By Sidharth Mishra

The ‘parali’ farm fires in the fields of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh has been effectively put out under the directions of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court passed the order when for once the BJP-led Central government and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government decided to put their heads together and lay blame for pollution in country’s capital at the doors of the voiceless farmers.

They did so to save their skin, lest the court come down heavily on them for allowing Delhi to turn into a gas chamber by a well-designed system of governance deficit, which over a period of time has turned into fine art of electoral politics. But the nature this time around has decided to teach a lesson. The pollution has refused to go and the Supreme Court has now ordered closure of schools in Delhi and surrounding areas till November 15.

By Sidharth Mishra

In times not very far back in Delhi’s political history, if a politician was introduced as “zameen se jude hue neta”, it did not mean the person was essentially a grassroots leader. It often meant that he was associated with dealing in plotting of land in the unauthorised colonies.

The central government this week decided to regularise all the 1797 such colonies ahead of the assembly polls scheduled towards January-end next year. That it’s a politically expedient decision, goes without saying with more than one-third of the city’s population living in these colonies spread over 35 of the 70 constituencies.

This move could prove to be a game changer in a race where so far Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party for now looked to be ahead of its rivals. An analysis of the Lok sabha polls results would show that the voters in the unauthorised colonies polled in large numbers in favour of the BJP candidates, with the hope that the Centre would oblige them by ending the illegal status of their colonies. Thus, this move could be seen both as a payback by the BJP leadership and also an investment for a favourable result in the upcoming assembly elections.

By Sidharth Mishra

The battle for Delhi is all set for January-end next year. If you needed a confirmation, it was given in Home Minister Amit Shah’s interview to News18, where he gave sufficient indications for the same. The interview also showed somewhat lack of preparedness on the part of the BJP for the crucial electoral battle for legislative assembly, which the party has to fight in the nation’s Capital.

Shah, who is ruling-BJP president too, talked at aplomb of his party’s chances in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the states going to the polls before Delhi and about West Bengal, the citadel which he envisages to breach in two years’ time. However, when he was asked about party’s chances in Delhi, he did not unveil a very convincing roadmap.

He first avoided a direct answer to the question if the party would go to polls in Delhi with a Chief Ministerial face, saying it could be but in the same breath added that it should not be forgotten that the party, after its debacle in 2015 assembly polls, had won the municipal polls in 2017 and also the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

By Sidharth Mishra

This year during the Dusshera celebrations in the national Capital, something very unusual happened. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unlike his predecessors, chose the outskirts of the national Capital over the Ramlila (ballad on life of Ram, the king of Ayodhya) celebrations in the walled city for Ravan Dahan (annihilating the demon).

Not that the traditional Ramlilas did not take place in the walled city. There were three in the Lal Qila grounds and the oldest in the neigbouring Ramlila grounds near Delhi Gate. With time these Ramlilas have come to be affiliate of one political party or the other, thus we had Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at one stage and the Congress leadership on the other.

The Prime Minister chose not to be part of the ‘political divide’ and decided to be part of a celebration in the outskirts, albeit accompanied by his party colleagues Parvesh Verma, the local MP and the Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari. The message which the Prime Minister tried giving by bringing the two leaders, rivals in the faction-ridden Delhi BJP, together was to fight the upcoming assembly polls in the city unitedly.

By Sidharth Mishra

Come November, and Arvind Kejriwal Government would be back with the much feared Odd-Even scheme of vehicle rationing on the roads of Delhi, ostensibly to reduce pollution. The move is proposed as Mr Kejriwal and his team sees ‘severe+’ pollution levels in the city following bursting of crackers during Diwali and also the effects of stubble burning in the neighbouring areas of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Such proposal doesn’t reflect towards best practices of governance. That a government foresees a crisis, sits idle till it dawns on the city and then takes what has been named as ‘emergency measures’, definitely doesn’t illustrate for good governance. How can a government foresee a weather emergency and put people on notice for using private transport especially given the poor state of public transport. The advance notice is for the scheme, which was implemented two times earlier in 2016 and then abandoned, as there was no agreement among experts on pollution having come down despite the normal traffic having been thrown haywire.

By Sidharth Mishra

The mammoth cricket stadium at the Feroze Shah Kotla complex, which will shortly be named after one of the greatest lovers of the game Arun Jaitley, always did not wear the present elegant look. It’s only about a decade back, with Jaitley at the helm of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA), that the cricket ground was saved from losing its international venue status.

For several decades since its founding sometime in the early 1940s this stadium bore a very Spartan look. Then functionaries of the DDCA could never raise sufficient funds nor the wherewithal to build a new stadium at the site. The things decayed in a manner that the DDCA was put on notice about holding matches on this ground. It was only after Jaitley came at the helm that the fortunes of the ground changed.

By Sidharth Mishra

Ladakh by the recent amendment of the Constitution has been made into a Union Territory. The manoeuvre used by the Government to separate Ladakh from the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir crisis would not have been possible but for the valiant efforts of Indian soldiers in first defending the area from the tribal raiders in 1947-49 and later securing it for seven decades under most inhospitable situation.

Accession of Jammu & Kashmir to India and swift entry of the Indian army in the autumn of 1947 did not discourage Pakistan enough to give up its plan. Governor General Mohammed Ali Jinnah took matters in his control and supervised invasion of Kashmir by the Frontier tribesmen. In the initial months, due to winter severity, Ladakh did not get sufficient focus and was left under the charge of the soldiers belonging to the J&K State Forces of the erstwhile princely state.

By Sidharth Mishra

The 15 years that Sheila Dikshit was prima donna of Delhi politics, this former reporter had the privileged job of covering her for 14 years for The Pioneer, first as beat reporter and then for over a decade as the head of the city reporting unit. Those were the years of the BJP grounding its feet firmly in national politics and The Pioneer was its only credible sympathizer. Under the situation, it was quite a challenge to cover the most prominent Congress leader in the national Capital.

However, contrary to the expectations, Sheila Dikshit had a great traction with the newspaper and took her criticism in right spirit. It also went to the credit of the newspaper’s editorial policy, especially its editor Chandan Mitra, that he never approved of negativism in reporting and encouraged development related reports which more often than not ended up giving credit to Sheila Dikshit.