. yielded to his un-constitutional demand and issued a notification / Govt. Resolution (GR) that the District Collector should nominate the Non-Governmental Member recommended by Mr.Hazare.

	From whom?	What?
1	Ministry of Rural Development,Govt. of India, New Delhi	Reg. sanction of Training Centre, progress reports, dead stock/assets created out of grants, sale of bus Copy of Mr.RajendraPawar’s letter reg. malpractices and misappropriation in DPAP project Reg. sanction and running of training programmes under IWMP
2	Council for Advancement of People’s Action & Rural Technology (CAPART),New Delhi	List of projects sanctioned to Anna Hazare’s organizations/NGOs Copies of progress reports submitted by Hazare’s organizations/NGOs Reports of pre-funding appraisal, mid-term evaluations and post-project evaluations of all the projects All correspondence between CAPART and Anna Hazare/his organizations/NGOs Reg. functioning of HST as SVO
3	Secretary, Rural Development, JalasandharanVibhag,Mantralaya, Mumbai	Copy of Mr.RajendraPawar’s letter reg. malpractices and misappropriation in DPAP Copy of Mr.RajendraPawar’s letter reg. training programmes under STI
4	Commissioner of Income Tax,Pune	Reg. IT returns of Hazare’s organizations which are selling books, CDs and nursery plants Reg. donations accepted by BhrashtacharVirodhi Jana AndolanNyas
5	Superintending Enginner /Executive Engineer, Irrigation Dept., Pune / Ahmednagar	Reg. construction of wall in the Kukadi project canal passing through Parner near Ralegan Siddhi Reg. Watershed Recharge (Recycling) project
6	ZillaParishad, Ahmednagar	Reg. money spent on repair of percolation tank in Ralegan Siddhi
7	Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (Tata Relief Committee), Mumbai	Work done by TRC in Ralegan Siddhi
8	Agriculture Department,Ahmednagar	Reg. money spent in Ralegan Siddhi since 1972 What types of works were undertaken, how many structures constructed under which schemes, etc. Reg. recently constructed check-dams in Ralegan Siddhi in the last 4 years (1 was constructed for beautification of Padmavati temple premises)
9	Collector, Ahmednagar	Reg. funds released under ‘TeerthakshetraVikasYojana’ and ‘Urvarit Maharashtra VaidhanikVikasMandalNidhi’
10	AdarshaGaonYojana Office, KrishiBhavan, Shivajinagar, Pune	Reg. funds released to Hazare’s organizations under AdarshaGaonYojana(AGY) Reg. stationery printed for the AGY by HST

 

Hazare, AdarshaGaonYojana& Hind Swaraj Trust

1. The printing of stationery required for 300 villages under AdarshaGaonYojana (AGY) was allotted to Prabhat Printing Works, Gultekdi, Pune, which is owned by Mr.PradeepMunot. Mr.Munot was also a Trustee of the Hind Swaraj Trust and Mr.Hazare was the Chairman of the AGY Committee of the Govt. of Maharashtra. Mr.Hazare misused his office of the Chairmanship of AGY to allot the printing work to Prabhat Printing Works owned by a Trustee of the Hind Swaraj Trust.
2. Huge quantity of stationery, meant for the project period of 6 – 7 years, was printed by the AGY Committee and handed over to Hind Swaraj Trust for distribution to NGOs working under AGY. Mr.Hazare resigned from the Chairmanship of AGY in 1997. The stationery required for 1 to 1½ year duration was distributed to NGOs by the time Mr.Hazare resigned. What happened to the remaining stationery? Did the AGY Committee recollect the unutilized balance stationery from the Trust?
3. The Govt. of Maharashtra also disbursed funds to the Trust under AGY for construction, salary, training, etc. How many personnel required for AGY were trained by the Trust? Are they still working under AGY? Is there any need to recruit manpower once again and train them at Ralegan Siddhi?
4. Mr.Hazare left the AGY in 1997. By that time, lakhs of rupees were spent on the scheme. Who is responsible for the wasteful expenditure on training, stationery and other recurring and non-recurring items for which funds were given to the Trust? AGY Committee headed by Mr.Hazare OR Hind Swaraj Trust headed by Mr.Hazare?
5. Mr.Hazare was responsible for the failure of the AGY. Why did the Govt. not exact the money from the Trust? Why did the Govt. appoint him as Chief Advisor to the AGY Committee and JalasandharanParishad again?
6. Has the AGY Committee sanctioned project to the Trust in 2010-11 under pressure of Mr.Hazare, because he is the Chief Advisor to the AGY Committee?
7. For what purpose the Govt. of Maharashtra has allotted land at Pune to the Trust? The Trust is constructing a building there. For what purpose?
8. One Mr.RajendraPawar, Ahmednagar, complained in May/June 2009 about the irregularities, misappropriation of funds and mismanagement in the DPAP watershed project being implemented by the Trust in Parnertaluka to: (a) CEO, ZP, Ahmednagar; (b) Secretary, Gramavikas, JalasandharanVibhag, Mantralaya, Mumbai; and (c) Joint Secretary, M & E, Min. of Rural Development, GoI, New Delhi. But instead of taking action, the matter was closed by the Project Director, DRDA, Ahmednagar. The PD himself helped by accepting bogus record submitted by the Trust, under the pressure of Mr.Hazare.

The copy of this letter could be obtained from:

1. Chief Executive Officer, ZillaParishad, Ahmednagar-414001;
2. Chief Executive Officer, ZillaParishad, Pune-411001;
3. Chief Executive Officer, ZillaParishad, Solapur
4. Secretary, Gramavikas, JalasandharanVibhag, Mantralaya, Mumbai-400032;
5. Project Director, DRDA, Ahmednagar.

