November 16-30, 2022 Issue of The Unrest Magazine

THE UNREST

RMN Digital Magazine | November 16 30, 2022

Editor: Rakesh Raman

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. Photo: Congress

Main Stories in This Issue of The Unrest

Dirty Politics

Congress Led by Rahul Gandhi Will Form Non-BJP Govt: Mallikarjun Kharge

While Modi will win again and become PM of India, Rahul Gandhi will start another Yatra after 2024 with the hope that Congress will defeat Modi and BJP in 2029.

The newly elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said that Congress will defeat prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha election of 2024 to form the government.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge. Photo: Congress Kharge also said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will lead the party to defeat BJP. He was speaking at a public rally on November 1 during the all-India Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India March) that Rahul Gandhi is leading. With this statement, Kharge has virtually declared that Rahul Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate in the 2024 election, although the latter lacks confidence to pit himself against Modi.

In his daydreams, the Congress president has forgotten that it is almost impossible to defeat Modi and BJP in any election because elections in India are not held

honestly. And even if BJP loses an election, it knows how to form the government with the power of money.

While the voters have hardly any role in electing a candidate or a political party, a number of extraneous factors affect the election results to help BJP win.

The main factors that will influence the 2024 Lok Sabha election results are selective manipulation of electronic voting machines (EVMs), managed violence such as Pulwama terror attack, anti-Pakistan rhetoric, false pre-poll promises, bribes to voters, expensive advertisements to deceive the voters, corrupt media manipulation, and communal hate campaigns.

Today, under Modi’s misgovernance, the people of India are suffering with unprecedented inflation, corruption, unemployment, pollution, hunger, religious animosity, and civil unrest. But it is not possible to defeat Modi or his party particularly in the Lok Sabha elections.

Modi who is a very cunning and uncivilized politician is fully trained to win elections or form governments by hook or by crook. Therefore, Congress has no chance of victory in the 2024 election.

While Modi will win again and become PM of India, Rahul Gandhi will start another Yatra (or march) after 2024 with the hope that Congress will defeat Modi and BJP in 2029.

NATO Chief Announces Dates for 2023 Vilnius Summit

In an era of increasing strategic competition, the transatlantic bond between Europe and North America in NATO continues to be essential to the security of one billion citizens.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that the next meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government will take place in Vilnius on 11-12 July 2023. Mr Stoltenberg said that NATO faces the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War. The meeting in Vilnius will be an opportunity for

Allied Heads of State and Government to agree further steps to strengthen the deterrence and defence and review significant increases in defence spending, as well as to continue NATO support for Ukraine.

In September, Mr Stoltenberg had highlighted the unprecedented military, financial and humanitarian aid from NATO Allies to help Ukraine uphold its right to self-defence.

Earlier, in June, NATO leaders agreed a strengthened package of assistance for Ukraine and Mr Stoltenberg underlined that the Alliance would support Ukraine for the long-term. The Secretary General said the war in Ukraine is entering a critical phase. The Allies say Russia has it in its hands to end the conflict and it must immediately stop this war and withdraw from Ukraine.

In an era of increasing strategic competition, the transatlantic bond between Europe and North America in NATO continues to be essential to the security of one billion citizens.

Official Portrait of NATO Allies Photo: NATO

“I am grateful to Lithuania for hosting our Summit. Lithuania is a vital NATO Ally. As host to a multinational battlegroup, Lithuania helps to provide strong deterrence and defence for the whole Alliance. I look forward to a successful Summit in Vilnius in July 2023,” NATO Secretary General said.

NATO says it is a defensive Alliance and will continue to strive for peace, security, and stability in the whole of the Euro-Atlantic area while it stands united to defend and protect every inch of Allied territory.

Highlighting recent cyber-attacks against satellites, critical infrastructure and government departments, especially as part of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General warned of the real and growing threat from cyberspace. He spoke on 10 November at NATO’s 2022 Cyber Defence Pledge conference in Rome.

Election Commission Announces Dates for MCD Election in Delhi

After delimitation of electoral areas, the election will take place for 250 wards which are spread over 68 of the total 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi. The Delhi State Election Commission has announced the schedule for the 2022 election in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The voting will take place on December 4 and the results will be declared on December 7.

The MCD election has been delayed by a few months because of the unification exercise that has merged the erstwhile three corporations into a single municipal corporation. After delimitation of electoral areas, the election will take place for 250 wards which are spread over 68 of the total 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi. The main political parties Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress are in the fray. Since the MCD election will also be held on electronic voting machines (EVMs), it is expected that the BJP of prime minister Narendra Modi will win again.

