Press Releases in July
07.07.2004
Press Release
In the Cauvery issue, after being shown the door with some left-- over crumbs [flood overflow water]by the Prime Minister, the 40 Tamil MPs of Lok Sabha have sufferred another humiliation this time at the hands of the Railways Minister Mr. Lalu Prasad yesterday. In the Railway Budget, with 12 Ministers to boot, there is no new rail project for Tamil Nadu. Even the financial allocations for old projects such as doubling of lines, conversion to broad gauge and building a Yatri Nivas in Madurai railway station, cleared when I was representing the state in 1998-99, have been drastically pruned.
The 40 MPs should hang their heads in shame because they have not the standing or respect in Delhi to get the state it's dues. If they have any self respect, they should resign their seats in Parliament. Tamil Nadu does not at the moment need a representation in Parliament since none of them anyway count for anything in Delhi.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
07.07.2004
Press Release
Statement of Janata Party President Dr. Subramanian Swamy made in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he is presently at to teach a course at Harvard on China-India comparisons.
The statement of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Reddy that Congress is not committed to creation of a separate Telengana but only to setting up at some future unspecified date a Second States Reorganisation Commission, is no surprise to the Janata Party. The Janata Party had contested the last Assembly elections in the state on the Telengana issue and had warned the people that Congress had a record of betraying the movement since 1948, and will do so again. The Janata Party won two MLAs seat and had lost seven narrowly all less than 700 votes each. The Telengana Rashtriya Samiti had however assured the people that they joined the alliance with Congress only to ensure immediate formation of Telengana after the elections. Now either the TRS has been fooled or they have cheated the Telengana people by giving this assurance.
The Janata Party demands that the TRS withdraw from the Congress alliance and join the Janata Party in an agitation to force the Union Government to give in to the long standing demand for a separate state. The party gives an ultimatum to the Manmohan Singh government to yield by August 15th or risk being toppled and replaced by an alternative secular patriotic formation.
(Subramanian Swamy)
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President made on July 8, 2004
The UPA government's first Budget is the most incoherent and contradictory budget. It is surprising that a distinguished economist that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is, has allowed it to be presented at all. May be because Dr. Singh is just a benami PM.
The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's distrastrous track record in the Ministry is already well known. In 1996 he came to the Ministry after the Narasimha Rao government had achieved a high five year average growth rate of 7 percent and a 1995-96 growth rate of 8% in GDP. Within a year Chidambaram brought it down to 4.6%, the lowest for the decade of the 1990s. He also wrecked the financial health of the government by implementing the Pay Commission's conditional recommendation unconditionally--giving the pay rise without the downsizing and pruning in staff strength. He also protected banks in the biggest loan scam especially in the Indian Bank. Thus the fiscal deficit soared and so did inflation. This was his version of a "dream budget", that was in reality a nightmare.
Once again, Mr. Chidambaram has dished out the same recipe for disaster in the economy. He has raised taxes on the main engine of India's economic growth today-- the service sector. He has however failed to make any provision to promote the modernisation and globalisation of this sector such as allowing for FDI in retail and insurance to continue it's growth. The much needed boost for infrastructure investment is also not there. Nor has he proposed disinvestment of the shares of the public sector banks for greater efficiency. There is also no scope in the allocations to raise domestic investment to accelerate the growth rate, because the budget has a huge primary deficit in the current account which is covered by cutting development outlay, thus making for an equivalent capital account surplus, which is a retrograde move. Furthermore, the government has pre-empted bank financing of private investment by requiring that 50% of the bank deposits be reserved for government current expenditure. Hence to call it a "growth oriented budget" is absurd.
With Chidambaram as Finance Minister, the UPA days are numbered in government.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
13.7.2004
Press Release
I welcome the Jayalalithaa government's decision to order a probe into the affairs of the Periyar Trust that has been captured by the LTTE agent Mr.K.Veeramani. Periyar had an ideology whether one agreed with him or not. But Veeramani has been interested only making a business out of it and accumulating personal wealth by rendering bogus accounts. That is why DMK President Mr.Karunanidhi had once publicly renamed him "Vairamoney". I hope on political rivalry the DMK leader does not noe develop amnesia on this. The Tamil Nadu government should therefore without any hesitation take over the trust, and prosecute Mr.Veeramani for defalcation of accounts of the Trust.
Mr.Veeramani is also given to forgery. There is a criminal case pending against him and a LTTE activist in the Tiruchi sessions court, on a petition filed by me against them for a forged photograph that they got published in many newspapers in 1995, to persuade the then government to arrest me under TADA. Thanks to the then DGP, Mr. Vaikunth, the forgery was proved by the forensic department and Veeramani failed miserably. In the meantime the LTTE activist has given a statement in the said court that the forgery was at Veeramani's behest.
The LG of Delhi also had got demolished the Periyar Centre unauthorisedly built in 2000 by Mr. Veeramani near the Delhi International airport, and which had functioned as a transit camp for the LTTE. Hence Mr.Veeramani is a person of doubtful integrity with terrorist links. He should be prosecuted and sent to prison.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
15.07.2004
Press Release
It is a surprise that the Congress Party and its allies are shedding crocodile tears for the plight of George Fernandes being asked to go through security in Washington Dulles airport after removing his shoes and coat. Since he was on an official visit it was inappropriate and hence the US administration through Mr.Armitage has expressed their apologies, belately because there was no formal protest earlier.
What the Congress leaders should answer is what they were doing when Rahul Gandhi with his SPG in tow was formally detained by the FBI at Boston airport on September 21, 2001 for five hours and interrogated. He was completely searched and his passport photocopied. It was only after the PMO launched a formal protest that he was allowed to go. It also curious that the PMO thought it fit to formally protest for Rahul Gandhi on private visit but not for Fernandes on an official visit. Such was the PMO those days because of a secret pact between Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi with National Security Adviser Brijesh Mishra acting as her errand boy.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
30.07.2004
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President and former Union Minister for Law& Justice
I condemn the UPA government for its capitulation on the question of the hostages taken by terrorists in Iraq, in pleading with them for mercy and by declaring that India “is not with the occupiers”. Are we then with the terrorists? Instead of this whining and groveling before these terrorists, the Prime Minister should have spoken as a leader of billion plus people of the longest continuing civilization and largest democracy, and threatened the terrorists thus: Either they free these innocent employees immediately, or India will retaliate by sending a 100,000 troops to Iraq to fight against them. But Dr. Manmohan Singh is already being perceived everywhere as a supplicant to a foreigner, and not in a position to do anything strong or courageous in the defence of India’s honour.
Unfortunately for the nation, the leader of the BJP, Mr. Vajpayee cannot bring to book the government on this score because of his own shameful capitulation in the IA plane hijack in Kandhahar in December 1999 and in eating the humble pie after the attack on Parliament in December 2001.
(Subramanian Swamy)
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