By Sidharth Mishra

With the onset of summer in 2011 had begun the Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement. A very anglicised and stylish name of a public movement gave sufficient indication of it being rooted in the rise of the new educated middle-class pushing for a change.

The new generation middle-class, which largely has been the beneficiary of the economy of the country opening up two decades earlier, pushed for change, not just of government but the culture of governance. This movement, outside Delhi-NCR, had maximum traction in Bengaluru. No wonder both being the hubs of new age industries.

A decade later, the only visible surviving outcome of the India Against Corruption is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which a few days back celebrated the getting the status of national party. For getting a national political party status, among other criterions is the party getting recognition as a state party in at least four states.

By Sidharth Mishra

Those who study public administration would know there a major area of discussion on the interface of permanent and political executive in governance. This topic becomes very dominant especially in democracy, where the political executives come and go, whereas bureaucracy aka permanent executive remains in office all through and also held accountable for major decisions.

The political executive comes to power on popular votes and it’s always in the rush to get its manifesto implemented. The job of the permanent executive is to ensure that in the implementation of the agenda, the rules of governance are not compromised, so also the sovereignty of the Constitution.

This creates a challenge for both the permanent and the political executive for implementation of the popular manifesto without compromising on the rules. Here lies the genesis of the conflict between the Centre and the Delhi government on the control of the services department on which the Supreme Court has given the ruling.

By Sidharth Mishra

The first archaeological evidences of Delhi emerging as a capital of a kingdom are of around 12th century. The first citadel-city being Mehrauli built by the Slave dynasty. The dynasties which followed them too built their own fort cities and each of them moved a few kilometres east, getting farther from the Arvalli hills and closer to river Yamuna.

Getting closer to Yamuna meant not only overcoming paucity of water but also integrating the Sultanate with the Ganga-Yamuna river valley system for the purposes of both trade and territory expansion. The first citadel city along the river was built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, which is today known as Kotla Firoz Shah and houses a world famous cricket stadium.

The next bastion along the river was built by Sher Shah Suri, who had usurped the Mughal rule for a while. This refuge is today known to the world as Purana Qila. After the Mughal Empire had found its firm footing, they too shifted their capital to Delhi, with Shahjahan building the Red Fort and the adjoining city, today together known as the walled city.

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week a sad news emerged from the Delhi University. A scholar who had been teaching at the prestigious Hindu College for almost six years committed suicide. He took the step allegedly after being rejected by interview panel which had assembled for making permanent appointments.

Identified as Samarveer, the deceased DU teacher came from a village in Rajasthan's Baran district. Though no suicide note was found, according to a cousin, with whom Samarveer shared a room, he was under depression after he lost the job as an ad hoc lecturer in the Hindu College in February.

This unfortunate incident has been followed by the teachers and students alleging that a sizable number of long-serving ad-hoc teachers, who otherwise fill all the eligibility criteria for teaching posts advertised by DU colleges, and have worked in particular institutions, were being displaced in the interviews being held for making regular appointments.

This has been contested by the Delhi University officially. Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh recently presented a report before the Delhi University Court, the highest policy making body of the university, where he claimed that the rate of displacement was meagre and in single digit.

This is not agreed by the various teachers groups who say that the ad hoc teachers losing jobs was much larger. The truth lies somewhere in between but the fact is that getting an ad hoc job in a college cannot be a guarantee for a permanent appointment.

By Sidharth Mishra

In the last phase of ‘achche din’ (good times) of Delhi Congress, the local party unit had two camps. The one led by then chief minister Sheila Dikshit and the other by then Union Minister Ajay Maken. Dikshit camp was much stronger and the role of the Maken camp was largely of spoil sport.

From an outsider in 1998 to a three-term chief minister, Dikshit had risen in stature both as a political leader and a fine administrator. This saw dwarfing of old-timers like Har Kishan Lal Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as several from their camps came to join the Dikshit rank. Her detractors in the party high-command like Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath and several others resented this.

They tried propping dissidence in the party through Subhash Chopra, Chowdhary Prem Singh and Rambabu Sharma but none were successful. Dikshit-baiters finally found their wager in Ajay Maken, who had moved away from his erstwhile mentor and maintaining distance from the Dikshit camp. Maken possessed similar cultural and political finesse as Dikshit, which others lacked, thus he could measure up to her.

By Sidharth Mishra

The high-powered committee appointed to look into an incident of harassment at the prestigious Indraprastha College for Women (ICFW) was expected to do a better job than making mere mundane suggestions. It has been alleged that some men scaled the college walls during a cultural festival in the last week of March and harassed several students.

Following initial lukewarm response in the matter, several rounds of protests were held by the students led by various groups but predominantly by those aligned to the Left. At the centre of their demand was resignation of college Principal Professor Poonam Kumaria. Incidentally Kumaria had joined as college principal just a week ahead of the festival and would not have been solely responsible for organisation of the event.

Given the ideological dye of the protesting student leaders, it can be believed that demanding Kumaria’s resignation had more to do with her right-wing alignment than much of her role in the incident. Nevertheless, good that the protests brought the unsavoury incident into public domain and finally DU was made to set-up a panel to look into the matter.

By Sidharth Mishra

Last weekend many a newspapers carried the news that the Centre was planning to bring a policy to facilitate release of poor prisoners. Christened as ‘Support for Poor Prisoners’, the scheme envisages the provision of required financial support to poor persons who are in prisons and unable to afford the penalty or the bail amount.

While there is no denying the good intent of Home Minister Amit Shah, who is said to be personally mentoring the scheme, this move can cause many a social and personal ripples. The world of the jail has much more it than just the incarcerated politicians, famous gang lords and often corrupt officials. There also is a huge population for whom nobody is seeking out.

Last week a lawyer friend had called to inform that he had managed acquittal of the relative of a support staff from my old organisation. When this information was conveyed to this staff, he didn’t sound very happy about the outcome of the case in the form of an acquittal.

By Sidharth Mishra

About two decades ago, this writer first came to know Manish Sisodia, one of the two jailed erstwhile ministers of Arvind Kejriwal government. There was a seminar at Miranda House on Right to Information in which Kejriwal was participating. Sheila Dikshit government had just brought the Right to Information (RTI) Act, in which Kejriwal had played an important role.

Then an activist, Kejriwal had convinced Dikshit about the need to have such an act for better functioning of the government. This act was later dovetailed into the central act, which was brought by Manmohan Singh government a few years later.

During the course of conversation post the seminar, Kejriwal had mentioned about a young journalist who was dedicatedly working with him for the cause of Right to Information. This journalist went by the name of Manish Sisodia. No wonder Sisodia has remained most trusted lieutenant of Kejriwal as their relationship goes to the days when Kejriwal was hardly known. In fact, Kejriwal himself was introduced to Dikshit by the veteran people’s rights activist Aruna Roy.