ED summons Mallya, Congress blames govt for letting him ‘flee’

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued summons for appearance to former liquor baron Vijay Mallya and questioned some former Kingfisher airlines executives while his “fleeing” from India triggered a spat in parliament. However, the flamboyant tycoon insisted that he had not fled the country.

The issue rocked the Rajya Sabha for the second consecutive day with the opposition and treasury benches exchanging heated arguments over the case.

The ED has summoned Mallya to appear before the agency next Friday (March 18) for questioning in the ongoing probe into a money-laundering case, officials said in Mumbai.

The development comes five days after the ED registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act last Monday and a day after it summoned former top officials of the airlines and the IDBI to whom it owes around Rs.900 crore.

Earlier on Friday, the ED quizzed the airlines’ ex-chief financial officer A. Raghunathan to shed light on its various financial transactions and related matters.

Besides Raghunathan, the ED has also summoned former IDBI chairman-cum-managing director Yogesh Aggarwal and other senior executives of the airline and the bank for questioning on the advances made to KFA and other connected aspects.

However, it was not immediately clear when Mallya -- who is currently abroad -- will return to India and respond to the ED summons but he stressed he was not an absconder.

“I am an international businessman. I travel to and from India frequently. I did not flee from India and neither am I an absconder. Rubbish,” said Mallya, also a sitting Rajya Sabha member.

Rubbishing reports that he had fled to London, the United Breweries group chairman said that he had full faith in the Indian judicial system and “respects and will comply with the law of the land”.

Mallya also said that he does not want a trial by the media. “Once a media witch hunt starts, it escalates into a raging fire where truth and facts are burnt to ashes.

“News reports that I must declare my assets. Does that mean the banks did not know my assets or look at my parliamentary disclosures,” he asked in a series of tweets.

A consortium of 17 banks led by the State Bank of India wants Mallya arrested for not repaying about Rs.9,000 crore he had borrowed.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court gave Mallya two weeks to respond and fixed the next hearing on March 30.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha witnessed a ruckus over the issue as Congress members accused the government of letting off Mallya.

“On 16 October 2015, the CBI informed the immigration authorities that should Mr. Mallya intend or try to leave this country he should be detained... Detention orders were issued by CBI... But exactly a month later, the CBI changed this order and told immigration they should be only informed,” Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said while raising the issue in the house.

“What happened in one month? The government is party to his fleeing from this country,” he claimed.

In its counter-attack, the government, however, told the Congress that they would not let off Mallya the way Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi was let off.

“We want to make it clear about Mallya, the government has said the country’s money will be returned. We will not let him off the way you let off Quattrocchi,” retorted Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Outside, parliament, the Congress alleged that Mallya was tipped off to leave the country through a “secret understanding” between him and the government.

“Facts now suggest that Mallya was actually tipped off to leave the country in order to escape recovery of over Rs.9,000 crore of loan by a consortium of banks,” party leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Rajeev Gowda and Ranjit Ranjan said in a statement here.

“If government has a secret understanding or is handling the issue through back channels, it owes a duty to place the same in public domain,” they said.

Mallya left the country six days before a group of creditor-banks led by the State Bank of India on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to restrain him from leaving India.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court on Friday adjourned to March 28 the Maharashtra service tax department’s plea for recovery of dues from Mallya.

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Amit Shah: Congress should be ashamed of Rahul Gandhi's visit to JNU campus

BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday attacked Congress over the JNU row, saying it should be "ashamed" of Rahul Gandhi's visit to the campus and questioned whether "anti-national slogans" can be called freedom of speech.

Addressing a meeting of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP's youth wing, he said the JNU row was about the party's core issue of nationalism and invoked its Ram Janambhumi campaign to buttress his point besides its role in Goa and Hyderabad liberation movement.

"A strange atmosphere has been created. Anti-national slogans are being projected as freedom of expression... Congress should be ashamed that its vice-president goes to the campus and says these (slogans) should be heard as there is freedom of expression.

"If these slogans are freedom of expression, then what is treason?" he said seeking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's views on whether she agrees with her son on this.

Shah asked party workers to work hard to ensure that it remains in power at the Centre for 25 years so that India could become the 'vishwaguru' as it was not possible in five years.

