Indian Banking Sector’s Criminal Underbelly

From Vakratund Varma, New Delhi, TSV Hari, Chennai

[1802 words, 20 minutes’ reading]

New Delhi [SFNS]: Despite an unprecedented overflow of funds after the demonetisation exercise, India’s public sector banks continue to be mired in criminal controversies and pretend being cash strapped. The needy do not get funds and the robbers seem to be having plenty of it.

“The manifestation of India’s economic malaise is visible through the recent brazen statements of fugitive scofflaws like Vijay Mallya on the one hand and lying criminal lawyers like P Chidambaram who even committed high treason. Its worst aspect is that high street top nationalised banks like Indian Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank – to name just 3 are the salient and stinking part of the rottenness. The criminal hydra head of Indian financial system’s rottenness is clearly visible. TM Bhasin, currently Vigilance Commissioner controlling the banking sector is being guided by evil forces beyond the borders. It includes international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. The likes of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are the Godfathers of this abomination of banking,” opined a Chennai-based retired senior banker.

“Though accused of serious wrongdoing, criminals like Mallya continue to cock a snook at Indian authorities. Worse, the brazen flaunting of nonexistent victim card is accorded wide publicity by the media,” the source pointed out.

“The fig-leaf arrest of former CMD of IDBI – Yogesh Aggarwal is a clear pointer that stables are being locked after the horses have bolted,” a serving senior banker located in India’s national capital region opined on condition of anonymity.

Aggarwal was arrested in January this year by the Central Bureau of Investigation. It was in connection with its probe into Vijay Mallya loan default case, according to news reports.

Three more former executives of IDBI Bank and 4 executives of Kingfisher Airlines have also been arrested by the investigating agency A team of CBI officials visited the offices of the Vijay Mallya led UB Group.

Mallya is facing the process of recovery of Rs 6,203 crores – he had borrowed from banks to keep his Kingfisher Airline afloat – successfully burrowing into the innards of the Indian financial system. Since his flight to London, courts have declared him a proclaimed offender.

Mallya is accused of cleverly manipulating social media outlets’ loopholes.

Two tweets by Mallya exemplify this:

Am shocked at CBI allegations. All false and misconceived to say the least What do a bunch of elite Police [sic] know about business and Economics?

Media happily being used as the pitch. I am the football. Two fiercely competitive teams NDA versus UPA playing. Unfortunately no Referees [sic].

National Democratic Alliance [NDA] media managers have charged Dr Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram former Prime Minister and Finance Minister respectively with glibly defending Mallya. Reportedly perfidious and conspiratorial correspondence pointing to a nexus between Mallya and the duo is being cited as alleged evidence of wrongdoing.

Singh and Chidambaram have stoutly denied these.

“All prime ministers receive representations from various captains of industry that are passed on to appropriate authority. This is what I have done and done with full satisfaction. The deed was not against the law of the land,” Manmohan Singh had been quoted as saying in a media report.

Chidambaram dismissed the whole thing as a ‘routine affair.’

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala rubbed salt into the BJP wounds.

“The Congress wants to know who permitted Mallya to escape and who waived loans [given] to him. It was the BJP that had brought Mallya into the Rajya Sabha [India’s upper house],” Surjewala observed.

The head honchos of top nationalised banking institutions like Indian Bank^[1], Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Canara Bank^[2] and Andhra Bank ^[3] – are being seriously probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. If meaningful action is ever taken, the seamy underbelly to a governmental sector that ought to be functioning beyond reproach would stand exposed in pristine grotesqueness.

The probes are not making much headway because of one man – TM Bhasin, currently Central Vigilance Commission’s decision maker number 3. Before the current job, Bhasin had headed the public sector Indian Bank. The tenure had seen activity termed as being of utmost criminal nature. ^[4].

[1]

PR operators based in Chennai commandeered by its reported ringleader and former employee of Indian Bank and Corporation Bank – Prime Point Srinivasan. He is said to be aided and abetted by TS Raghavan, another former head of Indian Bank and Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati.

While the latter was acquitted from the notorious Shankararaman murder case – not so honourably the former is  an accused in multiple criminal cases, was arrested and is currently on bail.

Cases include alleged cheating thousands of investors who had believed in the tall tales mouthed by the promoters of Vishwapriya Finance, a company that had employed Raghavan as a director.

Vishwapriya founders also face other criminal cases by other public sector banks which includes Bank of Baroda.

Branches of Corporation Bank located close to CBI headquarters are said to be involved in money-laundering locally and abroad, according to informed sources. A gang of middlemen auditors and film industry “Chettiars” are the ringleaders – who use accounts with credibility to change the colours of shady money. “Petitions have been sent to the CBI’s regional offices with clinching evidence, but, they are sitting on it, doing nothing,” a top banking source said. 

[2]

Operative portions from a report in The Hindu:

A branch of Canara Bank in south Mumbai reportedly played a vital role in laundering Rs. 340 crores through jewellery exports, reads a charge-sheet filed by Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Sources in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence [DRI] alleged worse.

“We suspect that a circuit of jewellers and diamond merchants have connived with bank officials to carry out this forgery, with officials allowing submission of forged bills of entry into IceGate, the e-payment gateway,” said sources in the DRI.

The charges have been partly denied by A.K. Das, general manager, Canara Bank, Mumbai.

“We have no reported cases in Mumbai of this nature. The bank is doing its due diligence in checking mechanisms for such incidents,” he told the highly respected daily newspaper – The Hindu.

Suveer Khanna, a partner at KPMG was careful with his words. “Public sector banks are speeding their monitoring mechanisms. While banking regulations are in place to prevent such frauds, the onus is also on the banks to take responsibility for building stronger monitoring mechanisms.”

