In a “you cannot make this stuff up” incident, a man who was claiming to be a journalist cum travel agent has been caught by Jammu’s Crime Branch for running a fake helicopter ticket scam.
The man whose name real name is Sanjay Bajaj used to meet gullible pilgrims under the name of Sidharth Sharma and sell them fake helicopter tickets for the 2017 Amarnath Yatra. He ironically used to bring further credibility to himself by posing as a journalist and the state bureau chief of some news outlets named Tezz Khabar, Nation Live News and Keyline News. He had reportedly minted some Rs 15 lakh via running this fraud.
Arrested on Sunday, he was brought before a Tehsildar and was sent to a 6 day police remand. He was arrested on the basis of a complaint by a certain Rajesh Gupta who is the representative of a Helicopter services company Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd.
The helicopter company had a contract with the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for providing helicopter service on Neelgrath-Panchtarni route. The one way prices for the same had been fixed at Rs 1715.
The offices of the helicopter agency had reportedly received a call on 4th June from a Sudarshan Sharma of Jammu who had asked them to authenticate 22 helicopter tickets which he had bought from the accused Sanjay Bajaj. Sudarshan had also apparently shared the copies of the tickets on WhatsApp, which on scrutiny were found to be fake. The tickets also cost about Rs 3250 which were almost double the regulated price of Rs 1715.
Sudarshan was immediately informed that he had been duped and no such person was authorised to sell the tickets. A complaint was lodged and the subsequent preliminary investigation by the Crime Branch authorities found that the accused Sanjay Bajaj used to prepare forged helicopter tickets at his Jammu based company named Sidhi Vinayak Tour & Travels.
He was reportedly running this scam since long via his unregistered travel agency and had cheated many innocent pilgrims.
In an example of how half-truths are used to peddle an agenda, a bizarre and cruel incident was used by some journalists and celebrities to push ‘Hindu intolerance’ narrative on Twitter yesterday (and it continues even today).
The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday earlier this week in Nagaur district of Rajasthan where a group of men, some hiding their faces, were recorded on camera abusing and assaulting a woman with plastic pipes and forcing her to chant religious slogans. It was not clear who recorded the incident, but the video clearly showed that the men were forcing the woman to chant “Allah” and “Jai Shri Ram”.
Woman mercilessly thrashed in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, forced to say Jai Shree Ram. Police have arrested two people @htTweetspic.twitter.com/IRC4IVTWT1
In the above video, one can hear clearly that the woman was asked to chant “Allah” at least three times, and then asked to chant “Ram”, “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” once subsequently. This ‘communal counting’ is silly given that the incident itself should be outrageous enough, but we are forced to do so since a section of the mainstream media decided to give it communal colour.
Local media reports confirm that the incident was purely criminal and the motive behind it might have been a suspicion that the woman could have been the unknown miscreant, who apparently has been cutting hairs of villagers, especially of women, in the area during the night. However, this incident, which highlights lack of policing in the area, was presented as a hate crime involving Hindutva elements.
It started with a Hindustan Times journalist tweeting only about the “Jai Shri Ram” part and hiding the “Allah” part, thus making it appear as a case of “Hindu intolerance” in a BJP ruled state. The journalist’s intention to link it with religion and politics becomes clear in a subsequent tweet, where he tags CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and links the incident to another incident of “cow vigilantism” that happened in the state last week:
His trick worked, and Hindustan Times too played its part by re-tweeting the journalist’s half-truth. It was enough for people to lament “Hindutva” and “beef politics” and go on an ideological overdrive when the incident had nothing to do with any communal or partisan politics.
Here is one sample reaction from Sagarika Ghose, who of late has been on a mission to spread fake news and misinformation to push her agenda:
my god this is just apalling. Goons beat a woman and bark, “Bol jai shree ram”. Every day brings a new horror https://t.co/gNxkPPnonq
This is not for the first time when Indian mainstream media has used half-truths to peddle a partisan agenda. Earlier we had seen how HuffPo ignored killings of Hindus and focused only on Muslim victims regarding an unfortunate incident in Jharkhand, while before that, The Hindu had blamed only Hindu groups in a case of forceful cancellation of an event where other religious groups were also involved.
Fortunately, not everyone in the media was pushing the agenda this time. Rajasthan Patrika, generally considered close to the Congress, reported with full facts, raising the relevant issue of law and order.
