By Sidharth Mishra

The departure of Dr Harshvardhan from Ministry of Health last week earned him sympathies from most unusual quarters — the leaders belonging to the Opposition Congress party. Former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh in a post on the tweeter said that the Lok Sabha member from Chandni Chowk had been made a scapegoat for “monumental failures at the highest level — nowhere else.” The Congress leader also said the former Health Minister is a good man.

By Sidharth Mishra

The appointment of the formidable Dharmendra Pradhan as the new Education Minister is a clear indication that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants an end to the backseat driving in the functioning of this major ministry. There has been an increasing feeling, with comparatively weak ministers in the saddle, about too much ‘outside interference’ in functioning of the educational institution under the aegis of the central government.

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week a remark made by the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, “elections no guarantee against tyranny,” went viral. This was said by the Chief Justice while delivering a memorial lecture in the national Capital and the qualifying lines of this expression are very relevant to illuminate on the pattern of governance in the national Capital, which some also consider to be microsome of the Indian political system.

By Sidharth Mishra

Some Englishmen, a statesman in particular, who till not very long ago were used to be a household name in India, would be a very satisfied soul finding their words to be prophetic. Last week we talked of TS Eliot and his poem Hollow Men, this week it would be appropriate to quote the much polarizing former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Historians claim Churchill to be anti-India but by his own admission he loved India, however, was worried about the kind of people who would come to govern the country. He once famously said, “Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; …men of straw. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.”

By Sidharth Mishra

The popular tune of Come September, unlike the rage which the 1961 Hollywood flick created for millions, would not be music to the ears of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat. The former student activist and present Lok Sabha member from Garhwal was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on March 10 this year in the midst of the Kumbh fiasco, which is largely now being blamed for the second wave of coronavirus across the Ganga plains and other parts of the country.

By Sidharth Mishra

The country in general and the national Capital in particular was badly ravaged by the second wave of onslaught by Covid-19 virus. As per the government figures, during this bout of the coronavirus surge, Delhi had over 14 lakh confirmed cases as of June 14, 2021, with over 24000 fatalities.

Now we are faced with the screaming headlines every morning of the likely arrival of the third wave, and accompanying claims by the government of how it was getting ready to face the possible menace. Here it would be worthwhile to recall what celebrated English poet TS Eliot once wrote in his vowed poem Hollow Men, “Between the idea, And the reality, Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow.”

By Sidharth Mishra

For the national Capital’s civic edifice, Master Plan of course is the guiding document. It’s to the credit of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Urban Development Ministry (UDM) that they have without fail brought Master Plan Document (MPD) every two decades, which have been accepted by the government with some delays and changes here and there.

Going by the contents of the various Master Plans, one would have to concede that these are fine documents, products of diligent work of long years. However, these documents have found acceptance only in words and seldom in spirit.

By Sidharth Mishra

The millennial Indians born in the third and the fifth year of this century have been the worst sufferers of the pandemic and its related misgovernance. This is true especially with the respect to the students who were to appear for the secondary school (class X) and senior secondary (class XII) examinations this year. They have been at the receiving end of competitive appeasement policy among the freebie distributing political parties, which has left them in a state of maze.