Can Govt policy be a cause of Corruption ?

Ram Ram 2 All,

  Today I got an email from friend which stating about Tax, it's actually fun to read, but when we get deep into it cause to the national problem corruption. We found that Govt policy & innumerable taxes by one or another way on everything will leads to price hike.

   Let's see in funny ways..... 

1)      Qus.: What are you doing?

Ans.: Business.

Tax : PAY PROFESSIONAL TAX

2)      Qus.: What are you doing in Business?

Ans.: Selling the Goods.

Tax : PAY SALES TAX

3)      Qus.: From where are you getting Goods?

Ans.: From other State/Abroad

Tax : PAY CENTRAL SALES TAX, CUSTOM DUTY & OCTROI

 

4)      Qus.: What are you getting in Selling Goods?

Ans.: Profit.

Tax : PAY INCOME TAX

 

5)      Qus.: How do you distribute profit ?

Ans : By way of dividend

Tax : PAY DIVIDEND DISTRIBUTION TAX

 

6)      Qus.: Where you Manufacturing the Goods?

Ans.: Factory.

Tax : PAY EXCISE DUTY

 

8)      Qus.: Do you have Staff?

Ans.: Yes

Tax:  PAY STAFF PROFESSIONAL TAX

 

9)      Qus.: Doing business in Millions?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY TURNOVER TAX   ?

Ans : No

Tax : Then pay Minimum Alternate Tax

 

10)    Qus.: Are you taking out over 25,000 Cash from Bank?

Ans.: Yes, for Salary.

Tax : PAY CASH HANDLING TAX

 

11)    Qus.: Where are you taking your client for Lunch & Dinner?

Ans.: Hotel

Tax : PAY FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT TAX

 

12)    Qus.: Are you going Out of Station for Business?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY FRINGE BENEFIT TAX

 

13)    Qus.: Have you taken or given any Service/s?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY SERVICE TAX

 

14)    Qus.: How come you got such a Big Amount?

Ans.: Gift on birthday.

Tax : PAY GIFT TAX

 

15)    Qus.: Do you have any Wealth?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY WEALTH TAX

 

16)    Qus.: To reduce Tension, for entertainment, where are you going?

Ans.: Cinema or Resort.

Tax : PAY ENTERTAINMENT TAX

 

17)    Qus.: Have you purchased House?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY STAMP DUTY & REGISTRATION FEE

 

18)    Qus.: How you Travel?

Ans.: Bus

Tax : PAY SURCHARGE

 

19)    Qus.: Any Additional Tax?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY EDUCATIONAL, ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL &

SURCHARGE ON ALL THE CENTRAL GOVT.'s TAX !!!

 

20)    Qus.: Delayed any time Paying Any Tax?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY INTEREST & PENALTY

 

21)    INDIAN :   Can I die now??

Ans : No,  wait we are about to launch the FUNERAL TAX

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's have one example, which affect to almost everyone directly or indirectly.

a) Petrol Price in INDIA

Pakistan             Rs. 26

Bangladesh        Rs. 22

Cuba                  Rs. 19

Nepal                  Rs. 34

Burma                Rs. 30

Afghanistan       Rs. 36

INDIA                Rs. 63.40

 b) BASIC COST  PER 1 LITRE 16.50

Centre tax    11.80%

Excise duty    9.75%

Vat cess               4%

State tax             8 %

Total     Rs.    50.05

Now extra 13.35 Rs, PER 1 LITRE

Aseemanand versus United Nation

The confessions of the arrested Swami are contradictory to UN and US findings, writes rajinder puri

Last Saturday, accused Hindu terrorist Swami Aseemanand repeated before a magistrate his assertion that Hindutva radicals perpetrated the Samjhauta Express bomb blast. His confession made before the magistrate was recorded under Section 164 of the CRPC by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is probing the Samjhauta terror attack. That Hindu terrorists were involved in other terror strikes is entirely credible. But surely their involvement in the Samjhauta blast raises contradictions that cannot be swept under the carpet. However, the NIA appears to be proceeding with its probe on the basis of the Swami’s confession without a second thought. And most of the national media appears to be equally comfortable with the probe as it unfolds.