The DRI is said to have finished its probe and is in the process of submitting a report to the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.

[3]

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun a probe into the suspected corporate fraud involving bank loans of over Rs 3,000 crore after three banks – Andhra Bank, Canara Bank and UCO Bank cried foul. The banks have declared the loan accounts of three group companies promoted by Praveen Kumar Tayal as fraud following an alleged diversion of funds to the group’s privately-held ventures, especially in real estate.

The three companies of the group that are under the CBI scanner are Krishna Knitwear Technology Ltd, Jayabharat Textile and Real Estate Ltd, and Eskay Knit (India).

A senior official from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) confirmed to DNA that the regulator is in receipt of the complaint of fraud from Andhra bank, which is leading the consortium of 14 banks who have exposure to Krishna Knitwear Technology Ltd.

Andhra Bank has now handed over the Krishna Knitwear Technology case to the CBI to investigate the diversion of funds. The company, which specialises in knitted fabrics and spinning of cotton had borrowed Rs 616 crore of working capital and term loans of Rs 200 crore.

Praveen Kumar Tayal did not return calls nor respond to text messages enquiring about the fate of his companies or the alleged diversion of funds.

Surprisingly about two years back, banks had pushed for a corporate debt restructuring (CDR) for all the three companies, in the hope of reviving the companies and getting them to start servicing the debt. But in September last year, all the three companies exited the CDR cell as many banks opposed to the special dispensation given to the case where the promoter, according to bankers, did not seem committed to reviving his company.

A senior Andhra Bank official told DNA, “We suspect Rs 800 crore of bank loans in Krishna Knitwear, where we are the lead bankers, were allegedly diverted to unlisted companies.” Other banks suspect that the group’s arm Reward Real Estate was a recipient of promoter’s largesse.

Another bank official who is also party to the consortium said the companies have diverted large sums from the listed entity to a closely-held real estate arm of the group or to other ventures. “We tried our best to undertake a forensic audit but the company was not co-operating. So we had to hand over the case to the CBI.”

A senior Bank of India official also confirmed that CBI is investigating the accounts of the bank and said the CBI had asked the bank to submit certain documents pertaining to the loans given to the group.

The Tayals are in real estate, textiles and fibres and were the erstwhile owners of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), until ICICI Bank took it over.

In 2010, the Tayal group was in news following which the RBI forced the merger of BoR with ICICI Bank. Market regulator, Securities and exchange board of India had found that Tayals fraudulently raised their stake in BoR through a series of off-market transactions.

Apart from the three companies now embroiled in the controversy, Praveen Kumar also runs other companies – Ksl and Industries Ltd, Krishna Lifestyle Technologies, Asahi Industries and Single Point Security Solutions.

[4]

Bhasin is occupying his post with the brazenness of a hardened criminal.

Bhasin took charge as the VC on June 11 2015.

The earlier CVC had recommended that Regular Departmental Action should be initiated against Bhasin.

The Supreme Court is seized of the matter against Bhasin since July 2015.

Excerpts from averments in public interest litigation [PIL] matter being heard in the Apex Court against Bhasin:

Bhasin was indicted in a detailed inquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission in 2013 for forging and tampering with appraisal report of Malay Mukherjee – a former General Manager of Indian Bank. Mukherjee currently heads IFCI.  

Former Union Minister and currently a senior member of the ruling party Dr Subramanian Swamy had written a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister on 11.06.2015 stating that charge against Respondent No. 3 (Bhasin) is “very serious” and the recommendation of the selection committee to appoint Respondent No. 3 as VC must be withdrawn. He said “finding of moral turpitude by CVC of Bhasin makes him unfit to keep the position of Vigilance Commissioner.”

The Central Vigilance Commission recommended action against current CMD of Indian Bank – TM Bhasin as early as August 2013 asking the Union Finance Ministry to comply.

Bhasin had allegedly collaborated with the nation’s enemy Dawood Ibrahim to ruin Bank of Baroda and thus destroy the Indian financial system.

Bhasin’s target was reputed banker SS Mundra, currently a deputy governor in the Reserve Bank of India [RBI]. Bhasin wanted the post and reportedly managed to keep Mundra waiting for several months. Mundra’s elevation to RBI became possible after Dr Kamalesh Chandra Chakrabarty – another ex-Indian Bank head quit his RBI post 3 months ahead of schedule. Chakrabarty has an impeccable record as a banker. He had spent most of his years in Bank of Baroda. Chakrabarty’s opinion about Bhasin can be summed up in just two words “sheer contempt”. The contempt stemmed from one act- the so-called inauguration of Indian Bank HQ – adjacent to the ruling AIADMK’s HQ in Chennai. Bhasin had himself participated in its earlier “inaugurations” twice! Worse, he managed to invite Pranab Mukherjee [then yet to be elevated to the nation’s highest office] to do the honours. It was a ruse to allegedly splurge a sum in excess of Rs.3 crores – sans any justification – for a function that lasted less than an hour! The worst side of it is that Bhasin reportedly went around claiming to have bank-rolled Mukherjee’s elevation to the office of President! And there were, wags in Chennai add, enough fools to believe this kind of tripe!

The evidence against Bhasin has been piling since 2011!

End of Jallikkattu Drama Marks Start of Sasikala's Troubles?

From TSV Hari, Chennai, Vakratund Varma, New Delhi

1746 words, 20 minutes reading

Southern Features News Services Exclusive

Chennai, New Delhi [SFNS]: Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a clever move to defuse the political situation in Tamil Nadu that had arisen due to the massive Jallikkattu protests? Has the PM thereby checkmated the sinister designs of Sasikala and her scheming husband M Natarajan who were believed to be behind the stir?

