GRAPEVINE
Kare koyi, bhare koyi
The repeated reshuffles of officers has come as setback of Education Ministry, as the buzz is that they were made scapegoats for none of their fault rather `forced’ to dance to the guided tunes. Career bureaucrat Vineet Joshi was replaced by Naresh Pal Gangwar as the education secretary amid mounting multiple criticism of the education ministry, including exam irregularities. First under scrutiny was problems in CBSE’s introduction of on-screen marking (OSM) and then NEET-UG paper leak. While Joshi is credited to have rolled out several reforms in CBSE like Teachers’ Eligibility Test (CTET), rolling out CUET through NTA, which he headed for two years, Sanjay Kumar faced backlash at the fag-end of his career and was tipped to be the next NITI Aayog CEO post-retirement on June 30. Another career bureaucrat, Rahul Singh from the Bihar cadre, was removed as CBSE Chairman, who is understood to be against the digital evaluation system initially until forced to roll out.
Troubles galore for some now!
Now that the protest by cockroaches are over, the BJP IT cell has been tasked to identify from the social media platforms about the wards of people in bureaucracy who participated in the Gen Z protest at Jantar Mantar. Few on the target include entire family members of two AGMUT cadre IPS officers who took part in the CJP protest. Simultaneously, grapevine has it that the PMO has got annoyed about the `leak’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions to his Cabinet colleagues to go aggressively on Instagram. It is being worked out who from the cabinet meeting last week shared to a TV media about PM’s advice for a better modern youth political outreach.
Pellet guns used?
After the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) strike is over, the security agencies are keeping silence over the demand on probe whether Pellet Gus were used during the Jantar Mantar strike. Opposition leaders, media organisations have brought out the videos of injured people. Government hospitals which treated the injured people are keeping stony silence. Grapevine has it that the Pellet Guns and shock providing batons are not used by Delhi Police, which first jumps to say that they never used such weapons. CRPF is keeping silence as it is a well-known secret that its Rapid Action Force (RAF) faced similar allegations in usage of such weapons in Kashmir. Will Home Ministry order a probe is the question which creates trouble for security agencies?
In between the resignation!
While the Government remained adamant that Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as Education Minister was “not possible”, grapevine has it that in the second meeting between Centre and CJP it was conveyed that if resignation demand is not accepted, then the protestors would officially announce Gherao and march to Parliament. According to sources, the matter first gained momentum when representatives of CJP met BJP senior leader and Union Minister JP Nadda at his residence, where they were conveyed except the resignation issue, talks on other points were acceptable. The threatening of a march towards Parliament is believed to be turning point in consideration of Pradhan’s resignation as the city had already witnessed repercussions when the CJP protestors had rushed to Parliament, followed by sit in protest by opposition leaders in front of PM’s residence.