Should not at this early stage the findings of the US treasury department as well as the United Nations (UN) be also considered for uncovering the truth? In 2009, the US treasury department imposed sanctions on four Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba (LeT) operatives for organising the Samjhauta blast. The four named were Arif Qasmani, Fazeel-A-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen al-Peshawari, Mohammed Yahya Mujahid and Nasir Javaid. The US treasury stated: “The designated individuals have provided direct support to Al Qaida and LeT and have facilitated terrorist attacks, including the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai.”

That is not all. The UN endorsed the US treasury findings on the basis of the evidence collected. On 29 June, the 1267 committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which mandated sanctions on the Al Qaida and the Taliban, froze assets, banned travel and imposed an arms embargo on Arif Qasmani, a Karachi businessman who it described as the “chief coordinator” for the Lashkar’s links with outside groups. It claimed that Qasmani provided “significant support for LeT terrorist operations.” In its Press release, the 1267 committee stated: “Qasmani has worked with LeT to facilitate terrorist attacks, to include the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai, India, and the February 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing in Panipat, India. Qasmani utilised money that he received from Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime figure and terrorist supporter, to facilitate the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai, India…Arif Qasmani has also provided financial and other support to Al Qaida.” According to the UN in return for providing support “Al Qaida provided Qasmani with operatives to support the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai, India, and the February 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing in Panipat, India.”

The above assertions by the UN seem to be explicit enough. So what do these assertions make of Aseemanand’s confession? One presumes that the NIA and the national media are interested in uncovering the truth about the Samjhauta blast. Then why is so little attention being paid to the earlier assertions of the US treasury and the UN? If Aseemanand is correct, the UN was wrong. If the UN was correct, Aseemanand is wrong. Can such a glaring contradiction be ignored in any credible investigation? Surely the public deserves some explanation right away.

===================================================
Courtesy : Rajinder Puri (The writer is a veteran journalist and cartoonist )

Swami Aseemanand, as I know him

Ahmedabad journalist Arvind J Bosmia recalls his friend of 11 years, Swami Aseemanand, who is suspected of involvement in the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and Malegaon blast cases.
 

It is hard to connect this Hindu terror mastermind over-drive with the Swami Aseemanand of tribal simplicity and boundless energy, whom I have known since the last 11 years and interacted with closely.

A man of deep passion and relentless commitment to tribal welfare, he displayed no interest in anything which had no connection with the tribal world. The Samjhauta Express, the Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Sharif -- none of these have the remotest connection with tribals. So to me, they cannot trigger any interest in Aseemanand.

Yet, he is found to be the mastermind and has even confessed to his involvement in the terror attacks!

Ever since he came to the Dangs district in south Gujarat in 1995, he has gone totally tribal -- the Dangi tribals have converted him irrevocably so much so that Bengal (Editor's note: from where he hails) is past, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is past, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram is past; the Dangi tribal world is the overwhelming present and a clear future.

His mission in life was to serve the tribals, for which he had to join either the Christian missionaries or Hindu organisations working in the same field. He joined the Ramakrishna Mission and worked on their behalf in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. But the Ramakrishna Mission failed to match his zeal. 

Thoroughly disappointed, he joined the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS affiliate. He worked for them in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and finally landed in the Dangs via Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Even the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram found his single-minded zeal disturbing and he was dumped in this remote Dangs district where the organisation had failed to make any headway.

He walked to the remotest tribal hamlets and stayed with tribal families in their huts, ate what they ate and shared their life in full; unlike most missionaries, Christian or Hindu, he passed no value judgement on them. He detested the very idea of foisting vegetarianism on the tribals or putting a stop to their animal sacrifice rituals.

While parting, he would give a framed photo of Lord Hanuman or a wooden Hanuman idol to the tribal family, charging them Rs 50. His choice of Hanuman stemmed from the fact that the tribals worshipped the monkey god.

After establishing a popular base among the tribals, he set up an ashram-cum-residential school at Vaghai, which turned out to be a huge success. This made Christian missionaries operating in the area most uneasy.

The boiling point came in 1998 when he planned a big expansion in Subir, 60 km from Vaghai. By Christmas in 1999, there was open confrontation between the tribal followers of Swami Aseemanand and Christian missionaries.

There was an outcry in the national media, with the burning of prayer huts being described as burning of Christian churches. The first rude awakening for Swami Aseemanand came around this time.