News agency ANI too reported without hiding the “Allah” part. It should be further noted that two men in this case have been arrested and police is investigating more about the case, including about the person who shot the video and uploaded it on social media.
However, this has not deterred people, especially journalists, from continuing to peddle their partisan agenda. Following is a tweet by a former Hindustan Times journalist, who quotes the same ANI tweet that mentioned “Allah”, but decides to focus only on “Jai Shri Ram”:
It appears that terrorists too want to keep up with technology. A 25-page-long document retrieved by the Chhattisgarh Police in April suggests that the Maoists are increasingly looking to use internet and new technologies for their war.
According to reports, in a marked shift in the Maoist movement’s propaganda machinery, top Maoist leadership in Chhattisgarh has issued guidelines regarding the use of technology to its cadre.
“Don’t access websites on the radar of Intelligence agencies, store important documents in memory cards, do not carry mobile phones with SIM cards, tap WhatsApp….” These are some of the guidelines issued by the Maoist leadership in Chhattisgarh.
The contents of the document which has also revealed plans to create a new Maoist zone – covering pockets of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – is said to be have been drafted by “MMC Leading team” in March 2017. It appears that Maoists are concentrating to increase their strength entirely in and around Chhattisgarh after reports indicated that they were being weakened in other regions of India.
Under the paragraph titled “The spread of propaganda” the document reads, “Propaganda is being carried out via pamphlets, banners, posters, statements and these days through mobile phones and WhatsApp. After taking decisions, we must concentrate quickly on propaganda material and this must also be planned… We cannot depend only on computers.”
In a first, the documents stats that Maoist cadre up to the rank of divisional commander are allowed the use of mobile phones and tablets for “leadership expansion and the ease of reading material as opposed to carrying books”.
Top officials of Chhattisgarh Police, those who have studied the documents, explained that this shift in stance by the Left-wing terrorists is because of two reasons.
“Often, after an exchange of fire, even if there are no casualties, the Maoists have to leave their camps in a hurry, leaving material behind. This literature tells us of their status, strength and other strategic aspects. If they begin to use memory cards in phones, which they carry on their person, we will potentially only get this information if there is an arrest, or a body recovered,” a senior police officer was quoted as saying.
“Second, even though there are connectivity blackout areas deep inside the forests of Rajnandgaon and Kabirdham, the mobile network is better than in Bastar. That may also have prompted this decision, because there is a need to adapt,” the police official said.
Following are the guidelines mentioned in the Maoist document:
“Don’t carry mobile phones with SIM cards. Every electronic device has a microchip which conducts its primary functioning. And every one has an IEMI number which recognises other devices. These days, every smartphone or tablet has GPS tracking facilities. When your phone comes into mobile service or WiFi internet service, it gets registered on their servers.”
“It is wrong to believe that locations are not revealed if you download from the internet. Special websites are under the watch of intelligence agencies, and it is noted that what site is being accessed from where how many times. This has to be kept in mind while downloading.”
“Do not keep important documents in the inbuilt memory of phones. Keep these in a separate memory card and use it when needed. For other documents keep a separate memory card.”
“Attach your device to an updated computer and scan for viruses every six months. Acquire an anti virus that can be put in the phone if possible.”
“Keep WiFi switched off on the phones. When a download is required, give permission to your device, or else ordinarily keep it on the mode where permission is not granted. Switch on Bluetooth when required or keep it off.”
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, his now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines and his United Breweries (Holding) Limited in connection to the Rs 900 crore IDBI-KFA loan default case. Senior executives of the Kingfisher Airlines and the IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) Bank have also been named in the chargesheet.
The chargesheet, which runs into 5000 pages, was filed before a special anti-money laundering court in Mumbai on Wednesday (14 June). The chargesheet was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Calling Mallya the “prime mover of the entire plot”, the ED chargesheet – with the help of flow charts and diagrams – explains how the bank loan fraud was done. The chargesheet describes how funds of over Rs 400 crore were moved abroad in alleged violation of rules. The chargesheet further describes how a significant portion of the funds obtained from the bank loan were diverted illegally to fund the entities of the beleaguered businessman in India and abroad.
