By Sidharth Mishra

Ever since the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia wrote ‘a letter from the jail’ on the ‘politics of education’, one could not but applaud his another effort at attempting to convert his incarceration into some kind of a pilgrimage of penance.

The problem however with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today is that in the battle of perceptions they do not have the services of their generals of the yore. The well-known media persons/personalities who aided and abetted the growth of AAP in its formative years have all quit its ranks.

No wonder sheer banality has seeped into the narrative they have tried to create thus far in the current battle. First and foremost, the ingenuity of the founding years is missing, and in the present times they are largely ‘musing on the borrowed plumes.’ Last week in these very columns we discussed how Kejriwal’s cry of ‘our time has come’ was taken from Democrat presidential candidate nominee Reverend Jesse Jackson’s famous speech.

By Sidharth Mishra

In the midst of all the hullabaloo over the election of the mayor and now the standing committee members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, people in the city doesn’t seem to be really missing their civic councillors. The return of the fairs to the national Capital and its satellite cities are for sure an indicator that pandemic is over and people are coming out in large numbers to enjoy spring, though weather has somewhat played a spoilsport.

For decades, starting with the India International Trade Fair in November, Delhi from autumn to spring would hold a plethora of jamborees which had people participating in large numbers. Come Covid in 2020 March followed by the spell of lockdowns, there were no fairs in 2021 and 2022. 

By Sidharth Mishra

It’s been almost a year that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s elected wing has remained in suspended animation. The last elected house completed its term on March 31 last year but elections could not be held due to an amendment which was to be brought in the MCD Act.

Even after the passage of the Act, thereafter holding of the elections and declaration of the results, the elected wing is still to get functional in the absence of a Mayor. Competitive politics of a new genus has ensured that attempts to elect a Mayor has been thwarted repeatedly. Again an attempt is likely to be made on February 16 to elect Mayor with no guarantee that election process would get completed.

In the meanwhile, one wonders how many in the city have missed the elected members of the corporation. The hue and cry over fund deficits have died down, the Budget has been passed by the executive wing and nobody has actually complained. The maintenance of civic services too has remained at the same levels, if not better, as under the elected wing.

By Sidharth Mishra

We are into the second month of the year, the board examinations have begun and so has the discussion for admission into the universities and the colleges. For the past few days’ different universities specially the Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University have come out with certain announcements on the admission process.

 “For admission to the University of Delhi, it is mandatory for the candidates to appear in CUET- UG in those subjects in which the student appearing or passed class 12th,” a notification of Delhi University has stated. AMU and Jamia have expressed certain apprehensions and reservations. 

These broadcasts have followed the statement by the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Prof M Jagadesh Kumar that all the graduate admissions in the centrally-funded universities should be done through Common Universities Entrance Test (CUET). “A single examination enables the candidates to cover a broad outreach and be part of the admission process to various central and participating universities,” Kumar has said.

By Sidharth Mishra

Delhi University must not have ever felt such unwanted as its happening today. In the centenary years of this prestigious university, its main funding agencies – Central government-controlled University Grants Commission and Delhi government-controlled Directorate of Higher Education have squeezed the supplies.

What’s most amusing is that in midst of such financial crisis, the university community instead of coming together remains a divided house. While the teachers group backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have their guns trained on the Arvind Kejriwal government, the teachers aligned to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are baying for the centre’s blood.

All this is happening as the campus is getting ready to send a new set of teachers’ representatives to the Academic and the Executive Council. The focus of the campaign is rather on whose cadres are getting displaced in the ongoing round of permanent appointments of teachers, whose cadres getting absorbed.

By Sidharth Mishra

The cat and mouse game between the Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may have entered a decisive phase. Refusing to buckle down under the offensive by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Saxena, after the vitriolic attack let loose on him from the floor of Vidhan Sabha, has launched a counter. He first wrote a long letter to the Chief Minister countering him on each of the allegation made against him, and thereafter extended an invitation to Kejriwal for a tête-à-tête that is face to face meeting. Realizing the gravitas of the letter, Kejriwal has not been rank dismissive of it, as he did in the past calling the missives love letters.

However, the Chief Minister has tried to wriggle out from a face to face meeting saying that he is preoccupied with party work in Punjab. The sharp politician that he is, Kejriwal has tried an indirect counter by moving the Supreme Court for a ‘time-bound’ conduct of the Mayor’s poll. It’s another matter that his party councilors have been as much responsible for the disruption of the house proceeding as their BJP counterparts.

By Sidharth Mishra

The winter session of Delhi assembly concluded much before the winter ended in the national Capital. The grapevine is that the Lieutenant Governor did not allow the extension of the session as there was no evidence that there was any pending legislative agenda.

Going by the coverage of the Delhi assembly in the newspapers, it was amply clear that the proceedings of the four-day session had less to do with law making and more to do with mud-slinging. In the middle of the four-day session, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took out time to fly to Hyderabad to attend a political rally. Rest of the days were marked by rumpus.

The issue in the nutshell is that it was pointless to have the session. The only justification was the constitutional provision that the state assembly must meet at least once in six months. The sparks from the session have spurred another round of diatribe between the Chief Minister and the Lieutenant Governor with the latter taking umbrage to the Chief Minister calling him names from the floor of the house.

By Sidharth Mishra

Ministry of Home Affairs, to overcome the heat in the Kanjhawala murder case, has recommended suspension of 11 Delhi Police cops for dereliction of duty. This has been on the basis of a report filed by Special Commissioner of Police Shalini Singh. One is sure that the senior police official must have done a thorough job before recommending action. However, one wonders if she mentioned about the role of former Commissioner of Police Rakesh Asthana in dismantling several decades old PCR policing system.

Among the 11 cops suspended, six of them were on PCR duty and five were at a picket on the day of the incident. There have been news reports of the late response by PCRs and the fact that one of the PCR vans had not responded to a call at all. In all, two are sub-inspectors, four assistant sub-inspectors, four head constables and one constable have been suspended. They all belong to Rohini district.