"In five years there could be development and high growth rate and borders could be made safe but if India has to be 'vishwaguru', then it is a must that BJP is in government for 25 years," he said.

Underlining party's Hindutva credentials, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Ganga aarti with pride and went to Pashupatinath temple in Nepal to seek blessing.

The party wants India to have top IT and MBA professionals, who also seek their "inspiration" from Swami Vivekananda, he said

The BJP chief also made fun of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attack Congress and hail Modi's leadership, saying Singh visited more countries than Modi but his tours made little impact.

"He would read from two pages he carried with him which were written in English. At times, he would read the speech meant for Thailand in Malaysia and the one for Malaysia in Thailand... Modiji spoke in Hindi in the UN and the whole country felt proud," Shah said.

The biggest work the Modi government has done is to make the country's borders safe, he claimed.

Invoking a number of Centre's schemes aimed at welfare of youth and farmers, he said the government has made a beginning for "miraculous" change in the country.

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'Freedom 251' Scheme Biggest Scam Of Millennium, Alleges Congress Lawmaker

Alleging that 'Freedom 251' smartphone scheme was a "fraud", Congress lawmaker Pramod Tiwari in Rajya Sabha today strongly objected to the presence of BJP leaders at the launch of the scheme to sell smartphones at a price of Rs. 251 and sought a reply from the government.

"I am making a definite allegation. This government is going to do a big scam. This is going to be the biggest scam of the millennium during the rule of BJP.

"The product has been launched by BJP leaders. This is a scam in which leaders of BJP are involved. They talk about 'Make in India' but what they are doing is 'Make in Fraud'," Mr Tiwari said during Zero Hour and expressed doubts over the claim of the company to provide mobile phones to consumers at just Rs. 251.

He said six crore bookings have already been made for the phone and even at the rate of Rs. 251 each, the mobile company must have collected hundreds of crores of rupees.

Demanding that the money collected by the company should be kept secure, Mr Tiwari said even the Director of the company has said that the minimum cost of the phone is Rs. 1400 and wondered how can the gadget be then sold at just Rs. 251.

Mr Tiwari said if it is possible to get a phone at Rs. 251, then how can others are charging Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 for a mobile set.

"Either this is wrong or that is wrong. The government has its share either in this or that. Government should answer," Mr Tiwari said.

Ringing Bells, a Noida based start-up, which launched the mobile had said they had developed it with support from the government.

Soon after the launch ceremony where a veteran BJP leader was present, doubts were raised about the genuineness of the company's claim to provide phone at the rate of Rs. 251.

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JNU, Durga and Rohith Vemula: What Opposition didn't say in Parliament to counter Smriti Irani

Madam Speaker,

Let me begin by congratulating the HRD minister for mixing melodrama, mythology and Ashwatthama-truths in Parliament to come up with a heady cocktail of oratory. After watching her performance, I can say that she has proved Shakespeare right by turning Parliament into her stage.

But, more than Shakespeare, her eloquent words remind me of the great Indian shayar Mirza Ghalib and his famous couplet: Tere waade par jiye hum, to ye jhoot jaana, ki khushi se mar na jaate, agar aitbaar hota. (Wouldn't I have died with joy if your promises could be believed).

I could feel her voice tremble when she talked about the death of a "bachcha" in the Hyderabad university. Perhaps somebody forgot to write in her script the exact moment when she was supposed also to cry.

Let me ask her, Madam Speaker, when exactly did the HRD minister realise that the scholar her party and its stormtroopers hounded as "anti-national" was a "bachcha?" Here I would quote Rohith's mother, the woman who lost her child: "Your ministry had written that my Rohith and other Dalit students were anti-national extremists. You said that he is not a Dalit. You accused him of getting a false certificate. Should I say it is because you got false certificates for your educational qualifications that you think others do so too? You stopped my son's stipend, you got him suspended from the university. You are the minister for HRD, but you have no value for education. You can never understand how difficult it is for a Dalit to reach the stage of doing his PhD. You can never imagine the hardship, the struggle, the tears and sacrifice to reach that position. In three months, you destroyed what it had taken me 26 years to build."

Madam, I heard the honourable minister literally put her neck on the line in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a query by Behenji (I hope I am not labelled a sexist for calling Mayawati ji that instead of aunty) when she announced: "Agar mere uttar se aap santusht na ho to main apna sar kalam karke aapke charnoon main chhod doongi." (If you are not satisfied with my reply, I will cut of my head and place it at your feet).