However, the people of Delhi have been suffering under extreme corruption, pollution, unemployment, filth, and lawlessness.

End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists: UNESCO

UNESCO says impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems.

Between 2006 and 2020, over 1,200 journalists have been killed around the world, with close to 9 out of 10 cases of these killings remaining judicially unresolved, according to the UNESCO observatory of killed journalists.

UNESCO says impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems while impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption, and crime.

Delhi which has a population of nearly 30 million is governed by three types of rulers: Lt. Governor (LG), chief minister (CM), and the MCD councillors.

MCD Election in Delhi. Photo of February 2017 by Rakesh Raman / RMN News Service (Representational Image)

Governments, civil society, the media, and everyone concerned to uphold the rule of law are being asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity.

Stop killing journalists Photo: UNESCO

It is in recognition of the far-reaching consequences of impunity, especially of crimes against journalists, that the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/68/163 at its 68th session in 2013 which proclaimed 2 November as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ (IDEI).

The Resolution urged Member States to implement definite measures countering the present culture of impunity. The date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on 2 November 2013.

To commemorate the 2022 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists and the 10-year Anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, a Conference convened by the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with UNESCO and OHCHR was organized on 3-4 November in Vienna, Austria.

The Conference aimed to provide a joint multi-stakeholder reflection process on how to prevent, protect and prosecute crimes against journalists, and aimed to take stock of the achievements and challenges of the past 10 years in the implementation of the UN Plan.

The first day planned to gather civil society organizations to share lessons and best practices in the implementation of the UN Plan, and discuss strategies of tackling emerging issues. The second day a Ministerial conference took place during which political commitment towards the implementation for the UN Plan was scheduled to be discussed and renewed.

UNESCO is organizing a series of consultations with local stakeholders to take stock of the progress and challenges to protect journalists in the last ten years and to strategize how to implement the Plan more effectively.

Election Commission Announces Schedule for Gujarat Election

It is alleged that BJP in collusion with the Election Commission tampers with EVMs selectively to win crucial elections including the Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on November 3 announced the schedule for the 2022 Assembly election in Gujarat state. The election will be held in two phases, on December 1 and December 5, and the results for the election will be declared, along with that of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election, on December 8.

In the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly, the voting for 89 seats will take place in the first phase and 93 will vote in the second phase.

As there are serious concerns about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) that help Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi win elections, the Election Commission dismissed the misgivings about EVMs.

The main battle in the Gujarat election is between the two traditional parties BJP and Congress, although the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of

minister

Kejriwal is also in the fray.

DDA Violates RTI Act to Hide FAR Construction Crime in Delhi

DDA is trying to hide the information related to FAR because it is a criminal activity and DDA and other officials are bribed to allow lethal FAR construction in occupied housing societies.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) which is one of the most corrupt government departments in India has crossed all limits of criminality. With its aim to conceal the ongoing construction crime in Delhi’s housing societies, DDA does not provide information sought through the Right to Information (RTI) applications.

It is alleged that BJP in collusion with the Election Commission tampers with EVMs selectively to win crucial elections including the Lok Sabha elections.

Electoral Officials carrying Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for counting, at a Counting Centre of General Election 2019, at CWG Village, Sports Complex, in Delhi on May 23, 2019. Photo: PIB (file photo)

Delhi chief

Arvind

These days, a criminal activity is happening in Delhi’s cooperative group housing societies (CGHS) under the fraudulent floor area ratio (FAR) constriction scheme. Although Delhi is the most polluted city in the world, the DDA is allowing FAR construction which is spreading life-threatening dust pollution, noise pollution, and air pollution in occupied housing societies where children, men, women (including senior citizens) are suffering.

Senior citizens in a group housing society of Dwarka in New Delhi urge the government to save them from dust and noise pollution of extended FAR construction activity. Photo and Campaign by Rakesh Raman / RMN News Service (file photo)

Now, FAR construction has assumed the scale of a citywide construction-cum-corruption racket – termed as Widehouse Corruption Scandal. This criminal enterprise is being run by local criminals who operate as management committee (MC) members of housing societies in connivance with crooked politicians, corrupt bureaucrats, complicit police officials, dishonest members of judiciary, and builders’ mafia. [ You can click here to read the report on FAR construction and Widehouse Corruption Scandal. ]

In response to the complaints filed by me, a number of IAS officers among others involved in the FAR racket are facing corruption investigations ordered by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India.

