Petition on the Board of the Bombay High Court
Good news for all of us who have signed this petition. As far as we know, our Petition will be on the board of the Bombay High Court on Thursday (5th February, 2009) this week, which means, it is now a PIL, and the state machinery will fight this case on our behalf.
The channels will be called upon to make explanations and defend their conduct, and hopefully it will end in there being an enforce-able code-of-conduct for the TV Channels in times of national crisis! thanks for your patience and support!
Tags: Bombay High Court, Conduct, PIL, Smallchange, TV Channels
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I think the code- of-conduct for electronic media should NOT be “ONLY” in times of national crisis but in alll times. No more multiple dramatic versions of Arushi murder case on our tv sets…
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
India 1st Amongst Top 5 Swiss bank Depositors, Wake up Indians!
Time to Wake up and expose all this right now, right here:
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=137213
With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.
CJ: Ramesh C. Manghirmalani ,
DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.
Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.
Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. “Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be travelling there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn’t referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!
Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country’s wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?
Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:
Top five
India—- $1456 billion
Russia—$ 470 billion
UK——-$390 billion
Ukraine- $100 billion
China—–$ 96 billion
Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind — the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.
What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ’Swiss bank accounts,’the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.
In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.
In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe. The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens.Other Articles by Ramesh C. Manghirmalani
Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker — in his widely celebrated book titled ’Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System’ — estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970. It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody’s guess.
What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means. Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term ’tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?God… No No No, even he can’t……….!!
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
exactly..plus LHC “end of the world” drama etc tec..I wrote this piece during the Aarushi drama…they have changed since then n changed for worse.
http://pundarikrajkhowa.blogspot.com/2008/09/breaking-news.html
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
This is awesome news. I will be following it up closely.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Good news! Hope this doesn’t die away like most other PILs.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Hi Vishal,
Accept my congratulations for taking this effort and seeing to it that it gets heard.
This effort is commendable one especially since it comes from a person who happens to be in a profession that needs Media Attention. This is a rare show of courage from someone from your fraternity and I salute you for this.
Take a Bow Man…
Rgds,
Amitabh Anand
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 am
This is wonderful news!!!! Thanx for stepping ahead and bringing millions of our thoughts into action…. Will look fwd to more updates!
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
The news that this petition is now a PIL and the state machinery will now fight the case demanding explanations from news channels is the most heartening news about my motherland I have heard in a long long time. This is the India I am proud of. This is “Democracy” is the truest sense. Maa Tujhe Salaam!!
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
Congratulations Vishal.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Congrates all and Thanks Mr. Vishal!!
February 6th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
hi vishal, i want to know what the procedure is for filing a petition. i want to file a petition banning noisy public celebrations/processions. thank you.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 am
So what happened? Did it come up for hearing?
March 11th, 2009 at 1:16 am
No updates??? Vishal, please do post what is happening with the PIL. Or at least post the case number of the PIL so that we can track it from the Bombay High Court’s website.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Wow, this is ridiculous. Still no updates?!?!?
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I and a Millions of other people who were victims of Terrorists in Kashmir and have been for last 20 years.
The medias frenzy was making me sick! They were practically frothing at their mouths to get the latest “sensation” on air.
I am so THRILLED that you DID something more than light a candle (though that is required sometime) but a concrete step is better.
CONGRATULATIONS!!
Please make sure that this does not get lost in the “state machinery”.
PLEASE FOLLOW UP…. and keep us updated!
April 6th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I was hoping for an update on the PIL but I don’t see a post after Feb 1. Please let us know what is going on.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I just found out that the PIL is number 56 in the Mumbai High Court. A quick case status check on the official court website revealed that no new developments have taken place since its filing on Feb 2, 2009.
Interested people should visit the website periodically and check the case status using the number given above.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
^ Neither number 56 of 2008 nor 56 of 2009 seem to be correct. Please specify.
As for Vishal, he has moved on to bigger and better things, such as Mummy Ke Superstars.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
The topic is quite hot in the net at the moment. What do you pay attention to while choosing what to write about?
April 20th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
I hope the court will give correct verdict and a small change will make a BIG impact on the society. It will boost the confidence in coming up with many small changes.
Bravo! keep it up!
September 1st, 2009 at 11:03 am
There is a sying in Bombay… typical Bombay Hindi…..
G.. mein nahin Guu aur hagne chala Juhu.
All da best .. If you suceeed we all party at our own expense
September 20th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
My dear Compatriots,
I take this opportunity to tell you something about Shivaji Maharaj, the real hero of modern India. Because, I assume that you might not know about Shivaji Maharaj, in a hurry to sign up, you might miss to know about Shivaji Maharaj or you might have nothing to do with who Shivaji Maharaj was, but to oppose the project.
Therefore, I urge all of you to spare some minutes to read it. After all, it is necessary today. Then, I would certainly share my views on the project.