Should one read more into protestors' rejection of the ordinance passed by the Tamil Nadu government - demanding a more permanent solution to the Jallikkattu imbroglio?

Is there more than what meets the eye in protesters' refusal to leave Chennai's Marina Beach demanding a permanent amendment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in order to allow Jallikkattu for ever?

Are these attempts meant to prevent a probe Sasikala’s hand in the mysterious death of Jayalalithaa? ^[1]

Will the illegal stay of Sasikala and co at Veda Nilayam, Jaya’s residence sans any will and/or testament come to an end?

The Jallikkattu restoration demand - relegated to the cold storage for 3 years - had been suddenly resurrected to pose a challenge to the centre, intelligence reports are said to have indicated to the centre. It was an operation, meant to directly pose twin challenges to the leadership of PM Modi and also to the office of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister - currently held by O Panneerselvam. The underlying message from Sasikala and her husband Natarajan - “either allow Sasikala, currently General Secretary of the AIADMK, to peacefully ascend the throne and rule Tamil Nadu for the rest of the term - or face an unprecedented backlash of violence in the state.”

In a day of swift developments - the decks for restoration of Jallikkattu were cleared in a jiffy by the centre, its Presidential assent necessity circumvented, passed by the state cabinet and okayed by the state's acting Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao - all within a span of 24 hours.

The week-long dormant issue of Jayalalithaa's sudden, mysterious death has returned like the proverbial bad penny triggering a startling question - will there be a questioning of Sasikala on her role in the unexplained worsening of late Jayalalithaa's health by the Central Bureau of Investigation as the Madras High Court expressed an intention to even exhume her interred body if necessary?

Meanwhile, following the promulgation of the ordinance to hold the bull-taming festival, the curiously meaningless pro-Jallikkattu protests have come to an end. A popular Tamil periodical welcomed the passage, but expressed fears of courts stymieing the issue again.

Prime Minister Modi had paved the way for the facile passage of an ordinance to hold the bull-taming festival. For 5 days running, Chennai remained closed for business. The globe’s 2^nd longest sea-front had remained grid-locked throwing transportation out of gear.

But, the so-called “closure” of the issue has raised more questions than provision of answers.

“The whole thing is meaningless. The ‘official’ day for Jallikkattu will occur only a year later, so what was this hullabaloo all about?”

The question came from a devout septuagenarian Hindu supporter of the sport – Srinivasan Ramaseshan.

Very curiously, the fever-pitched clamour for Sasikala’s elevation as the Chief Minister, loudly audible and brazenly visible till a few days ago, had disappeared from the news radars following the publication a report that punched holes in the tales put out by Apollo Hospital and Sasikala about the events leading to Jaya's abrupt death and her aide's questionable role in preventing visits by constitutionally empowered VVIPs to meet the ailing CM. The report had suggested that Apollo has reportedly worked out its "exit route" from the imbroglio as has the centre - leaving Sasikala and her coterie exposed and at the centre of the cross-hairs of the wrath of the judiciary.

Must read:

http://wp.me/p7bYkZ-SX
http://wp.me/p7bYkZ-RX

“It seemed as though Sasikala’s suspect role in late CM Jayalalithaa’s death had slipped from everyone’s memory. All of a sudden the frenzy to make her CM has evaporated thanks to Jallikkattu stir. The whole drama was too pat and too much loaded in favour of only Sasikala and her husband Natarajan. Everyone else – including Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and PM Narendra Modi were being verbally brick-batted. Further, few in the crowd have heard of Alanganallur, the headquarters of Jallikkattu, located some 400 km south of capital Chennai. Members of uniformed police force, under the alibi of openly canvassing for the sport, made public statements at the protest bang opposite the state police headdquarters that could start a violent anti-national wave. All these were unhealthy trends, and left one extremely worried. I am on the wrong side of 70 and remember how under the guise of anti-Hindi agitations ^[2], our holy threads were cut by DMK youths shouting separatist slogans. There was large scale violence, looting and worse. Significantly, the entire Dravidian movement was born of fissiparous tendencies that demanded – among other things – continuance of British rule or a separate, independent Dravidastan – the exact replica of the demand one sees in Kashmir – albeit under a different alibi,” Ramaseshan averred.

The hurried manner in which the whole thing happened citing law and order issues raised eyebrows.

“Decks were cleared to hold the sport in a jiffy. All the political stakeholders have said ‘aye’ to the project. The state cabinet and the Governor have affixed signatures on the ordinance within a few hours – ending a 3-year wait. If it was this easy, and did not need the President’s assent and other procedural niceties, why did all this drama take place? Who benefited from it? And very importantly, can the game be held on a non-official day [the official one being January 15] just like that? Wouldn’t that be the violation of the cultural ethos as well? Frankly, I do not understand any of this,” Ramaseshan observed.

“Schools, colleges, varsities and government establishments being ‘unofficially’ asked to remain shut0 seems a mystery. Shops were ‘advised’ to down shutters across the state. One wonders as to who issued the orders and why. The state’s police HQ and the Fort St George Secretariat are like 2 door posts to the Beach Road and hence a vast crowd of a few lakhs cannot gather unobtrusively. That such an event happened, in itself, is suspicious. The worst part is that separatist slogans and shouts hailing slain terrorists - ex-Tamil Tiger boss V Prabhakaran and Osama bin Laden with huge posters in tow were prominently seen ^[3] triggering fears of Tamil Nadu becoming a Kashmir,” Ramaseshan, a resident of Triplicane, abutting the Marina pointed out.

