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Parliament needs to keep distance

By Sidharth Mishra

A very fruitful Monsoon session of Parliament has come to a close. The record books this session is marked by the passage of the momentous Good and Service Tax (GST) Bill. There were several academically sound and politically significant addresses made during the debate. There were certain other good discussions especially the one on Jammu and Kashmir and on the atrocities on Dalits. It gave ample opportunity to the leaders on the both sides of the well to showcase their oratorical skills.
But there are two images of the session that have made a lasting impression on me and are not necessarily positive. The first image is that of the exhibition put up by the Ministry of Defence inside the premises of Parliament, and second BJP lawmaker Anurag Thakur moving around in the olive green uniform in hallowed corridors of the temple of democracy, soon after his commissioning as an officer in the Territorial Army.
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Blaming it on Bawarias

By Sidharth Mishra

On the very day the Uttar Pradesh Police claimed that it had solved the case of the gang rape of a Noida woman and her minor daughter on National Highway 91, those who have followed crime scene in and around the national Capital raised their eye brows. The crime is alleged to have been committed by members belonging to the denotified tribe of the Bawarias. The former “criminal tribes”, though known for committing most heinous crimes including murder have never been named in any case of rape or sexual assault.
Upon carefully scanning the reports published in newspapers in Uttar Pradesh in the past week, it can be discerned that the police are working overtime to thrust it on the denotified tribes to escape indictment for their inability to prevent the most grotesque criminal incident in recent times. The first question which arose in your reporter’s mind, too, was that when there was a movement of this tribe in the area, why were enough precautions not taken?
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Revenge of the rivers

By Sidharth Mishra

About six years ago, an enthusiastic green activist from Ghaziabad, Vikrant Sharma had taken me to the banks of Hindon river near Mohun Nagar. He showed me how the government was changing the natural course of the river to reclaim some precious land to be allocated to builders for the development of residential areas. To a question on what was his objection to channelising a stream reduced to a “nullah” (drain), the passionate green warrior had replied that the worth of the “nullah” is known each time there is a heavy downpour.
He pointed to deluge in Mumbai in 2005 and said that it happened because the builders, politicians, and bureaucrats devoured Mithi river. On July 26 every year, people recall the mayhem caused by the floods which brought the metropolis to the standstill. Large numbers of people were stranded on the road, as they returned home from work that evening. Water logging on railroads halted Mumbai’s lifeline as local trains stopped operating. This caused a heavy rush on the roads, leading to vehicular logjam. Worse, the mobile services too collapsed.
A study carried out later showed that due to heavy downpour, Powai Lake had started overflowing and discharging water into the Mithi River. In normal course, the water should have got drained because of the prevalent low-tide. But that did not happen because the accumulated water from the first flood wave had yet not flushed out effectively during the ebb period because of a choked drainage system caused by the encroachment into the river. 
When I read reports of Gurujam, the miserable traffic jam in Gurgaon following heavy downpour July 28 last, I somehow remembered the prophetic words of Vikrant, “the worth of the nullah is known each time there is a heavy downpour.”
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Cong lets loose Sea Wolves in UP

By Sidharth Mishra

Congress last weekend launched its campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh with its leaders designated for the job taking a bus ride from New Delhi to Kanpur. The bus was flagged off by party president Sonia Gandhi with her political heir Rahul Gandhi standing beside her.
The photographs of the event which appeared in the next day’s newspapers had some of these leaders looking out of the bus windows. One wondered did they have to do with Uttar Pradesh. Although Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sheila Dikshit are competent politicians and veterans of many political battles, Uttar Pradesh for them, for now, remains as good as a foreign territory. However, in the given situation, the party did not have many options either. They do not have very many leaders of stature left in their ranks.
Coming back to the picture of the veteran leaders taking a bus ride to Kanpur reminded me of a 1980 war film titled Sea Wolves starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, and David Niven.  The plot revolved around the British Army’s Operation Creek, which had Calcutta Light Horse’s covert attack against a German merchant ship anchored at Mormugao port in Portuguese-ruled Goa, then a neutral territory.
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Cutting losses in Kashmir

By Sidharth Mishra

Kashmir when calm inspires poetry, it inspires photography, it inspires good cinema and of course tourism. Kashmir when revisited by unrest invites journalists, prying on gore and blood. Ever since Hizbul commander Burhan Wani died about a fortnight back, the airtime and newspaper columns have been full of reports on Kashmir, each trying to outdo the other in blaming the government in finding a solution.
None, however, said what their diagnosis of the problem was. In being fashionably liberal, the mainstream media has just stopped short of giving “azaadi” to the Kashmiris. On the other hand, the new genre of so-called nationalist media has left nothing to chance in painting Kashmiris as monsters. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Finding a solution to the issue through a media dialogue should be the last thing on government’s agenda. Mehbooba Mufti “going into the shell” may not have hurt the Kashmiris as much as it has hurt the media, which has repeatedly questioned her credibility. A government needs to act and not just talk, as National Conference leadership of Farooq and Omar Abdullah were inclined to do.
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Ignorance about India

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week I interacted with some students appearing for an interview at a very prestigious national institute running a popular professional course. The candidates were appearing for the interview after passing, what I believe, must have been a very tough written examination. This particular candidate had passed her secondary and senior secondary examinations from the prestigious Sanskriti School in the national Capital and thereafter graduated in humanities from University of Delhi.
On the surface, she made a perfect case for selection to this popular course - but for the jarring note struck by your reporter. I posed her a question on the justification of changing the name of Aurangzeb Road to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road. Forget giving justification, she was not even clear about who Aurnagzeb was.
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Rising above party factions

By Sidharth Mishra

The Cabinet expansion carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week has a clear indication that he has moved beyond the influence of the Delhi-based party leaders. The elevation of Prakash Javadekar to Cabinet rank and induction of Vijay Goel as Minister with Independent charge are a clear indicator that after two years into the office, Modi sees himself as not being obliged to live up to the expectations of any one party faction. 
In fact prior to the expansion, even the nominations for the Rajya Sabha had clearly indicated that the Prime Minister and party president Amit Shah were looking to reach out to the camps and leaders perceived to be not on their side. Rehabilitation of maverick Subramanian Swamy and former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu are a case in point.
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Tough job for Javadekar

By Sidharth Mishra

TV-actor-turned politician Smriti Zubin Irani has the capacity to invite unqualified media attention. When Narendra Modi government was sworn in in May 2014, there was consternation writ all around on her appointment as the Minister for the critical Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
Her credentials were questioned not only by the academia but even by rightwing ideologues like Madhu Purnima Kishwar. In July 2016, two years later, after being shifted to Ministry of Textile on Tuesday, there was a sense of relief in Shastri Bhawan - the seat of the HRD Ministry. Her photos and caricatures made it to the front pages of almost all the papers.
The justification often forwarded for the 2014 preposterous move was that though Irani would be in the driving seat, the Ministry was being guided by Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharaks. This was a foolish tactic given the challenge which is posed to the HRD Ministry in its day-to-day functioning by the largely left-leaning Indian intelligentsia.
During NDA I government, a well-educated Murli Manohar Joshi was able to counter the left-wingers largely on the account of his personal scholarship. Irani proved to be unequal to the challenges of her Ministry. That her histrionic abilities failed to win her any accolades from the party leadership is evident from her being shunted out from the charge of helming the nation’s education policy.
The Ministry would now be headed by Prakash Javadekar, who actually is the only one to have gained substantially both in stature and applause from the reshuffle which Prime Minister Modi carried out on Tuesday. As a former activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, Javadekar comes to the Ministry with a firm ideological grounding.
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