By Sidharth Mishra

For celebrated writer VS Naipaul, fame first came with the publication of his novel, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’. Wanting to write a copy on the Civil Lines bungalow rebuilt by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as his residence, the title of the novel read long years ago kept coming back.

Last week the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) registered a preliminary enquiry into alleged ‘irregularities and misconduct’ with respect to the construction of a new official residence for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The charge is that the Public Works Department(PWD) had initially issued a proposal only for the renovation and beautification of the bungalow. However, the original British era property was razed to the ground and a new bungalow built.

It’s been alleged that the PWD demolished the old structure without a survey report and constructed the new building without getting a new building plan sanctioned. Finally there is the issue of expenditure. It’s said that the PWD, which is under the Delhi government, increased the cost of renovation work at the controversial bungalow from Rs 7.62 crore to Rs 33.20 crore without any sanction.

By Sidharth Mishra

When Member of Parliament from South Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri was making the  abusive remarks in the Lok Sabha, two very seasoned members from his party Dr Harshvardhan and Ravi Shankar Prasad were seen laughing.

The three decades long exposure covering politics, especially Delhi, has given opportunity for several interactions with these gentlemen. That Ramesh Bidhuri could speak the way he did, despite now almost a decade in Parliament, and before that in state assembly, was not surprising but that Harshvardhan and Prasad could find it to be a laughing matter surprised many.

By Sidharth Mishra

This sad story which may have been reported with bare facts that a four-year-old child was raped by a 40 year-old-man. The English newspaper reading class is seldom known to look at such reports beyond the headline, often dismissing it as one such another incident in one of those debased jhuggi-jhopri colonies.

But here I met a father last Sunday tending his four-year-old daughter at a government hospital. The child has just been medically examined in the presence of a woman constable by a lady doctor and she found her hymen to be ruptured. She was raped a few hours ago and the doctors did their best to gather medical evidence of the vile incident, which meant a lot of pain for the poor child. 

By Sidharth Mishra

We are now in the second week of September and Delhi University is still to finish with the admissions for the academic session 2023-24. The Delhi University (DU) last week announced that second spot admission rounds for undergraduate (UG) and BTech programmes for the 2023 academic session would now take place. At the earliest, it would be another week before this round is completed. The completion of the round is no guarantee that all the seats would filled.

Though the university never announced it officially, last year the university had 6000 seats vacant in the under-graduate programmes. In the percentage terms, almost 10 per cent of the seats allocated to Delhi University remained vacant. Where are the students going, obviously to the private universities in Delhi NCR? The other government universities offering under-graduate programme, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) and Ambedkar University of Delhi (AUD), complement the Delhi University with their equally laggard admission process.

By Sidharth Mishra

The organisation of G20 summit is just two weeks away. The city is getting ready for an event of such nature after a long time. Having been a resident of the national Capital for almost four decades now, one has been witness other such mega events in the past.

In 1982, the Asian Games were held, its organisation left behind a legacy infrastructure. Asiad gave us – Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Talkatora Swimming Pool, IG stadium, Yamuna Velodrome and the refurbishment of whole lot of the existing sports infrastructure. But more importantly it gave the Games Village and the Siri Fort auditorium complex, which added to the cultural life of the city.

By Sidharth Mishra

Delhi after a very long time faced floods, though the Yamuna River routinely crosses the danger mark every year. The floods were largely on account of laxity on the part of people responsible for preventing the entry of water in the city. When there is human error, there always is scope for blame games.

So one can say, first there was flood in the river and now there is a flood of accusations floating around. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in a letter to the Chief Minister has said that a hydrographic profile of how far the Yamuna’s width, depth and the height can reach when excess water is released in it should be done. Excess water up to approximately 10 lakh cusec can be released from Hathni Kund in Haryana in future.

By Sidharth Mishra

Opposition unity and catchy acronyms seems to have become the flavour of the season. First it was at the national level that major political parties came together to form an alliance and named it Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance that is I.N.D.I.A, creating quite a stir by the name itself.

The model has now been replicated by the teachers groups aligned to political parties which are part of the aforementioned alliance, for the upcoming polls of Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA). The elections are due in end-September, however, with the announcement of candidates, campaign for all the practical purposes have begun.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-affiliated National Democratic Teachers front (NDTF) was first of the block announcing its panel, repeating the sitting DUTA president A K Bhagi as it presidential candidate. The scattered teachers’ groups opposed ideologically to the BJP have now sprung a surprise by launching Democratic United Teachers Alliance (D.U.TA). They have fielded a veteran of many battles and a popular face on the campus Aditya Narayan Misra as their candidate.

By Sidharth Mishra

Communal riots in India emerged only towards the second decade of the 20th century. During their 100 years journey, the communal riots have largely remained an urban phenomenon. This has been attributable to the lack of cultural roots in the urban settlements and natural bonhomie in rural habitats.

They have rarely spread to rural areas but whenever they have, it has been an onerous task to control it. The last such riots was in western Uttar Pradesh, and when we have the ongoing strife in Manipur, where the centuries long bond between farming communities belonging to different religions snapped.

The riots in Nuh and Gurgaon districts of Haryana last week, though had all the potential to spread to the rural areas, it remained limited to the urban settlements. The violence which began in the backward district of Nuh, in fact, gained media prominence only after it spread to neighbouring millennium city of Gurgaon.

Faridabad and Nuh have large Gujjar population, which are spread across to both the Hindu and the Muslim communities. When one checked during the riots with an acquaintance, a Hindu, living in Nuh about his safety, he replied that he and his property were secure and that the riots were limited to the urban periphery.