December to remember
December has an interesting connection with the Defence Ministry. In addition to the fact that the Navy Day falls on December 4, the months has a very interesting connection with the Defence Ministers. Of the 26 people who have held Defence Minister’s portfolio in the past, six are December born. While Incumbent Manohar Parrikar celebrated his birth day on December 14, his predecessors Arun Jaitely (BJP) and AK Antony (Congress) both will cut birthday cake on December 28. President of India Pranab Mukherkee, who held the Defence portfolio before Antony, is December 11 born. Sharad Pawar who held the portfolio from June 1991 to March 1993 is December 12 born, while former President R Venkataraman who held this post from January 1982 to August 1984 was December 4 born.
Upset ‘tai’
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who has earned the affectionate title of ‘tai’ (elder sister), was upset last week when the Opposition members were not ready to accept ‘a mild regret’ from BJP member Sakshi Maharaj for his controversial remarks on Nathuram Godse. In the process Maharaj ended up expressing his regrets four times in a row. At one stage, a little tai blurted out kya SASTANG chahiye IJ! (that is lying on floor like a stick)
Toothless CIC
Central Information Commission finds itself in a helpless situation before the might of India’s top political parties on its controversial decision to bring them under RTI. In mid-June, the CIC served notices to six major parties, including the Congress and the BJP, to appear before the Commission on December for disposal of the case. But after all the six parties boycotted the Commission, the CIC reserved its order and gave another chance to them to place their stand in January.
Gossip Twitter handles
Two months ago Twitter witnessed surfacing of several Twitter handles to post gossips and rumours on political and media related affairs circulating in lutyens’ Delhi. Some of thse handles are: lutyens’ Spice, lutyens’ Masala, lutyens’ Gossip, Real lutynes’ and lutyens’ Insider. It is believed that after Intelligence Bureau started keeping tabs on these hidden handlers and their identities became subjects of speculation, some of them stopped operation. Grapevine has it that most of these accounts were operated by journalists, who wanted to share the non-publishable info gathered by them, and also to settle scores against rivals.
More rejig
Three months after the Higher Education was overhauled with change of six top IAS officers from Secretary to Join Secretaries in the Smriti Irani-led HRD Ministry, another round of rejig is on the anvil in the School Education department now. With incumbent Secretary Rajashri Bhattacharya set to retire this year-end, hunt for his replacement has begun. The choice is between the longest serving HRD Ministry officer, Special Secretary Vrinda Swarup, and her 1981 batch mate SC Khuntia, who too has served the Ministry in the past as Joint Secretary. Khuntia too hails from Odisha as is newly appointed Secretary (HE) Satyanarayan Mahapatra. The deputation of longest serving CBSE Chairman Vineet Joshi has already ended, search for a full-time National Open School chairman also goes on.
Women power
It’s now women power against tiger poachers. A bunch of young rural women are today challenging the well-armed poachers in Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. These women are part of the newly-formed anti-poaching squad in the reserve and have gone through rigorous selection procedures. Clad in camouflage outfits tohat blend perfectly into the foliage, these women are adept in locating human footprints, lethal jaw-traps and snares. Few people dare to cross their path because they are also trained in combats by paramilitary commandos.