Media reports revealed this phenomenon.

Even as sections of the media continued to hail the “orderly conduct” of the protest, a different view of the reality emerged. And it is rowdy behaviour of the protestors – pure and simple. ^[4]

The separatist angle has ominous portents.

Pakistan’s dreaded ISI operates brazenly from neighbouring Sri Lanka.

During the United Progressive Alliance regime, the Manmohan Singh government had wantonly overlooked a startling fact that the ISI is known to have close links with members of the LTTE - who survived the 2009 decimation by the Lankan army.

For over 11 years, India’s intelligence agencies have been dreading the large scale influx of separatist influence in southern India through the ISI-LTTE nexus.

Has the PM has checkmated Sasikala and defeated what is believed to be the diabolic brinkmanship of her husband Natarajan through a series of measures to clear the Jallikkattu do? 

Will Natarajan stretch a hitherto little-known culturally relevant sporting event of interior Tamil Nadu to gigantic proportions to challenge the might and majesty of the Indian state?

Only time can provide the answer to that one.

Obviously, the centre has its task cut out. At this point in time – on can only say that the hubby-wife duo has bitten off more than it can chew.

[1]

“One has to take a close look at various aspects of the Jallikkattu struggle where pro LTTE, separatist, Tamil Eelam, Tamil nationalist, anti-India, anti PM and anti state CM slogans are being shouted with impunity. There are reports that managements of a few private schools in Chennai that remained open during the unofficial shut-down were not-so-politely questioned about their belief in Tamil causes. Senior police officials who used to subscribe to nationalist blogs till the other day, have opted out – either out of fear or because they have joined ‘the other side.’ Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao and his business pals – considered very close to CM OPS were raided by central authorities at the alleged behest of Sasikala and her husband Natarajan. The central government’s Finance Portfolio is being handled by Arun Jaitley who is not exactly loyal to PM Modi. Only someone very politically smart like M Natarajan who claims to have authored the success of Jayalalithaa herself can dream all this up. And finally, let us remember that Natarajan had been arrested when Jayalalithaa was alive and Sasikala even changed her name to VK Sasikala [her maiden name] to keep herself in Jayalalithaa’s home. After her brief sojourn in wilderness between December 2011 [when Sasikala was chased out of Jaya’s residence] and April 2012, when the aide returned, reports had indicated Sasikala had no interests in politics or any trappings of power. ‘I am only Madam’s personal aide,’ Sasikala had been quoted as saying in a letter to the then CM. The term has now acquired a different spelling, meaning and significance. Sasikala seems to be Tamil Nadu’s political AIDS,” a police officer requesting anonymity said.

[2]

Operative excerpts from the relevant Wikipedia dossier:

As the day (26 January 1965) of switching over to Hindi as sole official language approached, the anti-Hindi movement gained momentum in Madras State with increased support from college students. On 25 January, a full-scale riot broke out in the southern city of Madurai, sparked off by a minor altercation between agitating students and Congress party members. The riots spread all over Madras State, continued unabated for the next two months, and were marked by acts of violence, arson, looting, police firing and lathi charges. The Congress Government of the Madras State, called in paramilitary forces to quell the agitation; their involvement resulted in the deaths of about seventy persons (by official estimates) including two policemen. To calm the situation, Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri gave assurances that English would continue to be used as the official language as long as the non-Hindi speaking states wanted. The riots subsided after Shastri’s assurance, as did the student agitation.

The agitations of 1965 led to major political changes in the state. The DMK won the 1967 assembly election and the Congress Party never managed to recapture power in the state since then. The Official Languages Act was eventually amended in 1967 by the Congress Government headed by Indira Gandhi to guarantee the indefinite use of Hindi and English as official languages. This effectively ensured the current "virtual indefinite policy of bilingualism" of the Indian Republic. There were also two similar (but smaller) agitations in 1968 and 1986 which had varying degrees of success.

[3]

Operative excerpts from an article carried in a prominent website:

The protest is no longer, and perhaps never was, only about Jallikkattu. It has, however, become the rallying point for disgruntlement of the Tamil people, from Tamil Eelam to Cauvery River water-sharing, helped by the general discontent over demonetisation.

The slogans raised, the posters displayed and the beach-side conversations are testimony to the different issues being raised in Tamil Nadu. And couched in the calls for justice is victimhood, the eternal lament of being a Tamil and ‘Indian government’ never caring for it.

Several posters of slain LTTE chief Prabhakaran were also seen at the protests. All these issues tie up, and that is why there is such mass outpouring, says 36-year-old Selvakumar, a professor. “It may not be relevant today, but this shows why so many people are out here. Tamilians and our issues are never taken seriously,” he says.

A group of ten boys from the near fishing hamlets have also come. Dressed in black, and some sporting a fish-shaped gold locket on their necks, they are busy patching together an effigy to burn it. “You know how many Tamil fishermen are killed or arrested by Sri Lanka every month?” one of them asks angrily.

[4]

Operative excerpts by Deccan Chronicle columnist Charu Nivedita

“Trisha should be stripped naked and be chased on the road”.

This is just another abuse faced by Kollywood actor Trisha Krishnan, who left the shooting venue after an angry mob of Jallikkattu supporters protested against her for endorsing PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A complete list of all these expletives can be found on Facebook that has been used against the actor.

LTTE’s Prabhakaran was the proud symbol of Tamil ethnic identity [also proudly displayed in posters at the protest]. Many Tamil film directors are still claiming Prabhakaran as their leader, and this is the critical background with which the Jallikkattu protest has to be viewed.