Shivaji Maharaj may be the only king in India to have been so venerated and celebrated even today. I may be wrong, but I do not see any other State in India doing so much for its respective king in today’s times. Even youths of this young generation like me in Maharashtra have fallen in love with this king. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s personality and message are as relevant today as they were in the past. Have you ever tried to know what extraordinary qualities did Shivaji Maharaj possess? In answer to this question, I will put quotes of some contemporary historians and eminent personalities later.
In the time when India was harassed by different enemies like Adilshah, Nijamshah, Kutubhshah and Mughals, when the people suffered a lot and when our mothers and sisters screamed for help, when kings from north to the south chose to keep quiet and be subservient to these mighty enemies, Shivaji Maharaj determined to fight these evils and release the people from the shackles of these cruel enemies. He dreamt of Independence and a state for the sons of the soil (Hindavi Swarajya) 350 years ago. He defied the authority of these Muslim kings and tried to unite people for a common cause.
His Kingdom was small compared to the Mughal Empire, but it was made by ‘our’ people, it was for ‘our’ people, it was ‘made in India’. It had all the elements of a democratic state. Even after deliberate attempts, historians could not find even one instance of corruption under his regime.
With his inspiration, later, the Marathas fought bravely and saved the country from being completely trampled under the feet of the Muslim rulers. All historians agree that had not been there the Maratha power, our country would have been a state like Pakistan.
Today, the armies of different countries study his guerilla tactics. The then President of Vietnam after defeating US said that they were inspired by King Shivaji and his guerilla tactics. You can even see a statue of Shivaji Maharaj in the Capital of Vietnam, Ho Chi Min.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said :
” Shivaji did not belong to Maharashtra alone; he belonged to the whole Indian nation.
Shivaji was not an ambitious ruler anxious to establish a kingdom for himself but a patriot inspired by a vision and political ideas derived from the teachings of the ancient philosophers. He studied the merits and faults of the systems of administration in kingdoms existing at the time and determined his own policies and administration in the light of that knowledge.
A devout Hindu, he was tolerant of other religions and established a number of endowments for maintainig sacred places belonging to them. As a general he was undoubtedly one of the greatest in Indian history; he saw the need for and raised a navy to guard his coastline and to fight against the British and the Dutch. Pratapgad Fort build in 1656 stands today as a monument to his military genius.
Shri Shivaji is a symbol of many virtues, more especially of love of country.”
A.B. de Braganca Pereira says in “Arquivo Portugues Oriental, Vol III”:
“Wonderous mystic, adventurous and intrepid, fortunate, roving prince, with lovely and magnetic eyes, pleasing countenance, winsome and polite,magnanimous to fallen foe like Alexander, keen and a sharp intellect, quick in decision, ambitious conqueror like Julius Caesar, given to action, resolute and strict disciplinarian, expert strategist, far-sighted and constructive statesman, brilliant organizer, who sagaciously countered his political rivals and antagonists like the Mughals, Turks of Bijapur, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, and the French. Undaunted by the mighty Moghuls, then the greatest power in Asia. He fought with Bijapuri to carve out a great empire.”
D. Kincaid says in “The Grand Rebel”:
“In spite of the character of a crusade which Ramdas’s blessings gave to Shivaji’s long struggle, it is remarkable how little religious animosity or intolerance Shivaji displayed. His kindness to Catholic priests is an agreeable contrast to the proscriptions of the Hindu priesthood in the Indian and Maratha territories of the Portuguese. Even his enemies remarked on his extreme respect for Mussulman priests, for mosques and for the koran. The Muslim historian Khafi Khan, who cannot mention Shivaji in his cronicle without adding epithets of vulgar abuse, nevertheless acknowledges that Shivaji never entered a conquered town without taking measures to safeguard the mosques from damage. Whenever a koran came to his possession, he treated it with the same respect as if it had been one of the sacred works of his own faith. Whenever his men captured Mussulman ladies, they were brought to Shivaji, who looked after them as if they were his wards till he could return them to their relations.”
Cosme da Guarda says in “Life of the Celebrated Sevaji”:
“Such was the good treatment Shivaji accorded to people and such was the honesty with which he observed the capitulations that none looked upon him without a feeling of love and confidence. By his people he was exceedingly loved. Both in matters of reward and punishment he was so impartial that while he lived he made no exception for any person; no merit was left unrewarded, no offence went unpunished; and this he did with so much care and attention that he specially charged his governors to inform him in writing of the conduct of his soldiers, mentioning in particular those who had distinguished themselves, and he would at once order their promotion, either in rank or in pay, according to their merit. He was naturally loved by all men of valor and good conduct.”
Indira Gandhi said:
“I think Shivaji ranks among the greatest men of the world. Since we were a slave country, our great men have been somewhat played down in world history. Had the same person been born in a European country, he would have been praised to the skies and known everywhere. It would have been said that he had illumined the world.”
The poet Bhushan
दावा द्रुमदंड पर चित्ता मृग झुंड पर, भूषण बितंड पर जैसे मृगराज हैं ।
तॆज तम अंशपर काह्न जिम कंसपर, त्यॊंमिलेच्छवंसपर शर शिवराज हैं ॥
(As forest-fire is to the forest trees, a leopard to the deer-herds and a lion to the stately elephants; as the sun is to the darkness of the night, as Krishna was to Kansa, so was king Sivaji, a lion, towards the hordes of Mlechchas.)