The ED chargesheet talks about diversion of funds to Mallya-owned entities such as Watson and Force India and software consulting firm UBICS. The chargesheet further suggests that funds were diverted Mallya’s Formula-1 car racing event and the two firms controlled by him — UBICS Technologies Pvt Ltd and UB Engineering Pvt Ltd.
According to the chargesheet, Mallya, KFA along with IDBI bank officials were “criminally conspired to obtain funds to the tune of Rs 860.92 crore despite weak financials, negative net-worth, non- compliance of corporate credit policy of new client, non- quality collateral security and low credit rating of the borrower, out of which Rs 807.82 crore of principal amount remains unpaid”.
The ED chargesheet shows how Mallya routed overseas over Rs 417 crore of the Rs 860.92 crore he secured as loan from IDBI Bank for aircraft rental leasing and operational expenses of Kingfisher Airlines.
Out of the total loan of Rs 860.92 crore, sanctioned and disbursed by IDBI, Rs 423 crore was remitted out of India, the chargesheet said. “The said payments were shown to be made towards aircraft rental leasing and maintenance, servicing and spare parts,” it said.
“Vijay Mallya and others accused are guilty of money laundering under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA. Trial should be started against them and property attached (frozen) in the matter worth Rs 808 crore should be confiscated,” the chargesheet said in its concluding remark.
The total loan sanctioned by the IDBI bank to Kingfisher Airlines was Rs 860.92 crore. The loan amount rises to Rs 900 crore adding interest.
The ED has requested the court to confiscate Rs 808 crore worth of property of Mallya, which includes his farmhouse near Mumbai, UB City Mall in Bengaluru, his residential property in Mumbai and Bengaluru to recover the dues. The ED has already frozen Rs 9,680 crore of property belonging to Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines.
Vijay Mallya is in his safe haven in London after siphoning up over Rs 9,000 crore of loan taken from different banks in India over a period 11 years. Mallya owes loans to as many as 17 lenders, including the SBI, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India, Central Bank, UCO Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Federal Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank and Axis Bank among others.
The date of the Presidential elections of India is coming closer and as a result, all the political parties are huddled in discussion mode to ascertain as to what should be their approach to these elections. The elections would be held on 17th July and the process would be completed by the 20th.
Even though the President of India doesn’t have any such direct powers, his signature is required to enact any bill into law. Generally the incumbent government tries to vote in a candidate who won’t create bad press by returning any bill or indulging in other, mostly symbolical, acts.
The President of India is elected via an electoral college where all the members who hold elected office (MPs and MLAs) cast the vote in favour of their candidates. Hence every political party in this case holds a direct influence over the elections as they can clearly instruct their members to vote in favour of a certain candidate.
In this election, the NDA has till now managed to secure about 48.6% of the possible votes and in order to reach a consensus has tried to reach out to even Sonia Gandhi and Sitaram Yechuri. NDA till date needs about 20,000 more electoral votes to secure the majority mark.
The opposition parties too are holding meetings in order to identify a suitable Presidential candidate whom they can support. Interestingly though, the opposition has reportedly decided to exclude the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from any sort of participation in those meetings.
According to the report, on Wednesday in one such meeting, Sitaram Yechury and Mamata Banerjee had moved a proposal to include the AAP in the discussions, but it was unceremoniously shot down by the Congress and the NCP.
Both Mamata and Yechury had also passed a similar resolution during their previous meeting but had met with the same result. The reason given for the apparent hostility was that a few members of the AAP had indulged in ‘objectionable’ behaviour.
The report claimed that the Congress members incidentally referred to the AAP as the B-team of the BJP as the party’s behaviour in Gujarat, Punjab and Goa had apparently hampered the path of the Congress.
A few though contradicted the Congress by claiming that the AAP wanted to win over the opposition in order to ‘dodge’ the BJP with which it already has strained relations. However, it was decided to keep AAP at bay for now.
While the incident reflects on blow-hot-blow-cold relationship between AAP and Congress, it is also a sign of how the opposition also seem to be struggling to get the upper hand in the Presidential elections.
Abdul Sattar, the Congress MLA from the Sillod constituency of Maharashtra has stirred up a controversy after he was caught on camera abusing and thrashing farmers over an alleged land dispute:
Maha: Sillod Cong MLA Abdul Sattar Abdul Nabi, along with supporters, allegedly beat up farmers in his neighborhood over land dispute (12/6) pic.twitter.com/VfBIgW9PM6
According to reports the land which falls in the Sillod area, belongs to a man named Mukhtar whose 10 acre plot is adjacent to the MLAs’ farmlands. According to Mukhtar, the MLA reportedly wants to encroach upon it.
