By Sidharth Mishra

Recently there was an incident where the Delhi Metro operations had to be halted on the Magenta Line because of the fire in the slums below the metro lines. Services between Jasola Vihar and Kalindi Kunj stations had to be paused due to the smoke caused by the fire. This incident has a great symbolic value. As slums and gutters continue be integral part of the national Capital, Delhi Metro rises above all running a world class operation.

This has been possible because, when it was planned, the main stake holders, the Centre and the Delhi Government rose above petty political considerations to give the city and the country a world class transport system. A group of ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which was headed by Lal Krishna Advani, worked in close cooperation with the then Congress government in Delhi led by Sheila Dikshit to usher in the service.  

By Sidharth Mishra

In the last session of the 16th Lok Sabha, the unprecedented happened. The Opposition managed to stall even debate of the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. The Opposition all through the past five years ensured ‘dysfunctional’ parliament, courtesy their majority in Rajya Sabha.

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha begins this week. The start would be marked by the customary oath taking followed by the election of the Speaker. The actual business would only begin after the President addresses joint session of both the Houses.

Though the treasury benches have returned even more stronger in the Lok Sabha, a somewhat of a status quo remains in Rajya Sabha with the ruling benches no expected to get numbers larger than the Opposition till the second half of 2020. The question is, would the Opposition continue to play the politics of spoil sport or engage in sporty debates to put the government on the mat.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has never had it so good in the national Capital. Though it is not the first time that it has won all the seven Lok Sabha seats, it did it earlier in 1999 and again in 2014, however this time around it’s their vote share in the city has risen to an unprecedented 56 %.

The last time BJP got votes somewhere closer to the 50% mark was during 1993 Vidhan Sabha polls. Then under the leadership of a redoubtable Madanlal Khurana and at the peak of Ramjanambhoomi movement, it had polled around 47% votes.

By Sidharth Mishra

As one approaches the ‘finally made operational’ Signature Bridge from the trans-Yamuna area on a bumpy, ill-maintained road, on the left side is the premises of Delhi Government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI). It was here two decades ago that Congress leader Sheila Dikshit had first made her presence felt in politics of Delhi.

In the winter of 1998 when the polls were held for 12th Lok Sabha, a political leader from Uttar Pradesh, unknown to the rough and tumble and more importantly machinations of the politics of the national Capital, named Sheila Dikshit was pitted against BJP strongman Lal Bihari Tiwari from the East Delhi seat.

Tiwari, a Minister in the Madanlal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma governments, was party’s Poorvanchal face as the voters from the region had started to make their presence felt in the national Capital. He had won the by-election from the seat about a year back by 1.5 lakh votes. Dikshit in addition to Tiwari, also had to counter the ‘influence’ of sidelined Delhi strongman HKL Bhagat.

By Sidharth Mishra

Elections in India, and the associated campaigns have several repercussions. The poll curry in this country is made of several and many a times unusual condiments. Thus, Battle of Lok Sabha’2019 has thrown many interesting contests and their allegorical interpretation.

One such interesting battle is being fought in the northern Bihar town of Begusarai. The polling in Begusarai would be in the fourth phase on April 29. Thus, the month-long political fisticuff is in the offing.

Bihar is a political state, its often stated. This point gets reiterated further from the fact that of all the contests being held across the 40 seats in the state, its Begusarai which has come to garner all the attention. Despite the state capital’s prestigious seat of Patna City having Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha and Modi government’s heavyweight minister Ravi Shankar Prasad being locked in a classic battle, it’s Begusarai which is garnering all the attention.

By Sidharth Mishra

No political move in India is driven without a caste consideration. Similarly, no analysis of an initiative, administrative, social or political is complete without putting it through the prism of caste. Social scientists, known for their overt anti-BJP bias, have once again gone to town ridiculing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push, this time for appearing in ‘chowkidar avtar’ in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

 These social analysts chosen the oft repeated line of upper caste and backward caste divide. Identifying the rich with the upper castes, they have tried to paint the initiative as mocking at the Dalit and other backward caste communities. In their premise they have concluded that the poor lower castes have been reduced to playing doormats for the upper caste rich.

By Sidharth Mishra

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has released its campaign song for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, which focusses on the statehood for the national Capital. This song makes amply clear that AAP supreme leader Mr Arvind Kejriwal has for now shelved his national aspirations and wants to focus just on Delhi. Given the abysmal performance of party in assembly polls in several states, Kejriwal knows that political survival is call of the hour.

In pursuance of this goal, Kejriwal has set an agenda which he hopes would make him reap rich political harvest. It is difficult to believe that Arvind Kejriwal, is asking for full statehood without understanding that its grant is only next to impossible.

By Sidharth Mishra

Given the vigour with which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is pursuing for an alliance with the Congress in Delhi, one may finally witness some kind of an arrangement if not an alliance between the two parties. During her sojourn in the Capital recently for an opposition dharna recently, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banrejee had said that AAP wanted to have an alliance but the Congress was still to respond.

In one last ditch attempt, AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal even rushed to Puducherry to join a solidarity show with Congress chief minister V Narayanasamy against Lieutenant Governor of the union territory, Kiran Bedi. Indeed, whole lot of water has flowed in the Yamuna since 2011-12, when Kejriwal in company with Kiran Bedi had filed a corruption complaint against Manmohan Singh-led government, where Narayanasamy was an important Minister.