Opinion Lax CBI

It says that,even after investigating the case for two years,the CBI has only been able to track the payment of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV by DB Realty. “What did Raja gain out of this scam? Nothing in the two chargesheets filed so far by the CBI before the trial court mention any payment to Raja. This looks strange,” it says.

The article says that the CBI has told the court that it has not found any trail of money between the Unitech group and Raja. Saying that many companies benefited from the 2G scam,it asks if it is believable they did not provide any financial gratification to Raja. “The CBI has conducted raids on many front companies of Raja,but it has so far not come out with any charge-sheet on financial irregularities,” it says.

Soft on terror

The Organiser focuses its attention on the Delhi high court bomb blast. The editorial says that India has faced “intermittent terror attacks” under the UPA. Incidents of terror have happened earlier too,but “the culprits were caught,their conspiracy unearthed and in most cases,the perpetrators were punished,” it claims. “The fear of the state was there and the terror attacks were not this frequent. There was a resolve to fight,and a hope to win the war against terror,” it says.

Referring to the revocation of laws like POTA and TADA,the article claims that the UPA is soft on terror. “The Congress has no will to fight terror. It has failed on all fronts. But in its exhibited ineptitude on terror,it sees political profit. It has much to gain. And it makes no effort to hide this fact. It has also refused to learn from the success of the US,UK and Israel in securing the nation against terror. And Indians are being wantonly slaughtered,” it says.

No welfare state

Another Organiser article says the government is faced with the “difficult problem” of raising revenues to cover its fiscal deficit — mainly because of the increasing global prices of oil,decline in the growth rate and higher expenditure on welfare schemes. It analyses the Planning Commission’s four-point agenda: a reduction in subsidies on oil,LPG and food,a cut in pension payments to government servants and defence expenditure,and the proposal that the private sector be given a role in infrastructure-building.

The article says that barring the reduction in defence expenditure,the rest of the suggestions are acceptable. “It is difficult to implement them,however. The problem of welfare is not solved even if

somehow revenues are increased because most welfare expenditures are wasted in leakages. There is a need to find ways of securing people’s welfare other than increasing revenues and welfare expenditures,” it says.

It also suggests that higher excise duty,income tax and VAT can be imposed on capital-intensive industries and products,which will make it profitable for businesses to employ more labour,generate employment and reduce the need for welfare expenditure.

Election fever

With Anna Hazare declaring that his next campaign would focus on electoral reforms,the RSS journal says the UPA’s dilly-dallying on electoral reforms has created a hopelessness that is similar in context to the Jan Lokpal agitation.

It says the government is neither talking about the twice-deferred “national consultation” on electoral reform nor about the delayed “vision document” on the same subject. “And to top it all,it is no longer talking about a timeline for introducing an electoral reforms bill in Lok Sabha,an initiative that was first planned in the monsoon session and later changed to December 2011.” The article complains that a background paper prepared by a committee constituted by the law ministry in 2010 is silent on the right to recall lawmakers.

“The subject of electoral reforms is too serious and too pressing to require such a casual approach. It should include issues such as carrot and stick-linked compulsory voting and enactment of a law to regulate political parties as recommended by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRC),in its report submitted in March 2002,” it says.