Five reasons why India can't censor the internet

In just 24 hours, in the Facebook alumni group of St Stephen's College, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal's ratings crashed faster than that of US President Barack Obama or what former telecom minister A. Raja, now in judicial custody over second generation (2G) spectrum case, ever had.

In a survey to pick star alumni for a big debating clash with counterparts from the rival college across the road, Sibal was on the top five a week ago -- among other stellar Stephanians like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former federal minister Mani Shankar Aiyar or former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor. No longer!

As the #Idiot hash-tag topped Twitter trends, some withdrew their votes for Sibal, and there were posts like "Chuck him across the road" -- a scathing insult, equivalent to the Parsis' excommunication.

Just a preview of the global firestorm over the next two days!

The fire wasn't from anonymous teens. Seasoned analysts blasted Sibal. Investor Mahesh Murthy posted: "Censor this! :) ! Five of the top 10 Twitter trends in India right now are: #IdiotKapilsibal, #KapilSibal, #Censorship, #FreeSpeech and #FreedomOfSpeech."

All this, for just one statement from a politician not unknown for his foot-in-mouth disease? Not quite. For, he has the power to misuse and try to make it happen.

During the Anna Hazare movement, Sibal summoned representatives of the social networks. In a king-and-subjects interaction, he kept them waiting, then kept them standing in his room; gave them a pre-emptive dressing down; and snapped: "I don't want any anti-government stuff on your networks. Fix it." There was no room for discussion.

So here's a five-point Internet 101 for the illustrious Mr. Sibal.

1. The internet cannot be edited: Duh! In an early Dilbert strip, the pointy-haired boss demanded that Dilbert "download" the internet and fax it to him. A decade down, it's not so funny any more.

The internet is not traditional media. India's 1975 emergency and the media clampdown was possible because of the linear, broadcast nature of the old media. New media is distributed. No copy desk or censor board can "fix" it. There is no editor to arrest. And, most content is hosted outside India's jurisdiction.

2. User-generated content cannot be filtered: That would slow down the global internet to a crawl, with posts appearing after days -- even assuming so many "editors" could be hired by, say, a Facebook or a Twitter.

Are phone operators responsible for "content" carried on their networks -- or their CEOs arrested if someone made a terror threat over a phone call? No, the telco is simply asked to help with the investigation -- into who made the call.

Yes, internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to self-regulation.

3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries like "Kapil Sibal", which have been locked due to vandalism!).

If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct it. And so it is on Facebook or Twitter. Abusive posts will be reported, blocked, and the individuals knocked out of the site.

4. Draconian controls are not necessary: In this age of global cooperation on terror, companies cooperate. A rational request from India to Google or Facebook to bring down offensive content will be heard -- regardless of jurisdiction.

5. Yes, there are precedents for Internet control, but...: Such censorship is in countries India doesn't want to be -- China, Pakistan, Myanmar or Saudi Arabia. Pakistan became a laughing stock when it issued a list of banned words for SMS messages. (That list is now standard reading for anyone wanting a quick lesson in present and future abuses that aren't in any dictionary.)

The big daddy of "regulation" is China, where everything is filtered, and if you break those filters, you are charged with treason. What a role model.

But wait.

Kapil Sibal knows all this, right? So why is this bright star from Harvard Law School and St. Stephen's college now sounding so anachronistic in the internet age? Is it the old "thou shalt display higher loyalty to the royal family than the prince himself" mantra?

If Kapil Sibal is to defend himself against the charge of sycophancy, he is on a weak footing. There were many prior potential triggers for tackling social media, including fanatic religious posts, derogatory comments by Pakistan sympathisers, Anna Hazare, and more. That he finally picked a post that targeted Sonia Gandhi suggests that this was not out of serious, objective concern about India's stability, security or secular fabric.

Rahul behind Congress U-turn on Lokpal: Anna

New Delhi: In a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare blamed Congress General Secretary for party MP's U-turn in the Standing Committee meeting on the inclusion of Group C bureaucrats under the ambit of Lokpal.

"Rahul Gandhi must have influenced change in decision of exclusion of Group C & D from Lokpal ambit. Rahul had suggested that Lokpal should be made a constitutional body, but then there should not be any government interference," he said.