While the criminal MC members in collusion with builders’ mafia threaten residents to pay huge money for FAR crime, the corrupt officials of DDA ignore the aggrieved residents’ complaints to get FAR stopped in their housing societies. Consequently, the FAR crime is spreading faster than pollution in Delhi.

As a journalist and social activist, I have been running a free online community service “Clean House” for the past 5 years to report about crime and corruption happening in Delhi’s group housing societies where millions of people live.

The residents who are being harassed by their MC members or administrators file their online complaints on the “Clean House” service while I make the legal cases and report to the authorities in order to seek justice for the suffering residents.

Since I get a number of complaints related to FAR crime in different housing societies of Delhi, recently I decided to work aggressively to get FAR crime stopped so that men, women, and children could be saved from construction-related pollution and fatal accidents in society buildings.

RTI APPLICATION

In order to know the status of FAR, I filed the following RTI application with DDA which works under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India.

To October 14, 2022

The Public Information Officer (PIO)

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India / DDA

Subject: RTI Application to Seek Information under the Right to Information Act 2005

Name of the Applicant: Rakesh Raman

Dear PIO at MoHUA / Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Please provide me with the following information:

1. List of departments which allow Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction in Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka.

2. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka where Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction has been approved / sanctioned during 2018 to 2022.

3. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka where Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction has been stopped during 2018 to 2022 with reasons for stoppage.

4. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka whose proposals for Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction are currently pending.

5. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka where Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction is currently happening.

6. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka where Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction has caused accidents including construction-related deaths during 2018 to 2022.

7. List of Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka from where residents have complained against Floor Area Ratio (FAR) construction during 2018 to 2022.

8. Names and designations of government officials against whom action has been or being taken for lapses in approvals in Floor Area Ratio (FAR)

construction in Cooperative Group Housing Societies of Delhi including Dwarka.

If the information sought above is not available in your office, please forward my application to the concerned public information authority to seek information. Since the RTI Act violations are rampant in Delhi, please ensure that I get complete information.

Contact Rakesh Raman

However, as I was expecting, the corrupt DDA officials did not provide me with the information that I sought through my RTI application about FAR projects in Delhi. It is a violation of the RTI Act. [ You can also click here to read the case of RTI Act violation by the office of the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) of Delhi Government. ]

In its deceptive response to my RTI application, DDA claimed that it does not have the data about FAR construction projects, while DDA is the main department responsible for giving FAR approvals. [ The response from DDA is reproduced below as Exhibit 1. ]

Obviously, DDA is trying to hide the information related to FAR because it is a criminal activity and DDA and other officials are bribed to allow lethal FAR construction in occupied housing societies.

However, I have not given up and will soon take more steps to inform the authorities about FAR construction crime so that it could be stopped in the housing societies. I also urge residents to help me in this effort to get FAR stopped and Delhi’s environment protected. Residents who have been following my campaigns against FAR construction crime must be knowing that FAR construction can be

stopped and even illegal FAR construction can be demolished by taking the right administrative steps.

My objective is to get all criminals involved in the genocidal FAR construction crime jailed and - if possible - executed by the law-enforcement authorities.

You can click here to watch the related video on RMN YouTube Channel.

Rakesh Raman

Twitter Spews Lies Across the World: President Biden

With the aim to overcome myriad challenges and make Twitter a viable platform, Musk is taking some aggressive steps.

The U.S. President Joe Biden has deplored Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Inc., saying that the microblogging platform was responsible for spewing lies all across the world.

Biden made these remarks during a fundraiser in Chicago on November 4, adding that Twitter does not have editors to moderate content while the incidents of hate speech and misinformation are increasing on the site. (Photo: Twitter Logo)

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October. The acquisition began on April 14, 2022 and concluded on October 27, 2022. Immediately after acquiring Twitter which has been in the red Musk fired nearly half of the company’s 7,500 employees.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk said in his tweet of November 5. The company is facing a further drop in revenue as advertisers are wary of putting their ads on Twitter which is notorious for allowing disinformation and hate campaigns to proliferate on the social media platform.

Musk acknowledged the problem and claimed that hate speech is declining on the site. “Again, to be crystal clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged,” he tweeted on November 5. “In fact, we have actually seen hateful speech at times this week decline *below* our prior norms, contrary to what you may read in the press.”

TWITTER TROUBLES

Earlier, Musk had decided to withdraw from the Twitter takeover deal with the complaint that the real identities of most of the 486 million Twitter users cannot be established. Musk who faced a lawsuit for suspending the planned acquisition of Twitter - also complained that the interactions with almost all Twitter accounts seem to be much lower than Twitter claimed.