On 12th June when he was working in the lands, the MLA reached with his people, the police and started to assault and hurl obscenities at him. The MLA also allegedly threatened Mukhtar by claiming that he would be killed if he ever stepped on the his (MLA’s) land. Mukhtar has also alleged that the police is not taking any action owing to the pressure being exerted by the Congress MLA.
According to another report, the MLA had apparently assaulted not just Mukhtar but other farmers too who were working there.
The MLA though in his defence has claimed that the land actually belonged to a Dalit and that Muhtar and others were not handing it over to him hence he decided to take action. He also claimed that had he not intervened, the farmers were going to beat up the dalit. He also has called the whole episode as a BJP conspiracy.
No cases yet have been filed against the MLA even though according reports, the farmers had lodged a complaint against the MLA, his son Sameer and two others at the police station.
It remains to be seen as to what the response of the party high command is to the whole affair. Recently the Congress party has been actively participating in the alleged farmer protest going on at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress Party including its leaders have been portraying that they deeply care for the farmers and the issues faced by them. Recently senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia had proclaimed that he would go to Mandsaur alone. He was later detained midway and was released a few hours later.
So it would be vital to note what action the party takes against its own MLA who was caught openly assaulting farmers.
Instances of counterfeit currency detection in Indian banking system have seen an abrupt escalation in the last eight years.
According to reports, data compiled by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) shows that the number of counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) have been on the rise. While a mere 8,580 cases were detected in 2007-08, the year 2008-09 saw 35,730 cases, 1,27,781 cases were detected 2009-10, 2,51,448 cases reported in 2010-11, 2,51,448 cases detected in 2011-12, 3,27,382 cases in 2012-13 and 3,53,837 cases reported in 2014-15.
The FIU data, however, does not specify the amount of fake currency detected in these years. Counterfeit currency devalues the real worth of Indian currency and thus the detection is important. A study conducted by Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata on behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) suggests that fake Indian currency notes (FICN) amounting to Rs 400 crore are in circulation in the country at any given point of time and around Rs 70 crore fake notes are pumped into Indian economy every year. The estimation is based on recovery and seizure made by various agencies. But the actual figure could be much larger.
Counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) are meant to check the extent of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) entering into the Indian banking system.
The FIU data indicates that around 90 per cent of the reports of counterfeit currency detection were filed by private Indian banks.
CCR is defined as the usage of a forged or counterfeit currency note or bank note as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place during a cash transaction at a bank.
“The private Indian banks contribute majority of CCRs. The compliance levels of the public sector banks continued to be low despite the matter having been taken up with the RBI,” the FICN report said.
Under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), all banks operating in the country – either public sector, private and foreign banks –are mandated to report instances of detection of fake currency to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). In 2007, the government had first mandated the FIU to receive such reports from the banks.
The FIU under the Union Finance Ministry acts as the national agency to provide financial intelligence to law enforcement agencies for safeguarding the economy from abuses of money laundering, terror financing and other offences. The FIU disseminates data and informations to investigative agencies time to time.
FIU, during 2014-15, had received a total of 58,646 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) from all types of banks, financial institutions like insurance companies, intermediaries like stock brokers, non-financial businesses and professions like casinos and private locker operators.
As per available data, the maximum STRs reported to the FIU were by banks as compared to any other financial intermediaries.
Rumours related to food items are not new. Some are exaggerated truths (say, toxic vegetables) while some are plain lies like we had seen during the demonetisation period in November last year about shortage of salt, etc. It is not easy to ignore even dubious claims being made about edible items, as it is related to the well-being and daily lives of everyone. This time, the claims are about fake food or food items made of plastic.
There have been panic in various parts of the country after there were rumours of plastic rice, plastic eggs and plastic sugar flooding the markets. Such reports came from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and even Delhi.
This led to many people panicking as the commodities in question are consumed in vast amounts and any adulteration with hazardous products like plastic might lead to serious health issues. Soon the administration swung into action in order to ascertain the truth.
