Pachauri: they've all got it in for me! - by Richard... Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Pachauri: they've all got it in for me! - by Richard... Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The charges are baseless. "Powerful vested interests are acting against me," says Pachauri. Yea ... really powerful vested interests. Anyhow, the great man then goes on to admit:

Yes, I advise a number of organisations, both in India and overseas. And some of them are, you know, banks like the Deutsche Bank and they do provide payment for it. But each penny of it goes to my institute. I never take a single penny for myself. So much so I get honoraria, sometimes pretty generous honoraria, for giving talks in various places, but the cheque goes directly to my institute.

And then what? How much does his "institute" pay him?

Says Pachauri, "My record is impeccable. I've always been totally scrupulous about every single penny's transaction. So I'm certainly going to take action on this ... ". But, asked whether he would take legal action, the great man would not commit himself. "I'll decide what kind of action, they're going to hear more about it."

So far, we haven't heard.

PACHAURI THREAD

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You have to smile - by Richard...

On the one hand, you get a group of students preparing for "a once-in-a-lifetime journey to the South Pole to see the effects of climate change for themselves."

On the other hand, you get Dutch researcher Machiel Lamers in the paperwith: "Eco-tourists blamed for melting polar ice caps." Eco-tourists travelling to Antarctica are adding to global warming which is melting the polar ice caps, we are told.

Mind you, if these students really wanted to see the effects of "climate change" for themselves, surely all they have to do islook out the window.

CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD

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Not Guilty - by Richard...

Richard D North pleads not guilty to the piece in The Mail on Sunday and has promised to send the cheque on.

Actually, the Mail has sorted it. Their response was fulsome, rapid and apologetic. 

CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD

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Pachauri: another Tata link - by Richard...

"We ... have no ties with them," Dr Pachauri toldThe Times of India, only a few days ago. We were not impressed then and are even less so now with an article in The Hindu being drawn to our attention.

Dated 6 June 2007, it reports on the Indian government having announced "the constitution of a high-level advisory group on climate change." Known as the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, purpose was (and is) to coordinate National action plans for assessment, adaptation and mitigation of climate change. 

Its other duties included advising the government "on pro-active measures that can be taken by India to deal with the challenge of climate change," and to "facilitate inter-ministerial coordination and guide policy in relevant areas."

Its official membership comprised Indian government ministers, but it also co-opted a number of non-official members. These included multi-millionaire businessman Dr R K Pachauri and multi-billionaire businessman Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company for the Tata Group.

Still, the Hindi media are taking note, and someone suspects that I might not be a nice person. Dr Pachauri is already convinced.

PACHAURI THREAD

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A hypocrite as well as a liar - by Richard...

Many people will remember the strident headline at the end of November blaring: "Western lifestyle unsustainable, says climate expert Rajendra Pachauri". That was the version in The Guardian, but other papers carried something very similar.

How so very different might have been the reception had the newspapers carried a photograph of the house occupied by multi-millionaire businessman Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, currently 160 Central Golf Links Road, New Delhi. This is situated in a delightful residential area (pictured above and below) very close to Khan Market, the most expensive market in India. 

It is described as one of the most expensive places to live in India. The cheapest houses sell for millions of US dollars. It is considered one of the richest neighborhoods in India and the name is inspired by the Delhi Golf Course nearby. It has only 210 detached houses.

Methinks that a man who lives in a house worth millions, travels nearly half a million miles in 19 months by air and then tells us our lifestyles are "unsustainable" might possibly qualify for the label "hypocrite". 

As for being a liar, it seems we are not the first to suggest this of Dr Pachauri. Amongst others, we have K Ramamoorthy, who in 1996 was a High Court Judge in Delhi.

After hearing the case of Old World Hospitality Pvt Ltd (Plaintiff) vs India Habitat Centre, he handed down a judgement against the Habitat Centre after it had arbitrarily and in breach of its contract, dismissed Old World Hospitality as suppliers of hospitality services to what was one of the largest conference centres in India.


The details are set out here and need not detain us greatly. Suffice it to say that the Habitat Centre's defence rested on a claim that the Governing Council had not approved the original contract, and therefore the contract was not valid.

On the Governing Council was a certain Dr R K Pachauri, who gave sworn evidence to the effect that the agreement "was never brought up for discussion nor was any analysis on the implications of the same ever submitted to the Governing Council."

Rejecting that submission and those of the others, the judge observed that, "The members of the Governing Council must have been aware of what was going on," adding: "If they want us to believe that they did not have any knowledge of the agreement, I am afraid, they demonstrate themselves totally unequal to the task entrusted to them."

This must have applied in spades to Dr Pachauri who, a year before had moved the offices of TERI, his own organisation, into the building. Certainly, the judge was entirely unconvinced, declaring that the three officers of the Council, including Mr (sic) Pachauri, "have suppressed material facts and they have sworn to false affidavits." (No doubt Pachauri was rehearsing for his later roles.)

The Judge went on to say that the defendant had acted in a very arbitrary way, stating: "such things could not be tolerated in a democratic set up." In a coruscating indictment, he then declared:

And I am afraid, that the affairs and the efficient management of the Centre are not safe in the hands of officers like ... Dr R K Pachauri ... and they had ignored that the officers have to function as a public functionaries within the parameters of the Constitution.

A year after that judgement, Pachauri was elected to become co-chair of the IPCC. He is still on the Governing Council of the Habitat Centre and between September 2004 and September 2006 was its president.

Now, this multi-millionaire businessman is still calling our work a "pack of lies" and isdemanding an apology. The second word of the response I have in mind is "off". Booker, on Sunday, might be less terse.

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