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Pratibha Patil's Parting Shot at Her Presidency

Author: Nibedita Hazarika
Publication: Manushi.in
Date: August 25, 2012
URL: http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1621

There was widespread uproar when Sonia Gandhi handpicked Pratibha Patil to be elected President of India because of the rather inglorious track record of Patil and other key members of her family. These included major allegations of financial frauds and scams, allegations of involvement in murder cases, driving employees to suicide and much else. More than anyone else, Congress leaders from her own home district raised the banner of revolt against her nomination.

Her presidency has been the most lack luster of all. However, she outshone all other Presidents and Prime Ministers in endless junkets abroad accompanied by a plane load of relatives on each trip. Even while departing she could not help but live up to her inglorious reputation.

When RTI activist S.C AGRAWAL sent us the following report, Manushi decided to put together more snippets from the life and times of Pratibha Patil:

Former President Pratibha Patil Lives up to Her Reputation

“Pratibha Patil has continued to add to controversies for her misusing country’s highest office for personal and family leisure even after her retirement from the post of President of India, when she took gifts received by her in her capacity as Head of the Nation to her Amravati museum. Rules do not exempt President of India which requires gifts received in official capacity exceeding rupees five thousand to be deposited in Tosh-khana (Government Treasury).

It is highly immoral that rules were bypassed indirectly to favour Pratibha Patil by giving these official gifts on an indefinite ‘loan’ to a trust controlled by Pratibha Patil’s own son. It is quite evident that indefinite ‘loan-period’ at desire of Rashtrapati Bhawan will never expire if media and general public do not highlight the great impropriety. To maintain high dignity of the post, President of India Pranab Mukherji should personally intervene by directing to abandon Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Vidya Bharti Shikshan Prasarak Mandal Trust and President Secretariat to ensure return of all gifts at President Secretariat. Better is to establish a branch of Tosh-khana at Rashtrapati Bhawan itself to house all gifts received by various Presidents of India in the form of a museum open for those visiting Rashtrapati Bhawan.  

It may be recalled that Pratibha Patil took her grand-children at official expense to South Africa and other countries even in the last phase of her tenure despite strong criticism of her earlier trips costing exorbitant Rs.205 crores to the exchequer. Perhaps Pratibha Patil also created a sort of record for a President of India for issuing  untenable clarifications both by Rashtrapati Bhawan and Union government for aspects concerning her and her family including also on building a palatial post-retirement bungalow for her at Pune that too despite her family owning huge personal properties.”

 What is more than puzzling the actions of our kleptomaniac former president is the question: Why does Sonia Gandhi have a penchant for handpicking people with compromised credentials for top jobs in the country?

Past Controversies Regarding Pratibha Patil:

Allegations of shielding her brother on a murder charge:  On 22 June 2007, Rajni Patil, a professor at a Jalgaon college, claimed that Pratibha Patil's brother G.N.Patil was the person who had murdered her husband, Jalgaon congressman Vishram G Patil. She accused Pratibha Patil of shielding her brother. She further said that she had provided details of her allegations to Sonia Gandhi and President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. On 13 July 2007 Rajani Patil petitioned the Bombay High Court, demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigate Pratibha Patil and her brother in connection with the allegations before the presidential election. The court directed the CBI accordingly in order to remove the possibility that presidential immunity might come into play if Pratibha Patil were elected .The lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said that two CDs have surfaced which contain incriminating material against Patil's brother. The CDs contain footage of the elections for the district Congress presidentship in Jalgaon. Jethmalani offered to place both CDs on record, saying "These contain vital information showing the political link behind the murder". As with all such cases, this too was buried in oblivion.

Financial frauds: Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank was a cooperative bank set up by Patil in 1973 to empower women. The license for it to operate as a bank was revoked in 2003 by the Reserve Bank of India for alleged financial irregularities. Among the irregularities listed were the loan policies of the bank and loan interest waivers given, among others, to Patil's relatives. Patil was one of the chairpersons of the bank and a number of her relatives were also directors. 

In her defence, her supporters point out that she was not the founding president of the bank, and that she held the job of the chairwoman for a little over a month. They also point out that the RBI has never mentioned Patil's name in the report, and the court has not charge-sheeted her. Communist leader A.B. Bardhan cast doubts on the credibility of the official employees' union of the bank, which has been highlighting the issue of mismanagement since 2002, drawing attention to the fact that it is associated with the BMS union led by the BJP. But the charges were never properly investigated thanks to Patil’s clout with Sonia Gandhi..

