Drumbeats and silence
As BJP workers celebrated party’s victory in Maharashtra and Haryana with firecrackers and drumbeats at the party headquarters in Delhi on Sunday, the SPG security had a tough time in sanitising 11, Ashoka Road, ahead of the Prime Minister’s arrival to attend Parliamentary Board’s meeting. It was a flash-back to the stupendous poll victory of the Party in the lok Sabha polls when firecrackers and drumbeats reverberating in the high security zone. In contrast, the Congress office at Akbar Road was a picture of silence and no leaders was around to give reaction over the drubbing in the two States.
PM’s advice
Innovation and ingenuity were the key words during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first address to the top commanders of the three Services here last week. Speaking extempore in Hindi, Modi gave the example of a watch repairer in Rajkot whose skills earned the respect of an international watchmaker. When a customer came to the humble watchmaker with a Swiss watch, he detected that the watch had manufacturing defect. The watch owner wrote to the maker and after a month-long analysis the company agreed with the watchmaker’s assessment. Citing this example, Modi asked the officers to take regular feedback from the soldiers using weapons as they can give useful tips about the shortcomings of the equipment and faults can be rectified immediately.
Justice for Swamy
litigants who appear in person before the Supreme Court lament that their cases figure at the bottom of every court’s list of business. Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who has several cases to his credit asked Chief Justice Hl Dattu last week to be a bit considerate towards party-in-person matters, as he was an affected party. “There must be some equality before law for petitioner-in-person matters. Our matters get invariably adjourned as they get listed below.” Justice Dattu told Swamy that some relief was on the way as he plans to restrict the number of matters to be heard by each bench to ensure all matters listed for the day get equal treatment.
Homesick lions
The lions of Gir seem reluctant to leave their home turf. The apex court had ordered the translocation of some of these lions to Madhya Pradesh from Gujarat just in case breakout of any disease threatened their existence in Gir. But the very reason the SC cited for their translocation, haunted them after two of them were sent to Etawah lion Safari in Uttar Pradesh. The duo feel seriously ill after being infected with a rare bacteria because of which they became weak and disoriented. Clearly, this environment is not suiting the Gir lions, said an expert as they seem to be completely loyal to their native State !
loP row via RTI
An RTI reply by lok Sabha Secretariat has revived the Congress’ hope of getting the leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha. The Secretariat in response to a RTI query has said there is no minimum percentage of seats required for appointment of loP in the lok Sabha. Earlier, the lok Sabha Speaker had said after considering “applicable provisions” and “past precedents” it was not possible to accede to the Congress request for the loP post. Mahajan had cited a “rule” that required a party to have a minimum of 10 per cent seats in the House for its leader to be declared the loP. The discrepancy between the stands of the lok Sabha Secretariat and the Speaker has come as a ray of hope for the Congress.
Jat, vote and institution
With the Assembly elections in Haryana over, the head of an HRD Ministry-backed institution may face the axe. The man was able to retain his chair despite being in the bad book of the Government and senior bureaucrats because of political considerations. Sacking a Jat connection could have adversely impacted the fortunes of the ruling party at the Centre in Haryana where it grabbed power on Sunday. The boss of the said institution in likely to be “forced” to quit now. The HRD Ministry and several top bureaucrats had been nursing their bruises against the “Jat boss.”
Doctors take to broom
A host of eminent doctors from the national capital have joined the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project, Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan. They include Naresh Trehan, MD & chairman Medanta Medicity, Anupam Sibbal, group medical director, Apollo Hospital, Naveen Dang, Director of Dr Dangs Path lab and DK Deewan, Director in the Health Ministry. Padma Shri awardee and president of Heart Care Foundation of India, KK Aggarwal who is among the nine people nominated by Modi to spread the cleanliness message, has also asked P K Sharma, from NDMC, OP Yadava, chairman National Heart Institute, Anil Goel, chairman of Delhi Medical Council, Girish Tyagi, Secretary, Delhi Medical Council and Vinay Aggarwal, former president of the Indian Medical Council to be the part of the campaign.
Shock wave from NSG
Grapevine has it that NSG chief Jayant Choudhury’s recent statements on Al-Qaeda/ISIS sponsored possible attacks has not gone well with top security mandarins and Home Ministry. The Director General of NSG was addressing his first media conference in connection with 30th Raising Day. According to senior security and intelligence officials, high ups in the Government are unhappy that Choudhury chose to speak ‘out of turn’ to the media about the things not under his domain. People in the know of things say the authorities at the South Block and North Block were shocked on Choudhury’s revealing such sensitive information, which has wider ramification on internal security.