Fraud scientist takes RSS for a ride down Lord Ram%u2019s bridge
Shishir Gupta
Posted online: Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
NEW DELHI, JUNE 16
The %u201Cspace scientist%u201D who, for two years, helped the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) formulate its opposition to the Sethusamudram project has turned out to be just like the Sangh%u2019s argument %u2014 a fraud.
The RSS said today that it would %u201Cremove%u201D him as pracharak after an investigation by The Sunday Express showed that Puneesh Taneja, who is said to have access right up to Sarsanghchalak K S Sudershan, allegedly forged his credentials.
He passed himself off as %u201CDr%u201D Puneesh Taneja and flaunted visiting cards and stationery identifying himself as %u201CSenior Research Scientist/Additional Secretary, Department of Space, Prime Minister%u2019s Office, South Block, New Delhi.%u201D
These cards, obtained by The Sunday Express, are embossed with the logo of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Sources said Taneja told the RSS that he was on a two-year leave from the Government and that he was with ISRO. There are red faces in the saffron brotherhood because many within the RSS were taken in by these cards and even saw Taneja as a %u201Clinkman%u201D between the RSS and the UPA Government.
So much so that he was made a fulltime pracharak in 2005 and began operating from an RSS flat in Noida.
RE:Latest News...
by imran patel on Sep 16, 2007 03:24 PM Permalink
CISRO has no relation with this man. We have not heard of him at all. The Additional Secretary, Department of Space, is an IAS officer. He is S V Ranganath, he sits in Bangalore. Also, the Sethusamudram project has no connection with ISRO,%u201D ISRO director for information S Krishnamurthy told The Sunday Express in Bangalore.
The Sunday Express met Taneja at his residence and asked him why he was impersonating as a PMO officer. Taneja denied he had anything to do with the PMO but claimed there was a %u201Cthreat to his life%u201D as he was %u201Cdoing research%u201D on the Sethusamudram project.
%u201CEverybody has a mission in life, Sethusamudram is my mission,%u201D he said. %u201CI moved into this flat days ago and have sought protection from RSS leader Ram Madhav. The only time I have come out in the public is when I addressed the media with Ashok Singhal on Sethusamudram.%u201D Taneja admitted he was not a scientist adding, however, that he was %u201Cresearching%u201D the canal project. When asked about his academic credentials, he said he didn%u2019t want to comment.
RE:RE:Latest News...
by imran patel on Sep 16, 2007 03:24 PM Permalink
For, last month, Taneja even held a press conference in the capital with VHP chief Ashok Singhal who slammed the Government on the project. Defying all scientific evidence, the VHP and RSS officially urged the UPA Government to re-route the project claiming it would destroy the %u201CRama Sethu%u201D built by Lord Ram to Lanka to rescue Sita. The Sangh even threatened to launch an agitation against the Centre in case the canal%u2019s route.
For, last month, Taneja even held a press conference in the capital with VHP chief Ashok Singhal who slammed the Government on the project. Defying all scientific evidence, the VHP and RSS officially urged the UPA Government to re-route the project claiming it would destroy the %u201CRama Sethu%u201D built by Lord Ram to Lanka to rescue Sita. The Sangh even threatened to launch an agitation against the Centre in case the canal%u2019s route isn%u2019t changed.
When contacted today, RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav admitted that Taneja was an RSS pracharak. When asked about the alleged forgery, Madhav said: %u201CWe have received some complaints about some of the activities of Mr Taneja outside the RSS. The RSS leadership feels these complaints have enough substance to warrant his immediate removal as pracharak.%u201D
RE:RE:RE:Latest News...
by imran patel on Sep 16, 2007 03:25 PM Permalink
The project
%u2022 Dredging a 167-km channel across the Palk Strait, between India and Sri Lanka, so that ships, travelling between east and west, get direct passage through Indian waters rather than circumnavigating Lanka. Cuts sailing time by 30 hrs.
The fake scientist
%u2022 The RSS and VHP want the ship channel project to be rerouted to protect the coral structures they claim is the sethu built by Lord Ram to get to Sri Lanka and rescue Sita. They want it to be recognised as a World Heritage site.
The science
%u2022 Geological Survey of India study found that the Sethu isn%u2019t manmade but a result of sedimentation of clay, sandstone and limestone. NASA calls it a tomobolo, a bar of sand connecting one
