Indian politicians and public servants are masters at making money off the living—and the dead.
George Fernandes played over the dead bodies of the martyrs of Kargil in the coffin scam. Money raised for the victims of the devastating tsunami were diverted in Tamil Nadu without batting an eyelid. Time magazine’s Asian Hero one month for flood relief, IAS officer Gautam Goswami was soon in the doghouse.
And so it is with Karnataka Congress president R.V. Deshpande who lists “service to mankind, especially poor” among his interests, and has just been exposed for misuse of funds collected for last year’s flood in Karnataka. The state Congress is alleged to to have used flood relief funds for buying air tickets, t-shirts and advertisemens.
What is the one question you are dying to ask Deshpande? Like, since the IPL-tained Praful Patel is his son’s father-in-law, does hera-pheri run in the family? Like, is this why he stalled the attempts to secure information about his assets and liabilities because they are “personal and confidential“?
Please contribute generously.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Must read: A 1,611 per cent jump in assets in five years. Hello!
By George, it’s pati, patni aur woh and some crores
Tags: Churumuri, George Fernandes, Praful Patel, R.V. Deshpande, Sans Serif
9 June 2010 at 7:56 pm
Dear RV Deshpande, it sad that there ‘Desh’ in your name which means country in Hindi. Its open secrete that every politician is corrupt regardless of party and gender. Only the quantity differs. But were you not ashamed to ‘divert’ the money which was meant for flood hit victims. Maybe you are following party guidelines. But its clear that you are trapped by your henchmen. How long you people feed your spouses and children by public money? how long on earth you may live you think? think of Bharathi Urs…..
9 June 2010 at 8:18 pm
One BIG corporate man from Bangalore and a man (who runs several medical & Engineering colleges) from a BIG family in Coastal Karnataka are making all possible efforts to save Deshpande.
They are making calls to media houses in Bangalore and Delhi ‘ requesting ‘ people to go slow on their ‘ friend ‘ and ‘ innocent ‘ Deshpande.
9 June 2010 at 9:17 pm
George Fernandes played over the dead bodies of the martyrs of Kargil in the coffin scam.
This is blood libel. There was no scam whatsoever.
The caskets that hte defence ministry sought to order are made in the US. Only if you saw a casket here would you know how much more expensive it is than the packing crates we used in India. Chidanand Rajghatta debunked this non-story in the ToI many years back. You should be ashamed of yourselves for repeating it.
9 June 2010 at 9:24 pm
Mr Deshpande, when you list ‘service to mankind, especially poor,’ after this scam, do you consider ourself human and poor that you helped yourself to the loot?
9 June 2010 at 10:53 pm
Well said Kaangeya. Churmuri wants to somehow balance the crimes of Congress with purported crimes of NDA. It is like the Art of Lying Swami shooting his own foot and making a big tamasha out of it to gain publicity
9 June 2010 at 11:24 pm
Why dig up the old nonsense to libel Mr. George Fernandes? Is it because you don’t like that he accepted a cabinet position in the NDA government and went on to be one of India’s best defense ministers? That’s irresponsible and cruel of you, Churumuri.
9 June 2010 at 11:43 pm
Small observation:
Whenever Congress party is in trouble, Churumuri tries not to attack the party. Instead it attacks the individuals.
It is Chidambaram’s war (not India’s, not GOI’s, not UPA’s, not Congress’s). Make Chidambaram the bad guy. Forget Sonia / MMS who gave Chidambaram home ministry.
Similarly in this case, RVD is solely responsible and not the party.
Attack A Raja. Spare MMS. Why? Applying the same logic, whenever you write about mining mafia, you should blame only the Reddy bros and not Yeddy no? MMS does not want to sack A Raja because he does not want to put the UPA govt in trouble. Yeddy can also say the same thing no?
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Did you guys read Tejaswini Gowda’s statement about this incident? She is more concerned about Mir Sadiqs in the party (who leaked this) than this scandal. DKS should resign anthe! Nothing about RVD.
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I suggest DKS to resign and join BJP so that all mine looting “leaders” come under the same umbrella.
10 June 2010 at 12:37 am
hutch mudae madduvae alli undavana jaana (in a mad womans marriage the one who has his meals is the most smart one) and our politicans are outstanding examples of this right mr DESHpande?
10 June 2010 at 12:40 am
Has Congress gone so bankrupt in Karnataka!?
