Never mind the country, Manmohan Singh is happy with himself

Saswat Panigrahi

The Congress-led UPA Government on Wednesday completed nine years in office, four of them in its second term.

At the fourth anniversary celebration of UPA 2, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi presented the last annual Report Card of the Government.

The ‘Report to the People’ painted a rosy picture of the Government’s performance (shall I say non-performance?). “The economic growth during UPA is both inclusive and widespread,” it said at a time the nation is facing gloom and doom. The GDP growth of the country has slumped to a measly 5 per cent.

Even that was not enough — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went on with his babble — that 8 per cent growth rate is possible if the Congress-led UPA is voted to power again.

Let us not forget that nine years ago, when the UPA took over the reins from the NDA, the country’s economy was in a pretty good shape. The GDP growth stood at a whopping 8.4 per cent.

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UPA taint spreads to top law offices

Saswat Panigrahi

All eyes are on May 8 when the Supreme Court is going to come out with its verdict on CBI affidavit on Coalgate which has nailed Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Coal Ministry, Attorney General GE Vanahvati and then Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval.

The CBI, in its affidavit, has admitted in as many as words that “significant changes” were made in the draft report of its probe into Coalgate. Law Minister, officials of PMO and Coal Ministry, and the two top law officers of the country — the Attorney General and the Additional Solicitor General – insisted on the changes.

Though CBI chief Ranjit Sinha maintains that the Coalgate probe report was neither altered and nor did the agency shift its focus of inquiries, there is a lot more to the matter than meets the eyes.

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