Sant Muktabai Sugar Co-operative Factory: A cooperative sugar factory – Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana – of which Pratibha was a founder member, was declared a defaulter for failing to repay a Rs 17.5 crore (Rs 175 million) bank loan. Pratibha Patil had been its chairwoman and director until she became the Governor of Rajasthan. The loan was taken in 1994 when Pratibha was its chairwoman, but the factory has failed to repay the full amount. The bank sealed the factory on 23 January 2007 after issuing many reminders. This was the second occasion the mill had been sealed. Earlier, it was sealed in January 2006, but was reopened after the board of directors headed by G. N. Patil – younger brother of Pratibha Patil – requested for an opportunity to improve the performance of the mill. In 2002 the chief commissioner of central excise and customs, Pune, issued notice to the factory for evading excise duty resulting from diversion of export-oriented sugar by the factory into domestic market. Dubbing the allegations as “malign campaign”Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, defended Pratibha and noted that there was never any enquiry under Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act against her. He also pointed out that as many as 74 mills were issued notices in December 2006, and it was "unfortunate that only one particular case has been brought up in the media". Pawar said most of the mills had failed to repay the loans because of persistent drought affecting sugarcane production, leading these mills to go sick. Nevertheless in 2007, Manohar Lal Sharma, an independent advocate, filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court alleging that Mrs Pratibha Patil was an undischarged insolvent relating to the Sant Muktabai Sugar Factory and hence disqualified to remain in the office of the presidency.

Shrama Sadhna Trust: It was alleged that as a Member of Parliament for Amravati between 1991 and 1996 Patil diverted Rs 36 lakh (Rs 3.6 million) from her MPLADS fund to a trust run by her husband Devisingh Shekhawat. This was in violation of Government rules which barred MPs from providing funds to organization run by their relatives

Pratibha Patil’s jet-setting with kith and kin: India Today in its March 25, 2012 edition reported, “President Pratibha Patil’s wanderlust has cost the public exchequer a whopping Rs.205 crore on her foreign visits, surpassing the record of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the Country’s first woman President in July 2007, Patil has undertaken 12 foreign trips covering 22 countries across four continents.” RTI applications triggered controversy when it revealed that Air India has billed the Defence Ministry for Rs.169 crore on use of chartered aircraft and an additional Rs.36 crore has been incurred by the Ministry of External Affairs on accommodation, local travel, daily allowance and “miscellaneous “expenses. In mostly all her official trips abroad she was accompanied by a number of relatives. 

Grandchildren accompanying her on her official trips abroad might have raised many eyebrows but this is not new to her or so indicates the RTI records. According to reports, the RTI details show that the president was accompanied by family members varying from three to as high as eleven, during her foreign official tours, ‘ in 14 domestic and 4 foreign trips in the space of a year’.(www.dailybhaskar.com ,May 03, 2012).

Between January 2009 and September 2010, Patil was accompanied on state visits by her husband Devisingh Shekhawat, son Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, daughter-in-aw Manjari Shekhawat, daughter Jyoti Rathore, son-in law Jayesh Rathore, grandchildren Surabhi Shekhawat, Prithvisingh Shekhawat, Dhruvesh Rathore, Divya Rathore besides other relatives and friends who were treated as presidential guests( TNN May 3,2012).Details of travel records accessed by activist SC Agrawal through RTI confirm that friends and relatives accompanying Pratibha Patil during her official tours were treated as presidential guests. 

There was great reluctance on the part of the concerned authorities to respond to the RTI enquires. However, the Government downplayed the controversy related to family members accompanying Pratibha Patil. Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Syed Akbaruddin said, “Its normal diplomatic practice that a visiting Dignitary occasionally takes members of his/her family on trips. Hospitality for such visiting dignitaries in such cases is usually provided by the host Government .It is not abnormal.”(PTI, updated May 02, 2012).

The former president had also dismissed criticism over the number of foreign visits undertaken by her. PTI April 29, 2012, report quoted her as saying, “in an independent world, no country can remain in its own cocoon and it was necessary for countries to increase engagement with others”. 

Views on sterilization: On 10 December 1975, when she was the Health Minister of Maharashtra, Patil advocated in Maharashtra Assembly that people with hereditary diseases should be compulsorily sterilized.

Criminal cases against Pratibha Patil’s husband and son: In 1998, a complaint was filed against Devi Singh Shekhawat; husband of Pratibha Patil by Mangalbai, widow of Kishan Dange an assistant teacher in a school run by the Shekhawat’s accusing him of mentally harassing Dange and driving him to suicide. s(For details see extracts from the article "Pratibha Patil: Why Elect President with a Criminal Background" by V.Sundaram which is given below).

