Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
Indian Political Corner | All Updates & Discussions.
- Thread starter Hyde
- Start date
Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
911
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
- Messages
- 2,408
- Reaction score
- -13
- Country
- Location
Demonetisation: News18 sting operation reveals how black money helps hire Pakistani artistes
Central government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes is being projected as a huge blow to the hoarders of unaccounted cash worth crores and has posed a major challenge to those clandestine cash deals which was carried out to evade tax.
A sting operation carried out by the investigation team of News18 India on the managers of some very well known Pakistani artistes shows how black money is used to crack deals with these artistes.
News18 India conducted sting operations on the managers of Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani model Mawra Hocane and actor Fawad Khan.
Posing as a manager of a Delhi-based industrialist, the reporters of News18 India approached managers of above mentioned Pakistani celebrities with a proposal to perform at the wedding function of the industrialist's daughter.
In the first case, the reporters of News18 India approached the manager of Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan with a proposal. Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan is famous Pakistani singer, has sung more than 50 Bollywood songs, and has performed in numerous concerts and live performances in India.
A team of undercover reporters ofNews18 India met Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan's manager named Manu Kohli who runs an artiste management company in upscale Hauz Khas area in New Delhi. It is Kohli who manages all the performances of Khan in India.
The reporters told Kohli that they have come with a proposal for Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan to perform at a wedding hosted by Agrawal, a Delhi-based industrialist.
Kohli informed the reporters that Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan would charge Rs 25 lakh for the performance excluding other expenses incurred on travel and boarding of his entourage that consists of eight people. He also informed that apart from this there will be additional service tax that needs to be paid.
Further Rakesh Gupta, partner of Kohli told the reporters that they will provide all the invoices and will properly pay the service tax. Gupta said, "There will be no hanky panky. Everything will be clean. If you want to pay by cheque, draft or through real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS).
The conversation made by Gupta hinted at a fair dealing. But the perception was to be soon dismantled.
The reporters after a while asked Kohli and Gupta if it will be possible that on papers the payment can be shown for Rs 5 to 7 lakhs and rest can be paid in cash. After some negotiation, it was agreed that that Rs 10 lakh will be paid legally with proper documents and the rest Rs 15 lakh will be paid in cash.
When asked whether they should first be given the cash or the amount that will be shown as the fees, Gupta settled for taking cash first, to confirm the date.
A similar deal was struck with the manager of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan wherein out of Rs 65 lakh (the total amount to be paid to Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for his performance) Rs 23 lakh was to be paid legally by paying proper tax and the rest would be paid in cash.
After striking the deal with the managers of the two singers it was the time to test the waters with Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan.
The reporters posing as managers of Agrawal, a Delhi-based owner of a pharmaceutical company approached the manager of Fawad Khan with a proposal of Khan performing at the wedding function of Agrawal's daughter.
The script was same and followed the same dialogue pattern. Here's how it went (edited excerpts):
Reporter: You must have heard about our company. It is into medical products. Mr Agrawal is the owner. It is his daughter's wedding; it is the first big function in the house. Money is not the problem. His daughter and son-in-law are very excited that some celebrity should participate in the function.
Fawad's Manager: So you want him basically for the sangeet.
Reporter: Actually there are five functions. Dates for four have been finalised which I have already told you. One is yet to be finalised. Will let you know. They want different celebrities for each occasion; at least for one, they want Fawad Khan. His daughter is a big fan of Fawad.
Fawad's Manager: Is it in Delhi?
Reporter: Yes!
Fawad's Manager: Little difficult.
Fawad's Manager: The issue is of him coming to Delhi. I do not think it is possible as of now.
Reporter: Why?
Fawad's Manager: You have not heard of India-Pakistan issue
Reporter: That is in Mumbai. There is no problem in Delhi.
Fawad's Manager: I do not think it will work out. But I will check.
Reporter: We have one function in Gurgaon also.
Fawad's Manager: That is Delhi only.
Reporter: Yes, it is Delhi only. But Gurgaon is very safe. Delhi is also safe. It will be a private function. There will be no big crowd.
Fawad's Manager: I will check once.
Reporter: Can you please tell me an estimate?
Fawad's Manager: I will tell you the estimate.
Reporter: Please tell me how we shall make payment. With all white money, it will be very problematic, assuming if it is Rs 60-70 lakh.
Fawad's Manager: It is for one person.
