'Deeply pained' Sujatha Singh says stories planted in media to tarnish her reputation

January 31, 2015

New Delhi, Jan 31: Axed from the post of foreign secretary two days ago, a "deeply pained" Sujatha Singh on Friday hit back saying that stories were being "planted" in the media to tarnish her reputation after having served for 39 years.

"The commentary that I have seen over the past two days has pained me deeply. I believe it was not necessary to get low and dirty," she said.

Sujatha Singh

Affirming that she wanted give her papers and "leave without any ceremony and without any fuss", Singh said, "but unfortunately that has not been the case and I believe that my reputation has been tarnished".

Giving details of the abrupt "curtailment" of her two-year tenure seven months before it was to end in August, Singh said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had telephoned her around 2 pm on Wednesday, telling her she was calling to give "not so good news" and that the Prime Minister wanted to appoint S Jaishankar as the Foreign Secretary.

Singh said that she had kept her resignation letter ready but she was told that she would lose her retirement benefits in that case. Therefore, she sent a letter around 7 pm seeking early retirement "as instructed by the Prime Minister".

Couple of hours later, an official announcement was put on a government website stating that her tenure has been "curtailed" with immediate effect, she told NDTV.

She disclosed that three weeks earlier she had been sounded whether she would consider moving out to a tenure post which was not spelt out. In any case, she was never interested in any government assignment including ambassadorship or UPSC membership.

Sacked just after a "successful visit" by President Barack Obama here, Singh said, "It was a decision that had already been taken and nothing I could have done would have made a difference."

Noting that there were "negative comments more frequently than I would care to count" from the Prime Minister's Office on the performance of the External Affairs Ministry, she said she was told not to take it "personally" and that it "happens with other ministries" as well.

She also said it was important to be "intellectually honest" and "to have intellectual integrity to say as it is and make it all about me, I myself."

"Shall I start by claiming credit for working on the nitty gritty of the recent understandings we arrived at on the civil nuclear deal with the US? The liability and the administrative issues? Believe me, I was fully involved in guiding the discussions, taking decisions on the line to take, on what to do and what not to do. I coordinated very closely with the Prime Minister's Office," she said.

Observing that last eight months of Modi-government have been full of high-voltage successful diplomatic engagements, she said, "None of this would have happened with the PM (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) or the EAM (External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj) operating on their own, in a vacuum."

Asked if her successor has promoted himself, she did not give a direct answer and just said she believed that one has to think about the institution and the ministry.

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News Network
May 30,2020

Coronavirus lockdown in India has been extended till June 30 with more relaxations.

While the lockdown has been extended in containment zones, relaxations outside containment zones include reopening of religious places for public  from June 8. 

Hotels, restaurants and shopping malls also to open from June 8. Decision on opening educational institutions to be taken in July.
 

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Agencies
July 23,2020

Jaipur, Jul 23: Four days after the Special Operation Group (SOG) sent a notice to Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in connection with the purported audio clips indicating his alleged involvement in horse trading of MLAs in Rajasthan, a city court has directed the Rajasthan police to probe a complaint alleging Shekhawat's role in a credit society scam worth Rs 840 crore.

The additional district judge Pawan Kumar, on Tuesday, directed the additional chief judicial magistrate's court to send the complaint against Shekhawat to the SOG.

Shekhawat, his wife and other partners have been named in the complaint in the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam in which around 50,000 investors allegedly lost about Rs 840 crore.

The Jaipur unit of the SOG has been probing the scam since last year after an FIR was registered on August 23, 2019.

Now, Jaipur ADJ Court-8 ordered a fresh inquiry in the case against Gajendra Singh accepting the revised application filed by Lagu Singh and Guman Singh and said that "this is a serious matter and hence SOG should investigate this".

Both the applicants had invested a huge amount in Sanjivani credit cooperative society.

It is alleged in the complaint that a multi-storey building has been built with the money instead of a theatre which was proposed earlier and many properties were also bought in Ethiopia with the money.

An SOG investigation also reveals that a large amount of money has been deposited into accounts of Shekhawat and his wife at different time spans, said sources.

Earlier, Shekhawat was not mentioned in the chargesheet filed by the SOG in connection with the case. Later, a magistrate's court also rejected the application to include him in the chargesheet. The applicants then approached the additional district judge's court with a revised application.

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News Network
February 5,2020

Mumbai, Feb 5: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said there was no need to fear the Citizenship Amendment Act, but asserted his government will not allow the proposed National Register of Citizens to be implemented as it would "impact people of all religions".

Throwing out Bangladeshi and Pakistani migrants out of the country was an old demand of the Shiv Sena, the chief minister said in the third and concluding part of his interview to party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"I can confidentally say the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) is not meant to throw Indian citizens out of the country. But, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is going to impact Hindus as well," the Sena president said.

India has the right to know the number of minorities from neighbouring nations who applied for Indian citizenship after being persecuted in their home countries, he said.

"When they come here, will they get homes under the 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana'? What about employment and education of their children? All these issues are important and we have the right to know," hesaid in the interview to Saamana's executive editor and Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

"As chief minister, I should know where will these people be relocated in my state. Our own people don't have adequate housing. Will these people go to Delhi, Bengaluru or Kashmir, since Article 370 is now scrapped?" he wondered.

Several Kashmiri Pandit families are staying like refugees in their own country. The CAA is not to throw citizens out of the country, Thackeray said.

"However, the NRC will impact Hindus and Muslims and the state government will not allow it to be implemented," he asserted.

Under the NRC, all citizens will have to prove their citizenship. In Assam, 19 lakh people could not prove their citizenship. Of these, 14 lakh are Hindus, Thackeray claimed.

In a veiled attack on his cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who will lead a rally in support of the CAA and NRC in Mumbai on February 9, the chief minister said the NRC is not yet a reality and there is no need for a 'morcha' in support of or against it.

"If the NRC is enforced, those who are supporting it will also be affected," he said.

Under the NRC, even Hindus will have to prove their citizenship. "I will not allow the law to be enacted. Whether I am chief minister or not, I will not allow injustice to anybody," he said.

The chief minister also took a veiled dig at the Centre's decision to give the Padma Shri award to Pakistani-origin musician Adnan Sami.

"A migrant is a migrant. You can't honour him with the Padma award. Throwing out illegal migrants was the stand of (late Shiv Sena supremo) Balasaheb Thackeray," he said without naming anyone.

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