"Govt has done a U-turn on the inclusion of group C & D employees under Lokpal. The PM had given us a written assurance that government's and Jan Lokpal's aim is the same. If the government is excluding Group C & D employees, then corruption can't be wiped out from the country," he added.

Repeating Team Anna's demand, he said, "EC is a constitutional body. It's been 10 years that there has been a demand for right to reject, but so far government has not agreed. Lokpal should be an independent body, without any government interference. We are asking for CBI out of government control."

On the deadlock in Parliament, he said, "Why blame BJP for non-functioning of Parliament. Government does not have the will. Let the government do its job, let me do my job. If something happens to me, then it will be a blot on the government."

Team Anna will meet in New Delhi for two days in the second week of December to chalk out its strategy for the proposed indefinite protest announced by Anna Hazare demanding a strong Lokpal Bill.

The meeting will be held on December 14 and 15 after Hazare holds a one-day protest in Jantar Mantar on December 11 to protest against the "watered down" report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Lokpal.
Hazare has already announced that he will sit on an indefinite dharna from December 27 at Ramlila Maidan if Parliament does not pass a strong Lokpal Bill.

People vote for Anna's Lokpal bill

LUCKNOW: In a referendum conducted by Team Anna in eight parliamentary constituencies represented by political heavyweights in UP, an overwhelming 90% people have voted in favour of Anna Hazare's version of Lokpal Bill. The voters have also assured to vote out sitting MPs if they fail to support Anna's Bill in Parliament.

The referendum was conducted between October 2 and November 2 in parliamentary constituencies of Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi and Ghaziabad, represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and former BJP national president Rajnath Singh respectively.

The referendum also covered Mainpuri, the constituency of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Hamirpur represented by BSP leader Vijay Bahadur Singh, Ambedkarnagar represented by BSP leader Rakesh Pandey and Lucknow represented by BJP leader Lalji Tandon.

Bahadur and Pandey are also members of the parliamentary standing committee drafting the Lokpal Bill, which is expected to be placed in the winter session of Parliament.

To the question if they would vote for their MP if he/she votes against Anna's version of Lokpal Bill in Parliament, 99.5% of 1.06 lakh people in Rae Bareli said they will not vote for Sonia Gandhi if she opposed Anna's Lokpal Bill. Similarly, in Amethi 98.30% of 1.06 lakh people, in Mainpuri 91.85% of 1.07 lakh, in Ghaziabad over 90% of 1.05 lakh, in Lucknow over 95% of 1.15 lakh, in Varansi around 99% of 1.11 lakh, in Hamirpur 93% of 98,250, in Ambedkarnagar 97% of 1,05 lakh and in Kaushambi 99% of 1.01 lakh people voted in favour of Anna.

Interestingly, in Amethi 2,983 persons said they will vote for Rahul even if he does not support Anna's version of Lokpal Bill.

A Team Anna member Sanjay Singh told TOI that the referendum got huge public response.

"Referendum forms were distributed in cities as well as villages. Volunteers of India Against Corruption conducted the survey through a mass contact programme carried out in markets, panchayats, railway and bus stations, etc. People from all sections of the society, caste, gender and faith took part in the exercise. The participation of youth was overwhelming," he claimed.

He also claimed that a large section of the population, which included Muslims, is angry with Congress leaders, particularly party general secretary Digvijay Singh, for launching an organized campaign to discredit Anna and his team.

"Muslims said that Digvijay is wrong in thinking that he will be able to appease Muslims and divert public attention from the issue of corruption through his statements. Most of the people were of the view that corruption has hit dalits, backwards and Muslims the most as they belong to financially weaker sections of the society. They believe that benefit of welfare schemes never reaches the people at the bottom due to corruption," he added.

Sonia ill, but raps Hazare campaign

Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday rapped social activist Anna Hazare without taking any names, in a speech read out on her behalf at Gauchar in the hilly Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

She was to have come in person to inaugurate her party’s poll campaign, but could not do so due to fever. It would have been her first public rally after undergoing surgery in America some time earlier for an undisclosed ailment.