The Indian Express on 16th February 2012 reported, “President Pratibha Patil’s son and Congress MLA Raosaheb Shekhawat was issued a notice by the District Collector among other office –bearers in connection with the seizure of Rs. 1 crore in cash. Taking serious cognizance of the incident, the Election Commission had directed the district collector and municipal commissioner to file a report about the incident. Denying allegations that the seized cash was unaccounted, Shekhawat had claimed that the amount was indeed intended to be distributed among financially weak candidates contesting the civic poll here. Polling for ten civic bodies, including Amravati, across Maharashtra is underway. "I had sought funds from the state Congress Committee for distributing them among 87 party candidates as most of them are women and poor. Accordingly, Rs 1 crore was sent to me which was to be distributed at Rs 1 lakh per candidate and the rest (of the money) was meant for the district Congress Committee," Shekhawat had said. City Police on Sunday seized the cash which was being transported in the city from Nagpur in a car and arrested two persons in this connection.

Attempt to grab Defense Ministry land: The post-retirement presidential home came under controversy after Suresh Patil, a retired Lt.Col and founder of Pune-based ‘ Justice for Jawan’, RTI activist Anup Awasti and Indian Ex-servicemen Movement( IESM) objected to the nearly 5 acres being set aside for the President’s post-retirement home, thus ‘ grabbing’ the  land meant for officers and soldiers. Several officers do not get accommodation on the plea that there is shortage of funds.

The ex-serviceman released details of the Government’s plan to build a house for President Patil in Pune. The palatial home was to be built on a whopping 261,000 sq, ft of land in Khadki Cantonment in Pune. Out of this 5 acre plot the bungalow was to occupy about 4,500 sq, ft and belongs to the Ministry of defense. 

However, under the President’s Emoluments and Pension Act, 1951 and rules framed under the President’s Pension Rule, 1962, “where suitable government residence is not available for allotment to a retired president, the size of the residence to be taken on lease to be provided to a retired president shall have a living area not exceeding 2,000 sq ft.” No other president has made such claims for personal gains, alleged Col Patil. (Extracted from a blog  titled “President Pratibha Patil grabs 2, 61,000 sq, ft of land meant for soldiers and officers” written by Vinita Deshmukh on April 11, 2012).However, growing public outrage over land grabbing incident led Pratibha Patil to surrender her land allotted for her new home.

Extracts from V.Sundaram’s article -“Pratibha Patil-Why Elect a President with a Criminal Background?” dated 17thJuly 2007.

“Election of Rashtrapati of India that is Bharath is a solemn, sacred process. For Sonia Gandhi and her coalition partners, it is a "disposable political procedure". Sonia Gandhi has chosen the practically unknown Pratibha Patil as the contesting candidate for the highest office of the President of India……..

To come to the family background of Pratibha Patil, there is an ongoing CBI investigation on a criminal case, a cognizable offence, of the murder of the husband of Rajni Patil who has accused Pratibha Patil’s brother and also accused Pratibha Patil herself of shielding her brother. There is also another criminal case reported involving the default of a loan by a sugar factory reportedly owned by Pratibha Patil

Her bio-data lists her "special interests" as "development of rural economy and welfare of women", and lists as evidence, "Establishment of Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank at Jalgaon, Maharashtra of Mahila Vikas Mahamandal" It records her being Managing Trustee, Shram Sadhana Trust, as her being the "Chief Promoter and Chairperson of Sugar Factory in Jalgaon District". It records her having set up the Engineering College "for the benefit of rural youth" 

The Pratibha Mahila Sarkari Bank-The Co-operative Bank was set up by Mrs. Pratibha Patil in her own name in 1973 (with herself as its first Chairperson) to help rural women below the poverty line. Many members of her own family were its founding directors. Mrs. Pratibha Patil herself became a director for several terms. As for members of her family, they inter-changed, among themselves, the chairs of the Board of Directors in one "election" after another. But while others changed places, Pratibha Patil continued as Founder Chairperson right till the demise of the bank in 2003. ..This bank was liquidated under orders of the Reserve Bank of India in 2003 on the telling ground that its continuance would be prejudicial to the interests of depositors. But this fact did not prove prejudicial to the nomination of Mrs. Pratibha Patil for the highest Office of President of India. The Cooperative Bank Employees Union wrote one memorandum after another exposing how the Directors of the Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank were systematically bankrupting the bank. They demanded dismissal of the family-controlled board. They demanded a CBI inquiry against Pratibha Patil…..

