GF MGP GET ELECTORAL BONDS!
THE Goa Forward (GF) and Maharashtrawadi Gomanatak Party (MGP) are among the beneficiaries of the electoral bonds team. Corporate houses have not only supported the big parties like BJP and Congress but also parties in power in the states. Corporates have spread their bed sheets to cover regional parties like the Goa Forward and MGP in Goa.
The biggest beneficiary of the electoral bond is understandably the BJP. A total of Rs60 crore bonds go to the BJP. The next biggest beneficiary is the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal which got Rs1,609 crore.
The biggest purchaser of bonds was lottery king Santiago Martine from Tamil Nadu. His company Future Gaming bought Rs1.394 crore. Major corporate groups the Ambanis and the Adanis or the Tata group have not bought any electoral bonds. The Vedanta group bought Rs400 crore worth of bonds. Other major names are Mahindra & Mahindra Birla companies and the Jindal group.
Lottery king Martins is under the scanner of the ED and the IT department. We are pleased to bring you the complete list of those who bought electoral bonds:
SARDINHA V/S CABRAL
IT would appear that it is going to be Francisco Sardinha, the sitting Congress MP, against Nilesh Cabral, former PWD minister. Francisco Sardinha has staked a strong claim for the south Goa parliament seat. Sardinha insists that he has the confidence of the voters. The BJP has told it High Command that it cannot find a women candidate. This is all with a view to compensating Nilesh Cabral for being forced to resign it is proposed to make him the BJP candidate for South Goa. If you remember Nilesh was asked to resign to make a place for Alexio Sequeira in the cabinet. Alexio is promoting Churchill Alemao as the BJP candidate for South Goa for the parliamentary seat.
SCRAPPING ARTICLE 370
THE Modi government considers the scrapping of Article 370 as one of its major achievements. When India became free, Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, had a Hindu king — Maharaja Hari Singh. He was he ruler of Jammu and Kashmir and he decided to align with India during Partition time. But there was a condition and that was special status for Kashmir. Unlike the other states, Kashmir would have a prime minister, not a chief minister. People outside Kashmir would not be able to buy land in the area of Jammu & Kashmir.
However, Jammu is a Hindu-majority area and Kashmir valley a Muslim majority area. Shaikh Abdullah and his son Omar have been controlling Kashmir. The Modi government got Section 370 of the Constitution revoked to withdraw the special status for Jammu & Kashmir.
FIRST BALLOT BOXES
IT was the Godrej factory which made India’s first ballet boxes for the first election held in 1951. Godrej, which makes cupboards and locks and keys, was persuaded to make the ballot boxes. Over a period of four months, Godrej workers manufactured over two lakh ballot boxes for the first election. The ballot boxes were made of steel and used long before the EVM machines came along. These steel ballot boxes for elections were considered a much safer option than EVM machines.
EVM machines are made by Bharat Electronics, a public sector company. Currently, there is a huge movement to scrap EVM machines and return to the old-fashioned system of using the ballot box for elections. In the US and UK now no EVM machines are used. It is back to the traditional ballot boxes for citizens to cast their votes. It has been proved that EVM boxes can be easily tampered with by the ruling party to fix its own victory for permanent gains of power, profit and control. This is not democracy in the name of democracy!
ELECTROL BONDS
ON the Supreme Court’s direction, the State Bank of India agreed to handover details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India. The EC in turn has been asked to make the details public by Friday, March 15. Electoral bonds were created by the Modi government several years ago. The bonds were purchased by companies and individuals as gifts to any political parties.
The problem is that the SBI would not disclose the names of the corporates who bought the bonds. And the parties that were gifted with the bonds. It was pointed out in a public interest litigation that this would encourage bribes for votes. Leading corporations expect major concessions from the party in power for the purchase of the election bonds. So much so the ruling government is forced to compromise over the principles of justice and fair play.