In her speech, she attacked Hazare’s group for making a lot of sound on a Lok Pal legislation when the government had already publicly committed to bring an effective and strong Bill.
“Corruption cannot be eradicated by merely making speeches or by pointing a finger at others,” she said. "Everyone needs to look within... You cannot eradicate corruption like this, that one thinks corruption by us is a holy affair, while that by others amounts to corruption," she said in an obvious reference to Team Anna, some of whose members are facing allegations of financial misconduct.

Far from the conciliatory stand that Gandhi has had in the past regarding Hazare, her speech on Wednesday was combative. “The bill will be presented in Parliament and we will implement it. Then why this hue and cry?” she asked.

Putting on record the origin of the Lokpal bill, she said it was first broached by her and the National Advisory Council she heads. On rising prices, Gandhi said, “It is hitting the common man hard and the government must take steps that provide relief” but stressed that “it can happen only with the support of both the central and state governments”.

Besides addressing the rally, she had been scheduled to unveil the foundation stone of a 125-km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line. She sent defence minister A K Antony as her representative. Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi was present

Rats all: Why leaders prefer to hide from their people

There is a common thread running through all movements:They are demanding
authentic leadership – not its demise

Law Minister Salman Khurshid says misuse of the RTI is affecting “institutional efficacy and efficiency.” His colleague in the Company Affairs Ministry, Veerappa Moily, said much the same thing the other day.

A former chief justice of India asks for an exemption for the judiciary from the RTI – and the Supreme Court is hearing its own plea against the RTI. And Parliament wants to hide behind its privileges – it wants to question and muzzle people who criticise its functioning, whether it is a Prashant Bhushan or someone else.

Why leaders shy away from scrutiny — whether through the RTI or other means — it reminds one of cockroaches disappearing in the dark corners when a light is shone on them. Are our leaders nothing more than people who want to do their work under cover of darkness?

Let’s see more such examples.

Sonia Gandhi will keep her illness a top secret, and rule the country from behind a barbed wire fortress at 10, Janpath. Her son and future prime ministerial hopeful Rahul will descend and mix with the hoi polloi at his own convenience and then disappear behind a security wall. Narendra Modi, Mayawati and J Jayalalithaa will speak to the masses only behind a phalanx of Black Cats.

Why do our leaders need so much shielding from the people?

In the US, people on the right and left – the Tea Partyists and the Occupy Wall Streeters – are showing a marked disdain for traditional leaders – just as the entire Arab world is showing, though less menacingly.

In the UK, ordinary folk used Blackberry messengers to rob and loot: it all started from Tottenham, and copycat riots spread to other cities, including London. In China, the leaders are comfortable with the people only by exercising tight control of the media, and especially the internet. Even simple facts on the economy are taboo subjects. The media outside reports hundreds of local eruptions, nevertheless.

Everywhere, it seems, the governors and the governed are at odds with one another, with ordinary people who defy class and classification coming out on the streets in record numbers.

What is the common message underlying all this? Or, is there a common message at all?

To answer the second question first, there is indeed a common thread running through it all. Even though the reasons for the Arab Spring are different from the Anna Hazare uprising or the Tea Party movement – if you had brought them together they wouldn’t know what to tell one another – one thing is clear: they are demanding openness and democratic governance. They are demanding authentic leadership – not its demise.

Most leaders are afraid of the people – whether it is America or UK or China or India – and unable to speak the whole truth to their people.

One may object: Arabs and Chinese demanding democracy and fighting tyrannies is one thing, but what about functioning democracies like the US, India  and UK, where the people are periodically consulted through a free media and through elections? This, after all, was the argument used to delegitimise the Anna movement: either get voted in or shut up.

The real answer is counter-intuitive: most people have probably quietly concluded that elections are not enough, and democracy needs to mean something more. They want open government, more visible communication between leaders and the led – though they might not put it this way.

The consensus, of course, ends here, for no one knows what the replacement can be to the current system, or how democracy can be deepened and widened. But the angst with the current system or sterile leadership and surface democracy is palpable.

In fact, the protesters may often have completely contradictory positions on issues. The Tea Party may want less government, the Occupy Wall Streeters more government. In Europe, arguments are just beginning on whether the nanny state is failing – as the continent finds welfarism overburdening the exchequer and bringing down jobs and growth.

The Arab Springers may want different things in different places, ranging from better distribution of wealth in some countries and/or more democracy (Saudi, Egypt, Tunisia), removal of tyrants (Syria), or more (or less) Islamisation (Turkey, Iran) .