The concern over a large number of fake accounts on Twitter prompted Musk to terminate the deal on July 8, 2022. He had put the deal on hold in May 2022 and asked his team to check the veracity of Twitter’s claim that less than 5 percent of accounts on the platform are bots or spam.

Musk believed that Twitter has a large number of bogus accounts and he said that the number of interactions such as comments, retweets, and likes with tweets has also reduced significantly. This worrying trend was quite visible in a market like India where most Twitter accounts are fake and the untamed users run hate campaigns frequently.

The fake Twitter accounts are either real persons with multiple profiles or bots. A bot is a computer program that is designed to automatically post tweets and follow other users. Rogue bots are deployed to follow users who buy them from the market. They can be dormant or active accounts which post innocuous tweets or spread misinformation to harm government critics, influence elections, and impact stock markets. The online sellers that sell fake social media followers as well as

interactions such as comments, retweets, and likes have proliferated on the Internet.

With the aim to overcome myriad challenges and make Twitter a viable platform, Musk is taking some aggressive steps. For example, on November 5, Twitter rolled out its subscription-based Twitter Blue service for $8 per month. The service includes a blue "verified" badge and other features.

Musk also announced on November 6 that Twitter will soon allow users to add long-form text to their tweets. In 2017, Twitter had increased the character limit of tweets to 280 from the earlier 140-character limit.

But as Biden has warned, the biggest challenge for Musk will be to make Twitter a disciplined interface which is free from lies, unruly users, bogus accounts, and fake interactions. [ You can click here to watch a related video. ]

RTI Act Aims to Strengthen Indian Democracy: Minister Jitendra Singh

The Minister noted that empowered citizens are an important pillar of democracy and the CIC will continue to work for empowering the people through information. Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, said on November 9 that the main aim of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) is to empower citizens, bring transparency, get the system rid of corruption, and take democracy to the hands of the people of the country.

Speaking at the 15th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission (CIC) titled, “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Citizen–centric Governance through RTI” at Vigyan Bhawan, Om Birla said that effective use of the RTI Act will help in building a developed and corruption-free India, as envisioned by the prime minister Narendra Modi. Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh said, “Transparency and citizen-centricity are the hallmarks of the Modi governance model.” The Minister noted that empowered citizens are an important pillar of democracy and the CIC will continue to work for empowering the

people through information. He added that the RTI Act is not a standalone law, but it is part of the larger narrative of strengthening Indian democracy and ensuring transparency in governance.

Dr Jitendra Singh noted that it was during the Modi government that a 24-hour portal service was introduced for e-filing of the RTI applications. He added that technology has been harnessed for developing mobile based applications, e-filing, e-hearing, e-notification, etc. while facilitating the task of information seekers in availing remedies under the law.

The mobile app developed by CIC enabled citizens to file appeals with ease, besides using technology for audio-video hearing of cases. The Minister said, as a result, the CIC has succeeded in reducing the pendency from 38116 cases in the year 2020-21 to 23405 cases in the year 2021-22. Referring to indiscriminate filing of RTI applications, Dr Jitendra Singh appealed to the applicants to check before filing the

Annual Convention of Central Information Commission (CIC) titled, “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Citizen centric Governance through RTI” at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on November 9, 2022. Photo: PIB

application, whether or not the desired information is already existing in the public domain.

The Minister lauded CIC for achieving consistent decline in pendency with corresponding rise in disposal of the Right to Information (RTI) appeals.

Chief Information Commissioner, Y. K. Sinha, in his address, said that the level of transparency and accountability of the government has increased through RTI. He said that it has also led to controlling the corrupt practices in the system.

Chief Information Commissioners of States and Union Territories and other officials of the CIC were also present during the event.

The Living Hell: Documentary on Delhi Disaster Released

Instead of empowering people with proper education, Kejriwal is creating a dependent society which can never help a country progress.

This documentary has been produced to show the extreme disaster in India’s capital New Delhi which is also known as Delhi. Today, Delhi has become a veritable hell for nearly 30 million people who live in the city-state.

In the absence of governance, the people of Delhi are almost buried under rampant corruption, lethal pollution, administrative conflicts, and bureaucratic lethargy. Delhi is governed by three types of rulers including the Lieutenant Governor, chief minister, and the councillors in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or the MCD.

All of them are treading on each other's toes and shirking their responsibility towards the citizens. Vinai Kumar Saxena who was handpicked in May 2022 to work as the Lieutenant Governor has failed to clean up the mess in Delhi.

