Defending the indefensible

On the one hand as the 2G saga continues and the new Telecom minister, who has been sent with a one point agenda to shut down the investigation and openly encouraged by the entire industry (as they are all the beneficiaries without a single exception i guess - and even if there is an exception he must have been promised proper compensation once the dust settles) - took it upon himself to discredit and rubbish the CAG report. By the time he could take his foot out his ulcerous mouth the Supreme Court went on and admitted the CAG report as evidence. Now the entire industry is on tenterhooks as they along with a corrupt minister will also have to "go to jail" NOT pass go or collect their 200!!

On the other hand the tamasha of the appointment of a tainted IAS officer as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) got curioser by the day and the virus of "Footus mouthus" continued here too as a cornered government said that it was not made aware of the fact that the incumbant was a party named in the FIR for the palmolien scam dating back a couple of decades back!!

What really surprises me is that once the government is NOW AWARE, what is stopping them from removing such a misfit? Sadly there was none to answer us when we called. Even the answering machines had long given up recording messages as there was none left to hear them For they were all either defending the indefensible or had been struck the "Footus mouthus" virus.

A few of my friends said that it was time that India did an Egypt. Sadly we still have a lot more water to go by under the bridge of the "haves and the have nots" before people set aside their differences of caste, colour, religion etc etc and take on the politicians who are the one true enemy of the "Aam Admi" (common man)

2G and the Raja

"A general equitable principle that no person should be allowed to profit at another's expense without making restitution for the reasonable value of any property, services, or other benefits that have been unfairly received and retained."

The Tamasha of the 2G probe continues and nowhere in all this has there been a call to remedy the loss!! There are enough precedents in law to support a re-auction of the spectrum and forcing the telcos to pay the difference under the "unjust enrichment" doctrine.

The Right hand man (Kapil Sibal) of the "first family"(gandhi's) has now been sent to the telecom ministry with a single directive - "obfuscate, confuse, redirect" so that in the end nothing comes out of all the allegations.

refer my earlier blog at http://forsec.blogspot.com/2010/03/king-of-elections.html

With Raja having served his purpose the first family has no more use for him. But of course other than removing him from the post of "union minister" dont expect the powers that be to arrest or even jail the erring minister - because we all know who were the ultimate beneficiaries of the lucre.

It would indeed be interesting to watch Kapil Sibal destroy what little credibility he has left as he tries to defend the indefensible. Looking forward to some major "footus mouthus". Keep watching this space.

He has already taken some baby steps in that direction by taking on the CAG report and saying they dont know how to do their job!! Well Done indeed Mr Minister.

The Citi never sleeps

To add to the latest in the scams front is the one by shivraj puri, a manager in Citibank, gurgaon branch.

The media has been going to town with an initial swindle of 400Cr which now stands at 300Cr. This is sensationalism at its best.

The issues are:

1. what was the purpose for which the investors gave their money to Citibank ?

2. was there anything in the documents wherein the investors gave rights to Puri to use the funds on their behalf ?

3. finally when he was doing all these trades why wasnt the brokerage houses questioning him on the sources of his funds as required by SEBI?

No media / press person has been writing about the above which i find very disturbing as there seems a total lack of "informed" writers OR even bigger a total lack of "informed readers" !!

The bigger worry is the way investigative agencies are dealing with the case. Common sense suggests that Puri be allowed to close out his positions. The minute public knowledge of his positions are made known to others they can take opposite positions (as his accounts are frozen) and thus bleed him to death. This ultimately hits the investors whose money is invested in the first place!! My fear seems justified as the fall in the markets in the past week seem too orchestrated and maybe, just maybe it is because the frozen positions of Puri is "private" knowledge to "few" in the "know" and they have already taken these opposite positions.

The transparent way would have been to just transfer these positions to a SEBI appointed trader/ broker etc and tell him to close these positions at the earliest (1-2 days) and then to freeze the funds in a bank account till the investigation is over and it is determined how much money goes to each investor.

Guess everybody is sleeping at work and that is why the Citi never sleeps as it is too worried for its future..