Mayawati’s silence
As political adversaries took turns to slam the BJP on Friday for its decision to project Narendra Modi as the PM candidate, most striking was the near silence of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Competing with the Samajwadi Party for minority votes in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP had earlier in July expelled its Hamirpur MP Vijay Bahadur for praising Modi. Will Behen Mayawati inch closer to Narendra Bhai in the run-up to the pollsIJ
lost opportunity
The Uttar Pradesh Government suddenly denied permission to Varun Gandhi’s farmers’ rally at Fatehpur Sikri on September 15. Gandhi had invited Advani to the rally as chief guest, and the date of the event clashed with Narendra Modi’s rally at Rewari. Thankfully for the BJP, media did not get the opportunity to compare the crowd-pulling capacity of both the leaders.
Manpower crunch
Two months into his tenure as CJI, Justice P Sathasivam has not been able to reduce pendency. Man power shortage in the Supreme Court has upset his plans. last week, the CJI admitted that the list of business for the Supreme Court was packed for the next six months. “I have categorised all cases related to women, minors and arbitration, but I’m struggling to find which bench could handle them.” In order to clear the huge backlog of pending cases, the CJI has asked the Registry of the apex court not to list fresh matters on weekdays except on Mondays and Fridays.
Well done, Azad!
The country’s health experts may have divergent views but WHO Director General Margaret Chan is in full praise for India’s health initiatives being undertaken under the leadership of Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. In fact, showering praises on Azad at a global event held recently in the Capital, she said that the country is fortunate to have a Minister totally dedicated to health and that he is one of the best Ministers of health in the world.
Babus vs animal lovers
Due to the intervention of an animal loving NGO, the Central Secretariat is facing the heat of monkey menace. The NGO forced the Government offices to stop hiring langur to drive away the monkeys. This brought back the monkey menace in full force. Now the top babus have decided to resume the ‘langur service’ at any cost.
Green woes
It has been a constant source of embarrassment for the Environment Ministry to have frequent face-offs with its own progeny, the National Green Tribunal. The latter never lets go of any opportunity to point fingers at the Ministry for any green errors it commits. The Ministry, however, seems to have found a way to keep the green court within its control. In a letter to the tribunal, the Ministry reminded that it could not go on taking suo motu cognisance of reports on environmental damage or violations because it was not empowered by the Ministry to do so.
Universities as companies
The HRD Ministry’s efforts to get important educational Bills passed met with little success in the just concluded Parliament session. Now, HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju does not want to take any chance. His bureaucracy has started taking a different route to implement some of the coveted programmes. As uncertainty looms over Foreign Universities Bill, the HRD Ministry has sought help of the Commerce Ministry to permit establishment of foreign universities in India as “Companies” through Companies Act. The degrees awarded would be treated as foreign degrees and accorded by the Association of Indian Universities.