I humbly advise the honourable minister to not make such dramatic promises to Rohith's mother if and when she summons the courage to face her and tries to answer her questions. Outside our Parliament, people may take such bravado seriously.

I was amused when the HRD minister said "koi meri jaati pooch kar to dekho." It is very nice to hear that you do not wish to propagate the varna system espoused in Manu Smriti, a treatise whose name you have begun to somehow find unparliamentary. But, isn't that a bit ironical when your esteemed colleagues like the foreign minister made Rohith's caste into an issue, the Prime Minister sought votes in the Bihar election by drawing attention to his pichchda status?

I know you are keen to deflect attention from Rohith's background. When an election in Uttar Pradesh is on the horizon and dalit votes are at stake, it suits your party to talk of kamandal (Ram Mandir) than Mandal (castes). But, don't forget, people in this country haven't forgotten that in letter after letter, press conference after press conference, attention was drawn to not just Rohith's jaati, but his mother's past and lineage. Let me remind you that while terrorists were walking down a red carpet in Pathankot, some of the agencies responsible for gathering intelligence on them were more keen to prepare dossiers on Rohith's family and its background.

But, your wisdom is borrowed from the principles of those sitting in a glass chamber and merrily casting stones at other. While you accuse others of using a "bachcha" for politics, you do not blanch with fear while dragging goddess Durga into your deplorable politics.

I know elections are due in West Bengal and Maa Durga is your new Ram Lala and Mahishasur your new Babar. But, pause and think for a moment when you read out graphic details about our revered Goddess in a bid to evoke rage in Bengal. Desist from turning her into a tool of your sectarian politics.

What exactly does the Goddess have to do with the current debate in JNU? For almost four years, dalits and tribals have been arguing their own version of mythology to counter the existing narrative. In 2012, several members of the All India Backward Students Federation (AIBSF) observed Mahishasur martyrdom day on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Monday evening. Students from other states, including those from Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Bihar, and Lucknow University participated. The programme saw a discussion on the legend behind Mahishasur, the demon king who was slain by Goddess Durga. At one such event, Dalit leader Udit Raj, who is now a BJP parliamentarian, was also also present.

Again in 2014, tribals and dalits in 15 states spread across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa celebrated the demon king” as a non-Aryan inhabitant and a just king of the land, with Durga representing Aryan invaders.

Do we hear you ordering your mythology brigade lead by the aptly named Bhim Bassi to round them up for sedition? Do we hear the collective howls of bhakts demanding that now Mysore be renamed after some RSS worker or former chief minister Yeddyurappa ji? Do we hear kar sevaks now being neatly lined up as Durga Vahini to take on the advancing armies of demon Mahishasur? Can we see you mounting a steed to battle the new straw man you have created? Will you now demonise Udit Raj?

Madam Speaker, I will not argue with the minister over her claims that Rohith could have been saved if he were examined by a doctor in time or that the "sedition" case on JNU students is based on solid evidence. On this, I will just advise the minister to hire a speech writer, not a script writer high on fiction and mythology, someone who noticed my left hand when I complimented you for turning Parliament into your stage.

Since you ended your speech with the words of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's speech, let me do the same by reminding you of your Raj Dharma, that's Dharma with an H, instead of hounding students, dalits, intellectuals, teachers and liberals, pitting Indians against Indians, mythology against history and turning Goddesses into election themes.

There is nothing more hypocritical than making a mother cry and then choking with emotion in Parliament over her son's death. There is nothing more ant—national than turning mere "bachchas" into pawns for your politics of pseudo-nationalism.

For your sake, I shall pray, Asato Ma Sad Gamaya, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya, Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya.

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Puducherry too will have DMK-Congress alliance: Narayanasamy

"Such an alliance is nothing new in Puducherry. We had had formed a coalition government with DMK in the past," the former Union Minister noted.

The opposition Congress in Puducherry on Saturday welcomed the announcement of alliance between the Congress and the DMK in neighbouring Tamil Nadu to fight the coming Assembly polls and claimed that such a pact would also be the direct development in Puducherry.