Reporter: If it is for one person, so, for a 70-plus group I assume it will be around Rs 70-80 lakh. Giving all in white will be a problem for me.
Fawad's Manager: The group will go in CR.
Reporter: Whatever it may be. Giving all in white will be a problem.
Fawad's Manager: We can decide in a percentage. What should I give you as of now? I will give you the original cost then we do not take anything in writing. You can tell about percentage on phone. You just need to tell percentage. I will calculate the amount.
Reporter: I feel if we do not talk these things on the phone it will be better
Fawad's Manager: OK, if you say 25 percent, I can take in which ways, advance or anything. I can calculate 25 percent out of total percentage and I know this much you want to go in black and rest in white. Then we can decide.
What the conversation simply meant was that 25 percent of the amount that was to be paid to Fawad Khan would be paid in black. Further, Fawad Kahn's manager told the reporters that by depositing the money directly into Khan's UAE account they can save a lot on taxes.
Post demonetisation, the effect of the move on black money is being debated upon and this sting operation carried byNews18 India highlights the extent to which black money is circulated in the system.
Central government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes is being projected as a huge blow to the hoarders of unaccounted cash worth crores and has posed a major challenge to those clandestine cash deals which was carried out to evade tax.
A sting operation carried out by the investigation team of News18 India on the managers of some very well known Pakistani artistes shows how black money is used to crack deals with these artistes.
News18 India conducted sting operations on the managers of Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani model Mawra Hocane and actor Fawad Khan.
Posing as a manager of a Delhi-based industrialist, the reporters of News18 India approached managers of above mentioned Pakistani celebrities with a proposal to perform at the wedding function of the industrialist's daughter.
In the first case, the reporters of News18 India approached the manager of Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan with a proposal. Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan is famous Pakistani singer, has sung more than 50 Bollywood songs, and has performed in numerous concerts and live performances in India.
A team of undercover reporters ofNews18 India met Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan's manager named Manu Kohli who runs an artiste management company in upscale Hauz Khas area in New Delhi. It is Kohli who manages all the performances of Khan in India.
The reporters told Kohli that they have come with a proposal for Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan to perform at a wedding hosted by Agrawal, a Delhi-based industrialist.
Kohli informed the reporters that Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan would charge Rs 25 lakh for the performance excluding other expenses incurred on travel and boarding of his entourage that consists of eight people. He also informed that apart from this there will be additional service tax that needs to be paid.
Further Rakesh Gupta, partner of Kohli told the reporters that they will provide all the invoices and will properly pay the service tax. Gupta said, "There will be no hanky panky. Everything will be clean. If you want to pay by cheque, draft or through real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS).
The conversation made by Gupta hinted at a fair dealing. But the perception was to be soon dismantled.
The reporters after a while asked Kohli and Gupta if it will be possible that on papers the payment can be shown for Rs 5 to 7 lakhs and rest can be paid in cash. After some negotiation, it was agreed that that Rs 10 lakh will be paid legally with proper documents and the rest Rs 15 lakh will be paid in cash.
When asked whether they should first be given the cash or the amount that will be shown as the fees, Gupta settled for taking cash first, to confirm the date.
A similar deal was struck with the manager of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan wherein out of Rs 65 lakh (the total amount to be paid to Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for his performance) Rs 23 lakh was to be paid legally by paying proper tax and the rest would be paid in cash.
After striking the deal with the managers of the two singers it was the time to test the waters with Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan.
The reporters posing as managers of Agrawal, a Delhi-based owner of a pharmaceutical company approached the manager of Fawad Khan with a proposal of Khan performing at the wedding function of Agrawal's daughter.
The script was same and followed the same dialogue pattern. Here's how it went (edited excerpts):
Reporter: You must have heard about our company. It is into medical products. Mr Agrawal is the owner. It is his daughter's wedding; it is the first big function in the house. Money is not the problem. His daughter and son-in-law are very excited that some celebrity should participate in the function.
Fawad's Manager: So you want him basically for the sangeet.
Reporter: Actually there are five functions. Dates for four have been finalised which I have already told you. One is yet to be finalised. Will let you know. They want different celebrities for each occasion; at least for one, they want Fawad Khan. His daughter is a big fan of Fawad.
Fawad's Manager: Is it in Delhi?
Reporter: Yes!
Fawad's Manager: Little difficult.