The Anna Hazare group may want an all-powerful Lokpal to threaten the corrupt, and the Aruna Roys may merely want a better Lokpal.

So, if one were to ask how all these conflicting positions are ever going to be reconciled, there can only be one answer: authentic leadership.

Unfortunately, in most places the leaders are either in hiding or unable to speak the truth to their constituencies. Most leaders are afraid of the people – whether it is America or UK or China or India – and unable to speak the whole truth to their people.

Consider how clearly a Gandhi or a Nehru or an Ambedkar were able to communicate with the people. Gandhi could tell his followers unpleasant things and even suspend a popular agitation when he thought it was going off the rails; Nehru could challenge a communal mob to kill him before they abused Gandhi; Ambedkar could write openly about what he thought of the idea of Pakistan (no one banned his book then, but today we would ban it) and take on Gandhi on his pet foibles. Every one of them was an authentic leader – people who spoke their minds and the truth as they saw it even if they had to lose popular support or lose an argument.

In contrast, today’s leaders globally are afraid of the people. An Obama is unable to tell his people that open trade benefits all (he is telling his people what they want to hear, that protectionist legislation will create more jobs in the US). He is even unable to tell Israel that he will back a Palestinian state since that is the right thing to do – all for fear of the Jewish lobby in the US.

Our own alleged reformer Manmohan Singh is unable to us that the economy cannot go anywhere without reforms, or that he can’t keep subsidising oil products forever. A Rahul Gandhi will not speak a word about the real economy because he is afraid that the poor don’t want to hear the truth about the economy’s ability to pay for his largesse. Sonia Gandhi won’t tell us what ails here because she is afraid whether that will lead to infighting and loss of authority inside her own party.

In the states, no leaders thinks he or she can get elected without bribing the voter – whether it is a Karunanidhi with his TVs or a Jayalalithaa with her laptops or a Raman Singh with Re 1 rice.  The BJP, which wanted the Indo-US nuclear deal when the NDA was in power, went hammer and tongs against it when Manmohan Singh asked the same thing. The BJP wants a Lokpal to cover the PM, but in Gujarat the CM is wary of the Lokayukta.

The Congress wants quotas for Muslims, but doesn’t want to espouse the cause beyond a point, for fear of losing the Hindu vote. It wants a Sachar report to pretend that it will do something for Muslims, but in reality it will not do practical things to help them with education and jobs.

Whether they like it or not, leaders cannot hope to be all things to all people. They cannot pretend to be something to one community and the opposite to another community.

We can go on and on, but the short point is this: leaders everywhere are shying away from leadership. They are suppressing their real views from the public – choosing to be led by populism and opinion polls. In fact, what they are offering is the very opposite of leadership: they are following the mob. Leadership is not about finding a crowd heading somewhere and running ahead of it.

If the disconnect between leaders and the led is to end, and if people have to be sent back to their homes to do things other than protesting, the first step is for leaders to behave like leaders and come out in the open. They have to develop integrity and authenticity – and speak the truth.

India and the world need leaders who are wysiwyg (what you see is what you get), not those who are afraid of the people. The people are out in the streets because our leaders are lurking in the shadows, mouthing falsehoods. Anna Hazare has struck a chord because he is outing this underlying feeling. It is not really about the Jan Lokpal.

Salman Khurshid should stop fretting about the RTI. The RTI is worrisome only for those who have something to hide. If ministers and bureaucrats are afraid of the RTI, it can mean only one thing: all of them have something to hide.

The people are out on the streets because real leaders are in hiding.

Anna Hazare indulging in cheap publicity stunt: Buta

JALANDHAR: Reacting sharply to Anna Hazare's decision to campaign against Congress in the upcoming Hisar bypoll, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Buta Singh has said the social activist is indulging in "cheap publicity stunt" to stay in news.

"There is no doubt over Hazare's movement against corruption as he has strongly raised the issue. But now he is indulging in cheap publicity stunt by attacking the Congress in this manner," Singh, who was in Jalandhar to attend a function, said yesterday.

He said the social activist should refrain from indulging in political controversies as it could affect his image among the people.