The Sangh Parivar dreads adverse media publicity, especially in a state where the Bharatiya Janata Party  s in power. He was ordered to move out of the Dangs.

But this very event made ordinary Hindus reach out to him. An NRI was so impressed by him that he donated money to build a hospital and a residential school in Subir. But the BJP government, fearing a missionary-media backlash, has not given permission for that to this day.

Post his arrest, Swami Aseemanand is painted as a fraud in the media for not building this school and hospital. But for the local tribals and Hindu religious organisations who sheltered him, he would have vanished into oblivion.

With the tribals refusing to respond to others in the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Swami Aseemanand was brought back to Subir where he promptly began the construction of the Sabridham Mandir.

In his unique style, not just the labourers but even the contractor who built the temple, was a tribal. He skilfully wove the Bhil woman Sabri of the Ramayana into a tribal form of worship. It created such a wave among the tribals that Sabridham has become a tribal Badrinath of sorts.

The very government which blocked the building of a hospital and school, now gave full support to the first Sabri Kumbh in 2006, which attracted tribals from all over the country, offering the single largest platform for political mobilisation of tribals. 

The entire Sangh Parivar top leadership and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi were present at the inauguration, not because they loved Aseemanand, but because this presented them with a golden political opportunity.

Now the Sangh Parivar would like to control Sabridham minus Swami Aseemanand. So it too would prefer him out of Gujarat. Ironically, the Sangh Parivar and Christian missionaries desire the same thing for different reasons.

The ashram, which Swami Aseemanand built adjoining the Sabridham temple, has meals cooked by tribals. The roti is made from a local coarse grain called nagli. Contrary to adverse media reports, the ashram was an open house where anyone could stay. 

Sunil Joshi, Sandeep Dange, Sadhvi Pragya and others accused in the Hindu terror cases could have stayed there without Aseemanand knowing about their plans.

But nothing beyond that for this man with a single focus on tribal welfare -- at most he can be a polite listener. The Muslim factor would come into Swami Aseemanand's world to the extent that it impinged on the tribals. Thus, for hours he can elaborate on how Muslims usurped tribal lands by marrying tribal women to get around the ban on buying tribal lands.

Or as a Bengali, he can get worked up over the Bangladeshi influx. So in theory, he could plan the bombing of a train to Bangladesh, but not the Samjhauta Express. He can be involved in a plan to drive away Muslim settlers with tribal wives from tribal areas, but not Malegaon or Ajmer or the Mecca Masjid.

I have spent hours talking to him and there had never been a hint of what he has landed up in. After the chargesheet was filed in the Malegaon case and his name was not found on it, he resurfaced in September 2009.

He rang me up one day, saying he was in Ahmedabad and that he wanted to meet up. He picked me up after half an hour and we drove around the city in his car. I was shocked by his altered appearance.

Instead of his supremely confident and dynamic self, he looked disoriented and confused, like a lost tribal who does not know what had hit him -- hardly the mastermind in person!

His first words were, "Arvindbhai, you must be thinking that I am carrying out evil activities and you should be wanting to shun me."

Trying to put him at ease, I told him, "Maharaj, those Hindus who know you will never believe these allegations and would rush to your defence."

Baffled at my response, he said: "But the Hindus I met treated me like a worm." 

In a matter of fact tone, I explained, "They all must be RSS Hindus."

He gave me a long incredulous look and admitted that he had only met RSS Hindus while on the run.

"But what can I do? They are the only ones I know, they are my family."

In an hour-long drive, I clinically analysed the RSS's response.

At the end of my analysis, his mind became clear. A semblance of the old Swami Aseemanand had returned. Then he asked me if I was an RSS swayamsevak, for I knew so much about it.

I laughed and told him if I ever had joined them, I would have ended up as confused and disoriented as him.

He laughed for the first time.

Swami Aseemanand thanked me effusively and left for Nadiad. After a fortnight I got a call from him; his old confidence had been fully restored. I asked him what the secret of his recovery was. He burst out laughing and said, "I followed your advice and met ordinary Hindus only."

Then his involvement in the blast was resurrected by the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad and he was arrested in Haridwar. He had been on the run for several months.

This development coincidentally came around the same time as the Binayak Sen judgment. 

Both worked for the tribals, yet the media's response is unsettlingly sinister.