As it turns out, most of the claims were rumours without any shred of truth. The Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader outright dismissed the rumours and blamed vested interests for spreading them. As per some estimates, plastic food doesn’t even make any ‘economic’ sense for adulteration as plastic is usually costlier than these food items.
Interestingly, this plastic rice rumour is pretty old and not limited to just India. Similar reports from South East Asia and even China have emerged earlier, and even there they were dismissed with similar logic. For example, even Malaysian newspapers had reported that there was no economic incentive to mix plastic in rice. The President of Malaysia’s rice wholesale association claimed that there was no profit to be made from plastic rice. This plastic rice phenomenon has also been dismissed by the Malaysian health department.
Now this ‘plastic theory’ has further been debunked by the Delhi’s food safety department. According to reports, the food department had collected at least 27 samples from the market and none were found to have had any plastic. The rumour was that such plastic rice was imported from China. However, an environmental rights activist stated that such stories were unlikely to be true as India already produced enough paddy and didn’t need to import rice from China.
Incidentally such reports of plastic food items are not new and such rumors are spread due to sensational media reports and unverified videos on social media. In October, the phenomenon of Chinese fake eggs had gripped Kerala after a local news channel had somehow managed to claim that fake eggs were being sold in the Idukki district of the state. This resulted in people releasing various anonymous videos about them receiving fake eggs. This prompted the food inspection officials to make checks and after even sending the samples to testing labs they concluded that all the eggs in question were real.
A similar phenomenon was also witnessed in West Bengal recently. Apparently the people in Kerala were convinced of the plastic eggs phenomenon after they thought the thin keratin film between the egg shell and egg white was actually plastic.
So how did this all begin
The origin of the plastic rice phenomenon actually has nothing to do with plastic. In 2010, China witnessed the Wuchang rice scandal where traders added flavours to ordinary rice to pass it off as premium Wuchang rice. In 2011, the Korean Times claimed that traders in Taiyuan, Shaanxi Province were selling fake rice which was made by mixing potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic. This seems to be the first recorded report of the plastic in rice phenomenon. Also in this case the rice was not completely made of plastic but it was merely an additive.
Large news organisations too have apparently fallen prey to this rumor. In December 2016, the BBC and CNN had reported that large amounts plastic rice was seized in Nigeria. This was later dismissed by the Nigerian authorities who claimed that the rice actually contained bacteria above permissible limits.
So finally…
As pointed out by various sources, the ‘plastic food’ can never be a mass phenomenon as there’s almost no profit in making plastic versions of cheap foods and then selling them. The only such contamination can take place when it comes to premium versions like Basmati rice which is rarely consumed by people and hence shouldn’t result in mass panic as has been witnessed recently.
Twelve accounts, each having more than Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans, accounts for as many as 25 per cent of the current gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banking system as of March 31, 2016. This was revealed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday.
All these identified accounts are eligible for immediate reference for proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) as per the recommendation of the Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) of the RBI.
“In particular, the IAC recommended for IBC reference of all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5,000 crore, with 60 per cent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016,” read a RBI statement.
Without naming the defaulters, the RBI said the banks will be asked to initiate insolvency proceedings to recover the dues.
“The Reserve Bank, based on the recommendations of the IAC, will accordingly be issuing directions to banks to file for insolvency proceedings under the IBC in respect of the identified accounts. Such cases will be accorded priority by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT),” the RBI said.
Though the RBI did not disclose the names of the defaulters, reports suggest that borrowers such as Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Lanco, and Alok Textiles may be the first set of companies facing proceedings under the stringent recovery laws.
The IAC explored 500 top exposures of the banking system and has recommended for bankruptcy proceedings all accounts with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5,000 crore, with 60 per cent or more classified as non-performing by banks as of March 31, 2016. Of them, 12 accounts were referred immediately under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
So far 81 cases of bad loans have been referred to NCLT. Out of the 81 cases, 18 were referred for bankruptcy by their creditors. NCLT is the arbitration authority for cases filed under IBC.
“The IAC agreed to focus on large stressed accounts at this stage and accordingly took up for consideration the accounts which were classified partly or wholly as non-performing from amongst the top 500 exposures in the banking system,” the RBI statement said.
Earlier Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that RBI was at an advanced stage of drawing up the list of bad loan cases to be referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for bankruptcy proceedings and the number of cases going for bankruptcy resolution would rise once the RBI draws up the list.