It is possible that the Modi government favoured the Adanis in exchange for electoral bonds. It will soon be known which business houses gifted the largest amount of electoral bonds to which political parties. In the states, the beneficiary would be the ruling political party in the state. For instance, in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress would be the biggest beneficiary and in Karnataka the Congress party. In Tamil Nadu, it would be the ruling DMK which benefits.
NITA’S CUPS AND SAUCERS
WHEN you and I want to buy crockery we go to the nearest crockery shop in town. When Nita Ambani, wife of Mukesh Ambani, wants to buy crockery she goes to a factory in Sri Lanka. It is reported that Nita Ambani went in her private plane to Sri Lanka to buy a Japanese brand of crockery called Noritake. This, despite the fact that the company had an outlet near Antila, where the Ambani family lives off Peddar Road in Mumbai. Nita bought 25,000 sets of crockery which is enough to equip 500 rooms in 5-star luxury hotels. By ordering in the wholesale from the factory Nita got a major discount on the gold-tinted crockery for personal use as also to gift to friends of the Ambanis.
RETURN PRESENTS!
IT was not all one way at the Anant and Radhika Merchant grand pre-wedding celebration in Jamnagar. Incidentally, the wedding itself is scheduled for July 14, 2024. For the pre-wedding entertainment the Bollywood stars who came reportedly gifted expensive jewellery, cars, watches, yachts, homes to the couple.
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan gifted an expensive watch specially made for Anant Ambani and a pair of diamond earrings to Radhika Merchant. On the other hand, Shah Rukh Khan gifted a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR priced at over Rs5 crore to the couple. Other film stars like Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt gifted a beautiful clutch purses of diamonds or brand Gucci to Radhika Merchant and Jordan shoes to Anant Ambani.
Siddharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani gifted gold and diamond idols of Ganesh and Lakshmi to the couple. Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif gifted diamond bracelet and necklace to the bride. Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh presented customised diamond Rolex watches valued at a staggering Rs1 crore.
We do not know how much appearance money was paid to the Bollywood stars who attended for the pre-wedding bash. Barbadian pop singer Rihanna was reportedly paid Rs74 crore for dancing and singing at the celebration. Twinkle Khanna, the gossip queen amongst writers, commented that Nita Ambani’s traditional Bharat Natyam dancing was a much better performance than Rihanna’s carousing around. This is because Nita is a trained classical dancer.
Grand dame of the Ambani family, Kokilaben, is reported to have been spotted at the dance performances. Nita Ambani gifts included r Laxmi-Ganesh gift hampers containing silver tulsi pots and incense stick stands, along with the idols of Lakshmi-Ganesh. .We do not know if Anant’s elephants or jumbos in his elephant hospital got any presents other than extra special ladoo of jaggery and seeds in desi ghee. Top line gifts also included designer perfumes and handcrafted bags with motifs of elephants and lions.
The mega three-day pre-wedding celebration was aimed to infuse confidence in Anant Ambani who is facing several severe health issues. All we can say is he has wonderful parents.
REMARKABLE INITIATIVES FOR WOMEN!
CHIED Minister Dr Pramod Sawant attended and addressed the state-level Swaympurna Utsav organised by the Directorate of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 at the Kala Academy in capital city Panaji.
Present on the dais were Minister of State for Tourism and Ports, Shipping and Waterways of India Shripad Yesso Naik, Member of Parliament- Rajya Sabha Sadanand Shet Tanavade, Member of the Goa Legislative Assembly Delilah Lobo, Director of Planning & Statistics Vijay B Saxena and ZP Member Suvarna Prabhu Tendulkar and other dignitaries.
Speaking on the occasion the CM expressed his gratitude for the success of the Swaympurna Goa program in Goa, for it is the greatest idea in the country, he congratulated all the Swaympurna Mitras, panch members of all village panchayats – and all women for their contribution to the success of the program.
He also congratulated all the theatre and drama participants, who performed their skits to educate the audience about the various government schemes available for the welfare of Goans.