The same media, which eulogises Sen, does not even give fair coverage to Swami Aseemanand. Both are Bengali Brahmins; both loved the tribals. But Jatin Chatterji alias Aseemanand did not take the right Naxal path to tribal welfare!

The Dang tribals worship him. Yet, there is not a single report covering this aspect. Instead, there are fake reports painting him as a bully.

Courtesy : Arvind J Bosmia, journalist 

Indian Politician also get "Freedom" since Britishers left INDIA

I heard and see people, who are talking about freedom, but today one fact is eye-catching how Indian Politician using their "Freedom" by surpassing people's faith.



The latest issue of India Today (January 3, 2010) carries an interesting cartoon by Ravi Shankar with an amount boldly inscribed at the top : Rs.176, followed by eleven zeroes. The main cartoon shows Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi declaring “We have ZERO tolerance for corruption!” and some minions of theirs declaring “We can tolerate many more zeros….”

            The total scam money lost by the Bhaaratiya government treasury is approximate 73 Lakh Crore and could be more during the last two decades. Here is glimpse of some(read it again it's some not all) major  (and again it's major not all, sorry Minor(ity) ).

The 2010 ending mail tells us NOT TO BE PART OF EVEN Re 1 SCAM!
WILL YOU?  Wake Up ...............IF U R ALIVE ..........

Republic Of Scams

Total Scam Money (approx) Since 1992:  

Rs. 73000000000000 Cr.  
(73 Lakh Crore)

Hard to digest ? 
Just check the below given details

1992 -Harshad Mehta securities scam Rs 5,000 cr

1994 -Sugar import scam Rs 650 cr

1995 -Preferential allotment scam Rs 5,000 cr
Yugoslav Dinar scam Rs 400 cr
Meghalaya Forest scam Rs 300 cr

1996: -Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 cr
Urea scam Rs 133 cr
Bihar fodder scam Rs 950 cr

1997 -Sukh Ram telecom scam Rs 1,500 cr
SNC Lavalin power project scam Rs 374 cr
Bihar land scandal Rs 400 cr
C.R. Bhansali stock scam Rs 1,200 cr

1998 -Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 cr

2001 -UTI scam Rs 4,800 cr
Dinesh Dalmia stock scam Rs 595 cr
Ketan Parekh securities scam Rs 1,250 cr

2002 -Sanjay Agarwal Home Trade scam Rs 600 cr

2003 -Telgi stamp paper scam Rs 172 cr

2005 -IPO-Demat scam Rs 146 cr
Bihar flood relief scam Rs 17 cr
Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 cr
2006 -Punjab's City Centre project scam Rs 1,500 cr,
Taj Corridor scam Rs 175 cr

2008 -Pune billionaire Hassan Ali Khan tax default Rs 50,000 cr
The Satyam scam Rs 10,000 cr
Army ration pilferage scam Rs 5,000 cr
The 2-G spectrum swindle Rs 60,000 cr
State Bank of Saurashtra scam Rs 95 cr
Illegal monies in Swiss banks, as estimated in 2008 Rs 71,00,000 cr

2009: -The Jharkhand medical equipment scam Rs 130 cr
Rice export scam Rs 2,500 cr
Orissa mine scam Rs 7,000 cr
Madhu Koda mining scam Rs 4,000 cr"

SC refuses to quash PIL against Mayawati in Taj corridor scam
Orissa mine scam could be worth more than Rs 14k cr

CORRUPTION, MONEY LAUNDERING SCAM, Koda discharged from hospital, arrest imminent
'A Cover-Up Operation': 
"It's a scam involving close to Rs 60,000 crores"
Spectrum scam: How govt lost Rs 60,000 crore

 India's biggest scams 1, Ramalinga Raju, Rs. 50.4 billion
India's biggest scams 2, Harshad Mehta, Rs. 40 billion
India's biggest scams 3, Ketan Parekh, Rs. 10 billion
India's biggest scams 4, C R Bhansali, Rs. 12 billion
India's biggest scams 5, Cobbler scam
India's biggest scams 6, IPO Scam
India's biggest scams 7, Dinesh Dalmia, Rs. 5.95 billion
India's biggest scams 8, Abdul Karim Telgi, Rs. 1.71 billion
India's biggest scams 9, Virendra Rastogi, Rs. 430 million
India's biggest scams 10, The UTI Scam, Rs. 320 million
India's biggest scams 11, Uday Goyal, Rs. 2.1 billion
India's biggest scams 12, Sanjay Agarwal, Rs. 6 billion
India's biggest scams 13, Dinesh Singhania, Rs. 1.2 billion

1, Jeep Purchase (1948) :- Free India's corruption graph begins. V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet.