Fawad's Manager: The issue is of him coming to Delhi. I do not think it is possible as of now.
Reporter: Why?
Fawad's Manager: You have not heard of India-Pakistan issue
Reporter: That is in Mumbai. There is no problem in Delhi.
Fawad's Manager: I do not think it will work out. But I will check.
Reporter: We have one function in Gurgaon also.
Fawad's Manager: That is Delhi only.
Reporter: Yes, it is Delhi only. But Gurgaon is very safe. Delhi is also safe. It will be a private function. There will be no big crowd.
Fawad's Manager: I will check once.
Reporter: Can you please tell me an estimate?
Fawad's Manager: I will tell you the estimate.
Reporter: Please tell me how we shall make payment. With all white money, it will be very problematic, assuming if it is Rs 60-70 lakh.
Fawad's Manager: It is for one person.
Reporter: If it is for one person, so, for a 70-plus group I assume it will be around Rs 70-80 lakh. Giving all in white will be a problem for me.
Fawad's Manager: The group will go in CR.
Reporter: Whatever it may be. Giving all in white will be a problem.
Fawad's Manager: We can decide in a percentage. What should I give you as of now? I will give you the original cost then we do not take anything in writing. You can tell about percentage on phone. You just need to tell percentage. I will calculate the amount.
Reporter: I feel if we do not talk these things on the phone it will be better
Fawad's Manager: OK, if you say 25 percent, I can take in which ways, advance or anything. I can calculate 25 percent out of total percentage and I know this much you want to go in black and rest in white. Then we can decide.
What the conversation simply meant was that 25 percent of the amount that was to be paid to Fawad Khan would be paid in black. Further, Fawad Kahn's manager told the reporters that by depositing the money directly into Khan's UAE account they can save a lot on taxes.
Post demonetisation, the effect of the move on black money is being debated upon and this sting operation carried byNews18 India highlights the extent to which black money is circulated in the system.
911
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
- Messages
- 2,408
- Reaction score
- -13
- Country
- Location
Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
JanjaWeed
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 9,772
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
haha...first political casualty of demonetisation! Many more to come!
Poor guy just lost north of 1500 crores.
Give him a break...he is working hard to collect it back
JanjaWeed
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 9,772
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
Apparently he is waiting to re-auction Punjab MLA seats for the highest bidders in 100 rupees notes..unfortunately there isn't enough of them right now!Poor guy just lost north of 1500 crores.
Give him a break...he is working hard to collect it back
Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
haha...first political casualty of demonetisation! Many more to come!
They even withdrew from BMC elections.
Right now the party is broke.
They can't fight Punjab and Goa elections...
Little wonder Kejri was in shock for couple of days after the news broke out. He did not even have a comment to make
It wouldn't surprise me if they fight for limited seats in Punjab this time.
Bitter Melon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,537
- Reaction score
- -12
- Country
- Location
Right now the party is broke.
They can't fight Punjab and Goa elections...
Little wonder Kejri was in shock for couple of days after the news broke out. He did not even have a comment to make
It wouldn't surprise me if they fight for limited seats in Punjab this time.
As long as AAP is kept out of Punjab I would be happy. AK and his party are an outright security threat to India.
Had some one said this to me 3 years back, I would have laughed at his face.
BUT
Now a days I get the feeling even Congees are better than Kejriwal, at least when it comes to national security.
911
BANNED
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
- Messages
- 2,408
- Reaction score
- -13
- Country
- Location
How being anti-Hindu became fashionable among India's middle-class
By Minhaz Merchant
Despite the chilling brutality of the Islamic State (ISIS), the harsh laws of Sunni Saudi Arabia and the hate speeches of mullahs from Tehran to Islamabad, the more extremist strains of radical Islam receive less criticism than they deserve.
Few want to meet the fate of the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, murdered by Islamist terrorists, or Kamlesh Tiwari, still languishing in jail nearly a year after his allegedly derogatory comments on the Prophet.
Islamaphobia is rightly condemned. Hinduphobia though is acceptable in living rooms across upper middle-class urban India where secular poseurs are many in number.
In India it's kosher, even fashionable among the nouveau elite, to be anti-Hindu.
Pathology
We'll come to the pathology of this curious phenomenon in a bit but first a look at The Economist's story on Muslims in India whom it calls 'An Uncertain Community'.