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister V. Narayanasamy told PTI, “It is indeed a good development that the alliance between the DMK and the Congress has been clinched now during the talks between senior Congress leader and Opposition Leader in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi in Chennai today.”

He said such a pact would be mutually beneficial for the two parties and Puducherry would also follow suit.

He also pointed out that in the past too, the Congress had an alliance with the DMK in Puducherry.

“Such an alliance is nothing new in Puducherry. We had had formed a coalition government with DMK in the past,” he noted.

Further, he said details regarding seat-sharing between the two parties would be discussed and decided in course of time as the present groundwork firming up the alliance was a “good development”.

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David Headley Revelations: BJP wants Sonia and Rahul to apologise for trying to 'fix' Modi

Leading the attack on opposition leaders for trying to 'fool the people', Home Minister Rajnath Singh led the clarion call for the Congress and other parties to apologise. He told ANI: "You must have heard what David Headley has just said in Court, that Ishrat Jahan was a suicide bomber. Ishrat Jahan regarding whom so many accusations were cast on our leaders. Tell me, will the accusing political parties now apologise to the nation for trying to fool the people?"He also asserted that the revelations made by David Coleman Headley before a Mumbai special court has exposed Pakistan, adding that New Delhi would still prefer cordial relations with Islamabad. "I think Pakistan has been exposed. Even then, we would like to have a very cordial relationship with Pakistan," Singh told the media.

Deposing from an undisclosed location in the US, Headley had so far told the special court that the ISI was helping different terror outfits in Pakistan and was providing financial, military and moral support. Headley, who had conducted recce of the places in Mumbai which were attacked by 10 LeT terrorists on November 26, 2008, also revealed that the outfit had initially planned to attack a conference of Indian defence scientists in Taj Mahal Hotel.

He also said he had also conducted a recce of the famous Siddhivinayak Temple and Naval Air Station on directions of LeT commanders

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's deposition that Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an encounter in Gujarat in 2004, was an LeT operative led to a political slugfest with BJP demanding that the Congress leadership should apologise for "targeting Narendra Modi over her killing at the cost of national security". BJP accused Congress of politicising the encounter as part of its "hate politics" against Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, and said if its chief Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi had any "shame" left, then they must apologise to the nation.

Police personnel who fought terrorists risking their lives were put behind bars by the then UPA government and security agencies like CBI and IB were politicised, party secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged, saying it was done to "defame and fix" Modi as part of a "political conspiracy".

"Headley's deposition that she was a LeT's suicide bomber has unmasked those who do politics over terrorism. We do not expect any morality from Congress. But if Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi, who is a champion in politics of conspiracy, have any shame left, then they must apologise to the nation.

"They should apologise to the police personnel' families who had to suffer after they were put in jail for killing these terrorists in encounter. Congress and its allies linked terrorists with religion to mask their corrupt governance," he told a press conference.

Congress sought to dismiss BJP demands for an apology in the wake of David Headley's claims that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative, insisting that the "fundamental question" was whether she and her accomplices were killed in fake encounter.

Sharma also cited comments of Congress leaders questioning the Batla House encounter and their allusion to RSS hand in 26/11 Mumbai attack to attack the opposition party. "It has become clear that Congress played with national security. It is height of hate politics," he said.

Immediately after Headley's testimony, a battery of BJP leaders swung into action to attack Congress, claiming that its leaders dubbed Ishrat as a "martyr" only to "fix" Modi.

BJP cited a number of developments during the UPA's tenure, including "contradictory" affidavits filed in court over Ishrat case and NIA's reported decision to omit Headley's statement to it in which he allegedly said that she was an LeT terrorist, to argue that Congress used her killing to target Modi and Amit Shah, then a Gujarat minister and now party chief. Somebody had stated she was a college-going girl and somebody else said she was a martyr and all these people have been unmasked now, Sharma said.

It is clear that she and her associates were on a mission to kill Modi and attack religious places, he claimed.

BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain attacked the "secular brigade" and took a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for using Ishrat's killing as an issue during then Bihar polls by terming her a 'Bihar ki beti'. Another party spokesperson, Nalin Kohli noted that LeT had portrayed her as a "martyr" on its website but "government agencies at that time were put at war with each other and attempts were made at fixing individuals... instead of finding the truth".

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