2, Cycle Imports (1951) :- S.A. Venkataraman, then the secretary, ministry of commerce and industry, was jailed for accepting a bribe in lieu of granting a cycle import quota to a company.

3, BHU Funds (1956) :- In one of the first instances of corruption in educational institutions, Benaras Hindu University officials were accused of misappropriation of funds worth Rs 50 lakh.

4, MUNDHRA SCANDAL (1957):- It was the media that first hinted there might be a scam involving the sale of shares to LIC, Feroz Gandhi sources the confidential correspondence between the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari and his principal finance secretary, and raised a question in Parliament on the sale of 'fraudulent' shares to LIC by a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman named Haridas Mundhra. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, set up a one-man commission headed by Justice M.C.Chagla to investigate the matter when it becomes evident that there was a prima facie case. Chagla concluded that Mundhra had sold fictitious shares to LIC, thereby defrauding the insurance behemoth to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore. Mundhra was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The scam also forced the resignation of T.T.Krishnamachari.

6, Teja Loans (1960):- Shipping magnate Jayant Dharma Teja took loans worth Rs 22 crore to establish the Jayanti Shipping Company. In 1960, the authorities discovered that he was actually siphoning off money to his own account, after which Teja fled the country.

7, Kairon Scam (1963):- Pratap Singh Kairon became the first Indian chief minister to be accused of abusing his power for his own benefit and that of his sons and relatives. He quit a year later.

8, Patnaik's Own Goal (1965) :- Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was forced to resign after it was discovered that he had favoured his privately-held company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract.

9, Maruti Scandal (1974) :- Well before the company was set up, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's name came up in the first Maruti scandal, where her son Sanjay Gandhi was favoured with a license to make passenger cars.

10, Solanki Exposé (1992) :- At the World Economic Forum, Madhavsinh Solanki, then the external affairs minister, slipped a letter to his Swiss counterpart asking their government to stop the probe into the Bofors kickbacks. Solanki resigned when India Today broke the story.

11, Kuo Oil Deal (1976):- The Indian Oil Corporation signed an Rs 2.2-crore oil contract with a non-existent firm in Hong Kong and a kickback was given. The petroleum and chemicals minister was directed to make the purchase.

12, Antulay Trust (1981) :- With the exposure of this scandal concerning A.R. Antulay, then the chief minister of Maharashtra, The Indian Express was reborn. Antulay had garnered Rs 30 crore from businesses dependent on state resources like cement and kept the money in a private trust.

13, HDW Commissions (1987) :- HDW, the German submarine maker, was blacklisted after allegations that commissions worth Rs 20 crore had been paid. In 2005, the case was finally closed, in HDW's favour.

14, Bofors Pay-Off (1987) :- A Swedish firm was accused of paying Rs 64 crore to Indian bigwigs, including Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister, to secure the purchase of the Bofors gun.

15, St Kitts Forgery (1989) :- An attempt was made to sully V.P. Singh's Mr Clean image by forging documents to allege that he was a beneficiary of his son Ajeya Singh's account in the First Trust Corp. at St Kitts, with a deposit of $21 million.

16, Airbus Scandal (1990) :- Indian Airlines's (IA) signing of the Rs 2,000-crore deal with Airbus instead of Boeing caused a furore following the crash of an A-320. New planes were grounded, causing IA a weekly loss of Rs 2.5 crore.

17, Securities Scam (1992) :- Harshad Mehta manipulated banks to siphon off money and invested the funds in the stock market, leading to a crash. The loss: Rs 5,000 crore.

18, Indian Bank Rip-off (1992) :- Aided by M. Gopalakrishnan, then the chairman of the Indian Bank, borrowers-mostly small corporates and exporters from the south-were lent a total of over Rs 1,300 crore, which they never paid back.

19, Sugar Import (1994) :- As food minister, Kalpnath Rai presided over the import of sugar at a price higher than that of the market, causing a loss of Rs 650 crore to the exchequer. He resigned following the allegations.