Just a few years back, it was its most profitable unit under SM Krishna, it was rumoured that Congress-Karnataka paid the highest kappa-kaaNike to her highness’ coffers during that period.
Poor party, no wonder it is losing most of the elections.
10 June 2010 at 6:32 am
Mr. Deshpande you are a true Congressman, you have proved it, that you can get away with anything. Is it the fact?
10 June 2010 at 6:47 am
@Kaangeya
Rightly and well said Sir!
:-)
10 June 2010 at 10:21 am
D P SATISH,
Please give names, if you can or do not put type out such vague comments. They are so annoying for those who do not know who the ‘BIG’ men are.
10 June 2010 at 10:32 am
Dear kaangeya,
As recent as a month ago, there was a report in TOI that UPA closed the investigation against George for want of evidence and did it very silently!!.
In my view, very few politicians in the country can come to level of George Fernades in terms of integrity.
However, you should understand the basic rule of press reporting in India.
1) If the case is against BJP or its partners/allies – Screw them hard
2) if the case is against congress, blame them, but blast BJP or its allies to bring in the much required ‘balance’ to the reporting.
So, George is mentioned here for just ‘balancing’.
10 June 2010 at 11:09 am
Politicians are like pimps even they wont spare their daughter and mother.
10 June 2010 at 12:07 pm
After all the amount involved is jujubi less than 2.5 crores, we are making a mountain out of molehill. I think Deshpandeji has not done anything wrong…..
DPS
>One BIG corporate man from Bangalore and a man (who runs several medical & Engineering colleges) from a BIG family in Coastal Karnataka are making all possible efforts to save Deshpande
In the absence of real names we can say this is kite flying CNN-IBN ishtyle…..
>requesting ‘ people to go slow on their ‘ friend ‘ and ‘ innocent ‘ Deshpande.
innocent or guilty, either way media will get its hafta…
10 June 2010 at 12:22 pm
Its clearly a political game against Deshpande as the rajya sabha elections are approaching near, The flood relief stuff had happened a few months back , why does it come out now ? Who would be benefitted by this ? I am sure a person with that stature and capability would never do this. One should clearly think and see the amount of help he has done , which might in millions of rupees, nobody would speak about that now. I have heard of eye donation camps conducted by deshpande which has benefited thousands of poor elderly villagers which ran into crores of rupees. How many politicians do that ? When he was an Industries minister so much of investment had come into the state. In the end i would say our people are so stupid that they can be manipulated so easily by even such a controversy of T shirts and airticket :) .Our people have lost the ability to think.
10 June 2010 at 1:52 pm
This RVD fellow’s constituency (x-consti) doesn’t even have 1km of continuous stretch of asphalted road. Whereas he is supposed to have about 2000 k crores.
Even his debates in the asssembly are wayward. He tries to block debates on real issues and starts off arguing on matters like why some ruling party MLA’s son-in-law commented on Kharge/Dharam being over 120 kilograms.
Hope people like him keep losing elections and drain their money soon.
10 June 2010 at 2:15 pm
Please do not drag George Fernandes name into this.
What was the so-called-scam? That he purchased aluminium coffins for $2000 a piece when a Lalu was claiming that they were around $150?
Hell, you can’t get a decent suitcase for $150. These aluminium coffins were also designed to seal and keep the body from deteriorating for longer periods during transportation.
I can expect the mainstream media to spout nonsense without verifying facts. Looks like bloggers aren’t immune to this too.
10 June 2010 at 3:49 pm
This scam was unearthed by one Tejaswini Sriramesh who was MP Kanakapura LS constituency.
She did this to get rid of Deshpande from KPSC Presidentship and victimise DKS as well.
As per my information, Deshpande recently visited Macau (Gamblers Heven, Las Vegas of East) and lost about 200,000 USD about 1 Cr INR.
If someone can check his passport one can see he visited Macau recently.
10 June 2010 at 5:02 pm
This is how the New Zealand politicians spent public money:
New Zealand’s former Minister Shane Jones has admitted using his ministerial credit card to pay for pornographic movies while staying in hotels but said he wasn’t a “sex fiend”.
“During the time that I was staying in hotels around the country, from time to time I definitely watched blue movies. Although I paid them back, it should never have gone on my ministerial card. It was personal expenditure and I offer no excuse.”
“I’m not immediately thinking about resigning. I don’t make those decisions in the heat of humiliation.”
Labour MP and former Minister Chris Carter has owned up to spending taxpayer money on pay per-view films and flowers for his partner.
