Quattrocchi is a free man eventually…and I am disgusted. Disgusted not because he is a free man but because how inefficient and helpless i feel being an indian. All of us know the truth of Bofors but still have no option but to vote the same guys in power again because opposition is more corrupt…a better chit. That’s what our mature democracy is all about…selecting best from the gangs of worst.
the Swedish government, the Swiss courts and investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam had provided a wealth of documentary evidence agains Quattrocchi . In how many corruption cases can you actually succeed in finding out the number and name of the owner of the bank account into which the money was paid? All this evidence was sufficient for Interpol and the Swiss and British courts, but not the Indian authorities…a big shame. Although scam broke out in 1987 but FIR against Quattrocchi was registered only in 1990 when Chandrashekhar government came in power and that also under the extreme public pressure.
Quattrochhi has always been a man with lots of secrets for Gandhi family. And that’s why whenever congress bounced back in power they kept trying to close this case. CBI kept sitting on the case till 1993 without presenting a single evidence against Quattrochhi in court. And when Swiss Bank in the same year declared Quattrochhi as main beneficiary they helped him fly india. Only after 72 hrs CBI declared that Quattrochhi is on run. Why till date nobody from CBI made accountable for his inefficiency. Then in the same year then foreign minister Madhav Sinh Solanki wrote an aide memoir to the Swiss authorities urging that the case be closed and no documents sent to India. Solanki had to resign following the leak of the memoir. What a shame???
Then court was presented with photocopy of the documents sent by Swiss Bank. Court had no option but to declare the documents not authenticated. Then law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj writes to CBI not to appeal against court’s verdict. Why???
In 2006, the law ministry secretly dispatched an officer to UK to inform the Crown Prosecution that no case was made out against Quattrocchi and the two erroneous High Court orders were cited to establish this. The law ministry's move was to facilitate Quattrocchi to defreeze his bank accounts and withdraw the alleged Bofors bribe money. By the time the news leaked and the Supreme Court ordered that efforts be made to re-freeze Quattrocchi's bank accounts, the Rs 23 crore in bank account had been spirited away. Government had no shame in defending its decision once again.
In 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina because of an Interpol Red Corner Notice pending against him. The CBI flew to Argentina, brandishing the judgments of the High Court, which the government had declined to appeal against, to facilitate his release from prison. Incidentally, the automatic appeal was also withdrawn by the law ministry, without even the token formality of consulting the CBI.
What else you need to prove congress’s involvement into the scam? It has always gone out of the way to facilitate Quattrocchi and help him roam free. And how shamelessly congress’s spokespersons appear in media claiming that as case was running for twenty years and to keep it running, it was waste of time and resources. Lacs of cases are running in our courts for more than half centuries without any result. Suddenly why one case became waste of everything and specially when it was involving the government itself ? shame is the only word most frequently coming out of my mouth since I have started thinking about it…SHAME.
What are the options we have got. CBI has acted in the same fashion in many political cases. I do not remember a single major case CBI solving ever. It has become a gang run by bunch of extremely inefficient people who at the same time have become political dogs who love eating throwing of politicians. I can only think of a dissolving this agency completely and start trial against corrupt officials. And then later on forming another independent agency which is answerable only to chief justice of India.
Lets end this game of choosing best among worst. Let good people take the initiative and come into the politics without joining any of these rotten parties. Our country desperately need some good people in politics…it hardly has got any in last 60 years.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Wondering 2109...
How will be world in 2109…I keep wondering now a days. Perhaps lots of science fictions I have been watching recently. But still aren’t we sitting in completely different world from what it was in 1909? Had anybody imagined then that one person sitting in Doha can see and talk to another in Bombay as in early days they used to do in a living room? ‘Space’ have already ceased to matter. And I am waiting for the days when man conquers over ‘time’. I am sure it will happen in my lifetime though.
Question is will these achievements be good for human being considering many scientific milestones have proven curse for mankind (goes without saying how we live in a fear of nuclear war environment). I was reading recently Godfather famed picture editor Walter Murch’s ‘In a Blink of an Eye’ and he shared the same fear. His argument was that after film medium became digital many things became easier and faster to accomplish as far as cinema is concerned. But haven’t we stopped making classical movies? When was the last time when we made movies even closer to Godfather.
