By Sidharth Mishra

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene 2)

Thus said the leading lady to the protagonist in William Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet. The subtle message from these famous lines is that the character of an object or person does not change  with the name. One is reminded of these famous lines whenever there is a controvery regarding the name of a place, and this time is no less than that of the country.

Every since the newly formed opposition conglomerate has given itself the acronym of INDIA, a few enthusiasts from the BJP have been asking for doing away the name of India for the country and just retain Bharat. This has been countered by the crusaders on the Opposition's side claiming that this country never ever had the name Bharat. They hand out the argument that the existence of the present country as a political unit is deed of the British, which called the land India.

By Sidharth Mishra

The developments during the past week clearly show that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may break the bread together during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The two parties, going by pure mathematics, as components of the new opposition coalition - Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), may win all the seven seats in Delhi.

Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats and the BJP has been winning all the seven seats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The AAP was placed second during the 2014 polls and the Congress pushed ahead and moved to the second position on five seats in the 2019 polls. Prior to that Congress had won all the seven in 2009 and six in 2004.

During the 2014 polls, the combined vote share of the Congress and the AAP was more than that of the BJP. However, in 2019, the BJP was far ahead of the combined vote share of AAP and Congress. Given such performances in the past, it could be difficult for the BJP to win all the seven seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls with the AAP and the Congress fighting together.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Lok Sabha on Monday in all likelihood would take up a discussion on the Delhi Services Bill. Given the huge majority which the treasury benches have in the house, the passage of the bill here would at best be of academic interest. This would also be possible only if there is a debate in the house, which again is suspect, given the prevailing attitude of the opposition benches.

The dramatics could be expected in the Rajya Sabha, where a united opposition under the banner of INDIA can cobble up the requisite strength to create a roadblock. Just a roadblock and not a wall, in the passage of the bill, as the more elaborate arithmetic favours NDA.

With the Supreme Court having more or less distanced itself from the debate on whom should the power to transfer bureaucrats rest in Delhi, it refused to stay the Ordinance brought by the Centre, Delhi chief minister’s office getting shorn of this power is now almost a fait accompli. Kejriwal himself has stated that under the new arrangement he enjoys no powers.

By Sidharth Mishra

In these very columns a very days back we had mentioned that how Delhi was already flooded in several areas even before the water from Hathni Kund Barrage arrived in the national Capital. These were the areas which were much away from the river and they stood water logged largely because of the unclean and clogged drainage system.

This happened due to the failure of the Delhi Jal Board and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), to clean the drains on time, as practise in the past, before the arrival of the Monsoon in the city. Both these autonomous bodies are firmly under the political control of Aam Aadmi Party, with its MLA Somanth Bharti heading the Jal Board and its leader Shelly Oberoi as Mayor heading the MCD.

Now let’s come to the floods in the Yamuna, whose waters have entered the areas between the Red Fort and the river and further down the river near the ITO crossing. The flood waters entered the seat of Delhi Government, the Players’ Building on the Yamuna bank and the adjoining Indira Gandhi Stadium complex.

By Sidharth Mishra

The grapevine is that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is moving to a house whose balcony faces Humayun’s tomb. More than the archaeological heritage, it was the character of the second Mughal emperor which was a great inspiration for the flat’s late owner Sheila Dikshit.

Gandhi is moving to the first floor three-bedroom apartment now belonging to former MP Sandeep Dikshit, son of late Delhi chief minister. Hedged into a quiet neighbourhood of Nizamuddin East, the three-bedroom apartment shot into prominence when Sheila Dhikshit was nominated as Congress candidate from the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 1998.

Later in the year, she was appointed Delhi Congress president and brought the party out from wilderness leading it to power in the national capital winning three consecutive assembly elections in 1998, 2003 and 2008. During this one year period in 1998, this place remained nerve centre of party’s local unit, which also gave an opportunity to the party cadres to differentiate Sheila culturally from the existing leadership, which was anyway on decline.

By Sidharth Mishra

The clouds had started to recede and pouring from the sky also started to reduce on the national Capital. However, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministerial colleague Saurabh Bhardwaj chose to blame the floods in Yamuna river for the three days of water-logging in the national Capital, before Yamuna over flew the banks.

Ironically Yamuna started to rise only when the water logging in the city had started to clear. Delhi government is misleading the people when it blames floods in the Yamuna for water logging in the city, which happened because the silt from the choked drains were not cleared.

Delhi faced temporary deluge because the state government ministers handled the matter in the most immature and amateurish manner. They chose the misery to be another photo opportunity otherwise how did it help the city by the Minister standing in knee-deep water or taking a boat ride.

By Sidharth Mishra

There were no anniversary felicitations for Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena on completing a year in the office last month. Probably it missed everyone’s attention because Delhi continues to be a ‘war zone’ with a bitter battle going on between the Raj Niwas and Delhi Secretariat, the office of Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The hot button political topic in living rooms across the capital today is exactly what will be the outcome of the ‘fight to finish’ which is going on between AAP Government led by Kejriwal and L-G Saxena. In the one year since Saxena took over as L-G, his forays into long-pending issues like clearing the garbage mounts and cleaning of Yamuna among other initiatives seem to have propelled him into the position of the ‘disruptor’, which Delhi desperately needed one.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister of the national Capital are at the loggerheads. But then that’s no news, they always are. This time around they are fighting on the issue of increasing crime rate in the national Capital.

A very successful Vinai Kumar Saxena may have done very well as the Lieutenant Governor on several fronts but law and order, much to the glee of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, is proving to be his Achilles ’ heel. Though Saxena has no direct role in the appointment of the Police Commissioner of Delhi but as L-G he has to own responsibility of the failings of Delhi Police.

The Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army has this motto – ‘Izzat Aur Iqbal’ that is respect and force. Any armed organisation works on the basis of respect it commands. In the matters of police, you may add the word – “raub” that is awe.