Jallikkattu protests and connected rage are based on racial feelings.

Though the struggle is pointed towards Tamil identity, a major part of the youths cannot write in Tamil. Tamil is just a spoken language here and that is an irony.

PM Modi's Homage To Cho S Ramaswamy Turns Political Event

[580 words]

From TSV Hari

Southern Features & News Service Exclusive

Chennai, January 15 [SFNS]: Lavish praise from Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi etched the uniqueness of the late journalist, satirist, dramatist and political guru Cho S Ramaswamy at the 47^th annual meet of the weekly news magazine Thuglak here Saturday.

It was a major political event. Chennai's premier concert hall - the Music Academy was full. The crowd spilled on to the parking lot of the southern metropolis's Mecca of classical music. 

“If someone has to write the political history of India, it cannot be done without including Cho Ramaswamy and his political commentary,” Modi observed.

Terming Cho’s December 7 demise a ‘personal loss,’ Modi pointed out that India had lost an intellectual “who offered invaluable wisdom to whoever came his way.”

The PM stressed on the Hindu scriptural and almanac-linked importance of January 14. By dovetailing the various nationwide important events on the Hindu calendar, Modi subtly conveyed the message that Cho was a national figure.

Modi pointed out that Cho had incredibly turned adversity to advantage. The instance of miscreants pelting eggs at the editor who in turn asked his tormentors not waste them but supply omelettes instead recalled by the PM had the audience in splits.

Paying encomiums to the magazine and its editor, Modi said, “Thuglak had become a weapon against divisive forces”. “Cho would carry views hostile and abusive of him in his magazine,” the PM added emphasising on the democratic character of Cho.

India’s highest paid ‘superstar’ Rajnikant supplied funny moments in a somewhat restrained speech which also quietly touched on the financial brain of the late editor and also of Cho’s successor – auditor Swaminathan Gurumurthy.

“Several years ago, when cricket’s Indian Premier League began, Cho advised me to buy the Chennai cricket team franchise – then costing only a few lakhs. I turned it down. I now know it is worth several thousand crores,” the thespian said, causing commentator Sumant C Raman – seated in the front row to squirm.

Raman has been supportive of one of cricket’s modern-day alleged villains – N Srinivasan.

Chennai Super Kings, the team owned by disgraced cricket administrator N Srinivasan continues facing a 2-year ban imposed by the courts. In this connection, India’s former skipper MS Dhoni and maverick politician Dr Subramanian Swamy had recently met Srinivasan – whose firm India Cements is said to be close to decision-makers of the main Tamil Nadu opposition party – the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

It was the turn of RSS ideologue Gurumurthy to frown when Rajnikant made a clear reference to the “consultation charges” of the auditor. “People faint when they hear the figure,” the actor said.

In his acceptance speech, Gurumurthy pointed out that Rajnikant is India’s highest paid actor. “When compared to what Rajnikant charges for a movie, my fees would be a very minor figure. For me, editing Thuglak could entail lesser income. But, it is a historically necessitated responsibility bequeathed to me by Cho,” Gurumurthy averred.

The new owner of Thuglak – Varadarajan – who runs the successful Kumudam Group had his tense moments as well.

Without naming the state’s political upstart Sasikala, Gurumurthy revealed that ‘friends were advising to take it easy’ on the ongoing political imbroglio in Tamil Nadu.

Significantly, Kumudam group’s weekly “Reporter” has a soft editorial stance towards TN’s indirect ruler VK Sasikala and her husband Natarajan – which is diametrically opposite to the line being pursued by Gurumurthy.

Speaking from a prepared speech in English, The Hindu scion N Ravi recalled two instances of Cho’s humorous methods of journalism that disarmed his adversaries.

When the crowd began melting, a few journalists were heard remarking in a cynical tone that that ‘though a PM in harness addressing a homage meet of magazine editor was unprecedented, the political milking of the apolitical Cho’s legacy had begun’.

RM/M/KMT/TSV

SFNS is a news service with a difference. News is narrated succinctly and in detail - for the reader to understand - every event it its complete perspective.

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Sasikala Under Central Microscope Over Foul Play In Jaya's Death?

From TSV Hari

Southern Features & News Service Exclusive

Chennai, January 13 [SFNS]: Tamil Nadu’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [AIADMK] regime is in serious trouble. Emerging newer and hitherto unknown aspects of the ‘sudden death’ of the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa have cast a vain shadow on the machinations of the sinister General Secretary on probation VK Sasikala and her behind-the-scenes-string-puller husband Natarajan.

The Madras High Court has demanded details of the treatment accorded to Jayalalithaa in her final days.

Suspicions of foul-play in Jaya’s ‘unexplained’ death after 75 days’ ‘intense treatment’ at Apollo Hospital have surfaced. They could lead to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, top sources said.

This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court dismissed petitions for a CBI inquiry demanded by AIADMK dissident MP – also named Sasikala.^[1]

Sources close to Apollo boss Pratap C Reddy revealed that he is mulling the institution’s washing its hands off the imbroglio in his written deposition to the court.

Jayalalithaa’s health was on the mend as is evident from our health bulletins. She could have left whenever she wanted to. Following this development, doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences [AIIMS] and Dr Beale returned to Delhi and London respectively. What exactly took place during the last 2 days due to the activities of those who controlled the access to the CM is unknown. Police officials had kept all visitors – including the Governor and central ministers at bay earlier. Towards the end, even most of the doctors’ entry was delayed under some pretext or other. The alarm bells were pressed only when it was too late. The confusion over the time of death of the late CM, the leak of info, its denial and late-night confirmation of her passing are all indicative of the above aspects. Hence, accusing the hospital of foul play is out of the question. These are said to be sentences that could form the crux of Apollo’s sealed court deposition, top sources told SFNS.

