Press Releases August
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President and former Union Commerce Minister on 05.08.2004
The UPA government claim of success at the recent WTO finalization of the draft agreement on Agriculture is entirely bogus and on par with the BJP’s claim of “India Shining”. The key issues left over in Cancun Ministerial level meeting of the WTO, were the unresolved issues of subsidy, and market access for agricultural exports of developing countries to developed countries. In Cancun the USA and EU had offered a formula for subsidy reduction. This was not adopted because the host, Mexico abruptly called off the meeting and declared the conference closed. Now India has signed on the dotted line in Geneva last week the very same Cancun draft. What however is utterly surprising is that the market access promise made in Cancun has been watered down and India has quietly lumped it.
The Congress Party is like the BJP in managing the media to make out as if India got it’s way and India’s concerns incorporated in the draft. This is wholly false and the Congress will come to grief for bogus claims just as the BJP had in the recent elections. Managing the media has no long run political dividends.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
05.08.04
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President and former Union Commerce Minister
The Congress President Ms. Sonia Gandhi has indirectly acknowledged that I was right in writing to the Speaker of the previous Lok Sabha pointing out that she had falsely claimed in her bio data, submitted under her signature to the Parliament's Who's Who publication, that she had studied in the University of Cambridge, U.K., and obtained a diploma in English. This was not only false but a breach of the code of ethics adopted by the Lok Sabha. In her most recent bio data, posted last week by Parliament on its website, Ms Gandhi has withdrawn that false claim.
Ms. Gandhi had also filed a false affidavit as a candidate in Rae Bareli making the same false claim. That is a serious criminal offence under the IPC. The Election Commission, which was seized my complaint, has now advised me to file a complaint before the district magistrate of Rae Bareli, if I wish to do so. I shall consider doing so after my teaching duties at Harvard University are over in August end. In the meantime, Ms. Gandhi should publicly retract that claim in the affidavit as well and tender an apology to her constituents.
Educational qualifications are obtained by hard work, and cannot be allowed to be trivialized by false claims. The Supreme Court had ruled that educational qualification should revealed in one's nomination papers on affidavit to inform the public that the candidate has undergone academic discipline and developed an analytical mind. By falsely claiming to have studied in an university of repute when Ms. Gandhi has no formal education beyond high school is a fraud on the public.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
13.8.2003
Press Release
It is ridiculous for the Finance Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram to claim that the accelerating inflation in the country is "temporary", and that "in September it will abate". Making such ridiculously false claims has become Mr. Chidambaram's habit which has cost the economy in the past heavily, e.g., in 1997 he claimed that he had put forth a "dream budget". The Indian economy thereafter decelerated from the 8.0% growth rate legacy of the Narasimha Rao government to a low rate of 4%.
India is today sitting on the verge of an inflationary volcano because of the bogus arithmetic of the 2004-05 Chidambaram Budget. The Finance Minister is clueless because he has not studied economics. His only practical experience is in defending the Enron and Pepsi Cola in the courts. Thus he does not realise that the government is headed for a "debt trap", in that new loans are enough only to cover for the past interest payments. The government has cornered half the public bank funds to pay for its daily expenditure and has left nothing for new investment in the private sector. There is no cushion left for the coming oil price rise or to meet the collapse of the agricultural sector due the failure of the monsoon. Even the foreign exchange reserves are enough only to cover the short-term, portfolio, and other liabilities.
Hence, if the present Congress-Communist alliance government continues, with a spineless Prime Minister and a dumb Finance Minister for much longer, then India will undergo a severe financial crisis within the next six months. The GDP growth rate will not exceed 3% and unemployment will surge.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
23.08.2004
PRESS RELEASE
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Uma Bharti should withdraw her resignation from the CM's post because the non-bailable warrant and the case registered against her is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The crime she is charged with is not personal to her. Althought the Janata Party had condemned the flag hoisting at the Idgah Maidan in Dharwar in 1994, the case registered against Ms. Bharti is reflective of the perverse mind of the Karnataka government because Ms. Bharti was whisked away by the police[according a report published in Hindu news daily] before she got anywhere near the Maidan or before the police firing in Despandenagar. Other leaders of the BJP were present at the scene, but cases against them have been withdrawn. This is perverse, and violative of the concept of equality before law. Hence, there is no need for Ms. Bharti to resign since the crime at Idgah Maidan was not at her instigation. She should fight the case in court, in fact move the High Court for quashing it since it is against the principles laid down in the Constitution.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
25.8.2004
Press Release
Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party President, has issued the following statement on the eve of his departure to Chennai from Boston[where he has been for the last two months teaching economics at Harvard University]:
"I have been requested to convene in New Delhi an international seminar, on the current situation in Sri Lanka, of scholars and publicly known persons from concerned countries. This was resolved at a meeting held on August 23, 2004 of eminent Sri Lankan Tamils held at Belmont, Massachusetts. Mr.S.C.Chandrahasan, the eminent Chennai based Human rights activist and Mr.T.Sritharan, who pioneered the democratic peaceful struggle of Tamils abroad in 1970s, participated in the meeting and moved the resolution.
"The seminar's starting point will be that since the LTTE can never be part of any democratic and peaceful solution but is a part of the problem in Sri Lanka, hence whether there are any alternatives to the present capitulationist Norwegian peace initiative in the island.
"The seminar will also conceptualise the circumstances and conditions under which India may have to intervene in Sri Lanka to ensure a long term democratic solution to the Sinhala-Tamil linguistic problem and which solution is in harmony with India's national interest. Discussions will also be held on the role of the international community, especially of US, China, Israel and SAARC countries.
"The seminar will be held mid October this year.
(V.S.CHANDRALEKHA)
STATEMENT OF DR.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, PRESIDENT OF JANATA PARTY MADE IN CHENNAI on 27.08.2004
The Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh was perfectly right in refusing to entertain NDA’s Memorandum on the 2004-05 Budget on the grounds that the Budget was being passed without any discussion after adopting 56 amendments moved by UPA parties. There was nothing impolite and Dr.Singh was right in expressing his moral outrage at the NDA’s tactics.
The NDA should have used the Parliamentary floor to highlight the disastrous 2004-05 Budget proposals which have already brought the economy to a grinding halt due to the Freight lorries strike. Many leading industries are shutting down production by mid-next week because of non-movement of freight. The strike was called because the Finance Minister failed to comprehend that the service tax is retrograde and ill-timed. It should have been withdrawn.
The Finance Minister has also annoyed the NRIs with his silly interest tax causing a $21 billion outflow from NRI accounts within two months.
Thus, with a fiscal crisis looming large on the horizon, the NDA should have discharged its responsibility as the largest opposition group. This it failed to do.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
August 31, 2004
PRESS RELEASE
The Reserve Bank of India report released yesterday in Mumbai has confirmed what I had warned earlier about inflation and deceleration in the growth rate of GDP. In its report the RBI has decided to downgrade the earlier optimistic rate of GDP growth rate and low inflation. Now the RBI has acknowledged that inflation is a cause for anxiety and the GDP growth rate has to be sealed down from the earlier estimate of 6-1 percent. The 2004-5 budget is thus the worst budget in Indian history because of its numbers are contrived and do not add up. There is a heavy cut in the development expenditure and a substantial increase of loans that the Government is going to take from the banks, bringing the country deeper into the fiscal crisis.
I call upon the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh to sack Mr.P.Chidambaram and take over the portfolio himself before the country spills out of control.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
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