Asked whether Hazare's campaign against Congress over corruption charges would have an adverse impact on the party's prospect in the upcoming Punjab polls, he countered, "If the Congress is facing corruption charges, who has given a clean chit to BJP and SAD?"

Hazare has announced that he will ask the people in the election-bound states to defeat Congress if the Jan Lokpal Bill was not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament.

Asked on the 2G spectrum scam, Singh said only the Congress-led UPA should not be blamed for the scam as its roots lie when senior BJP leader L K Advani was the Information and Broadcasting Minister.

On the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections, he said there should be a chief minister from the Dalit community as there was a significant number of Dalits in the state.

Singh said he has raised this matter with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Anna’s verdict on UPA: Four PMs and a clueless Sonia

If the top leadership of the UPA needed any further denting of its credibility, Anna Hazare delivered several knock-out statements in his interview to various TV channels on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, always suspected of lacking authority over his cabinet, gets the ultimate put-down from Anna. Speaking to Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, he said the PM was a nice person, but “ineffective” because he was “remote-controlled” by senior ministers.

And who were these senior ministers? Anna’s answer: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Having taken a close look at how the government functioned when they dealt with him and his movement, the Gandhian crusader criticised all three ministers, who were part of the Joint Drafting Committee set up to draft the Lokpal Bill, of “behaving like prime ministers.” Asked to spell out what he meant, he merely said: “Everyone knows that they behave like Prime Ministers. Why do you want me to spell it out?”

Anna believes that Sonia and Manmohan listen too much to their courtiers and too little to the people. Shahbaz Khan/PTI
That makes for four PMs in all, including the one who the other three don’t listen to.

And what about Sonia Gandhi? Hazare was not willing to comment openly about her, except to say that she needed to learn from her late mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.

According to him, Sonia seemed to believe that if she had to run the government she needed her advisors (and possibly the ministers). “But there was Indira Gandhi. She became the Prime Minister again not on the basis of her party workers, but by working for the poor. They don’t seem to understand this.”

In short, Anna believes that Sonia and Manmohan listen too much to their courtiers and too little to the people.

The Home Minister, however, was a special target of Anna’s verbal attack. He accused Chidambaram of “masterminding” his arrest on 16 August, and said: “The government wanted to do a Ramdev on me. It had kept a plane ready to take me from Tihar jail to Mula Dam in Maharashtra. But Chidambaram’s strategy boomeranged on the government,” he said.

This is not the first time Anna has attacked Chidambaram for what he believes was his role in the run-up to his arrest and release in August. His release from Tihar jail culminated in the successful fast at Ramlila Maidan last month.

Calling the UPA government a bunch of “fools” soon after his return to his home base of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna had this to say on Chidambaram.

“This Chidambaram is a mischievous man. Chidambaram has lied many a time.”

But despite his tough words for Manmohan Singh and his ministers, Hazare was not any less contemptuous of the BJP, and LK Advani’s rath yatra against corruption. If they were so keen to work against corruption, why don’t they support the Jan Lokpal Bill and legislate Lokayuktas in their states?

Asked if he would support a front comprising non-corrupt people from non-BJP, non-Congress parties, he said: “I will support them but not lead them. Because that is the only solution to make a strong nation. The good people of all parties can come together and I will tell the people of the country to support them,” the Gandhian said.

However, Anna was evasive to a pointed question on why he had not raised his voice against the absence of a Lokayukta in Gujarat for the last seven years. “Why just Narendra Modi? We should think about the entire country. There should be a Lokayukta in every state,” he said.

And would he begin his protest again if Parliament’s standing committee does not agree to his demands on the Lokpal Bill, Hazare said: “Yes. We will protest but not against Parliament…We will see those who oppose it in the standing committee and we will start singing bhajans in front of the houses of those parliament members.”

Asked whether his movement was becoming too political he denied it. “No, not at all…there is no question of politics in this,” he said.

However, he did see political parties taking advantage of his movement. “That will happen…this happened many times in my life…When I protested during Congress government, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders were roaming around me…that government went and BJP-Shiv Sena came to power. Congress did a graduation and the latter got a doctorate (in corruption).”

Sonia should learn from Indira Gandhi: Anna

Ralegan Siddhi, Maharashtra: Veteran Gandhian and social activist Anna Hazare, Tuesday, “advised” Congress president Sonia Gandhi to learn from Indira Gandhi, while also goading good people in different political parties to form a new front.