Swami Vivekananda
“Shivaji was the greatest Hindu king that India had produced within the last thousand years; one who was the very incarnation of Siva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus from the hands of the Mlechchas and one who succeeded in the establishment of the Dharma which had been trampled under foot by the depredations of the devastating hordes of the Moghals. This may not come in your reading Indian History written by foreigners who could have no sympathy with you, nor could they have any respect for your culture, traditions, manners and customs which they could not understand. Is there a greater hero, a greater saint, a greater bhakta and a greater king than Sivaji? Sivaji was the very embodiment of a born ruler of men as typified in your great Epics. He was the type of the real son of India representing the true consciousness of the nation. It was he who showed what the future of India is going to be sooner or later, a group of independent units under one umbrella as it were, i.e., under one supreme imperial suzerainty.”
Many foreign travellers who visited India during Shivaji Maharaj’s time wrote about him.
Abbe Carre was a French traveller who visited India around 1670; his account was published as Voyage des Indes Orienteles mele de plusiers histories curieuses at Paris in 1699. Some quotes:
“Hardly had he won a battle or taken to town in one end of the kingdom than he was at the other extremity causing havoc everywhere and surprising important places. To this quickness of movement he added, like Julius Caesar, a clemency and bounty that won him the hearts of those his arms had worsted.” “In his courage and rapidity he does not ill resemble the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus.”
The French traveller Francois Bernier wrote in his Travels in Mughal India:
“I forgot to mention that during pillage of Sourate, Seva-ji, the Holy Seva-ji! Respected the habitation of the reverend father Ambrose, the Capuchin missionary. ‘The Frankish Padres are good men’, he said ‘and shall not be attacked.’ He spared also the house of a deceased Delale or Gentile broker, of the Dutch, because assured that he had been very charitable while alive.”
Coming back to the 350-crore project, I rarely see any Marathi name in this list. What is the reason? Do you fear that Marathi people will not endorse your campaign?
Sharing my view on this project, I strongly feel that if the Government want to leverage political mileage from this project, it is not good. In fact, many of the forts in Maharashtra are completely neglected and are in dire need of conversation. So the government has even no moral right to speak for the project. But, I will personally justify the project, after all the economical, financial, ecological, environmental and social aspects are properly studied. Because Shivaji Maharaj is a great source of inspiration for us. While looking at the statue, let the world know who this King Shivaji was!
As regard the colossal money, last month I saw on a news channel that one Dinesh Patel had amassed Rs 10 crore in cash in his home. He was a tax defaulter. Police took away the money. Only yesterday again I read that the MP police confiscated Rs 12 crore from one Mittal. He is an industrialist and a tax defaulter too. Our Members of Parliament are staying in 5-star hotels making bills in lacs of Rupees every month. We face corporate scams like that of Satyam involving thousands of crores of Rupees. How many of such tax defaulters, MPs and Fraudsters we need to make 350 crore? And 350 crore is not a big amount for a State like Maharashtra, if the government is sincere and not corrupt.
And please do not mix the development projects and farmers’ suicides with the project of statue of Shivaji Maharaj. There are hundreds of development projects running. Effective implementation and corruption is the problem. There are different reasons for the farmers’ suicides. Each farmer has his own reasons. I am also a son of a farmer from Pune district and our entire land is dependent on rain water. I have not seen any farmer committing suicide in our area or district.
So, I doubt that the people of Maharashtra would support your campaign.
Regards,
Maruti
September 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
This shows the apathy of the elected rulers towards the neglected subjects!!!Pharao-nic Temples,Olympian Parks and now this Herculean Statue…these are not what the citizens of this country need. When all fails ,the citizens turn to the help of the only Uncorruptible Organ of the State to uphold what is in the nation’s best interest!! Deliver us from Evil and guide us to a Future where all can live with dignity and can fulfill our common basic needs!!!Only having once fulfilled the basic needs,we can graduate to this kind of splurging of the Taxpayers hard earned money..not on parks and statutes…but truly developmental goals e.g Social Security for the weak,Food security for the poor and marginalised and freedom from poverty to the teeming millions in the Country!!! Only then will we attain Freedom!!
We, the citizens of India solicit from the Honble Court an immediate suo moto action to uphold the fundamental rights of the umpteen citizens of the Country!
October 12th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
go ahead!
November 21st, 2009 at 10:43 pm
[...] threat to the country. We too have condemned their action in our previous posts. In addition, a PIL has been filed in Mumbai High Court on 5th Feb, 2009 on behalf of the common man by ‘Small Change‘. Let us wait and watch and hope for the [...]
December 13th, 2009 at 1:18 am
THERE HAS TO STATUE OF SHIVAJI MAHARA AT ANY COST
December 13th, 2009 at 1:18 am
THERE HAS TO BE STATUE OF SHIVAJI MAHARA AT ANY COST