Mostly speed makes us ignore many things. It makes us more mechanical. In the old days of linear editing film editor used to go through the rushes several times to get a perfect shot. And many times which in beginning was considered not good shot used to turn up as classic take eventually. Now we do not require to visit NG shots at all. In fact cinematographer shooting in HD deletes NG before even it comes to editor's table. We have started relying on ‘considered good shot’. What is the result? We have been making movies much faster than ever before. But main goal is missing... We are missing good movies in theatre. Another example just to simplify things – Like I want to go home from office. Earlier it used to take two hours when I was using public transport. But now with good infrastructure and new car I can drive faster. But I am missing my friends who used to travel with me in public transport…humor, laughter, gossips which used to make me fresh before reaching home. Now I am reaching home faster but tired from office. I am not the same person anymore who used to come home fresh and then entertain the family. What I mean to say that technology has made human life very easier but it also has made him lonely. And do not forget ‘man is a social animal’.
I do not want to sound like ‘fear monger’. But what we need to do is find a solution. Solution is definitely not that we should stop making scientific progress or even embracing technological advantages. Solution is that we should never cease being human. Lots of things machine can do for us but still we should not completely rely on it as it is mechanical and only human mind can think logically. There is no harm in editing a film in digital environment but we should not stop revisiting NG takes time and again just because machine says so. Human being’s state of mind keep changing and a shot which was called NG in certain mood and requirement can become the most acclaimed shot at later stage of editing. Here I would like to give example of my good friend and famous bollywood editor Anand Subaya. When he made first cut of ‘Don’ (Sharukh Khan one), there was hardly anywhere he had included that dialogue ‘don ko pakadna muskil hi nahi namumkin hai’. But in later stage he made this a theme dialogue of movie and eventually almost everyone coming out of theatre after watching this movie was saying this dialogue. In the same way, there is no harm in watching movie on home theatre but for true cinematic experience we got to go to theatre. Only in theatre we can get six or six hundred strange people sitting in a dark room and emanating same vibes…and most importantly without a remote control. Without getting into man and machine debate what I want to say is that let machine do its mechanical thing but for logical stuff we must rely on ourselves…the humans.
By the way it will be nice to meet up again in 2109 and discuss once again about it.
Question is will these achievements be good for human being considering many scientific milestones have proven curse for mankind (goes without saying how we live in a fear of nuclear war environment). I was reading recently Godfather famed picture editor Walter Murch’s ‘In a Blink of an Eye’ and he shared the same fear. His argument was that after film medium became digital many things became easier and faster to accomplish as far as cinema is concerned. But haven’t we stopped making classical movies? When was the last time when we made movies even closer to Godfather.
Mostly speed makes us ignore many things. It makes us more mechanical. In the old days of linear editing film editor used to go through the rushes several times to get a perfect shot. And many times which in beginning was considered not good shot used to turn up as classic take eventually. Now we do not require to visit NG shots at all. In fact cinematographer shooting in HD deletes NG before even it comes to editor's table. We have started relying on ‘considered good shot’. What is the result? We have been making movies much faster than ever before. But main goal is missing... We are missing good movies in theatre. Another example just to simplify things – Like I want to go home from office. Earlier it used to take two hours when I was using public transport. But now with good infrastructure and new car I can drive faster. But I am missing my friends who used to travel with me in public transport…humor, laughter, gossips which used to make me fresh before reaching home. Now I am reaching home faster but tired from office. I am not the same person anymore who used to come home fresh and then entertain the family. What I mean to say that technology has made human life very easier but it also has made him lonely. And do not forget ‘man is a social animal’.
I do not want to sound like ‘fear monger’. But what we need to do is find a solution. Solution is definitely not that we should stop making scientific progress or even embracing technological advantages. Solution is that we should never cease being human. Lots of things machine can do for us but still we should not completely rely on it as it is mechanical and only human mind can think logically. There is no harm in editing a film in digital environment but we should not stop revisiting NG takes time and again just because machine says so. Human being’s state of mind keep changing and a shot which was called NG in certain mood and requirement can become the most acclaimed shot at later stage of editing. Here I would like to give example of my good friend and famous bollywood editor Anand Subaya. When he made first cut of ‘Don’ (Sharukh Khan one), there was hardly anywhere he had included that dialogue ‘don ko pakadna muskil hi nahi namumkin hai’. But in later stage he made this a theme dialogue of movie and eventually almost everyone coming out of theatre after watching this movie was saying this dialogue. In the same way, there is no harm in watching movie on home theatre but for true cinematic experience we got to go to theatre. Only in theatre we can get six or six hundred strange people sitting in a dark room and emanating same vibes…and most importantly without a remote control. Without getting into man and machine debate what I want to say is that let machine do its mechanical thing but for logical stuff we must rely on ourselves…the humans.
By the way it will be nice to meet up again in 2109 and discuss once again about it.
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