Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi on the NIA submission and flip flop over Malegaon blast case during UPA regime

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi on IBN7 quotes similar cases under the UPA regime where the direction of investigation took a sudden turn totally opposite to the facts stated by other external agencies.

Swaraj Abhiyan seeks to drag BJP into chopper row

NEW DELHI: Seeking to drag BJP into the raging chopper row, Swaraj Abhiyan today accused the Chhattisgarh Government of floating a global tender in a "shady manner" to purchase a specific AgustaWestland helicopter by paying "over 30 percent" commission without exploring options.

Addresing a media conference here, Swaraj Abhiyan leaders, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, accused the Raman Singh government in the state of paying USD 1.57 million as commission to a company registered in tax-haven British Virginia Islands to procure the chopper.

The two also sought to link Chief Minister Raman Singh's son to the controversy saying Abhishek formed a company called Quest Heights Ltd on July 3, 2008 almost six months after the bulk of the payment was made by the state government to Sharp Ocean, an agent company.

Welcoming the NDA Government's "earnestness" to probe the matter, the leaders sought an enquiry to be initiated into the deal finalised by the state government by a former judge to be recommended by Chief Justice of India.

"It was pretended that the (state) government floated a global tender, while it was (specifically) written in the tender which model was to be purchased.




"And the bids interestingly were received from AgustaWestland, its commission agent and its service provider itself. And based on that the contract was finalised," Bhushan said.

He added, "The contract invoice shows the cost of the helicopter was only 5.1 million dollar, which was paid to AgustaWestland and 1.57 million dollar commission was given to commission agent Sharp Ocean based in British Virgin island."

Raman Singh refuted the charges levelled by Swaraj Abhiyan, saying they were politically motivated and an attempt by Bhushan to "deflect" the issue from the larger corruption angle in the main AgustaWestland chopper deal.

Addressing a news conference in Raipur tonight, he said the CAG in its audit report for the year ended March 31, 2011, had only pointed out that failure of the state's Aviation Department to finalise the first offer for purchase of Agusta A-109 within the due date and its subsequent procurement at higher rate had led to extra expenditure of Rs 65 lakh.

BJP spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Chief Minister has clarified the allegations raised by Swaraj Abhiyan.

Equipped with a bunch of documents, which they said were procured under RTI, the two leaders said the state government on December 19, 2006 decided to purchase a VIP chopper as the existing one required lot of maintenance.

"Amazingly within three days, a meeting took place between representatives of one OSS, supposedly the service provider of AgustaWestland helicopters, in which it made a presentation to the government about Agusta 109 Helicopter and made an offer to supply this helicopter at USD 6.31 million," Bhushan said.

He alleged the discussion was followed by "some correspondence" with the company, which told the Chattisgarh government that if it was to buy helicopter directly from AgustaWestland, then it would have to wait for more than two years and therefore, it should deal with its dealer/distributor Sharp Ocean based in Hong Kong.

He further said that the company is registered in British Virgin Islands, which may be able to supply a pre-sold Helicopter earlier.

A fortnight ago, the Chhattisgarh Government had refuted Congress charges in this regard, dubbing them as "politically motivated".

"The allegations levelled by Congress are baseless.

The helicopter deal was done through a global tendering process while maintaining full transparency," Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar had said.

At the Congress briefing, party spokesman Jairam Ramesh, too, cliamed the Chhattisgarh government was "totally involved" in the AgustaWestland scam.

He alleged Abhishek Singh, son of the Chief Minister, is "somewhere linked" to this scam. His name has also figured in the Panama papers, he claimed.

This New is Originally Posted on The New Indian Express.

 

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi on the failing law and order situation in Bihar

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi asks legit questions to the JDU and RJD on the rise of crime in the state of Bihar since start of 2016. See video for the power packed questioning.

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi tears into Congress over the Agusta Westland chopper scam on India News

As rightly pointed out by Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi, a lot was swept under the carpet during the Congress led UPA regime. Truth and the drivers behind those scams are tumbling out as we see.

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi responds to JDU on 'Sangh Mukt Bharat' comment made by Shri Nitish Kumar

Befitting Response to the misplaced statement made by shri nitish kumar over RSS and it's role in India.

Congress coined 'Hindu terror' to woo Muslims, BJP says

NEW DELHI: Recent developments in 'Hindutva terror' cases, where key prosecution witnesses recanted and investigators claimed that inquiries were manipulated, has seen BJP launch a concerted attack on Congress, accusing it of concocting 'Hindu terrorism' to play minority politics.

The account of US citizen David Headley, a Lashkar operative convicted in the 26/11 case, the change of stance of a key witness in the Malegaon blasts case and fresh revelations about alleged manipulation of the Ishrat Jahan case to obscure the Mumbra teen's terror links have seen BJP virtually accuse Congress of creating a Hindu terror bogey to court the minority vote.

"Use of such phrases by top Congress members even when investigations were not complete and there was no report or a court's verdict raises a big question about their intentions, makes it appear that this was not the natural outcome of investigation. It was a deliberate attempt to play vote bank politics and a case of political prejudice," BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi told the media on Friday.

Trivedi alleged that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had first expressed the view that saffron extremism was a greater threat to India - an allusion to a Wikileaks cable that came to light in 2010 about Rahul's interaction with the US ambassador. The BJP spokesperson also referred to former home minister Sushil Shinde's remarks about "Hindu terrorism", comments denied by the Congress member.

Home minister P Chidambaram had overseen a cynical change in the Centre's affidavit on the case relating to Ishrat and three others who were part of a Lashkar module, Trivedi said.

Trivedi's salvo followed commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman's comments directly accusing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul of backing a plan to implicate Narendra Modi in a fake encounter case even if it meant ignoring a terror plot intended to eliminate the then Gujarat chief minister.

The hard hitting statements are intended to turn the tables on Congress by using leaks and RTI revelations as BJP members feel UPA era cases were intended to embarrass the saffron party. By suggesting Congress had acted in an "anti-Hindu" manner to serve its political ends, BJP leaders are looking to put the main opposition on the defensive.

After the Headley testimony and the NIA report, the twists in the Malegaon case where a Hindutva group was named as accused has come handy for BJP which has pointed to comments of retired Maharashtra ATS officials who said original leads pointing to the involvement of SIMI and Pakistan-trained persons were overturned.

This News is Originally Posted on TIME OF INDIA

Congress compromised National Security for their political gains: Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi

In this era of global terrorism, when India is among its biggest victims, the Congress has practiced very low-level politics and compromised on national security for its political gains: Shri Sudhanshu Trivedi (22 April 2016)