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Paying price for patronage

By Sidharth Mishra

My heart goes out to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. I for certain don’t doubt his integrity. But that certainly does not absolve the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of allegations pertaining to financial and administrative irregularities.
DDCA elections in the city are among the most intensely fought polls. I personally know of several friends and acquaintances, who possess no talent whatsoever related to the game of cricket, strive for a toehold in the organisation. They all have but one common streak -- they are all wealthy people, mostly in real estate business.
Being in the business of property, however, doesn’t make a man (or for that matter a woman) necessarily evil. Going by the same dictum, being in the business of property doesn’t make a person talented enough to administer cricket in the national capital. I also believe that politicians do not always play an evil role in the promotion of a game. It’s for certain that if there wasn’t an Arun Jaitley at the helm of affairs in DDCA, a revamped Feroz Shah Kotla Cricket Stadium stadium would never have come up.
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Kotla of Feroze Shah

By Sidharth Mishra

To those who follow Indian history, a medieval structure in the heart of Delhi making news headlines may sound queer. If not queer, certainly nauseating that an important fort city should make the news for corruption eight centuries after it was built. Before we get into the details of the current controversy surrounding the building of the modern cricket stadium at Feroze Shah Kotla, it would not be out of place to delve into its hoary past.
As we move north from Purana Qila on the Ring Road and approach the Raj Ghat complex, on the left hand are the remnants of the fort city built by Feroze Shah Tughlaq, the last important Sultan of Delhi from the Tughlaq dynasty, ruling from 1351 to 1388. Feroze Shah came to power after the tumultuous regime of Mohammed Bin Tughlaq, who was known to be both eccentric and extraordinarily talented.
Feroze Shah Tughlaq became the first Sultan of Delhi to shift the seat of power from South Delhi to the North of Raisina Hills. Before him, the Sultans ruled the city from fort cities of Mehrauli, Siri and Jahanpanah. Kotla Feroze Shah became the first settlement of the Muslim rulers of Delhi on the banks of Yamuna.
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Odds getting even on pollution

By Sidharth Mishra
Come the New Year and the residents of the national capital would be faced with the onerous task of choosing between private transport and public transport. Choosing would be the wrong word to use. The Delhi government’s policy will not leave people with much of a choice. Given the distances in Delhi, wherever preferable, the residents including your reporter prefer using public transport.
In the past one year that your reporter has been associated with the media school at the Indra Prastha (IP) University, not once did I take my vehicle to the far off campus. The Delhi Metro provides a comfortable journey from the other end of the city to the Campus in a mere 70 minutes, providing enough time to read newspapers or books. I do not know very many faculty members of the university who use their own vehicle. Most of them commute by the Metro.
Thanks to the Metro, many off-campus colleges of Delhi University too have now emerged prominently on the higher education map of the city. Children from the capital suburbs also have easy access to various colleges, thanks to the Metro network. Having talked of the brighter side, I must also mention that Metro services are overstretched and the wear and tear can be seen in the general make-up of the facility.
The construction of the Delhi Metro was a long-term solution to the problem of vehicular pollution rather than the knee-jerk reaction shown by the present Delhi Government.
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Migration and social inclusion

By Sidharth Mishra

The politically illiterate middle-class of the national capital region has blamed the role of caste for the “catastrophe in Bihar.” They feel that by having voted Nitish Kumar back to power, the electorate in the state may have committed mass hara-kiri. The social media is full of inanities like comparisons between the Canadian cabinet and Bihar’s council of ministers.
Before we discuss the role of caste, it would be worthwhile to let history judge whether Biharis had committed mass hara-kiri or given a lesson to the BJP at the Centre to get out of the campaign mode and move towards the serious business of governance. Coming to the question of caste, it does play a role in the electoral battles in the state. But is it that strong a factor in determining social relationships also?
Is it correct to say that Bihar has not gone liberal on caste matters merely on the basis of an electoral outcome? I largely disagree with the social belief that caste is fundamental to all social and political arrangement in the state. Social evils like caste discrimination have been part of the social fabric of almost all the states. However, there is no reason to single out Bihar.
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Reconciliation or tactical retreat

By Sidharth Mishra

It’s difficult to believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could actually speak in an adulatory tone about the nation’s first premier Jawaharlal Nehru. A visibly mellowed Prime Minister, following the electoral reverses faced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, last week reached out to the Opposition for reconciliation and consensus to push major legislative businesses pending in the Parliament. Replying to a debate on “Commitment to Constitution” in the Lok Sabha, Modi went to the extent of eulogising Pandit Nehru.
Modi’s comments have been interpreted by a section of the selfie-obsessed media as a pitch for reconciliation. To your reporter, the Prime Minister’s address in Parliament last Friday and the subsequent interaction with his predecessor Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are part of a tactical retreat to bring governance back on the rails. 
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New politics, same old whine

By Sidharth Mishra

It’s seldom that western ideas get implemented in the Indian context in either spirit or text. For some time, Indian academics have been discussing the ideas of end of ideology and beginning of new politics. Given recent developments of the past week, today’s Notebook seeks to discuss whether we have accepted New Politics as defined in the text books, although the end of ideology is for everybody to see.
Daniel Bell a professor of sociology at Harvard in 1960 came out with his seminal book titled “The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties.” Bell was writing of a time when following World War II, Imperialism had crumbled, making way for the dawn of freedom in the European colonies of Asia and Africa. Bell was of the opinion that older political ideologies would make way for more parochial ideas.
There are definitely tell-tale signs of end of ideology in Indian politics, where the upper-hand in electoral battles have come to
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Getting the right ideas

By Sidharth Mishra
For the proponents of a certain ideology, it’s not easy to mull over the idea that they lack the requisite scholarship to stand up to adverse propaganda. For an ideological school, it’s not even easy to discuss that everything may not be right with their traditional thought process. If an ideological seminary decides to hear out people not so ideologically inclined towards them, it’s a welcome idea and the first step towards inclusiveness.
Rising above the immediate challenge faced by Narendra Modi government to the counter adverse political environment created by an electoral setback, your reporter was witness to a three-day India Ideas Conclave of entrepreneurs, researchers, writers, academicians, lawyers, and activists sympathetic to the right in Goa, earlier this week. Interestingly, they decided to indulge themselves in a more than liberal debate, even going by the standard definitions of liberalism.
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Need to rise beyond divide

By Sidharth Mishra

In the lap of foothills of the Himalayas is a village called Purkal. About a thousand feet above Dehradun, this beautiful village virtually lies suspended between the Queen of Hills Mussoorie and the state capital. Purkal has been made famous in recent times for some great work being done by a non-government organisation working  with local women, who have revived some of the traditional handicrafts and also brought education to the doorsteps of these villagers.
The other famous destination of this village is a residential school founded about a decade back which, regarding ambience and upkeep, ranks best in the country. As the former headmaster of Doon School, Mr John Mason, had put it, “a school should be a happy place and there could not be a happier place than the Kasiga School.” This lovingly developed landscape of Kasiga School first shot into prominence when Karan Johar decided to shoot “Student of the Year” on its campus.
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