IGNCA and Sonia Gandhi: The
Ultimate Fraud of the
Keerthi Reddy
IGNCA and Sonia Gandhi: The Ultimate Fraud of the Millennium
On January 11, a Delhi High Court pushed the final nail in the
coffin of Sonia Gandhi's self extended dominion over the Indira
Gandhi National Center For Arts. The court declined to grant an
interim stay on her removal as "President for Life" from
the Center.
The saga of the IGNCA has become one of the most sordid examples
of usurpation of public finances for personal gain. And the chief
culprit who has benefited the most by fraudulently siphoning off
Indian taxpayer's money, is none other than the proverbial
Cheshire Cat herself, Khoon Bhari Maang waali Desh Ki Asli Bahu --
Madame Sonia Gandhi.
The enormity of the fraud perpetrated by this shameless individual
who specializes in portraying herself as the ultimate martyr who
has sacrificed everything for India, is mind boggling.
Originally launched on 19th November, 1985 by none other than
Sonia's husband and then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi,
the IGNCA was set up as "the national center for arts &
culture which would be engaged in the multidisciplinary study
& experience of all the arts, integrated with and essential to
the larger matrix of human culture." The Gandhis' plans to
annex the enormous government funds for this venture only became
clear in 1987 however.
It was on 24th March, 1987 that Rajiv Gandhi got his cabinet to
approve and constitute a Trust fund for the IGNCA. And surprise of
surprises who else were the founder trustees but Rajiv Gandhi
himself, along with President Venkataraman, future Congress PM P.V.
Narasimha Rao, Indira Gandhi's special buddy - Pupul Jayakar, the
finance minister and Congress stalwarts H. Y. Sharada Prasad and
Kapila Vatsyayan. Rajiv Gandhi was made the president along with
his Gandhi family minions.
According to the Cabinet Resolution, the Government of India gave
Rs. 50 Crores out of the Consolidated Fund of India as a corpus
fund to this Center. It transferred 23 acres of land along with
one of the costliest sites in the world -- Central Vista, the
stretch that runs between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate -- to
this Trust. An additional Rs. 84 Crores were given to the Trust to
construct its building.
Considering the enormous amount of government funds which were
being provided, the Deed of the Trust was structured to provide
controls to the government in the form of several stipulations.
These included:
Every ten years two-thirds of the trustees would retire. One half
of the vacancies caused would be filled by the Government. One
half would be filled by nominations made by the retiring trustees.
The Member Secretary of the Trust would be nominated by the
Government on such terms and conditions as the Government may
decide.
The President of India would appoint a committee from time to time
to review the working of the Trust, and the recommendations of the
committee would be binding on the Trust.
No changes would be made in the deed of the Trust except by prior
written sanction of the Government, even then the changes may be
adopted only by three-quarters of the Trustees agreeing to them at
a specially convened for the purpose.
Due to the immense amount involved, the Comptroller & Auditor
General of the country was supposed to audit the Center's
accounts.
In 1991, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Shockingly,
despite the fact that she had absolutely no official status or
public stature, Ms. Sonia Gandhi was unquestioningly allowed to
take Rajiv Gandhi's place as President of the Board of Trustees of
one of the nation's richest Trusts!! Narasimha Rao's Congress
Government was only too happy to oblige Madam by pouring in
millions of Rupees into the Fund, while performing fake audits
which looked the other way at the apparent discrepancies in the
books.
But in May 1995, SoniaAmma became a little worried as she saw the
dismal prospects for Congress in the general elections. It was
quite predictable that Congress would not come back to power that
year. Therefore an incredibly sinister and outrageous plan to
cheat the Indian government of all control over its very own
funds, was cleverly manipulated by Sonia.
A meeting just like all the previous meetings of the trustees was
convened on 18 May, 1995. The minutes of this meeting listed all
the subjects under discussion. From the face of it the meeting on
18 May, 1995 was just like any other meeting of the Trust.
Contrary to the express provision of the Trust Deed, it was NOT a
meeting specially convened to consider changes in the Deed of the
Trust.
On 30 May, 1995 Madhav Rao Scindia, then Minister of Human
Resources received a letter from SoniaAmma informing him of what
she said were "alterations" in the Trust Deed which been
had unanimously approved by the trustees. The Minister wrote back,
on 2 June, 1995: "I have great pleasure in communicating to
you the Government of India's approval to the alterations."
It was the same Mr. Scindia who in his capacity as one of the
Trustees of the IGNCA himself, had participated in the meeting
which according to the minutes approved by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had
not even discussed leave alone approved these sudden changes in
the Trust Deed!! He
The results of the sweeping amendments to the Trust Deed were as
follows:
Sonia Gandhi became President for life of the IGNCA Trust
The other trustees -- two-thirds of whom were to retire every ten
years -- became trustees for life.
The Right of the Government to fill half the vacancies was
completely eliminated
The power of the Government to appoint the Member Secretary of the
Trust was removed.
