sushma swaraj – The Metrognome

What’s next in the Sushma-Vasundhara-Lalit Modi triangle?

As the issue becomes murkier, it’s time to examine if ministerial resignations should also be made compulsory, like everything else.

by Humra Quraishi

The present Government was supposed to weed out every sort of corruption, starting with bringing back the black money reserves stashed abroad. But as each day passes, it is becoming obvious that far from rooting out corruption, the Government is firmly entrenching itself in it.

If Cabinet Minister and Chief Minister helping fugitives is not corruption, then what is? External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj ‘helping’ the tainted and wanted Lalit Modi due to some rumoured ‘family ties’ has only brought out the fact that the latter is Swaraj’s lawyer daughter Bansuri’s client. Nobody knew this before, and nobody would have known till Swaraj’s involvement in helping Lalit Modi had not been brought to light.

Then came the news of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s involvement in the matter, and the issue became even murkier. Even Vasundhara has ties with Lalil Modi’s family – her son Dushyant Singh has business connections with the London-based tycoon.

These are just two links out in the open at the moment – can we be certain there aren’t many more? After all, corruption is not just about taking money, it is also about influencing the outcome of several matters, or pressurising others to do things a certain way to gain some advantage.

What’s more, Lalit Modi seems to be in a mood to reveal many names connected with the matter – who else has been giving out the information about family histories and business links? The bigger question is, what does the Government intend to do with this information? Whether more names come out or not, what is it going to do about Sushma and Vasundhara?

If the Government can make yoga compulsory in schools, if it can enforce a beef ban in Maharashtra (and look to ban it in other States as well), why can’t it make resignations of errant Ministers compulsory?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy www.ndtv.com. Image is a file picture)

Why are we silent on Gaza?

Not only is India and its Government not reacting to the Gaza killings, it is punishing protestors here in brutal ways.

by Humra Quraishi

It is a strange situation – the country says nothing about the ongoing crisis in Gaza, where the death toll has already reached over 600 people, but it quickly quashes any form of protests.

I would like to know why security forces killed an unarmed 14-year-old om the Kashmir Valley. The boy was protesting against Israel’s brutal killings of Palestinians in the Gaza settlement. At least the young boy had the courage to speak out on a subject most of us are silent on. But what happened? He got killed for exercising his basic right to protest.

The bigger question is: even as besieged Palestinians in Gaza are killed, why is the world so removed from their pain? Where is our human instinct to react to genocides of this scale? Of course, why talk of the world when our own political rulers are not outraged enough?

Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, has already categorically stated that the Government will not react to the current Israel-Palestine crisis. Why? Is Israel such a major force in the Indian scheme of things? Is it donating or selling arms technology to India? What is its hold on the Government?

Throughout a long career in journalism, I have been interviewing Palestinian envoys and the severe crises their countrymen have been facing for decades. One of the first Palestinian envoys to India, Dr Khaled El-Sheikh, was a member of the Al-Fatah movement for freedom before he joined the diplomatic service. The turning point came for him when his 18-year-old nephew was killed by the Israeli occupation forces, leaving him devastated. He was succeeded by Osama Musa, a former Air Force Chief of Palestine who was a blunt speaker. After Yasser Arafat’s death, he had said to me, “We are occupied, slaves to the masters – Americans and Israelis – to such an extent that we had to take permission from them to bury our leader Arafat.

He had spoken about America’s role in the long-simmering situation. “Can’t America see the killings taking place on a daily basis? Without America’s support, Israel is zero. Israel cannot survive a day if America does not support it.”

In the mean time, how about if we in India protest in a non-violent way and shun Israel-made goods?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist and the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy 972mag.com, todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com)