The magazine grudgingly concedes that 'India's Muslims have not, it is true, been officially persecuted, hounded into exile or systematically targeted by terrorists, as have minorities in other parts of the subcontinent, such as the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan.'
The Economist has displayed poor editorial judgement so often (it backed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003) that its insight on secularism in India is predictably myopic.
And yet, the patronising, all-knowing tone it adopts towards India's secular ethos echoes the position of India's Hinduphobes.
Most Indian Hinduphobes are, strangely, Hindus.
They call themselves secular but are often not. Secularism requires religion-neutrality. They lack that. Bias colours their views.
So why are sophisticated, educated Hindus who aspire to be secular so Hinduphobic?
Because they completely misunderstand what real secularism means.
As I wrote in my book The New Clash of Civilizations, 'Influential sections of especially the electronic media, suffused with hearts bleeding from the wrong ventricle, are part of this great fraud played on India's poverty-stricken Muslims - communalism with an engaging secular mask.
'The token Muslim is lionised - from business to literature - but the common Muslim languishes in his 69-year-old ghetto.
'It is from such ghettos that raw recruits to the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Indian Mujaheedin (IM) are most easily found.
'India's religious diversity though is deeply embedded. Six of India's highest constitutional functionaries have recently been Sikh (prime minister), Christian (UPA chairperson), Muslim (chief election commissioner), Parsi (chief justice of India), Dalit (speaker of the Lok Sabha) and Hindu (president).
'There is no other country in the world with such breathtaking plurality at the highest level of leadership.
'Consider Britain: only Protestant (not Catholic) Christians can be monarch.
'In Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, minorities (including Muslim Ahmadis) have severely restricted rights.
'Unlike burqa-banning Western democracies such as France and Belgium, Indian secularism does not separate church from state.
'It allows them to swim together in a common, if sometimes, chaotic pool.'
Atrocities
Politicians are the worst offenders. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee turns a blind eye to atrocities by Muslims against Hindus.
In a brazen exhibition of communal politics, she does so in order to secure Bengal's 27 per cent Muslim electorate that, along with a small slice of the Hindu majority, can guarantee her over 40 per cent of the vote-share and a near-landslide in a four-cornered contest with the Left, BJP and fr-enemy Congress.
This sort of communal polarisation suits the BJP. The rise of majoritarianism has underpinned its success in states like Assam.
The biggest loser has been the Congress, the original communal polariser in the 1985 Shah Bano case. It is now reaping the ill wind.
The rise of Hindu extremist fringe elements is a direct consequence of decades of political parties pandering to minorities in the name of a fraudulent secularism.
Meanwhile, the 'mild', everyday Hindu, inured to caste stratification, fatalism, karma and centuries of Islamic and Christian-British subjugation, is an easy target for Hinduphobes.
Uncertain
The Economist's piece on Indian Muslims - 'An Uncertain Community ' - ends with a quote by a veteran Muslim voice: ' 'They called it a secular state, which is why many who had a choice at Partition wanted to stay here,' says Saeed Naqvi, a journalist whose recent book, Being The Other, chronicles the growing alienation of India's Muslims.
'But what really happened was that we seamlessly glided from British Raj to Hindu Raj.'
This is misleading for two reasons. First, it is of course a misnomer to call the British occupation of India the British Raj.
That connotes a benign presence which the occupation was not.
Second, India is hardly a 'Hindu Raj' given the fact that Muslims, Christians, Parsis and others have their own personal laws and, bar isolated incidents, are safer in India than virtually anywhere else in the world.
While Hinduphobia is a psychological affliction, countering it with Hinduphilia is hardly the answer.
The RSS is wrong to call for a Hindu Rashtra. It should instead work for a Bharat Rashtra.
Confine religion to your home. It has no place in public discourse.
Secularism is not top-down but bottom-up. No number of laws can guarantee religious tolerance as the examples of France, Belgium and the United States demonstrate.
It is the inborn secularism of Hindus that makes India secular.
By Minhaz Merchant
Despite the chilling brutality of the Islamic State (ISIS), the harsh laws of Sunni Saudi Arabia and the hate speeches of mullahs from Tehran to Islamabad, the more extremist strains of radical Islam receive less criticism than they deserve.
Few want to meet the fate of the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, murdered by Islamist terrorists, or Kamlesh Tiwari, still languishing in jail nearly a year after his allegedly derogatory comments on the Prophet.
