P Chidambaram - Controversy refuses to let this man alone

This year several high profile ministers resigned, many were sent to prison but still, I believe, the title of most controversial politician of this year will go to P. Chidambaram, Home Minister, Government of India.

First his name gets dragged into the multi-multi-crore 2G spectrum allocation scam of India. It is alleged that he was involved in the 2G spectrum allocation scandal. Just when the opposition had started to cool down against him, a letter from finance ministry to the prime minister's office surfaced, that too when both the finance minister and the prime minister were not in the country.

The media had gotten over this incident when it was learnt that Subramanian Swamy has been asked to present his arguement before court as to why P. Chidambaram's role in the spectrum allocation case should be investigated.

Now as the year draws to an end, the news to hit the streets against the home minister is regarding his alleged misuse of office. It seems that minister used his position as home minister to get criminal cases against one his former clients to be withdrawn.


P. Chidambaram the name will go down history as the most controversial politician of 2011.

Roll Back Government has Rolled Back Again

The Government of India, which has earned a reputation for itself in rolling back its own decisions has done it once again.

This time the government has rolled back its decision to allow FDI investment in the retail sector. Although the government is saying that it has put the decision on hold "until a consensus is evolved" among its allies. So it is as good as a roll-back. The government is not going to implement another one of its announcements.

With the roll back of the FDI issue, the path has now been cleared to focus back to the topic of the Jan-Lokpal Bill.

Anna Hazare has already announced a symbolic one-day protest for 11-Dec-2011, and said he is ready for another hunger strike by the end of the month if the Jan-Lokpal Bill is not passed, in accordance the PMs letter to him and the sense-of-the-parliament conveyed to him during the previous Parliament Session.

It will be interesting to see what the government does this time to humiliate itself.

Scams of India

The current Government of India led by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will probably go down in history as the government with the maximum number of corruption charges - both in terms of quantity and magnitude. Most of the scams exposed in the last few months have occurred while the government is still in power.

Ironically, some of the most severe allegations of corruption were against the Congress or Congress-led governments. These include...

• Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency when Jai Prakash Narayan led an anti-corruption campaign against her government.
• Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi faced rough weather when his senior colleagues led by V. P. Singh alleged corruption in the Bofors Commission scandal. 
• Soon after completing his tenure, Prime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao's was tried in court for bribing the members of parliament from the Shibu Soren's JMM Party.
• Amar Singh, Member of Parliament, is currently in custody for his role in trying to bribe some members of parliament to abstain from voting or voting in favour of the Congress during the last Vote of Confidence in the parliament. Incidentally mediator and the whistle blowers in the case have been sent to judicial custody while the beneficiaries of this graft are still left untouched.

And now the current government has, shamelessly, surpassed all previous scandals, its ministers and senior MPs have landed in jail for their involvement in the mega-scams that have taken place in the last 3-4 years. The size of the scams put all the previous scams to shame...

• Commonwealth Games scandal - Thousands of Crores - Accused politicians include... Suresh Kalmadi MP and chairman of the Organizing Committee, Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi.
• 2G Scam - Lakhs of Crores - Accused politicians include... A. Raja, MP and now ex-Minister of Telecommunications, Kanimozhi MP, P. Chidambaram - then Finance Minister, now Home Minister.

Earlier governments too have had criminal investigations against them, but none were of this magnitude and most were after the government had left office.

To top it all, the government has vigorously contested against those have raised voices against corruption and black money.

Controversy and Government of India

Controversy refuses to leave the present government at New Delhi. The government has managed to get itself in a corner even in a win-win situation. The Indian Hockey Team has won but once again the government has lost.

The Indian hockey team refused to accept the "too-little" award money offered to it by the federation.

Normally this controversy would not be attributed to the government, but here GOI is involved because it is responsible for controlling and funding Hockey the national sport of India.

Interestingly, many questions were raised last week when the media reported that the team did not have proper shoes when they set out to play the final match. Surprising!! Very surprising - because the government says it has given crores for this game, so has it all gone.

The most likely and easy answer that pops into the mind is "CORRUPTION". Like other government departments, the babus and officers managing the federation need to be closely examined.