Last week, RBI deputy governor NS Vishwanathan had said, “We have decided to focus on a few large stressed accounts under this framework and accordingly a set of accounts has been identified, based on objective criteria.”
As reported earlier, private sector banks continue to hide a large chunk of stressed assets. There is a huge mismatch between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimation and respective private bank’s own estimation of stressed assets as the private banks under report the non-performing assets (NPAs) figures. This has come to the light during the audit by the central bank.
Bad loans have increased over the years, thanks to the wilful defaulters, bleeding the Indian economy. According to available data, private sector banks have been jostling with stressed assets of a staggering Rs 10 lakh crore as of December-end. Similarly, the stressed assets of public sector banks are pegged at a whopping Rs 6.07 lakh crore till December end. Central bank had earlier stated that stress was coming from sectors such as power, telecom, steel, textiles, and aviation.
According to a report by S&P Global ratings, the stressed assets of Indian banks are likely to increase to 15 per cent of the total loans by March 2018 amid rising requirements for regulatory capital until 2019.
The Union Cabinet, on 3 May, had approved promulgation of an Ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act, which gives wide ranging powers to the RBI to initiate insolvency proceedings for the recovery of bad loans.
Last month, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s longest river bridge – the Dhola Sadiya bridge – that connects Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and named it after the legendary Bhupen Hazarika.
This was enough for the social media handles of Congress folks to go into a tizzy on Twitter. This was their grouse:
They went on and on about how the foundation was laid in 2010 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all that Modi did was to take credit for Manmohan Singh’s work.
But then Social Media is an evil place to be. It soon emerged that the go-ahead for the design of this bridge was given by the Prime Minister of India in 2003, and I don’t have to remind you, the enlightened reader, who the PM was in 2003!
So essentially the bridge was announced in 2003, foundation laid in 2010, construction started in 2011 and inaugurated in 2017 – the story of any project in India.
Nonetheless the issue here is this claim by the Congress party and the ecosystem. This “allegation” has been a trend ever since the Narendra Modi government started rolling out welfare schemes. The Congress party (and the English media) have constantly been saying that all the programs are a mere rehash of old UPA programs.
While researching to write this article, guess what I found? An article in 2001, in India Today that said – “Most of the rural development schemes announced by Vajpayee are merely repackaged versions of populist programmes of past prime ministers.”
In the aforementioned article, only 4 schemes are mentioned and only 2 are in continuum, and more importantly note how despondent that article sounded on what would eventually become one of the biggest successful infrastructure programs – the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (which incidentally is *not* a repackaged program!).
Guess what I did not find? Any headline, from 2004 to 2014, that says – “Most of UPAs schemes are repackaged versions of NDA”.
Only fellow tweeter “thinkerspad” exposed this thievery of the Congress party, way back in 2013, here. And Prime Minister Modi touched upon this in his speech here (from 8:16 minutes onward, for about 3-4 minutes).
So, essentially, this is a media template. And I can just stop here and blame it all on media bias and propaganda, and I will not be wrong. But let us still look into the facts about welfare schemes by the Narendra Modi government, and whether they are mere rehash of some old Congress/UPA schemes, as is being claimed on Twitter by a few these days:
Jan Dhan Yojana
The accusation is that the Jan Dhan Yojana is a mere rehash of “Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) with max publicity”. First of all – how did the UPA even want to propagate this program with such a complicated name? Imagine a customer who doesn’t know English going to a bank and the executive telling him/her that there is this awesome “Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account” that will change your life!
This claim was made by no other but former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who wrote in 2015 that this BSBDA, started in 2012, was basically an extension of “No Frills” accounts introduced in 2005. He goes on to claim that 24.3 crore accounts were opened under this scheme, without any boasting or advertisement. Safe to assume that he means they opened 24.3 crore new accounts in a period of 9 years.
He further goes on to tell us that there was a big problem – “Most zero balance accounts had a zero balance and no activity whatsoever.”
Enter Jan Dhan Yojana. The name is instantly connecting with people. It now includes an added insurance cover, and interest on deposit. It now includes the bank officials going to the homes of people to get them an account.
Within no time, it creates a Guinness Record – 27 crore accounts opened in ~2.5 years; 75% zero balance accounts have now become ~28% zero balance and nearly INR 65,000 crores have come into the banking system.