MODI EMPOWERS WOMEN
IT is the aim of Prime Minister Modi to empower women through his women-led development approach without caste, creed and religion! Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant expanded on this theme and the remarkable steps taken to empower women, while passing the Women’s Reservation Bill which seeks to provide 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State assemblies, also the cancellation of the triple talak bill, and the provision of free LPG gas connections.
Other initiatives for women also include providing economically priced sanitary pads at Rs1 to women, this would help women vis-a-vis their health concerns. Then there are the schemes of ghar ghar toilet, LPG gas connections for free, etc, all these initiatives are to make life easier for women to cope with.
The CM said the Swachh Bharat Mission launched by the Prime Minister of India in 2014 to achieve Open Defecation Free India by October 2, 2019 as paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi (for whom cleanliness came first) and this was a scheme welcomed the country over. Similarly, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save Daughter, Educate Daughter) is a campaign launched by the PM to support the girl child and end sexism against girls in India. Other plans are Mamata scheme, Laadli Laxmi, Sukanya Samrudhi, CCL, PM Mudra scheme, PM Vishwakarma scheme and more. Government schemes also include Mukhyamantri Annapurna Yojna, Mukhyamantri Rojgar Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojna, Start0up programs.
In a nutshell here the CM highlighted the five years of government efforts under Swaympurna Goa 1.0 to help people. There are also schemes for agriculture, horticulture, dairyculture, floriculture and so on to make women self-reliant. The utsav saw thousand so of women at the venue listening and visiting the stalls put up, as also take in the theatrical performances. All these efforts are on to make the Central government’s dream of Vikasit Bharat 2047 come true.
CM UNVEILS `NAVE PARV’
CHIEF Minister Dr Pramod Sawant unveiled the official magazine “Nave Parv” brought out by the Department of Information & Publicity at his official residence at the Altinho in Panaji on today March 14. The edition of “Nave Parv” marks the re-launch of the magazine which gives insights into the development projects of the government of Goa.
The magazine also covers success stories and a variety of news details. This is a quarterly magazine with the idea of bridging the information gap government and the people of Goa. On the occasion the CM also launched an online portal for Right to Information (RTI) services, an initiative of DIG designed and developed by the National Informatics Centre, Goa. The portal is accessible at www.rtionline.goa.gov.in.
The portal facilitates the electronic filing of RTI applications, first appeals, and second appeals, along with online payment options via debit/credit card, net banking, and UPI and there are many other notable features which people may check out to make their life easier.
Present for the occasion were Delilah Lobo (MLA and Vice-Chairman of ESG), Ankita Mishra (IAS, Chief Executive Officer ESG), Dipak Bandekar (Director, Department of Information & Publicity), Prakash Naik (Information Officer), Kiran Munankar (Assistant Information Officer), Sachin Chatte (Editor,Nave Parv), JS Rozario (Additional State Informatics Officer), Satesh Redkar (Technical Director, NIC) and officials of the DIP and National Informatics Centre .
GALA WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION!
THE Women’s Wing of Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry in association with BNI Business Networking International Goa celebrated women on International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 8 at the Ferns Keserval, Verna with a power packed program. The day was to spend some time reflecting on progress made by women and a call for more change, also to acknowledge and celebrate acts of courage by women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of country and community.
Padmashree Awardee Shashi Soni was the chief guest for the day. Five unsung heroes –Savitri Ponde (“Savitri panipuri”), Puja Bude (life guard), Shabeena Shaikh (scooter mechanic), Saira Khan(bus driver) and Vaishnavi Kothawale (petrol filler) were felicitated at the event by the chief guest in the presence of GCCI President Shrinivas Dempo and BNI President BNI Raj Kumar Kamat.
The celebration featured a fashion extravaganza of global women’s corporate fashionwear and the latest lifestyle jewellery launched by PNG. Over a hundred businesswomen from Goa attended the event put together by Asha Arondekar (chairperson, GCCI –WW), she gave the welcome address while the hosting was done by Smitha Vijay who was very ably supported by Sandra Fernandes, Fauzia Khan and Gauri Borkar.