The MCD is one of the most corrupt outfits full of highly incompetent councillors. And the chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal is running one of the most corrupt governments in India. Today, there is no proper record of the public money that the Delhi Government collects and spends. As an election strategy, Kejriwal squanders

huge public money by giving free electricity, water, bus travel, et cetera to Delhi residents.

The Living Hell: Documentary on Delhi Disaster

Instead of empowering people with proper education, Kejriwal is creating a dependent society which can never help a country progress because most people will live only on government dole instead of earning their livelihoods gracefully. By giving freebies, Kejriwal treats people like beggars. Despite his claims, Kejriwal could not do anything to improve the education standards particularly in Delhi schools which are going from bad to worse. Kejriwal and his colleagues in the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP tell blatant lies about their performance in Delhi schools. But the education quality in these schools is so bad that it cannot equip any student to compete in the contemporary job market.

While Delhi continues to be the most polluted national capital on planet earth, a staggering number of deaths are taking place due to pollution in the city. The lethal

pollution in Delhi is usually compared to the poisonous gas chambers used by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust for the genocide of millions of European Jews.

The Kejriwal government also tells lies about the community health care centers called Mohalla Clinics. While Kejriwal praises his Mohalla Clinics, people in Delhi complain about the uselessness of such a flawed health care concept.

Like most politicians in India, Kejriwal’s group leaders have been allegedly involved in a number of corruption cases and other criminal activities. Now almost 60 percent of Delhi’s residents are so poor that they cannot pay bribes to the government officials.

In recent years, therefore, the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians have systematically created a citywide criminal enterprise across the affluent group housing complexes which have become dens of crime and corruption.

The cooperative group housing societies, which are supposed to be regulated by the Registrar Cooperative Societies office of Delhi Government, have become hideouts for criminals who masquerade as the management committee members of housing societies.

Kejriwal is splurging huge public money on media advertisements to gain false publicity for himself and his party and also to cover up the criminal cases of his party colleagues. After getting advertisements from Kejriwal, most corrupt media outlets do not question his wrongdoings. The TV anchors particularly do not interject when AAP leaders divert the issues or tell flagrant lies in TV shows to evade crucial questions.

Along with AAP, two other political parties named BJP and Congress operate in Delhi. However, there is no competent leader in any of these parties who could save the people of Delhi from corruption, pollution, filth, and bureaucratic apathy. As lawlessness is rampant in India, there is hardly any mechanism to punish the

corrupt and careless bureaucrats and politicians. Consequently, the commoners are suffering and they have no other option but to live in the evil realm that Delhi has become. You can click here to watch the documentary on YouTube.

Corruption Is Lifeblood of Indian Bureaucrats and Politicians: Report

India Corruption Research Report 2022 (ICRR 2022) released in October 2022 reveals various aspects of corruption in India. Today, according to the report, no government in India is willing to stop corruption because now it has become the lifeblood of Indian bureaucrats and politicians. All major global anti-corruption organizations observe that corruption has been increasing at an alarming pace in India while the government has no plans and procedures to stop corruption in the country.

Now it appears that corruption has become an integral part of independent India while all State governments as well as the Central government have been encouraging corruption instead of removing it.

While political corruption is rampant, bureaucratic naivety or inefficiency is the worst form of corruption. The survival of politicians and political parties depends on corruption money which is used to purchase voters, legislators, and commit all sorts of electoral frauds.

India Corruption Research Report 2022 (ICRR 2022) adds that almost all the politicians in the State governments are highly corrupt. But this report mainly covers the case studies of national political parties: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi and Congress of leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Although the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Arvind Kejriwal is a local political group, it is embroiled in major corruption scandals and it appears that AAP is the only party in which almost all the politicians are corrupt. So, the report also covers AAP.

Bureaucrats work hand in glove with corrupt politicians to circumvent the law and indulge in corrupt practices. There is no administrative mechanism for the general public to get rid of corruption. Courts are also not quite willing to handle corruption cases because the Indian judiciary is largely controlled by corrupt politicians. Estimates suggest that India is losing around $1 trillion annually to corruption. This amount is nearly 36% of India’s GDP.

Effects of Corruption in India. Photo: RMN News Service Now it is not only the bureaucratic and political corruption that is troubling ordinary Indians, but in recent years small groups of white-collar criminals have started operating like sophisticated extortion gangs in different cities of India. They bribe the corrupt bureaucrats to circumvent the law and extort money from ordinary citizens. Police and law-enforcement agencies are not trained to deal with white-collar crimes such as corruption by organized criminal groups which operate openly in different localities. As bureaucrats also lack knowledge to operate in the modern information-driven world, they are not capable of addressing public

complaints on corruption. Strangely, most bureaucrats do not treat corruption as a crime.