Islamaphobia is rightly condemned. Hinduphobia though is acceptable in living rooms across upper middle-class urban India where secular poseurs are many in number.
In India it's kosher, even fashionable among the nouveau elite, to be anti-Hindu.
Pathology
We'll come to the pathology of this curious phenomenon in a bit but first a look at The Economist's story on Muslims in India whom it calls 'An Uncertain Community'.
The magazine grudgingly concedes that 'India's Muslims have not, it is true, been officially persecuted, hounded into exile or systematically targeted by terrorists, as have minorities in other parts of the subcontinent, such as the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan.'
The Economist has displayed poor editorial judgement so often (it backed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003) that its insight on secularism in India is predictably myopic.
And yet, the patronising, all-knowing tone it adopts towards India's secular ethos echoes the position of India's Hinduphobes.
Most Indian Hinduphobes are, strangely, Hindus.
They call themselves secular but are often not. Secularism requires religion-neutrality. They lack that. Bias colours their views.
So why are sophisticated, educated Hindus who aspire to be secular so Hinduphobic?
Because they completely misunderstand what real secularism means.
As I wrote in my book The New Clash of Civilizations, 'Influential sections of especially the electronic media, suffused with hearts bleeding from the wrong ventricle, are part of this great fraud played on India's poverty-stricken Muslims - communalism with an engaging secular mask.
'The token Muslim is lionised - from business to literature - but the common Muslim languishes in his 69-year-old ghetto.
'It is from such ghettos that raw recruits to the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Indian Mujaheedin (IM) are most easily found.
'India's religious diversity though is deeply embedded. Six of India's highest constitutional functionaries have recently been Sikh (prime minister), Christian (UPA chairperson), Muslim (chief election commissioner), Parsi (chief justice of India), Dalit (speaker of the Lok Sabha) and Hindu (president).
'There is no other country in the world with such breathtaking plurality at the highest level of leadership.
'Consider Britain: only Protestant (not Catholic) Christians can be monarch.
'In Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, minorities (including Muslim Ahmadis) have severely restricted rights.
'Unlike burqa-banning Western democracies such as France and Belgium, Indian secularism does not separate church from state.
'It allows them to swim together in a common, if sometimes, chaotic pool.'
Atrocities
Politicians are the worst offenders. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee turns a blind eye to atrocities by Muslims against Hindus.
In a brazen exhibition of communal politics, she does so in order to secure Bengal's 27 per cent Muslim electorate that, along with a small slice of the Hindu majority, can guarantee her over 40 per cent of the vote-share and a near-landslide in a four-cornered contest with the Left, BJP and fr-enemy Congress.
This sort of communal polarisation suits the BJP. The rise of majoritarianism has underpinned its success in states like Assam.
The biggest loser has been the Congress, the original communal polariser in the 1985 Shah Bano case. It is now reaping the ill wind.
The rise of Hindu extremist fringe elements is a direct consequence of decades of political parties pandering to minorities in the name of a fraudulent secularism.
Meanwhile, the 'mild', everyday Hindu, inured to caste stratification, fatalism, karma and centuries of Islamic and Christian-British subjugation, is an easy target for Hinduphobes.
Uncertain
The Economist's piece on Indian Muslims - 'An Uncertain Community ' - ends with a quote by a veteran Muslim voice: ' 'They called it a secular state, which is why many who had a choice at Partition wanted to stay here,' says Saeed Naqvi, a journalist whose recent book, Being The Other, chronicles the growing alienation of India's Muslims.
'But what really happened was that we seamlessly glided from British Raj to Hindu Raj.'
This is misleading for two reasons. First, it is of course a misnomer to call the British occupation of India the British Raj.
That connotes a benign presence which the occupation was not.
Second, India is hardly a 'Hindu Raj' given the fact that Muslims, Christians, Parsis and others have their own personal laws and, bar isolated incidents, are safer in India than virtually anywhere else in the world.
While Hinduphobia is a psychological affliction, countering it with Hinduphilia is hardly the answer.
The RSS is wrong to call for a Hindu Rashtra. It should instead work for a Bharat Rashtra.
Confine religion to your home. It has no place in public discourse.
Secularism is not top-down but bottom-up. No number of laws can guarantee religious tolerance as the examples of France, Belgium and the United States demonstrate.
It is the inborn secularism of Hindus that makes India secular.
Similar threads