 Smt Pratibha Patil seems to hail from a family with criminal antecedents. It has been reported that Prof Rajani Patil, widow of the Congress leader in Jalagaon (Maharashtra) who became a victim of political murder in September 2005, came to Delhi and addressed the press on 22 June 2007. On the previous day, she had submitted a detailed memorandum to President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, alleging that the conspirator behind her husband’s murder was none other than the brother of Smt Pratibha Patil, then Governor of Rajasthan (and now UPA"s candidate for the Presidential election). She also alleged that Smt Pratibha Patil (who too hails from Jalagaon) has been misusing her political influence to protect her brother.

 It is understood that she took a big risk in coming to Delhi and presenting before the national media the murky facts of this murder case. On 21 June, 2007, Prof Rajani Patil gave a memorandum to the President of India in which she stated as follows: 

"Subject:  A brokenhearted widow’s plea for justice in a case of politically motivated murder of my husband, Shri V G Patil, President of the District Congress Committee of Jalagaon (Maharashtra), followed by mysterious death of the murderer, and protection to the conspirators by Smt Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan:

Most Respected Rashtrapatiji, 

I am an ordinary woman, a widow whose husband was snatched away from me by a brutal political murder which took place in Jalagaon exactly 21 months ago. I have come to you in search of justice, which has eluded me so far even though I have moved from pillar to post hoping, in vain, that those in power in Mumbai and New Delhi would listen to the cry of a helpless woman and discharge their lawful duty. 

My husband was murdered near our house in Jalagaon on the morning of 21 September 2005. All the people of Jalagaon district were outraged and immediately came to the conclusion that this crime had been committed by the rivals of my husband within the Congress party. The police soon arrested two assailants Raju Mali and Raju Sonawane who were both supporters of Dr G N Patil, brother of Smt. Pratibha Patil, in his bid to win the DCC Presidential election. In fact, the initial confessions of these two persons before the police also confirmed that they had acted at the behest of some powerful persons in the local Congress party. The police even told the press that they had nabbed the assassins and would "soon catch the conspirators". My pain is deeper because both my family and the family of my late husband, Prof V G Patil, who was president of the Jalagaon District Congress Committee at the time of his murder, have had a long and dedicated association with the Congress party. I am the proud daughter of a Freedom Fighter.

I did not expect that the voice of some unscrupulous, corrupt and criminal-minded people in the Congress party in Jalagaon, who gave "supari" for my husband’s murder, would carry greater weight in the corridors of power both in Mumbai and in New Delhi. I have, therefore, come to you because you are the custodian of the Constitution and Protector of the Rule of law.”

In a lengthy memorandum dated 3.12.2001, the Employees" Union complained, the "Founder Chairperson Pratibha Patil during, before and after the period when she was formally on the Board of Directors has facilitated the loot of large sums of money in the form of unlawful loans without surety extended to her own relatives and to people close to her family.

The Union alleged that, even though the bank was on the verge of bankruptcy, Pratibha Patil got huge amounts of interest waived on the loans given to her close relatives. As illustrations, they listed three such accounts:

1) Anjali Dilipsingh Patil (Pratibha Patil’s niece), who got a WAIVER of Rs. 21.86 lakh.
 2) Kavita Aravind Patil (sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil), who got a WAIVER of Rs. 8.59 lakh; and
 3) Rajkaur Dilipsingh Patil (another sister-in-law of Pratibha Patil), who got a WAIVER of Rs. 2.47 lakh

After the waivers were given, thanks to the influence of Smt. Pratibha Patil, the above accounts were promptly closed!

Thus, the Union concluded, "there is a loot of Rs. 32.93 lakh". The Union also stated Pratibha Patil, her elder brother Dilipsingh Patil and the Board of Directors have, through different means, robbed nearly Rs. 2 crore. The bank is thus being bankrupted through a collusive strategy." …

In this context I am presenting below some mean, sordid and biting facts about her husband in the light of an article by Arun Shourie titled: "And don’t forget: there is the husband too."…… It is now publicly known that in one of the schools run by Devisingh Shekhawat, a teacher called Kisan Dhage was driven to suicide by the cruel ways and excesses of dictatorial management. He and his associates have blocked the processes of equity and natural justice, apart from legal justice in this case. Devisingh Shekhawat is the President of the society. Kisan Dhage joined the school run by the Shekhawat’s in 1977. He worked as an Assistant Teacher. After prolonged privation and harassment, on 15 November 1998, he took his life by swallowing poison. The police were called. As they examined the body in the presence of witnesses, they discovered in his pocket a suicide note that Dhage had written in his own hand. They also found a stamp-paper - Dhage had written out on it also the painful account of events that were leading him to take his own life. He set out how he had been harassed and mentally tortured for long by Devisingh and his associates. His salary was not paid. His pleas for credit from the credit society that is run by the education society that runs the schools were turned down. The forms to enable his son to take the examination for scholarship were blocked. The family was driven to starvation.