Speaking exclusively to Zee News, Anna Hazare said, “Till the time Sonia has satta (power) in her mind, she can’t do anything. She should adopt the principle of Indira Gandhi who lost elections, was not even in Parliament, but came back to power as PM. Why? Because she understood that she has to take the poor people of the country with her and work for them.”

“What is the use of such power, which doesn’t ensure that good is done for society, country and its people? What will they do with such a rule? People will rally around only till there is power; after that nobody will care,” he added.

On Manmohan Singh, Anna said that the Prime Minister is a nice man but he can’t do anything, as “he is controlled by remote control”.

Anna also made it clear that he doesn’t support the anti-corruption ‘rath yatra’ planned by BJP leader LK Advani. “I don’t support LK Advani’s rath yatra,” he said.

On the wider issue of the way forward given the massive support his India against Corruption initiative garnered during his fast over the Lokpal Bill in Delhi, Anna Hazare said that he will never form a political party of his own but will support a new party formed by “good people” from all political parties.

“Which party is clean enough to give a future to the country? All good people from all parties should form a new party, we will support it,” he said, adding, “Every party has good people, they should unite for the country’s future,” Anna said.

"The flame of change has been ignited in the country. Anna Hazare may or may not be there tomorrow, but this flame should not be allowed to get extinguished," he added.

Anna episode 'mishandled': UP Congress MP

Raising serious objections against the manner in which the entire Anna Hazare episode was handled by the Congress leadership during the absence of its President Sonia Gandhi , a Congress member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh  has shot off a letter to party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi urging him to get the whole affair investigated by a panel of seasoned Congressmen.


Praveen Singh Aron, a Lok Sabha member from Barielly has sought to sound Rahul that those handling the Anna affair failed to show any kind of political farsightedness or maturity, and that their approach was typically bureaucratic and technical rather than pragmatic.

"In my personal view, the entire issue has been handled inappropriately to the extent that a matter, which had obvious political overtones and implications, was dealt with in a purely technical manner," he said.

"Experienced ministers such as Human Source Development Minister Kapil Sibal had said that Hazare's campaign was not as innocent as was being projected by his team, and had ulterior motives," he said.

"Still the issue was handled with a technico-legal approach, and not political far-sightedness." Aron said in the letter, that was sent on August 19, but was kept under wraps so far.

He said, "Perhaps the persons responsible to decide matters could not see the widespread, public support and socio-political aspects of Hazare's movement. Hence, the matter was left to authorities, who in turn took to arresting him, whereas this matter should have been dealt with by the political executive."

Fifty-year old Aron, who had earlier gone to the extent of himself submitting Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill before the Parliament Standing Committee, felt that some 'opportunistic forces' were trying to take advantage of Sonia's absence on account of her illness, due to which even Rahul was away.

While Aron declined to speak on the subject, asserting, "Whatever I wished to say is an internal matter of the party and I would not like to share the details of my letter with the media", sources in the Congress gave a copy of the letter to this scribe.

It sought to point out, "Although all the leaders in our party are working sincerely on whatever assignments they are entrusted with by the leadership, the manner in which  Hazare's movement and related events have been handled, it certainly needs a re-look and also calls for a thorough inquiry within the party as well as in the ministries concerned."

He went on to add, "We must also look into whether there is a deliberate attempt to damage our visionary and unquestionably honest prime minister."

The party MP has raised doubts over the sincerity and commitment of a section of the Congress leaders too.

"There could possibly be a very small section of the leaders within Congress too, who willingly or unwillingly might be playing in the hands of these forces and thereby mishandling such sensitive situations", he suspects, while adding, "This  aspect in my view, needs to be investigated thoroughly by a special panel of senior Congress Leaders."

Aron went on to clarify, "In my view, while being very much within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, which was of course even supreme to the Parliament, we need to help change the government's course of action in sync with popular aspirations and befitting the high moral and pro-people policies of our great party and also the Nehru-Gandhi family."

Asked what was his intent behind writing such a letter, he said, "For me, the party is above self, therefore whenever I feel the necessity to draw Rahulji's attention to something in the larger interest of the party, I make it a point to write to him."