In a nutshell

The benefits of various projects funded by CAPART did not reach the villagers or the real beneficiaries, but the NGOs headed and controlled by Mr. Anna Hazare cornered the benefits by creating assets, both movable and immovable, as described below:

Most of the funds are diverted from the original projects towards construction of buildings, thus creating assets for the Organization. For this purpose, bogus musters and vouchers were prepared. The buildings thus created are not properly utilized. Some of the buildings are lying idle for the last 12 years and some of the buildings are used illegally for non-project purposes. The buildings of training centre were used as boys’ hostel for 2 years. The students were charged Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 22,000 per year. Some buildings were rented to an NGO for running dispensary for about 6 to 7 years. Three buildings are still used for office and store-rooms of the Anti-corruption Movement.

Most of the projects are nothing but wasteful expenditure. Had these projects been implemented honestly, they would have become ‘models’ for replication; e.g. Vermiculture project and Mushroom cultivation project. The Organizations were not capable of implementing the projects. The honest and dedicated staffs were never encouraged, but they were removed so that malpractices could be carried on without any hindrance. And most importantly, Mr.Hazare’s intentions were never honest and sincere.

The Organizations earn lakhs of rupees each year through the sale of books, cassettes, CDs and tree saplings. All these products were brought out of CAPART funds. Now it has become an enterprise / commercial activity. Under the guise of social work, the Organizations do not pay Income Tax to the Govt. Most of the money from CAPART grants was diverted towards construction of buildings. Every Organization / NGO headed by Mr.Hazare has lakhs of rupees invested in Fixed Deposits with banks and Coop. Credit Society. CAPART has never verified the utilization of its funds due to Hazare’s pressure and threats of “fast-unto-death”.

The villagers’ / beneficiaries’ contribution in the form of ‘shram-dan’ in any project never crossed 3% of the project cost. But Mr.Hazare always exaggerates the figure to 15 to 20%. The villagers’ aspirations and needs were never considered during formulation and implementation of the projects. The projects were ‘NGO-centric’ instead of ‘people-centric’.

There are 2 Training Centres in Ralegan Siddhi; one funded by CAPART to SSYSPM and another funded by the MoRD to HST. Mr.Hazare also extracted funds from the State Govt. for both these training centres. The amount of stipend which had to be paid to trainees was also appropriated by his Organizations. During 1992 to 1997, the Govt. of Maharashtra issued many GRs in favour of Mr.Hazare and his Trusts for the AdarshaGaonYojana (AGY) under his pressure. Even today, the Govt. is pouring money in Ralegan Siddhi for training, monitoring and evaluation under the AGY, despite the poor quality of training and lack of well qualified staff.

Actually, Hazare has completely failed in the AGY and he had resigned in 1997 from the Chairmanship of the AGY Committee. But, to please him and to divert him from going on repeated hunger strikes, the Govt. appointed him as the Chief Advisor of the AGY. Mr.Hazare is misusing his office to get funds. There is no dearth of good and reputed NGOs in the field of watershed development in Maharashtra for training, monitoring and evaluation.

 

 

Details of projects implemented by SantYadavbabaShikshanPrasarakMandal and funded by CAPART (Min. of Rural Development, Govt. of India, New Delhi)

Sl. No.	Title of the project	Year of sanction	Amount sanctioned / released / refunded to CAPART	Local contribution as shown by SSYSPM
1	Water Conservation Project	1990	Sanctioned                  Rs. 3,40,242 Released                     Rs. 3,40,242	Beneficiaries’-     Rs. 35,830
2	Organic Farming with Bio-degradable Waste by Using Earthworm Technology (Vermiculture Project)	1992	Sanctioned                  Rs. 9,64,000 Released                     Rs. 8,13,950 Refunded                    Rs. 3,25,311	Nil
3	Setting up a Demonstration Centre at Ralegan Siddhi Using Low-cost Construction Technology	1992	Sanctioned                Rs. 11,36,156 Released                   Rs. 11,36,156	Organisation’s- Rs. 1,72,966
4	Comprehensive Watershed Mgmt. Project	1993	Sanctioned                  Rs. 8,26,000 Released                     Rs. 8,26,000	Beneficiaries’-     Rs. 54,810
5	Training Institute for Ideal Village Level Workers	1994	Sanctioned                Rs. 14,45,050 Released                   Rs. 12,17,050 Refunded                    Rs. 2,81,788	Nil
6	Construction of Permanent Water Supply Scheme at Ganeshwadi	1994	Sanctioned                  Rs. 3,82,000 Released                     Rs. 3,82,000	Organisation’s-    Rs. 26,983Beneficiaries’-  Rs. 1,21,035
7	Establishing a Model Oyster Mushroom Cultivation Centre	1994	Sanctioned                  Rs. 9,69,900 Released                     Rs. 6,36,500  Refunded-Exact figure not known	Nil
8	Construction of Series of Bandharas for Drinking WaterSupply&Agrill. Use	1995	Sanctioned                  Rs. 7,17,000 Released                     Rs. 7,17,000	Beneficiaries’-     Rs. 46,960
9	Setting-up a Media Centre at Ralegan Siddhi – Phase I	1996	Sanctioned                Rs. 14,65,300 Released                   Rs. 14,00,300 Refunded                       Rs. 58,794	Nil
10	Setting-up a Media Centre at Ralegan Siddhi – Phase II	1999	Figures not known	Nil

 

The above table is incomplete. More details to be added later in my book “OPIUM OF RAMLEELA’.

…..To be continued

RajuParulekar

raju.parulekar@gmail.com

(M) +91-9892769950