Two days prior to the fatal worsening of Jaya’s health, Natarajan is said to have been given legal advice that if the CM died, the appeal pending in the Apex Court against the exoneration of Jaya, Sasikala and others could be rendered legally untenable.

“It was Natarajan’s idea was that Sasikala would go scot-free and rule Tamil Nadu as its next CM. Close relatives of the husband-wife duo could jockey themselves into positions of power. On that basis – preparations to get her sworn in were underway. The sudden application of brakes in the progress of the Mannargudi Mafia’s juggernaut is also due to other serious allegations against it. Apollo’s attempts to wriggle out of the tricky situation lend logic to the charges when juxtaposed to the health bulletins and the unprecedented denial of entry to VVIPs – which includes the constitutional head and acting governor CH Vidyasagar Rao," a senior cop wishing anonymity said.

The ramifications of the above have raised too many eyebrows in New Delhi’s power-brokers’ cocktail circuit, sources said. In turn, it is said to have led to the ‘indefinite postponement’ of Sasikala’s elevation to the CM’s post. The earlier rumoured date was 12^th January 2017.

The continuance of Sasikala in Jaya’s posh Poes Garden residence sans a publicly declared will of the late CM have worsened the sinking feelings growing deeper in the Natarajan camp by the hour. The clamour for making Sasikala CM has slowed. Plan B to position Sasikala as the Sonia Gandhi of AIADMK is underway, informed sources told SFNS.

On a state-wide basis, posters featuring Sasikala as the ‘saviour’ are getting ripped incessantly.

Senior journalists in Chennai are nonplussed over the sheer brazenness of Sasikala. ^[2]

[1]

The causes for what seems like the impending fall of the AIADMK regime are given hereunder after consulting legal brains. The confusing legalese has been left out.

Sasikala’s continuing to reside in ‘Veda Nilayam’ is the deadliest of the giveaways.

Wills and/or testaments and/or covenants authored by Jayalalithaa are yet to be read out.

Before long someone could question under what authority is her former aide lording it over the late CM’s residence.

“Unless Sasikala has some documentation she would not brazenly take up residence in Veda Nilayam. When the question is asked by the late distant CM’s blood relatives, Sasikala could arguably produce a document purporting to render her stay legal and official. Such a move would be like dealing oneself 5 aces in a deck of four for the following reasons," sources said.

Such wills/testaments/covenants need to have signatures primarily of the owner of the property and or properties. If Sasikala produces such a document, its signature could be questioned as even the nominations of those who contested the by-elections only had the thumb impression of Jayalalithaa – while she was in Apollo Hospital. The follow-up question to the existence of such a document would be – why did the late CM sign the will and not the nomination papers. There can be no answers to that.

The second question could be about the secrecy of Jaya’s stay in hospital.

Persons holding constitutional authority like the officiating Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao were not allowed to see the CM in person.

Precedents like the treatment undergone by Jaya’s mentor – late CM MG Ramachandran in the US of A and the conspicuous absence of the same in the case of Jaya could prove a clear pointer.

Privacy reasons justifying non-issuance of health bulletins were morally and legally acceptable when Jaya was alive. Posthumously, such tales cannot hold water in courts. Seized of the matter, the Madras High Court has asked the hospital authorities, the state and central regimes for their explanations, a top lawyer opined.

At this point in time, the centre can wash its hands off saying it respected the privacy of the lady in question and accepted the credibility of hospital’s health bulletins. The hospital too could legally pass the buck, the advocate added.

But, the state government – that had been headed by Jaya till her last breath cannot. The cabinet is collectively responsible for decision[s] affecting the state’s political future and the future lives of the state’s citizens.

The absence of a will, the presence of thumb impressions on the nomination papers of candidates during by elections and the continuous flip-flops by hospital authorities on the state of health the CM could lead to the court ordering the exhumation of Jaya’s body for a post mortem, is another startling point of view.

Second guessing the posthumous final diagnosis is an asinine exercise. But, even if it does produce a result to prove that Jaya’s vitalstatistics are indeed intact, the question as to why none was allowed to see her when all was well with her could assume gigantic and unanswerable proportions, goes an jurist's observation.

Sasikala could stymie the performance of such a hypothetical order of the Madras High Court saying ‘cutting up the remains of Amma would be sacrilege’. The result, in case she succeeds in such an exercise, the conversion of the matter into a trial in the High Court would be inevitable. Such a scenario could prove to be disastrous to Sasikala and co as the gang seems to have no answers to most questions, political observers felt.

After the demise of Jaya, the Damocles’ Sword of the Disproportionate Assets [DA] case continues to hang over the head of Sasikala.

It is plain as pikestaff to anyone and everyone that the conviction of Jaya had not been set aside. Her demise emancipated her from the clutches of what could have been a painful aftermath. The gaffes of Karnataka High Court judge Kumaraswamy’s calculator could cause the fall of a political guillotine blade on the neck of Sasikala, sending her to prison as decided by Sessions Judge DaCunha. That is one aspect that needs close scrutiny, informed sources felt.

Getting a judgement set aside in the High Court is one thing, staying out on bail on the basis of Supreme Court orders is another. A pending appeal when the protective VVIP is alive and in hospital was a third, but eminently workable proposition.  However, when a Division Bench of the Madras High Court has begun raising serious doubts about the final days of Jayalalithaa, the possibility of the Supreme Court being lenient on Sasikala can only be termed a miracle. While one cannot predict the Apex Court's final denouement, the hypothetical conviction by the SC could gum up Sasikala’s dream-works of being the political boss of Tamil Nadu. In such a scenario, those who are begging Sasikala to save the AIADMK would end up demanding her ouster for the same purpose.

