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Uttarakhand sting puts media in dock

By Sidharth Mishra

While Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat seems to have weathered the storm caused by the release of a CD containing the sting operation against his trusted aide and principal secretary Mohammed Shahid, however, the issue has opened the figurative Pandora's box of questions regarding the role of media as the fourth estate. The snowballing controversy surrounding the whole operation has turned murkier with the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MMDA) demolishing the illegal structure belonging to journalist Ashok Pandey, who is believed to be instrumental in the release of the said CD.
It’s too early to verify the authenticity of the CD but the way it was used as a covert weapon by the ruling party in Delhi to sabotage political rivals in an opposition run state certainly did not measure up to the best traditions of journalism.
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Congress fails to learn key lessons

By Sidharth Mishra

About a month back while interacting with Ghulam Nabi Azad who is the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, at a television panel discussion, I had invited the seasoned politician’s wrath when I pointed out that the Congress had adopted a lethargic strategy of opposing the government through subversion of parliamentary politics. “Let me assure you they (the government) would not have a majority in the House (Rajya Sabha) till 2018 and after that it would be a lame duck government,” Azad had angrily said.
Azad’s outburst had two takeaways. One the Congress did not have the confidence of doing well in the forthcoming assembly polls and BJP was set to overtake the opposition in Rajya Sabha by 2018. The second was more dangerous, that it did not desire the government to function smoothly. If we examine this closely, and in a lighter vein, it would be more appropriate for BJP to mouth Arvind Kejriwal’s line, “Woh Pareshan Karte Rahe, Hum Kaam Karte Rahe (They kept bothering us but we kept working).”
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Diluting Delhi dialogue

By Sidharth Mishra

A few months back in this very column we had analysed the hot-button issue of statehood for Delhi becoming the centrifugal point of Centre-State relations in the coming months. Soon after he was anointed the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi (the only one-to-one meeting between the two leaders so far) made it clear that the issue of statehood would be the fulcrum of the relationship between the Delhi state and Centre.
At that point of time, Delhi’s former finance secretary Shakti Sinha had a made a very pertinent observation about Delhi’s relationship with the Centre. In his remark, Sinha did not focus on the powers over Delhi Police but rather on the most pragmatic matter of funds which are needed to run the national Capital. Sinha had mentioned, “If Delhi lives within its means, it has unlimited fiscal autonomy, like any other state, but this state of affairs is dependent on its positive cash balance, which is fast drawing down. Once it tries to spend beyond its means, it loses that autonomy and becomes a subordinate office of the Home Ministry,

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Pulp politics session

By Sidharth Mishra

The Monsoon session of the 16th Lok Sabha, which began yesterday is predicted to turn into another tumultuous session of Pandemonium, the parliament of the fallen angels. The ardent fans of John Milton would instantly know that the reference is to Paradise Lost. The Congress has made it amply clear that it was out to turn the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from that of leader of the Archangels into that of Lucifer, the spearhead of the fallen heroes.
The Congress leaders have made no bones about their monsoon session strategy, asserting that the rules of ethical debate were nullified when the BJP sat in the opposition and justified paralyzing the Parliament. In fact former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal was quick to remind his colleague on the bar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying that the “Top BJP leader used to say obstruction is part of parliamentary strategy.”
The continued deterioration in the quality of House proceedings and steady fall in quality of  parliamentary oration is best attributable to what  political scientists would like to classify as “pulp politics”. The term has been inspired by the 1994 Hollywood film Pulp Fiction, which had seven Oscar nominations.

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Misnomer about Delhi’s culture

By Sidharth Mishra
Last week the local newspapers in the national Capital went into mourning over the closure of the three hundred year old sweet shop Ghantewala in the walled city area of Old Delhi. The owners of the sweetmeat shop claimed that running the ‘ancient’ business was not giving them the desired profits anymore and that they needed to diversify.
It is probable that the real estate value of the property must have been more than the accrued earnings they were earning from the sweet shop and the owners must have decided to go for a more profitable venture. This hardheaded thinking on the part of the owners probably hastened the process of  closure. The newspapers were uniformly prosaic in their epitaph to the shop. They indulged in some nostalgia and recalled the “pure ghee” (clarified butter) dripping “Sohan Halwa”. However this romanticism does not negate the fact that the real estate value of the shop overshadowed the value of its products;  thus speaking volumes about how this particular ‘halwa’ would not be missed.
In my three decades of residence in the national Capital, which I love as much as any ‘original’ Dilliwala would do, I have found two cultural misnomers. One the concept of a bucolic Dilli Dehat and two the culture of Purani Dilli. First Dilli Dehat. 
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Parochial forces put DU in coma

By Sidharth Mishra

Having been intimately associated with the functioning of Delhi University for over three decades now, first as a bright-eyed student and then as a reporter on the university beat, I can say with a certain force of conviction that the once hallowed campus is passing through a very dire phase. The annual farce, which has come to be enacted in the name of admission cut-off list, speaks volumes about the calibre of those responsible for administering the university and its several colleges. I am tempted to recall what late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to say on the matter of granting independence to our country. Churchill had famously presciently predicted, “Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.”
It is utterly criminal of the Delhi University college principals to have announced such stratospherically high cut-off lists. The result of this imprudent decision was that seats in the prestigious university found few takers, if any.
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PM brought Nehru out of the closet

By Sidharth Mishra

Last Sunday, the Congress party stood completely dumbfounded as Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again showcased his event management skills mobilizing lakhs of people, especially the middle and the upper-class, across the length and breadth of the country to celebrate the 1st International Yoga Day. While the Prime Minister led the “yogis” at Rajpath, the event’s reverberations were felt across the neighborhood parks in every nook and cranny of the country. With regards to its scale, it got the better of even the Republic Day parade, which showcases the nation’s military and cultural diversity but has actual little citizen participation, which Yoga Day ended up achieving.
Given the sheer level of participation, and given his ability to judge people’s pulse, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, despite his acrimonious relationship with Centre, decided to join the Prime Minister in a 40-odd minute long “Yog Shivir”. The Congress on the other hand, went into a silent sulk, and immediately as it did the media houses tied to its apron strings, tried to raise the issue of Hinduvta and Hinduism, which sounded like a ‘mersia’ (funeral song) being sung at a ‘nikah’ (marriage),
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PM needs better brand envoys

By Sidharth Mishra
One can say without any qualms that Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past few years has emerged as a strong political brand. He has also been able to lead the government at the Centre from the front. Every spectacle that the NDA government has managed to create so far has the Prime Minister’s personal touch. Be it his highly eventful visits abroad or the visit of foreign heads of state to India, Modi has managed to hold the centre stage. The next in these series of carefully orchestrated public manoeuvres would be the Yoga performance on the Rajpath. These events have certainly provided the Prime Minister ample space on television screens. As a result he has been able to win the battle of eyeballs with his political adversaries. Be that as it may the larger question is whether Brand Modi was having any electoral impact beyond the confines of these mediums of information. 
Moreover, the government is certainly displaying remarkable ineptitude in head hunting competent talent to take over
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