Eventually, they dubbed him "surplus", and transferred him to a far-off school. It turned out that there was no vacancy for a teacher’s position in this school. Dhage was shoved around and told to supervise the hostel, such as it was. In despair, Dhage wrote to the Social Welfare Department in Amravati. On 27 January, 1998, the Social Welfare Officer at Amravati wrote to the school management saying that the transfer was illegal as there was no vacancy for the position of a teacher in the school to which the hapless man had been driven. The Officer, therefore, withheld sanction for the transfer. To beat him into submission, Devisingh and associates completely stopped paying the salary of Dhage. He received nothing from September 1997. Being a family of little means, they were at their tether’s end.

 Dhage appealed to the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court for relief-There is no vacancy for a teacher in this school, they have sent me here, they have stopped paying any remuneration, we are at the point of starvation - Such were his pathetic pleas. 

The application was filed on 19 January, 1998. But the wheels of justice move at deliberate speed. The order of the High Court did not come till 8 October 1998. By now a year had passed since the family had received any pay at all. The High Court ordered Devisingh and associates to take Dhage back as teacher and to pay his salary. It also directed them to pay arrears since 25 August 1997. Dhage kept going to the management. He waited upon these high and mightily-connected personages. His health broke down. He applied for medical leave - he attached a medical certificate with his application. His request even for medical leave was rejected peremptorily. 

Nothing moved them. In spite of the High Court’s direction, Devisingh and Co. refused to pay him anything. Dhage’s colleagues were aghast but helpless. The family had to turn to moneylenders. They had to sell the wife’s few ornaments. But now there was little left even to sell. Unable to secure food for his wife and children, crushed by the insolence of these heartless people belonging to Pratibha Patil’s family, around 10 in the morning on 15 November, 1998,Dhage swallowed poison and killed himself.

The police recorded the panchnama. It took the suicide note, the stamp paper and all. The body was taken away. The viscera were removed for examination. And then, full stop. Dhage’s widow, Mangalbai, filed a complaint. Police looked the other way. Mangalbai then approached the Local Court. Eventually the Local Court ruled in favour of Mangalbai. It set out the entire sequence: The harassment; the illegal transfer; the stoppage of salary to beat the man into submission; the order of the High Court that the salary as well as the arrears be paid - In spite of the High Court order "not even a single penny" has been paid, the Court noted. Finally the Court declared that a prima facie case had indeed been made out.

Thereafter the matter was reported to the police by the complainant (Mangalbai Dhage)….After a lapse of five years, the Judicial Magistrate, A .A Nandagaonkar, delivered the judgment. He gave a resounding slap to Devisingh Shekhawat - the plea of Mangalbai Dhage, the poor widow of late Kisan Dhage, was upheld in entirety by the Court of Law…

This judgment was delivered on 22 July 2005, seven years after Kisan Dhage decided to take his own life following his failure to get speedy and even handed justice in our country… Even after that Court Judgment, Devisingh Shekhawat did not allow justice to proceed.

Even without the help or approval of the Would-be First Woman of the Republic, he filed an appeal in the High Court. On 26 December, 2005, the High Court passed an order directing the local Court to examine the grounds that Devisingh and associates had now given against the order and dispose of the revision application within three months…..

In a final stinging slap, the reviewing judge concluded in his order dated 7 February 2007 that Devisingh and Co. had no ground for their appeal at all. He showed that the elaborate judgments that Devisingh lawyers had cited, that each and every one of them in fact fortified what the original Court had done. The evidence that had been adduced, the sequence of events that had been brought on record, the Judge ruled, "are sufficient enough to inspire (sic) that these accused had abetted Mr. Kisan Dhage to commit suicide by creating unbearable situation for his survival and also making him unable to maintain his family members."

The wife of such a man, Srimati Pratibha Patil was proposed by Sonia Gandhi for the Office of the President of India…..”
 
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