Since the administrative systems have totally collapsed in India, corruption is increasing at a rapid pace. Government officials and politicians keep sending people’s complaints from one office to another like a post office, but they never take administrative decisions to catch and punish the corrupt officials.

Finally, the aggrieved citizens are left with no other option but to approach the courts. But since courts are always overcrowded and judicial systems are inefficient, the court decisions are either inordinately delayed or lack justice. The less said about the Indian courts, the better.

Now corruption has reduced India to a level of criminalized kleptocracy, in which all the four pillars of democracy have collapsed. As a result, India continues to be a poor, underdeveloped country.

The sorry plight of Indians indicates that India has already become a politically unstable banana republic with rampant lawlessness, corruption, and exploitation of the ordinary citizens. Now India should formally appear in the list of banana republics such as Botswana, Guatemala, Nigeria, Zambia, and Cuba.

If the situation is not controlled immediately, it is expected that international sanctions will be imposed on India because of the government's failure to stop increasing crime and corruption in the country.

You can click here to read the full report and click here to watch a related video. You can also share the report with your friends and colleagues through email, WhatsApp, or other social media channels so that they could support this anti-corruption initiative.

Donate: You can click here to donate to RMN News Service.

Short Stories of Politics and Unrest in the World

A US regulator says it is watching events at Twitter with "deep concern" after the platform's top privacy and compliance officers reportedly quit. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said new chief executive Elon Musk was "not above the law". Separately, Mr Musk reportedly told employees that bankruptcy is not out of the question for Twitter. Read More

Representatives of the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed an agreement on November 12 to implement a peace deal, seeking to put an end to the two-year conflict. Both sides agreed to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region of more than 5 million people, the Associated Press reported citing the text of the accord. Read More

Russian forces destroyed key infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson before fleeing, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as his counterparts in Russia and Iran vowed to deepen economic, political and trade ties. Zelenskiy described as hellish battles in the eastern region of Donetsk, where pro-Moscow forces were putting up a much stiffer fight after Russia abandoned on November 11 the only regional capital it had captured since the war began in February. Read More

FTX, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, on November 12 said it was probing a possible hacking attack, a day after it collapsed when traders rushed to withdraw billions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that more than $500 million (€482 million) of crypto funds appear to be missing, citing crypto analytics firm Elliptic Enterprises who said the funds had been moved out from the platform in "suspicious circumstances." Read More

The global economic outlook is even gloomier than projected last month, the International Monetary Fund said on November 13, citing a steady worsening in purchasing manager surveys in recent months. It blamed the darker outlook on tightening monetary policy triggered by persistently high and broad-based inflation, weak growth momentum in China, and ongoing supply disruptions and food insecurity caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read More

Astrea Justice Wins Council of Europe’s Democracy Innovation Award

The Forum brought together in Strasbourg 900 participants from 80 countries across the world to answer the question “Democracy: a new hope?".

At the closing session of the 10th World Forum for Democracy, the Council of Europe (CoE) announced that the winner of its 2022 Democracy Innovation Award was the Justice Code Foundation Trust (Zimbabwe) for its human rights remedy application Astrea Justice.

The Council of Europe (CoE) announced that the winner of its 2022 Democracy Innovation Award was the Justice Code Foundation Trust (Zimbabwe) for its human rights remedy application Astrea Justice. Photo: CoE

The Justice Code Foundation Trust uses modern and innovative ways to ensure that citizens’ rights are protected, promoted and adequately remedied. Astrea Justice informs and educates citizens of their legal rights to administrative justice, to vote, demonstrate and petition and to equality before the law. It also informs about the rights of arrested persons and personal security, including what to do in the case of violation. Their application is available in three local languages: Shona, English and

Ndebele. Three initiatives out of the 40 discussed at the Forum were shortlisted for the final vote:

Mind the gap National Museums of World Culture (Sweden)– presented at the workshop on history, awareness and the power of narrative; “Nouveau Type de Citoyens” movement (Benin) presented at the workshop on civic education;

Astrea Justice Justice Code Foundation Trust (Zimbabwe) presented at the workshop on e-democracy.

Download All Issues of The Unrest Magazine

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The Forum brought together in Strasbourg 900 participants from 80 countries across the world to answer the question “Democracy: a new hope?".

