By Sidharth Mishra

Two famous thinkers of the last century had almost common comment to make on politics, which said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” 

The first person to be attributed this quote is Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, a British publisher, writer and political publicist. As a civil servant in the Ministry of Munitions and Reconstruction during the First World War he came to believe in the benefits of state intervention in the economy. However, after the war, in the mid-1920s, he changed his mind and adopted "the principles of undiluted laissez-faire" which is comparable to the ideas of today’s free market economy.

By Sidharth Mishra

There is subtle political message going out from the Kisan (farmer) agitation on the borders of the national Capital. It has to do with politics of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which is refusing to playout inside the national Capital. The decision of the agitating farmers to lay siege of the national Capital by staying put on the borders and not entering the national Capital has poured hailstorm on the plans of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to liaison with the farmers for 2022 assembly polls in the three northern states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

By Sidharth Mishra

Delhi is the city which travels from one crisis to another, seldom resolving either. At least that has been the story of the national Capital in the past few months, ever since the pandemic dawned during the spring of 2020.

Last week the newspaper headlines were going berserk on the fresh wave of the Coronavirus cases and the related fatalities, this week we are deluged with the information of farmers of Punjab on the march to Delhi. They are the same farmers who allegedly turned the city into a gas chamber burning parali (paddy stubble) in their fields, and now they with their ‘ominous’ presence left city’s traffic in a gridlock.

By Sidharth Mishra

As the country battles unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases, a report submitted by a parliamentary panel has pointed that absence of adequate beds in government hospitals and absence of specific guidelines for Covid treatment resulted in private hospitals charging exorbitant fees. The panel, headed by senior parliamentarian Ram Gopal Yadav, has also asserted that a sustainable pricing model could have averted many deaths.

Now what’s a sustainable pricing model? Taking example of Delhi, the nation’s capital and also considered microsome of the country, the hospitals made hay as patients died in hundreds. Delhi in fact is third only to large states of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the number of dead Covid positive patients. Its political leadership has repeatedly failed at rising to the challenge posed by the pandemic needing Central intervention for the second time within a period of six months.

By Sidharth Mishra

From being toast of those who saw a middle-class hero, an aka Amol Palekar of middle-of-the-road Indian cinema, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has graduated to be a ‘mass’ leader, as in a church congregation. Delhi Chief Minister attired in silk with his consort in attendance and bhajan singer Anoop Jalota singing Raag Darbari, completed the metamorphosis of leader who came to power pleading to fight ostentation to becoming a symbol of flashiness.

For those who may not know, mass is the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which culminates in celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. On Saturday last, when Arvind Kejriwal led the city in the act of worship, he was closer in imagery to the Diwali celebrations in princely states than any act of sacrament of sacrifice. The Indian royal couples of the yore often saw themselves as incarnation of Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi. Delhi Chief Minister this Diwali night indulged in no less an act.

By Sidharth Mishra

While penning obituary to the memory of one of the best-known modern day intellectual from Bihar, Arvind N Das in year 2000, his mentor Dileep Padgaonkar wrote, “In his (Das’) eyes, Bihar was a metaphor for India itself. At a pinch, he would have deemed it to be the very centre of the universe. While he loathed its venal, caste-ridden, ineffective governance, the violent nature of its society, its decrepit intellectual and cultural life and the slothful ways of its elite, he never missed an opportunity to recall its rich cultural and spiritual legacy, the noble character of its long-suffering people and the revolutionary potential of its youth.” A social scientist, Das’ collection of seminal essays were published as book titled Republic of Bihar.

By Sidharth Mishra

Despite the intervention of Delhi High Court and its clear direction that the salary bills of 12 Delhi University colleges funded by Delhi Government be immediately cleared, there seems to be no relief forthcoming for the starving teachers and the staff of these colleges. Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia has now come out with an ‘audit report’ prepared by a functionary of his party, which claims that these colleges are paying salary to ghost employees.

This is startling move to cock a snook at the High Court. It’s not far to seek what’s the politics behind the Minister’s move to even risk the wrath of the High Court. At the bottom of the problem is the financial model of subsidy which has been followed by the Delhi Government, which has left it hard put to release funds for salaries, not just for these colleges but various other arms of the government.

By Sidharth Mishra

Narratives do matter in polls. They increasingly started to influence voting patterns ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) unveiled the power of social media during the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, emerging as a political force from almost nowhere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi quickly picked the threads and patented it during the 2014 campaign.

The spin masters and media strategists were never as important they are today in any poll campaign. Though the best-known political spin master Prashant Kishor is conspicuous by his absence from campaign in his home state, the spin of words is complementing the pace and gruel of campaign at grassroots.