The power of the President of India to appoint a Review Committee
to supervise the functioning of the Trust was completely
eliminated. Both the President and the Government no longer had
any power whatsoever to inquire into the usage of funds or the
working of the Trust.
And so with a simple wave of her hand, Sonia Gandhi had usurped
complete control of a Government Trust which received over Rs. 134
Crores of the Indian taxpayers' money and over 23 acres of
invaluable real estate. In effect the Indira Gandhi Center
National Center For Arts had suddenly become Sonia's own little
private stash of goodies.
The entire alteration of the Trust Deed was in complete violation
of Article 24 of the original trust deed itself, which had clearly
stated that no amendments could not even be initiated and adopted
-- without prior written permission of the Government. Shockingly
the original Article 24 itself was REMOVED from the "amended
deed". Far from any permission being taken, neither HRD
Minister Scindia, nor any of the trustees gave the government a
single indication that changes to the Deed were even being
discussed!
Even Mr. Scindia's so called approval was completely invalid. Such
sanctions are governed by Rule 4 of the Government of India
(Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961. This Rule prescribes that
when a subject concerns more than one department, "no order
be issued until all such departments have concurred, or failing
such concurrence, a decision thereon has been taken by or under
the authority of the Cabinet." The Cabinet was not apprised
of even a clue to the amendment.
Similarly no approval was taken from the Law or Finance Ministry.
As is usual with most criminal acts of such incredible
proportions, the entire amendment and approval were kept top
secret until February 1996 when IGNCA approached the Center to
enhance the capital cost of the building and was forced to produce
the amended deed with its application for financial enhancement.
Even as the outraged government sought legal remedies, the
attorney general declared that the IGNCA's convenient new
"amendments" were completely invalid in legal terms.
When the government informed the IGNCA "lifetime" Club
of the legal situation, they did not even bother to reply!
Meanwhile during the seventh and eighth Plans, the IGNCA received
Rs. 84.30 million from the government of which there are no
records to find out how much was actually spent on India's Arts
and how much went straight to line the lifetime Club and its
President's personal pockets!
For the next three years the successive Congress and United Front
Governments ensured that none of the facts of the case became
public or even known to any of the Members of Parliament. The file
was simply shuttled back and forth between the Ministry of Human
Resource Development and the Ministry of Law.
It took the arrival of a Bharatiya Janata Party to demand the
reversal of this incomprehensible Fraud. With Delhi High Court
allowing the Government of India to take action against the
conversion of IGNCAC into a private trust the BJP led government
finally had enough initiative to make a move. Their first step was
to remove Sonia Gandhi as "lifetime President" of the
Trust although she has been allowed to stay on as a trustee.
The government has also restored the original trust deed and
replaced 12 retiring trustees and filled the vacancies caused by
the death of two members - Pupul Jayakar and P N Haksar - and the
resignation of another - former president R. Venkataraman.
Besides Sonia, other members who have been retained in the
reconstituted trust include P V Narasimha Rao, Yashpal and Abid
Hussain. Among the trustees who have been retired are Congress
leaders Ram Niwas Mirdha and K Natwar Singh, Sam Pitroda, H Y
Sharda Prasad, M S Subbalakshmi, Kapila Vatsyayan and Ashok
Vajpeyi.
The new members include vocalists Bhimsen Joshi, K J Yesudas,
Bhupen Hazarika, Anjolie Ela Menon, Sonal Mansingh, Aparna Sen, M
S Swaminathan and L M Singhvi. Other nominees include M V Kamath,
educationist H. Narasimhiah, Indologist Vidya Niwas Mishra and
Kuchipudi exponent Vedantham Sathya Narayana Sharma. Former
Bangalore University V-C N R Shetty has been named as
member-secretary for three years. The new Trustees have been
advised to elect a new president immediately.
What is most shocking of all is that the very same trustees who
were only too willing to accept Sonia Gandhi, a woman with no
credentials whatsoever, as lifetime President are now protesting
that the new nominees "do not possess the vision essential
for the healthy growth of an institution like the IGNCA which has
been set up for the promotion, preservation and development of all
arts."!!!!
Apparently according to such people, experience as a Maid in Italy
is far more pertinent and suitable to such esteemed positions
rather than a lifetime career in service to the Arts of India!
The story of Sonia Gandhi's overnight conversion of one of India's
richest Government Trusts, into a personal fiefdom, will surely go
down as one of the greatest incidences of criminal Fraud in recent
history. One is forced to wonder why the Government of India is
not prosecuting Ms. Gandhi for such an obscenely criminal act.
Allowing Ms. Gandhi to stay on as one of the trustees is a supreme
example of adding insult to the Indian taxpayer's injury!
Last but not least, the Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts and
Culture is just one of the three institutions Mrs. Sonia Gandhi
has taken into control. The other two are the Nehru Memorial
Library and the Jawahar Bhavan, land for which had been Allocated
to house the AICC headquarters. Over and above this lies the story
of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which by itself has received
billions of Rupees as government funds.
And still the people of India consider this woman as one of the
possible choices for Prime Ministership of their country...!
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