The 10th World Forum for Democracy (7-9 November 2022) looked for the key contributing factors to democratic decline, considered how these might be addressed, and explored what kind of democratic future is desirable, and possible, in the interests of people across the world.

Simple Steps to Submit Online Complaint of Your Housing Society

Your complaint can be about corruption, floor area ratio or FAR construction, or other irregularities in your housing society.

As most residents are suffering in Delhi’s cooperative group housing societies, they can file their complaints in a free online community service named “Clean House.” You can use the free "Clean House" service to submit your housing society

complaint. You can fill in a simple online form to describe your case. The relevant links are given under this video.

Simple Steps to Submit Online Complaint of Your Housing Society. Photo: RMN News Service

You can also watch a YouTube video in Hindi to understand the procedure to fill in the form and report your case to the “Clean House” service. Subsequently, you can participate in an online meeting to discuss your case with the “Clean House” service.

Depending on the case, a notice will be served upon the management committee or MC of your housing society or government officials against whom you have filed the complaint. Your complaint can be about corruption, floor area ratio or FAR construction, or other irregularities in your housing society.

You will also provide at least 2 photographs of your housing society from the front side where the name of your society is written and where a particular incident such as illegal construction, etc. has happened. Your case including the video of online meeting (if any) will appear publicly on the “Clean House” service.

You can click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi Is an Organized Stampede

As Congress does not have a political leader of a good stature, the beleaguered party also lacks communications skills.

There is nothing wrong in the Bharat Jodo Yatra or the Unite India March that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi began on September 7 from Kanyakumari and aims to cover over 3,500 kilometers to reach Kashmir in 5 months.

It is a unique initiative, but all unique initiatives do not necessarily meet their objectives. As its name suggests, the Bharat Jodo Yatra inter alia aims to end the atmosphere of religious animosity in the country.

However, so far there is no indication that it will unite people who belong to different religions. Hatred between communities is persisting and rather increasing. After observing the Yatra, it appears that an unruly crowd is running aimlessly on the roads in a veritable stampede organized by Congress.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with his supporters is travelling across the country on foot for his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Photo: Congress

God only knows who these people are who walk with Rahul Gandhi. But the possibility can’t be ruled out that they are either Congress workers who are forced to participate in the Yatra or hirelings who are paid to build this razzmatazz.

The biggest problem, however, is with the Congress’s communications team. As Congress does not have a political leader of a good stature, the beleaguered party also lacks communications skills.

The party’s communications department if it exists is dormant for all practical purposes. Rahul Gandhi often blames media outlets that do not give coverage to Congress’s stories.

However, the party’s own content platforms including the Bharat Jodo Yatra website and social media channels exist as dilapidated ruins that fail to communicate Congress’s points of view on different issues that the party wants to highlight.

There is hardly any meaningful interaction with the social media posts that Congress releases everyday. As a loser, Rahul Gandhi keeps cursing prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the extreme misery that Indians are facing.

But Congress could never offer its own solutions to overcome the unprecedented inflation, corruption, unemployment, hate, and injustice persisting in the Modi regime.

If Congress has no remedy to provide relief to the aggrieved people, it should not expect any success in the political arena. Then obviously Modi and BJP will continue to win and Rahul Gandhi will have to plan another Yatra after Congress’s defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Currently, the Bharat Jodo Yatra has no plans to travel in those states where the elections are happening.

Sisodia and Accomplices Changed 140 Phones to Destroy Evidence: ED

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) politician Sisodia is telling flagrant lies to hide his involvement in the liquor scandal. In a startling revelation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed that 140 mobile phones were changed by over 30 persons allegedly involved in the liquor scam of Delhi. A signature campaign was launched on September 6, 2022 in Delhi to get tainted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) politician and Delhi Government minister Manish Sisodia removed from his position Photo: BJP Delhi deputy chief minister (CM) Manish Sisodia is the prime accused in this liquor scandal. The ED which investigates serious financial crime cases claimed in a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on November 10 that Sisodia and others involved in the excise / liquor scam have changed a total 140 phones with intention to destroy digital evidence during the relevant period. The value of these phones is estimated to be Rs 1.20 crore. In this case, the Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP) politician Sisodia is telling flagrant lies to hide his involvement in the liquor scandal.

After attending a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hearing on October 17 in this case, Sisodia claimed without any evidence that CBI asked him to quit AAP and join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which will make him Delhi CM.

Among his lies, Sisodia also said that CBI has admitted that there is no case against him but he is being harassed like his colleague Satyendar Jain, who is in jail for the past five months in a money laundering case.