20, MS SHOES SCAM (1994) :- Anyone who war old enough in 1994 to read will remember the advertisements- tens of them intriguingly headlined: 'Who is Pawan Sachdeva?' For the record, it was the peak of the public issued-led advertising boom and the ads were created by the Delhi branch of Rediffusion. Sachdeva, the promoter of MS Shoes, allegedly used company funds to buy shares (of his own company) and rig prices, prior to a public issue. He is alleged to have colluded with officials in the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and SBI Caps, which lead-managed the issue, to dupe the public into investing in his Rs. 699-crore public-***-rights issue. Sachdeva was later acquitted

21, JMM Bribes (1995) :- Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shailendra Mahato testified that he and three party members received bribes of Rs 30 lakh to bail out the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1993 no-confidence motion.

22, In a Pickle (1996) :- Pickle baron Lakhubhai Pathak raised a stink when he accused former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and godman Chandraswami of accepting a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from him for securing a paper pulp contract.

23, Telecom Scam (1996) :- Former minister of state for communication Sukh Ram was accused of causing a loss of Rs 1.6 crore to the exchequer by favouring a Hyderabad- based private firm in the purchase of telecom equipment. He, along with two others, was convicted in 2002.

24, Fodder Scam (1996) :- The accountant general's concerns about the withdrawal of excess funds by Bihar's animal husbandry department unveiled a Rs 950-crore scam involving Lalu Prasad Yadav, then the state chief minister. He resigned a year later.

25, Urea Deal (1996) :- C.S. Ramakrishnan, MD, National Fertiliser, and a group of businessmen close to the P.V. Narasimha Rao regime fleeced the government and took Rs 133 crore from the import of two lakh tonne of urea, which was never delivered.

26, Hawala Diaries (1996) :- The scandal surfaced following CBI raids on hawala operators in Delhi in 1991. But it was S.K. Jain's diaries that had heads rolling.

27, CRB SCAM (1997) :- Another scam forged by greed and discovered through accident. Chain Roop Bhansali, a smart-talking entrepreneur, created a pyramid financial empire based on high-cost financing. At its peak, his Rs. 1,000-crore financial conglomerate had in its ranks a mutual fund, a financial services company into fixed deposits, and a merchant bank. That Bhansali knew how to work the system became evident when he also managed to secure a provisional banking license. Then his luck ran out. An executive in the State Bank of India Inadvertently discovered that some interest warrants issued by Bhansali were not backed by cash. The bubble finally burst in May 1997, but by that time investors had lost over Rs. 1,000 crore. This was among the first retail scams in India and it was played out, in smaller avatars, across the country-especially in the South where financial services companies promised returns in excess of 20 per cent and decamped with the principal. Bhansali was arrested for a few weeks and released later on bail.

28, MEHTA'S SECOND COMING (1998) :- The Big Bull returned to the bourses. This time, he allegedly colluded with the promoters of BPL, Videocon International, and Sterile Industries to rig the share prices of these companies. The inevitable collapse happened sooner than planned, Harshad Mehta orchestrated a cover-up operation that included a high=jinks effort by officials of Bombay Stock Exchange to (illegally ) open the trading system in the middle of the night to set things right, but the damage had been done. SEBI finally passed its ruling on the scam in 2001, banning the three companies concerned from tapping the market-BPL, for two years. Mehta was debarred for life form dealing in Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in October 2001

29, VANISHING COMPANIES SCAM (1998) :- A passing remark heard by then Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram resulted in a furore over what was badly-kept secret on Dalal street. Chidambaram was told that hundreds of companies had disappeared after raising moneys form the public. An informal scrutiny revealed that perhaps over 600 companies were missing. Chidambaram ordered a probe by SEBI. The SEBI probe conducted in May 1998 revealed that while many companies are not traded on the bourses at least 80 companies that had rises Rs.330.78 crore were simply missing. Later that year, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) was asked to probe and penalize these companies. DCA still investigating. Investigations continue to this day.

30, PLANTATION COMPANIES SCAM (1999) :- It was as innovative a swindle as any effected in the world. Savvy entrepreneurs convinced gullible investors that given the right irrigation and fertilizer inputs, teak, strawberries, and anything else that could be grown, would grow anywhere in the country. The promoters could afford to collect money from investors and not worry about retribution (or returns, for that matter). For, plantation companies fell under the purview of neither SEBI nor Reserve Bank of India. Indeed, they didn't even come under the scope of the Department decided to change things in 1999, enough investors had been gulled: 653 companies, between them, had raised Rs. 2,563 crore from investors. To date, not many investors have got their principals back, just another affirmation of the old saying about money not growing on trees.