The reasoning is simple.

The imbroglio could result in some AIADMK legislators crossing the floor, and/or simply voting against the regime and/or abstaining in case of any serious motion being moved in the state assembly with telling timing.

To overcome such doomsday predictions, Sasikala has many hurdles to cross. Here are the 3 important ones:

Beating the Madras High Court’s hypothetical heat over the final days of Jaya in Apollo;

Documentation justifying her stay in Poes Gardens passing legal muster;

Overcoming adverse ruling by the Supreme Court in the DA case.

Is Sasikala capable of completing the 3 important Herculean tasks? Former Chief Secretary Ram Mohan Rao is still smarting under the slur on him post the raids. Many believe that it was Sasikala who provided the info against Rao to ingratiate herself to the Arun Jaitley camp within the BJP. Rumours are afoot indicating that Rao is gathering ammo to return Sasikala's compliment. 

Only time can provide an answer to such possibilities.

There is an indication of the disaster waiting to happen.

Deals abhorred by Jaya – especially the one concerning the UDAY scheme to streamline power supply was signed a month after the late CM was laid to rest.

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had opposed many of its conditions, particularly the directive to revise electricity tariff once in three months to offset fuel price changes. Till the time of her death, Jaya had given no indication of her readiness to sign the deal. Murmurs are being heard about Sasikala going against every known principle dear to Jayalalithaa to curry favour with those in power at the centre. The next 'aye' could be that of the GST bill - another piece of legislation opposed by Jaya when she had been alive and active.

Foul acts and conspiracies leading to capture of power is nothing new to the Dravidian parties.

After the death of DMK founder Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai on February 3 1969, Karunanidhi’s ascent to power was rife with deals, conspiracies and a lot worse.

Relevant excerpts from the Wikipedia dossier:

After Anna’s death, there was a serious power tussle between M Karunanidhi and V. R. Nedunchezhiyan. Most of the elected MLAs of DMK, including leaders like Mathialagan, Nanjil Manoharan and the celluloid hero MGR favoured Karunanidhi as CM in preference to Nedunchezhiyan, the senior leader after Anna. To pacify V. R. Nedunchezhiyan a new post called party president was created for M Karunanidhi and V. R. Nedunchezhiyan was given the post of general secretary. MGR was appointed as the Treasurer.

The political feud between MGR and the party president Karunanidhi came to the fore after Karunanidhi called himself “Mujib of Tamil Nadu”. MGR alleged large scale corruption by Karunanidhi. He was eventually suspended from the party’s General Council. A new party –  All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) emerged.

Upon MGR’s demise on December 24 1987, Jaya alleged that her mentor had been poisoned by his widow Janaki.

Jayalalithaa was manhandled by members of MGR’s family and her political rivals, she claimed.

Operative excerpts from a relevant press interview given by Jayalalithaa:

In the early hours of December 24 a friend gave me the shocking news of MGR being no more. I rushed immediately to MGR’s residence. Initially, I was not allowed inside. Then, I spotted the ambulance with MGR’s body inside. My driver was instructed to chase the car and not allow any other vehicle to come in between. When the body lay in state at Rajaji Hall I stood by my leader’s side for 13 hours the first day and 8 hours the second day. During this time, 7 or 8 ladies stamped on my feet, drove their nails into my skin and pinched me. When I tried to join the funeral procession and board the gun-carriage with soldiers’ assistance, Tamil film actor Deepan, Janaki’s younger brother’s son hit me on the forehead, pushed me, beat me, kicked me and threw me out. I was injured and bruised all over my body. I sent identical telegrams to the Governor, the chief secretary, and to the director-general of police.

The charge had led to the split in the AIADMK.

After Jaya’s death, the similar imbroglio has turned up like a bad penny yet again – as the succession war is getting dirtier by the day. Sasikala claims total support by legislators elected on the AIADMK ticket. But, the cadres continue to rip party posters that feature the face of the former aide of Jaya.

The going isn’t smooth for Sasikala, avers another report.

Posters of Sasikala have been found vandalised in some parts of the state, including Chennai. The ripped off posters were found on Greenways Road, near ministers' official bungalows and Lloyds Road, near the AIADMK headquarters. The root cause for the simmering anger against Sasikala was that she had been the lone attendant of Jayalalithaa and did not let supporters know her health status. Not even a single photograph of Jayalalithaa was released like it was done when party founder MGR was hospitalized, cadres said.

Sasikala has a challenger in the form of Deepa Jayakumar, Jayalalithaa’s niece.

Since J Jayalalithaa's death on 5 December, a woman with uncanny resemblance to her has suddenly come into focus in the public eye. Deepa Jayakumar, the 42-year-old niece of the deceased chief minister, was allegedly prevented by the police from entering Apollo Hospital to meet her ailing aunt. Later, she was also forced to wait for over 8 hours at the Poes Garden bungalow to get a last glimpse of her aunt's body. Since then, she has emerged from the shadows to challenge the choice of Sasikala as the leader of the party.

To sum it all up, Dravidian parties’ succession dramas can be divided into two parts – by apparent conspiracy and through the popular route.

When Anna died in 1969, Karunanidhi succeeded through alleged conspiracy.

MGR took the popular route, worked the crowds for nearly 5 years after being sacked from the DMK to capture power.

