By Sidharth Mishra

Take a drive across the city and you would find huge hoardings with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hawking some inane scheme or other. One such hoarding displayed these days says that even children from middle class poor families can now speak English, courtesy some Delhi government scheme.

Now one wonders what makes Delhi government categorize middle class families as poor. Secondly and more importantly, what makes him believe that the children from these families were waiting all the while for Kejriwal to launch a scheme to start learning English language? These hoardings are nothing more than an attempt by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership to paper over the cracks which has come to manifest the functioning of the Delhi government.

This newspaper last Friday broke the news of the Delhi government deciding on the reversal of the new excise policy. This move has come in the face of the charges of huge corruption against the deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the allotment of the liquor vends and the probe being carried out by the various agencies.

By Sidharth Mishra

Kargil War, who’s Vijay Diwas (Victory Day) we celebrate on July 26, was not just a military triumph but it came with unprecedented diplomatic success, which in turn helped to completely isolate the adversary. One may say that Pakistan's misadventure in Kargil marked the beginning of its isolation in the international community.

Three months before the detection of infiltration of intruders in Kargil in May 1999, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in an attempt to thaw the tensions between India and Pakistan, had taken a bus ride to Lahore. A hug that was shared between him and his Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharif, however, proved to be a mirage for a long-term bonhomie between the two countries.

On arrival at Lahore in February 1999, Vajpayee had said, “I bring the goodwill and hope of my fellow Indians who seek abiding peace and harmony with Pakistan. I am conscious that this is a defining moment in South Asian history and I hope we will be able to rise to the challenge.” Vajpayee was let down as India and Pakistan engaged in a conflict once again, this time in Kargil, Drass and Batalik sectors in northern Kashmir.

By Sidharth Mishra

Recently in a social media post Pawan Khera, the leading spokesperson of the Congress, claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s understanding of his party was based on the basis of people who left Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As if to qualify what Khera said, though inadvertently, a senior leader from Karnataka added, “We have made enough for three to four generations in the name of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. And if we do not protest in this situation, there will be worms in our food.”

A former Karnataka Assembly speaker K R Ramesh Kumar triggered a controversy with his remarks that the Congressmen should be indebted to Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi for making fortunes in their names in the course of their individual political careers. What he suggested, which cannot be said to be completely untrue, points towards ‘spoils system’ in the functioning of the Congress party.

By Sidharth Mishra

Inaugurating an expressway in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a jibe at the culture of giving freebies for votes, which has come to stay in Indian politics. “This Rewri culture (Hindi for freebie culture) is dangerous for the development of the country.  Those with Rewri culture will never build new expressways, new airports or defence corridors for you.  Together we have to defeat this mentality, remove Rewri culture from the politics of the country,” the Prime Minister said at Jalaun.

As far as giving the freebies go, no major political party is blameless. The tendency to canvas votes by promising free or subsidised goods and services is common to all parties. Though initially part of the political narrative in the southern states, it has come to acquire monstrous propositions in north India too especially courtesy the freebie distribution policies of the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has come out with a flurry of advisories, recommendations and directions to curb air pollution in Delhi-NCR. These recommendations have created quite a turmoil in the city and its neighbouring townships largely on the account of the directives which would affect the common citizens.

First and foremost, the clamp on the diesel vehicles. The decision to deal the private cars at par with the commercial vehicles comes as a rude shock. It has been decided as part of the new Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to ban diesel vehicles that don’t confirm to BS-VI when Air Quality Index (AQI) is in the “severe-plus” category.

The main objection of the private vehicle owners is that out of the 25 lakh vehicles registered in the national Capital in the past five years, diesel vehicles, which includes the hybrid vehicles, constitute less than five percent. There is also no specific study to indicate specific ‘high’ contribution of diesel vehicles in the pollution caused by automobiles in the city.

The green activists point towards the need to shed the use of private vehicles in the favour of public transport. However, they fail to take into account how deficient is the public transport system in Delhi and its neighbourhood.

In the case of Delhi, the fleet of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has receded to 3900 buses (it could be even less). The government has been encouraging induction of buses by private operators under the cluster system, however, this too has been slow. There are about 3300 buses being run by the private operators. The two together bring the figures to 7200, whereas the expected bus fleet strength in the national Capital should be around 12000 buses.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is an extra-ordinary phenomenon of the Indian politics. Never before has any party been born without a cadre and without a manifesto listing its programmes and policies. It has also not been known to raise a public movement but still continues to flourish.

By citing example of the Anna Hazare Movement, some may say that it’s incorrect that AAP was not born out of public movement. Yes indeed party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal with several others were ‘educated middle-class’ face of the movement which sought to erase corruption in public life.

However, Arvind Kejriwal’s honeymoon with the programmes and policies of the Anna Hazare’s movement did not live for long and within a period of few years it was all over. The AAP, which fought the Delhi assembly polls in 2015 was different both anatomically and physiologically from the one which contested the 2013 polls, held soon after the Anna Movement.

By Sidharth Mishra

It’s complete over haul of governance which is the need of the hour in Delhi, not just the repair of roads. When it’s said that governance over haul is the need of the hour, its best reflected in the lack of coordination between the state government and the Raj Niwas (Lieutenant Governor’s office) on the issue of the repair of the roads.

Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday last issued a statement saying that he has directed the Chief Secretary to pass directions regarding the repair of ‘One Road per Zone/Division Every Week’. This statement could be seen as a retort as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had gone public announcing that Delhi Government every Saturday would work towards repairing each road in Delhi.

By Sidharth Mishra

A rudderless Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must be a sore thumb in the schemes of the saffron outfit. The defeat of a Punjabi candidate from BJP from a Punjabi-dominated Rajender Nagar assembly constituency at the hands of a Purvanchali candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) clearly points towards the unenvious state of the former.

The central leadership is now making an attempt to revive the fortunes of the party in the national Capital using the multiple governance model and entering into the daily chores of governing Delhi. Ever since a corporate honcho Vinai Kumar Saxena took charge as the Lieutenant Governor, the Centre-controlled agencies be it the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) or the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), have been on the toll.

The initiatives of the Centre to wrest advantage from the Arvind Kejriwal-led state government has been necessitated largely because Delhi BJP has not been able to measure up to the challenges posed by the AAP especially through competitive optics and political diatribe. Ever since the exit of Satish Upadhyay as the President of Delhi BJP, the local unit has been, be it under Manoj Tiwari or now Adesh Gupta, found to be totally clueless of the political agenda and programmes it should pursue.