31, Match Fixing (2000) :- Mohammed Azharuddin, till then India's cricket captain, was accused of match-fixing. He and Ajay Sharma were banned from playing, while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar were suspended for five years.

32, KETAN PAREKH SCAM (2001) :- Ketan Parekh's modus operandi wasn't very different from Harshad Mehta's. If Mehta used banker's receipts, then Parekh used pay orders to ramp up the prices of his favourite scrips (the K-10). Apart from money form the banking system Parekh also rerouted money from corporated like HFCL (Rs. 425 crore), and Zee (Rs. 340 crore) to good effect. He was caught when pay-orders issued by Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank bounced. Although the total amount involved in the scam was just Rs. 137 crore, the impact was far greater.

Apparently, when a bear cartel sensed Parekh was in trouble, it stepped in and leveraged a dip in the NASDAQ to bear down stock prices. The resultant slump in the markets happened soon after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented what he considered his best budget ever. Under pressure from the government, SEBI investigated the scam and heads began to roll. Among them: the entire management team of BSE, including its president Anand Rathi, CSFB, First Global, and, in an indirect connection, P.S.Subramanyam, the Chairman of UTL Evidently, for the 18 months that PSS was Chairman of UTI, the Trust had mirrored the actions of the bull cartel. The result? When the market tanked, so did the NAV of its holy cow, the US-64.

33, Tehelka Sting (2001) :- Tehelka, an online news portal, used spycams to catch army officers and politicians accepting bribes, in their sting operation called Operation Westend. Investigative journalism turned another corner in the country.

34, Stockmarket Scam (2001) :- The mayhem that wiped off over Rs 1,15,000 crore in the markets in March 2001 was masterminded by the Pentafour bull Ketan Parekh. He was arrested in December 2002 and banned from acccessing the capital market for 14 years.

35, Home Trade Scam (2002) :- Under the pretext of gilt trading, Rs 600 crore was swindled from over 25 cooperative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat by a Navi Mumbai-based brokerage firm Home Trade. Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of the firm, was arrested in May 2002.

36, Stamp Paper Scam (2003) :- The sheer magnitude of the racket was shocking-it caused a loss of Rs 30,000 crore to the exchequer. Disclosures of the mastermind behind it, Abdul Karim Telgi, implicated top police officers and bureaucrats.

37, Oil-for-Food Scandal (2005) :- K. Natwar Singh was unceremoniously dropped from the Cabinet when his name surfaced in the Volcker Report on the Iraq oil-for-food scam.

What India Could Do With Rs 73 Lakh Crore?

Build: 2.4 crore primary healthcare centres. Thats at least 3 for every village, at a cost of Rs 30 lakh each.

Build: 24.1 lakh Kendriya Vidyalayas at a cost of Rs 3.02 crore each, with two sections from Class VI to XII.

Construct: 14.6 crore low-cost houses assuming a cost of Rs 5 lakh a unit.
Set up: 2,703 coal-based power plants of 600 MW each. Each costs Rs 2,700 crore.

Supply: 12 lakh CFL bulbs. Thats enough light for each of Indias 6 lakh villages

Construct: 14.6 lakh km of two-lane highways. Thats a road around Indias perimeter 97 times over.

Clean up: 50 major rivers for the next 121 years, at Rs 1,200 crore a river every year.

Launch: 90 NREGA-style schemes, each worth roughly Rs 81,111 crore.
Announce: 121 more loan waiver schemes. All of them worth Rs 60,000 crore.

Give: Rs 56,000 to every Indian. Even better, give Rs 1.82 lakh to 40 crore Indians living BPL.

Hand out: 60.8 crore Tata Nanos to 60.8 crore people. Or four times as many laptops.

Grow the GDP: The scam money is 27% more than our GDP of Rs 53 lakh crore."

Greed, graft, politics, bribery, dirty money. Just another day in the life of a nation still rated among the most corrupt in the world. Scan the scams that have grabbed headlines, destroyed reputations and left many people poorer.

Does the Indian citizen have an answer?

OPEN YOUR EYES INDIAN......
 

=========================================