So basically, all the shortcomings of earlier schemes were effectively addressed, new benefits were provided, and most importantly, some exemplary implementation guaranteed unprecedented success.
To say that Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana it is merely a repackaged version of BSBDA is like saying that motorbike is just a repackaged version of bicycle.
Neem Coated Urea
Here is the accusation: “Neem coated Urea started 13 years ago. Modi Govt increased the production ceiling fm 35% to 100% and that’s it.”
“That’s it”? Let’s quickly understand what this Neem coated urea is all about. As per the website of National fertilizers limited: (emphasis added)
“Agronomical trial on Paddy and Wheat crops with Neem coated Urea as source of Nitrogen has produced significantly higher yield at research and farm level.”
“National Fertilizers Limited, in the year 2002, standardized the techniques for production of Neem Coated Urea in situ, at its Panipat Unit.”
“Looking into the potential of Neem Coated Urea and its acceptance by the farmers, Ministry of Agriculture in July 2004, included the Neem Coated Urea in FCO.”
Let’s just focus on two timelines – standardization of technique in the year 2002, and adoption in July 2004.
Now, urea as a fertilizer is widely used and because of this, it is (was) also one of the highly pilferaged fertilizer in the country. Urea that was supposed to land in the hands of the farmer, often ended up with chemical industries or even rogue elements that used Urea to prepare adulterated milk.
So – it’s a open-and-shut case – move all Urea production to 100% neem coated, both to increase yield and stop the pilferage and misuse.
What did the UPA do? Mysteriously decides that only 35% of it will be neem-coated. Why the 65% free takeaway was allowed, is anyone’s guess.
For a full ~10 years, only 35% Urea was neem-coated. What did NDA do after coming to power? Made it 100% mandatory. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what “industries” have been hurt because of this.
At various fora, the PM and his ministers have highlighted this monumental change – at one such forum, when this was being highlighted, Rajdeep Sardesai cut short the minister and asked him, “Are you a suit-boot ki Sarkar?”
Electrification drive
We now move on to the next (hilarious) accusation – “RGGVY (Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana) renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhya gram jyoti yojana for Piyush Goyal to boast tall fake claims.”
RGGVY, introduced in 2005, had the aim is to electrify all villages. By when? By 2010. [pdf] Quite obviously, that target was missed by a WIDE margin.
But was it some innovative program when it was introduced in 2005? Turns out that the NDA-1 government, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had an “ACCELERATED RURAL ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAMME”.
Now, my head is spinning to understand who usurped whose idea?!
And by the way, in three years, India has become a power surplus and net exporter of electricity for the first time in 2016-17.
Housing schemes
Seriously? Such schemes have been in vogue in India since 1985 at least. If successive governments haven’t been able to achieve targets, the incumbent government obviously has a responsibility towards plugging the loopholes, and achieving the new target of housing for all by 2022.
It is pertinent to mention here that Narendra Modi himself has said many times that if the country can just focus on finishing already approved projects, a lot of development is possible. Towards achieving this goal, he personally chairs a “PRAGATI” meeting every month and tracks the progress of all these projects.
Pension schemes
The accusation is “Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana started in 2007 became Modi’s Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.”
I guess such statements are made simply assuming the reader is not intelligent enough to decipher outright visible differences. Here is “Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana” and here is “Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana”, and below is a quick table comparing them:
Just the name was changed?
Both the yojanas exist today, but it is anybody’s guess which one people will prefer to take! And the user conveniently forgets to mention the other insurance scheme – Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bima Yojana – Life insurance of 2 lakhs with a premium of 330/- per annum. And as always – the NDA government put in a lot of efforts into spreading this information to the citizens of the country.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao
Some are claiming that the “National Girl Child Day” of UPA was renamed to “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” [pdf] program of the NDA. This is even more specious comparison than the insurance schemes – to compare the celebration of a day to a mass campaign program like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao!
However, this is not result of some lack of understanding. There is a clear agenda. To make these lazy accusations multiple times so that people start believing that they are true. An influential part of the media is complicit in fanning this narrative.
Also, one can’t help but notice the utter lack of in-depth coverage of unique flagship programs like MUDRA, Make in India, Ujjwala, Startup India, Digital India et al. Latest coverage was an article written in The Indian Express about Make in India, calling it a flop show, and guess who wrote it? P Chidambaram.
