Sunday, August 21, 2011

Will Sonia Gandhi Fall? -- Huffington Post

aug 21st, 2011 CE

disclaimer: i didn't say it, i want the CBI guys monitoring twitter to note. some white woman said it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sri 
To:


World's #9 Most Powerful Person Now Accused of Corruption --
Will She Fall?

Posted: 04/25/11 07:17 AM ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cleo-paskal/worlds-9-most-powerful-pe_b_853132.html

New Delhi. Some of India's biggest fish are getting caught up in the
country's fast-growing wave of anti-corruption activity. In what could
be India's equivalent of a judicial jasmine revolution, previously
invulnerable politicians, business icons, and pillars of the community
are all nervously keeping their lawyers on speed-dial.

The anti-corruption push is an unprecedented coming together of myriad
facets of Indian society. Religious leaders are concerned about the
effects on morality and spiritual growth. NGOs speak of the effects on
the poor. The middle class is angry about its future being stifled by
a smothering blanket of day-to-day corruption. The intelligence
services see corruption a clear threat to national security. And the
business community, thanks to globalization, has seen how efficiently
things can operate without having to constantly pay bribes or be
tangled in red tape, and they want the same thing at home.

Even the Supreme Court is fed up, with Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy
saying about the vast sums of Indian money being illegally hidden away
in Liechtenstein Bank:

We are talking about the huge money. It is a plunder of the nation. It
is a pure and simple theft of the national money. We are talking about
mind-boggling crime.
The scandals are bursting on to the front pages fast and thick. Suresh
Kalmadi, a Congress Party politician and the former head of the
corruption-plagued Commonwealth Games, was arrested April 25.
According to a report by the Indian Comptroller and Auditor General,
the 2G spectrum scam alone, in which 2G licenses were sold off in a
manner that was, to say the least, less than transparent, cost close
to $40 billion in lost revenue.

All across India, people are saying enough is enough. And suddenly the
unthinkable is starting to happen. People considered above reproach,
or at least untouchable, are coming under the judicial cross-hairs. 2G
alone has seen charges laid against one former government minister and
several captains of industry.

And the latest high profile target is one of the biggest fish of all,
Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, currently #9 on Forbes list of
the World's Most Powerful People.

Sonia Gandhi has one of the most remarkable life stories in
international politics. Born Edvige Antonia Albina Maino into a family
of modest means in rural Italy, she didn't even get a chance to
complete high school before heading to the UK for work. There she met
Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She
eventually married him and the young family moved in to Indira
Gandhi's New Delhi's home, putting her literally in the heart of
Indian politics.

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