By Sidharth Mishra

in 2013, as Sheila Dikshit’s 15-years-long tenure as Chief Minister of Delhi inched to closure, several of her close confidantes in the bureaucracy took voluntary transfer out of Delhi. Around the same time ManoharParrikar had come to power in Goa and was forming his team. Since Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories have a common pool of all India service officers to draw from, several of these officers got transferred to Goa.

One morning a newspaper headline screamed, “Sheila’s confidantes now part ofParrikar’s team.” This sums up the nature of bureaucracy in this country – apolitical. The political leadership should have the wherewithal to make the bureaucracy work, which owns its final accountability to the blue book drafted by a gentleman called Dr BhimraoAmbedkar, laws passed by the parliament and rules of business drawn thereafter and not the whims and fancies of elected body of law makerswhich are sought to be camouflaged as “desire of the people”.

By Sidharth Mishra

Within hours of HD Kumaraswamy taking over as Chief Minister of Karnataka, the social media noticed quiet posting of a tweet by union home minister Rajnath Singh. The post said, “Congratulations to Shri HD Kumaraswamy and Shri G Parameshwar on taking oath as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. I hope, Karnataka will move forward towards peace, progress and prosperity under the new Govt.”

This post came at the time when the world was going gaga over the presence of almost all the opposition leaders in Bengaluru at the swearing in of the JD(S) leader as the new chief minister and the Congress leader as his deputy. The swearing in ceremony in Bengaluru was happening after much animated political activity which had followed the fractured mandate. The post surprised the Modi-Bhakts, the BJP-sympathisers and the BJP-opponents alike.

By Sidharth Mishra

A vehicle on a downhill drive has a peculiar feature. It moves at high-speed and takes several sharp U-turns. AamAadmi Party (AAP) leadership in the past six-months has gone on a U-turn drive, apologising to one and all, and trying to make-up with their rivals including country’s Finance Minister ArunJaitley.

Now the latest is the reported ‘offer’ made by AAP leadership to the Congress to enter into some kind of an alliance in Delhi to take on the BJP in the 2019 LokSabha polls. This ‘offer’ comes close on the heels of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit giving an interview to a Hindi daily saying politics was all about possibilities and Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal complementing Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken for his son’s performance in school board examination.

By Sidharth Mishra

With the coming of the Monsoon in 2011, dawned in Delhi along with the rains the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement led by Anna Hazare. The anti-corruption crusader from Ralegaon Siddhi in Maharashtra sat on a fast at the Ramlila Ground and held the centrestage in the national politics for the next fortnight. During the protest, the activists’ creativity was at its best and one clearly recalls a poster which had pictures of Anna, ArvindKejriwal and KiranBedi anointed as Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Jhansi’s queen Lakshmi Bai; all in the same frame.

Ideologically the three historical figures do not make to one frame. But such mass movements are like that when people with different ideological leanings come together for a common cause. Some months later on a television debate, when the movement converted into a political outfit – the AamAdmi Party (AAP), its then main ideologue YogendraYadav was asked about the ideological moorings of the organization.

By Sidharth Mishra

If there at all was any doubt about the timing of the raking up controversy around Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s portrait at the students’ union office of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), it has been set to rest by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The saffron clad leader, who is BharatiyaJanata Party’s most sought after campaigner in Karnataka after Prime Minister NarendraModi said at a poll rally in the state that “the glorification of Jinnah was unfortunate. My government would act strictly against all those who were behind the trouble (on Wednesday).”

The world was taken aback when all of a sudden BJP’s Member of Parliament from Aligarh,SatishGautam, demanded the removal of Jinnah’s portrait which has been hanging in Aligarh campus, albeit innocuously, for the past 80 years.Gautam timed his demand in a manner that it raised the “requisite sentiments” ahead of the Karnataka polls. The Hindi axiom of “KahinPeNigahein, KahiPeNishana (Eyeing one thing while targeting something else)” perfectly explains Gautam’s game plan.

By Sidharth Mishra

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally spoken against the rape regime perpetuated by his political followers to establish the hegemony of the party which seeks to ensure that the country is free of all other political influences. When Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah gave call of a “Congress-Mukht Bharat”, none thought of its dangerous repercussions.

By Sidharth Mishra

By Sidharth Mishra

In the Bombay edition of Times of India dated 28 June 1975 was published a small obituary insertion, 22-words to be precise, in the classified columns. It said, “O'Cracy, D.E.M., beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L.I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justicia, expired on June 26.”

This was two days after Emergency had been imposed in the country and press censorship introduced. The government clerk sitting in the Times of India office and clearing the news reports and paid insertions saw nothing anti-government in the obituary insertion, when it was placed on the evening of 27 June 1975.

The next day, the advertiser, a young reporter with Reader’s Digest, called up a Times journalist to tell him about the obituary and explain how it “looked like a protest against press censorship.” Suddenly the Press fraternity of Bombay realized that everybody among them was not as pusillanimous as their editors were.