activist claims Nitin Gadkari said he would not take a stand on irrigation scams since he had a business relationship with Sharad Pawar.
India against Corruption (IAC) activist Anjali Damania, who has fought illegal dams with the Right to Information (RTI) Act said on Wednesday that Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari said he would not take a stand on irrigation scams since he had a business relationship with the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar.
The NCP is in the centre of several scams over a decade, and its leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar resigned on Tuesday, citing the allegations against him.
Ms. Damania had earlier expressed her feelings at a press conference on Wednesday convened here by the IAC, but did not name Mr. Gadkari. However, she referred to a party president in the Opposition who refused to do anything to help her citing business interests with the NCP and how they took care of each other's interests. Strangely after the press conference, Mr. Gadkari issued a clarification that he had not met Ms. Damania though she had not named him.
This angered her, and she went public in some TV interviews. Ms. Damania told The Hindu that she met Mr. Gadkari on August 14 around 10 a.m. at his residence in Worli, Mumbai, since she had heard that a religious leader had asked the BJP not to pursue irrigation scams and dissuade BJP leader Kirit Somaiya from filing a public interest litigation petition on irrigation and other scams.
Her appointment with Mr. Gadkari was fixed by a friend who accompanied her, along with another person. “I was told that Mr. Gadkari was being persuaded by this religious leader to ask his colleagues in the party to ease up on irrigation scams, allegedly perpetrated by the NCP,” she said. The purpose of her meeting Mr. Gadkari was to sensitise him to the need to pursue such cases in public interest.
However to her shock and dismay, Mr. Gadkari said he had close links with the NCP, and in any case, Kirit was an eccentric man and he did not know what he was doing. Mr. Gadkari, she said, had told Mr. Somaiya that there was not need to file PIL petitions, and that was the work of activists. As party members, it was adequate to raise issues in the legislature or hold press conferences. Mr. Gadkari also hinted that in politics, there could be the possibility of seat-sharing with the NCP. “I was so upset that afternoon that I wrote a long text message which I sent to his personal number,” she said.
Ms. Damania and others and Mr. Somaiya had already filed petitions in the Bombay High Court against irrigation scams. Mr. Somaiya was to file one more petition against NCP Minister Sunil Tatkare on his alleged involvement in land scams.
She said there was no entry register at Mr. Gadkari’s house, but there was no way he could deny he had met her. She had met him once in New Delhi last year and in Mumbai in August last year. This was her third meeting. “I challenge him to a public debate and I will see how he doesn’t know me.”
“First he talks rot and then he lies. I had not named him at the press conference, then why did he clarify and say he has never met me,” she asked.
Meanwhile, Mr Gadkari has denied he had ever met her.
Keywords: India against Corruption, RTI Act, whistleblower, Nitin Gadkari, irrigation scams, NCP, Ajit Pawar
So mr. Gadkari will tell a business secret to a complete stranger that
too like mr. pawar serves my interest and i serves his..
And why did ms damani keep quite from august to late september. waiting
for a signal ?
So if somebody sends you a SMS saying that 'you have stolen' then you
will be the guilty ? seems like that by your logic.
The media presentation in last few scams appears that all scams is
going on at the behest of oppostion & ruling party is innocent &
reformist
She first made these allegations from IAC platform sitting next to Mr.
Kejariwal. IAC is a political party (now) which aspires to replace BJP
to be main challenger to congress in 2014. So, lets not pretend she or
IAC has nothing to gain. Also, Kirit Somaiya who is also a member of
the BJP executive is one of the people who have filed PIL in Bombay
High Court in irrigation scam so it will be absurd if you pretend BJP
didn't take this issue properly under pressure from Mr.Gadkari. Mr.
Gadkari might be a corrupt politician, and may be needs to be taken
down.But my point is Ms Damania's allegations should be taken with
same level of scepticism as you would do if she was from BJP or
congress levelling allegation against each other
What could we have expected from THE BHARITYA JANTA PARTY always
claiming itself to be aginst corruption.