The details of ministerial credit-card spending has been released today under the Official Information Act.
Former Minister Mita Ririnui spent $682.77 on a golf shop in Perth on January 4, 2007, incuding, for tees and call, gloves, some clubs and a carry bag.
He also spent $899 at a Tauranga bike shop in February 2008.
Housing Minister Phil Heatley spent $70 on wine at a National Party function.
Documents which took officials four months to gather show what ministers used their credit cards for during the six years Labour was in office and the current Government’s term up until February. They have been released under the Official Information Act.
10 June 2010 at 8:49 pm
I think churmuri should not play with the “sensitivities” of cheddis, they are already victimized lot. How can they tolerate the glorious “shining” rule of NDA be tarnished, be it coffin or denel 155mm ammunition deal.
Yes all political parties are corrupt, they say , but not mahajan, fernandis, oh who was that BJP president who took bribe on camera??, may be honest, integritywallah trapped by kangey tehalka.
Man, the rona dhona of these cheddis is never ending, every one seems to be targeting these victims. Such a shame, otherwise rivers of milk and honey were just round the corner.
10 June 2010 at 10:17 pm
Why not address these questions to Tyag Maatha ? Every now and then they get a bakra when the heat is on. Like the Volcker report resulted in hanging out Natwar Singh to dry. No questions for Maathaji.
But just throw in a “George did this” or “Yeddi wore this” every other day.
11 June 2010 at 8:04 am
Mr. Deshpande,
Congrats for siphoning off money meant for flood relief. If you manage to pull off another scam, even more bigger, you are eligible to be a minister in UPA (Just like A.Raja).
11 June 2010 at 1:17 pm
@NAWN
The kappa kaanike is now being paid by the gulti (guilty) bros.
11 June 2010 at 5:56 pm
Whoa! Quite a lot of outrage I see on this. Seriously people, did you/we all expect anything better? Why and How?!
It has been quite evident for a long time that our topis don’t give a damn about the public money.
I read in ToI (somewhere tucked away in 5th or 6th page) today that our honorable CM has donated Rs. 1 Crore to some temple in Cuddalore district in TN. Whose money is that? But then it may be advance payment to the particular god to get the atheists in TN Govt. to see ‘reason’ in Cauvery issue. Strange are the ways in our secular govt./s work.
11 June 2010 at 11:50 pm
George Fernandes played over the dead bodies of the martyrs of Kargil in the coffin scam.
Shame on you for writing wrong about George!
12 June 2010 at 9:08 am
When Congress is out of power in Karnataka, how else can its poor workers survive?…if not by dipping into windfall contributions towards flood relief.
14 June 2010 at 4:58 pm
Shame on you Mr Deshpande…What u have done is looting of poeple who has nothing with them
14 June 2010 at 8:09 pm
When is this guy being shown the door. He met the tyaag mata last week and why is there no decision yet to send this guy home for some time and then rehabilitated after the public memory fades.
16 June 2010 at 2:31 pm
Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had said during May 1939 that “I would go to the length of giving the whole Congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant.”
Gandhi made this remark on rampant corruption in Congress ministries formed under 1935 Act in six states in the year 1937. The disciples of Gandhi however, ignored his concern over corruption in post-Independence India, when they came to power.
People are so immune to corruption during the six decades of ‘democratic rule’ that they have learnt how to live with the system even though the cancerous growth of this malady may finally kill it.
The recent episode of alleged misappropriation of funds collected by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has surcharged the political atmosphere in Karnataka with different groups with in the Congress accusing one another.
According to sources in Delhi, both R V Deshapande andD K Shivakumar – KPCC President and Executive PResident respectively – would be removed and new President would be appointed in their place by Sonia Gandhi who had collecterd reports from Karnataka on the ways and means to improve the sagging image of the party and nourish it to contest the next assembly polls.
License to govern does not mean license to be corrupt. Mahatma Gandhi believed in the need for creating a social climate against corruption, which meant creation of an atmosphere in which the corrupt could not thrive. The need of the hour therefore, is to wipe off the tormenting system, which could be possible only after its thorough overhaul. For this our national leadership is expected to devise a political mechanism to create a social atmosphere by empowering of people. The on going war cry against corruption, which is nothing but a mad fight to replace one corrupt system by another is not going to transform the beleaguered nation to a sustainable social order.
18 June 2010 at 3:11 pm
I will think twice before donating money…….