In 1987, after her mentor MGR's death, the thespian politician’s protégé – Jayalalithaa initially opted for the conspiracy route and later took the popular route after his widow Janaki allowed the merger of the two AIADMK factions. It was the aftermath of a reportedly shameful attempt to disrobe Jaya on the floors of state assembly by the DMK legislator Durai Murugan.

Jaya never possessed the charisma of the late MGR.

But, thanks to the sizeable fame acquired as the long standing female foil of MGR during her celluloid career, Jaya emerged victorious during the 1991 elections.

Clearly, the two women – Sasikala and Deepa – fighting like Kilkenny cats for power – aren’t blessed with any charisma – either that of MGR of that of Jaya.

Deepa resembles Jaya, but, has an issue with her male sibling, who, till the time of publication, seems to be in Sasikala’s camp.

Sans any visible and viable fan following comparable to those of Jaya and/or MGR, the power hungry antics of Sasikala and Deepa could only land Tamil Nadu into the realm of coalition politics a la Kerala. With fissiparous elements on the prowl in TN, before long, it could lapse into a situation akin to Kashmir in the north. 

Technically, Sasikala is now calling the shots and ruling the roost.

But, what seems easy and too good for Sasikala at this point in time has the propensity of turning out into a bitter pill in Tamil Nadu politics.

If the centre’s Pongal gift to Tamil Nadu is a probe into the activities of ‘Mannargudi Mafia’ by the CBI, Tamil Nadu’s politics would change forever.

[2]

“History will not forgive those who are shamelessly supporting the political upstart woman Sasikala Natarajan. She has brazenly jockeyed herself into what seems like a politically advantageous position breaking every known democratic tradition. Answerable only to herself, her occupation of Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence poses serious legal and constitutional questions. Congress President Sonia Gandhi cashed in on the sympathy generated by the murder of her husband and former PM Rajiv Gandhi two and a half decades ago. One can say with credible evidence that the political blunders of the Congress are responsible for India’s headache – the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sheer political opportunism on the part of other regional outfits have worsened the situation to the extent that the nation’s enemies have dared to attack India’s air force base in Pathankot – close to the border with Pakistan. The political horizon of Tamil Nadu is pock-marked by regional parties whose leaders have espoused secessionist causes time and again. Sasikala has successfully copied the Sonia Gandhi formula of entering a political arena through unconstitutional means. If she is allowed to retain control over the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [AIADMK] – something she clandestinely wrested from the hands of an ailing Jayalalithaa – very soon Tamil Nadu could suffer the same fate as Kashmir on its southern shores,” opined columnist S Gurumurthy during a series of private chats.

Thuglak and Junior Vikatan are two main Tamil language periodicals, vehement in their criticism of Sasikala [61]. Till December 5 2016, Sasikala was a personal aide to the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. When she returned to Poes Garden after having been ousted in 2011, Sasikala put out a statement that she will only be a maid in the household of Jaya and not indulge in any political activity and/or recommend any officer's transfer or promotion. The questions now being asked is: What made her so important so suddenly after Jaya's somewhat mysterious demise? 

Thuglak’s veteran celebrity satirist editor Cho S Ramaswamy passed away on December 7 2016. He had been stinging in his criticism against the double-standards of politicians of all hues. In its previous avatar, Thuglak had been part of the Vikatan Group. Since then, for long, it had been owned by Cho and his family. The ownership of the weekly has changed hands. It is now part of the Kumudam Group.

Commentators have found it convenient to dub exposure of ‘Dravidian’ outfits’ corrupt underbellies as attempts by the Bharatiya Janata Party to capture power in Tamil Nadu. Statements made by BJP VVIPs like Venkaiah Naidu that seem to be in support of Sasikala gang's machinations have only added grist to the rumour mills.

To ram their point home, media outlets’ alleged Brahmin and upper-caste domination is used to point to fulcrums of an anti-Dravidian bias amongst the elite.

Dwindling vote-shares of second-rung political parties in Tamil Nadu have led to corrupt politicians seeking short-cuts to cling on to lucrative power-retention formulae based on casteist vote-bank-politics, opine intellectuals from religious minorities with a nationalist-mindset.

“A facile method to sow fissiparous seeds is abuse of the term ‘right-wing Hindu nationalist’. It is cleverly leveraged to propagate anti-India propaganda and demolition of images of national icons like Mahatma Gandhi. This trait is alarming. Pakistan has no legal status to stake any claim on Kashmir, yet it does and political parties have been fishing in murky waters of the Dal Lake getting muddier and bloodier by the minute. Similarly, there was and is no basis for a separate Dravidian state – yet – parties that sometime or other espoused such causes have held power in Tamil Nadu since 1967. Many may argue that DMK founder Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai eschewed the separate Tamil Nadu slogan in the late 50’s but Karunanidhi has kept the bogey alive all the time. MGR and Jayalalithaa did not need such slogans as their popularity was far more than those of Karunanidhi and the rest of the opposition put together. Nevertheless, both allowed such slogans continuance as some kind of a 'political insurance.' But, after the demise of Jayalalithaa, in pathetic attempts to retain power in Tamil Nadu, the likes of Sasikala and her husband Natarajan would stoop to any level to maintain their stranglehold over the state,” said Aslam Sadiq [name changed] who lives in a Muslim ghetto in Triplicane, a central Chennai urban compendium of pigeon-hole like residences dotted by mosques.

“Those talking of Muslims being ill-treated and yearning for Pakistan forget the heroism of Abdul Hamid in the 65 war against the northwest invaders. Using imagery of past injustices suffered by religious minorities to divide India is also fashionable. Intellectual arrogance of better-informed sections of population results in such shallow forces growing roots and driving thoughts inimical to the unity and integrity of India deeper into abysmal depths,” Sadiq added.