These things were easily noticed earlier during the movement against
corruption by ANNA HAZARE.
This BJP is always like this only, first they commit crimes then they
blame others for their crime...shed crocodile tears and then simply
wear masks....
My comments are personal..and i'm not saying these comments to each
and every members of BJP.
There were people like A.B.Vajpayee, S.P.Mukherjee..who took strong
actions...
but today BJP itself has become a fort of scams,corruptions, igniting
riots and killings.
There is no reason to disbelieve Ms Damania.everyone knows BJP is not as
pure as lilly and given a chance they are capabale of creating bigger
scams than congrtess.CBI enquiry in to allotment of coal blocks during
the BJP tenure will confirm that this party cannot claim any hilier than
though attitude
Due to business politics of Gadkari, the Bjp is loosing battle agaisnst
corruption even there is anger in public. He always ignore corruption
in Maharashtra irrespective of party.
I knew this man, Gadkari was not meant to lead a national party from the
day. He really talks ROT in public also. He will bring doom to BJP.
I wonder how many more scams are lying under the carpet because of these
so-called "business relationships". Politicians have no ideology or
principles for that matter. Firstly why should politicians be allowed to
hold offices through which they can peddle influence for themselves or
their cronies. There is a dire need to plug this hole
Whether it is the UPA or the NDA, they are all partners in crime. Though they seem like strange bedfellows, the common trait that binds them together is this passion to loot the nation. They are all harbingers of misery to the common man. Corruption to the core, that is the state of the nation.
Anjali Damania is a member of Arvind Kejriwal's political party (nowadays called "IAC"). She has been involved in this fight against the irrigation scam (that has been going on for almost a decade) only for the past 13 months or so (i.e. from August 2011 when her own plot in Karjat was being acquired by the state and about to be submerged under Kondhale dam lake). The real whistleblower of the scam is ex-MP of the BJP, Mr. Kirit Somaiya, who has been fighting this battle against the irrigation scam, both inside the state legislature as well as outside in PILs and activism, for several years now.
Being a member of Kejriwal's party, Ms. Damania clearly has a political interest in maligning and slandering the BJP President Nitin Gadkari through wild unsubstantiated allegations, so as to appropriate the credit of whistleblower from the BJP, as well as to peddle IAC's agenda that Congress/NCP and BJP are all equally corrupt and therefore Kejriwal is the only best political alternative.
Kudo's to Indian Brave Heart Anjali, to expose BJP's Nitin Gadkari's major Irrigation SCAM.
Indian Govt needs to protect and safeguard her and bring in Nitin and all these involved to books. This shameful act only exposes that while you preach ruling party on scams by disturbing AAM AADMI's LivelyHood disrupting Parliament proceedings and staging Dharnas, Bandhs and doing RATHA YATRA's at AAM AADMIs Tax.
Great Article and Its High time Politicians start to work in United Front to listen to common man than mud slinging to hold high esteem chair.......Arise Awake and start listening to poor man, and do your duty righteously!!!!
Now Ms Damania can expect vile slander and character attacks. The big problem is that all parties are allied together on corruption. There is no rule of law in India. People like Kirit Somaiya are being trashed by his own party. because nobody bothers about principles. It is only about who knows who, and what private and business connections nurture these relationships. The levers of power are all in the wrong hands, whether opposition or ruling party makes no difference. Principled people are trashed by every institution. Dismal.
Why should the BJP President panic if he had not lied? All the top
politicians have business interests irrespective of their party
affiliations. It is always a match fixing among political leaders -
fooling the general public!
Why would an activist of India against Corruption meet and ask the President of the BJP to
take a stand on irrigation scams? Does the IAC consider the BJP as an ally in its fight
against corruption? It is difficult to believe that it is so. In any case it is an activist's word
against that of a senior politician. The report of your Special Correspondent doesn't carry
conviction.Normally the Hindu doesn't publish such reports.
Are BJP leaders involved in irrigation scams too whom he is trying to
save.
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