But in a statement released on October 17, CBI refuted all the claims of Sisodia and said that Sisodia was questioned strictly on the allegations in the FIR (first information report) and the evidence collected so far during the course of investigation. CBI added that Sisodia’s statement will be verified in due course and further action will be taken as per requirements of investigation.

LIQUOR SCAM CASE

After the August 19 raids by the CBI at Sisodia’s residence, he and his AAP accomplices are telling blatant lies or half-truths with the aim to protect him in the liquor mafia collusion case.

Sisodia who is a deputy CM under Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is facing serious allegations of corruption, criminal conspiracy, and falsification of government accounts, while the CBI has filed an FIR in which Sisodia’s name is at the top of a list of 15 accused in this case.

The opposition party in Delhi BJP has been running aggressive campaigns to get Sisodia removed from his position in the government. But Kejriwal is not removing him presumably for the fear that he might divulge the names of other AAP politicians who may be involved in liquor scam and other scandals. In July, the Lt. Governor (LG) Vinai Saxena who is the administrative head of Delhi had asked

the CBI to probe Sisodia’s surreptitious links with the liquor mafia that led to massive corruption in the sale of liquor shop licences in the city.

An August 22 article in The New Indian Express details different aspects of the case along with the names of the accused who allegedly colluded with Sisodia to run the criminal liquor network involved in an estimated corruption of hundreds of crores of rupees. Now, instead of answering the media questions related to Delhi liquor scam in which Sisodia is allegedly involved, the AAP members are unsuccessfully trying to divert the case to unrelated issues such as Delhi school education that Sisodia handles.

In their media interactions on Sisodia’s liquor scam case, the AAP spokespersons had been unnecessarily flaunting a New York Times (NYT) school education article which looks like an advertorial (advertisement or paid article) arranged by AAP’s publicity department. The article without any research falsely praises Sisodia and Delhi school education.

Since Sisodia and his accomplices in AAP are not answering the questions and confusing the whole liquor scam case with their false rhetoric, the CBI should immediately arrest and interrogate Sisodia and others so that people could know the truth.

About the Editor

The editor of The Unrest news magazine Rakesh Raman is a national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page column regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).

Nowadays, for the past 12 years, he has been running his own global news services on multiple news sites. He runs various environment protection, education awareness, and anti-corruption campaigns, and publishes digital magazines and research reports on different subjects.

Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.

At present, Rakesh is associated with the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project as a Country Expert for India to provide expert research inputs on multiple topics pertaining to democracy and governance. The V-Dem Project is managed by V-Dem Institute under the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently, he is also working as an editor for Wikipedia, which is a free online global encyclopedia.

In order to inform the Indian citizens and the global community about the extent of corruption in India, he compiled and released in October 2022 a comprehensive report on corruption in the country. Under the title “India Corruption Research Report 2022 (ICRR 2022),” the research report covers diverse aspects of corruption in India.

He has launched a nationwide campaign to introduce social democracy in India in order to build an egalitarian society in which all citizens could enjoy equal rights, opportunities, freedoms, and access to justice.

He is running an editorial section / microsite “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” to cover the election news, events, and political campaigns. In his anti-corruption activities, he participated in a global petition led by Germany-based international organization Transparency International to call for the UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption, UNGASS 2021, to direct all countries to set up central, public registers of beneficial ownership.

He runs a community-driven anti-corruption social service “Clean House” to help the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness. He has also formed an environment protection group called Green Group in New Delhi, which is the most polluted national capital in the world.

As Rakesh has been facing constant threats including death threats for his editorial and anti-corruption work, the Paris-based international organization Reporters

Without Borders (RSF) that defends freedom of journalists has urged the Indian government to save him from threats and persecution. You can click here to download and read his full profile.

Collaboration with the Project

THE UNREST news magazine is being published by RMN Foundation, which is the humanitarian initiative of RMN News Service. It is being circulated among different UN agencies, government departments, leading global politicians, international political organizations, colleges / universities, law-enforcement agencies, civil society organizations, social activists, and others in India and abroad.

As the founder of RMN Foundation and editor of RMN News Service, I am managing this project independently without any financial or other support. RMN News Service is looking for sponsors and collaborators across the world who can help it expand the content creation activity around this editorial initiative.

Contact

Rakesh Raman

Founder

RMN Foundation

463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4 Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, INDIA

Call: 9810319059 | Contact by email

THE UNREST News Magazine by RMN News Service | November 16 30, 2022 | Page 35 of 35