That's all, Your Honour! : Jan.2-8

1. Just when folks were thinking that it cannot get any worse for the UPA government, came the order of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). Win Chadha is one of the accused in the case, and his legal heir Hersh Chadha filed a case with the IT department asking it why he is liable to pay Income Tax of such high amounts. The 90 page tribunal order traced back in great detail the entire money trail, how both Win Chadha and Ottavo Quattrocchi (close friend of Sonia Gandhi&Family) received kickbacks, and hence how they are liable to pay Income Tax to the Government of India. ITAT order basically confirmed what we all know - huge amounts of kickback have been paid to get this deal done and the first family of India (Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi et.al) has a lot to answer to the people of this country. Ohh wait - CBI filed an appeal in Supreme Court this week - asking permission to close the case because 23 years have passed by! All accused except one have died. The only one alive - Ottavo Quattrocchi cannot be extradited to the country. Even the Prime Minister has sympathised with Mr. Q. And hence CBI's request to close the case. Infact it went to say that "there is nothing new in the ITAT order"! Amidst all this - depositions of two witnesses were leaked to the media. One was the driver of Mr.Q and the other was an SPG officer. Both have given instances of how Mr.Q and his family had unfettered access to the Gandhis. Surely, the paragons of virtue, Sonia Gandhi and her family have a lot to answer for - sadly the media will not ask them anything!

2. The SriKrishna Committee, which was constituted last year, to submit a report on how to resolve the Telangana tangle, has submitted it's report. Contents were made public on the 6th of January. The report is exhaustive in its content. A LOT of statistics have been presented. The committee detailed how the three regions have fared in vaious fields (education, health, law&order, irrigation, water resources etc). After 8 chapters of detailing, it proceeded to discuss the "Way Forward". Six options were presented. The first one was to maintain status quo. The second option was to split the state into Telangana and Seemandhra, with Hyderabad as a Union Territory (and the 2 new states will have new capitals). The third option is to Bifurcate the state as Rayal-Telangana and Coastal Andhra, with Hyderabad as capital for Rayal-Telangana. The fourth option is to split into Telangana and Seemandhra, and an enlarged Hyderabad as UT (infact the committee even drew up the boundaries for the proposed option!). The fifth option is to split into Telangana and Seemandhra, with Hyderabad as capital for Telangana. And the last option is to have an united Andhra Pradesh with an constitutionally empowered regional council for Telangana. The committee has said that the last option is their first preferred option. The second best option is the 5th option - split the state with Hyd as capital of Telangana provided all regions agree. The committee has detailed the pros and cons of each of these options. And as expected, the pro Telangana parties have rejected this report. Advocates of an united AP felt vindicated by their stand. However, this problem is a political problem - purely existing because of the lack of political leadership. Shortsided decisions coupled with reckless leaders we have compounded this even further. Sad that we don't see one leader who can lead us through these turbulent times.

3. After A.Raja resigned as Telecom Minister, Kapil Sibal was appointed in his place. And 2 days back - Kapil Sibal enlightened the whole country on the 2G scam - "Zero Revenue loss in 2G spectrum sale". That's all, your honour!