The Dark Side of the upcoming President

         Pranab Mukherjee, the upcoming President of India might enjoy support even in Opposition, but several controversies surround him making him easily vulnerable to the Criminal charges. While no one can Question his honesty, but few past events may hinder his road to Rashtrapati Bhawan.

1. His name appeared in Hawala Scam. An old Report suggests that Mr. Mukherjee’s name was involved among others in getting money through Hawala from Jain Brothers. As per the Jains’ explanations of the diary notations, then External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee allegedly got Rs 10 lakhs.

2. According to Dr. Subramanian Swamy he was involved in providing confidential Data used to rig the stock market. The tapping of Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and his close associate in the Ministry, enabled Mr.Robert Vadra the son-in-law of Ms.Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Karthik son of Mr.P.Chidambaram, to use the data thereby collected to manipulate and rig the Mumbai stock market. Earlier these data were directly provided by the then Finance Minister Mr.Chidambaram.

3. According to Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Mr.Mukherjee has been a long time money launderer for Ms. Sonia Gandhi. His frequent trips to Chittarajan Park, New Delhi, over the last two decades was to arrange for money transfers for Ms.Sonia Gandhi through hawala operators.
Hasan Ali was a conduit for Mr.Pranab Mukherjee—athrough Ms.Sonia Gandhi, Political Secretary Mr.Ahmed Patel MP. Mr.Patel has met Mr.Hasan Ali many times according to the interrogation records with the Maharashtra Police.

4. Mukherjee was a Minister in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet during the infamous Emergency and was held by many to be personally responsible for some of the excesses. He was summoned before the Shah Commission but followed Mrs. Gandhi’s lead in refusing to resign before it. A police case was registered against him which was withdrawn when Mrs. Gandhi returned to power.

5. S. Gurumurthy and Arun Shourie exposed how Pranab Mukerjee, the then Finance Minister of India helped Reliance Industries against Bombay Dyeing through differential taxation by influencing the Income Tax Department in textile industry. As a result Bombay Dyeing was almost decimated.

6. Mukherjee was involved in handling Taslima Nasreen’s house arrest in Delhi, as the Foreign Minister. Dealing with a situation involving her expulsion for Kolkata, anger from Islamic radicals, and her protection in a safehouse, Mukherjee received criticism for actions leading to Nasreen’s eventual departure from India in March 2008.

7. He has also been accused of threatening banks if they invest in Gujarat by sending the Income Tax Department sleuths after them, a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party

Kejriwal mentioned that Mukherjee was involved in the 2007 Ghana rice export scam when he was the external affairs minister. "That was the first time when Mukherjee's name was involved in a controversy surrounding a scam. This was a huge scam to the tune of Rs 2000 crore to Rs 2500 crore in which the then Union commerce minister Kamal Nath was also involved. Twenty lakh tonnes of rice was exported to a third country under the pretext of supplying it to African nations as part of hunger alleviation projects,'' Kejriwal said.

"Ghana government had recommended an inquiry against Mukherjee and Kamal Nath then by writing a letter to the Indian government. But nothing happened," he said.

Referring to another matter, Kejriwal talked about the controversial Scorpene submarine deal, signed between India and France. He said the presidential candidate was the defence minister the when four per cent commission was received on the deal and did not order any investigation despite voices being raised in protest.

"Mukherjee is also involved in the infamous Navy war room leak scam, in which three key persons were saved but in what can be termed as an eye wash, three Navy commanders were suspended. In this case, a pen drive carrying important strategic information had disappeared from the Navy war room and was later found with a wing commander, which was shared with three persons including Abhishek Verma associated with the Scorpene submarine deal,'' he alleged.

Kejriwal said it was ironic that Mukherjee on one had denied that the pen drive contained any information of serious or strategic nature whereas CBI had admitted that the pen drive have the information of serious nature. "It will be injustice if a tainted person sits on this seat of the President," Kejriwal said, demanding an unbiased inquiry against Mukherjee.