By Sidharth Mishra

Crime in Delhi has travelled a long way from rustic law-breaking of 1990s to the glamorous gang wars of today. At the turn of the century when then Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma had persuaded central government to extend Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) to the national Capital, it had raised many an eye brows as Delhi was not known to have any organized gang.

Other than the terror-related cases, the outskirts of the national Capital and then emerging satellite hubs of Noida and Gurgaon were known for crime committed by the de-notified criminal tribe gangs. Sharma, who had vast experience of policing interiors of Uttar Pradesh found that the offenders after committing crime in the city easily escaped to the neighbouring states of UP and Haryana, shielding themselves from the Delhi Police.

To chase these gangs into the hinterlands and neutralize them could be done only by empowering Delhi Police with MCOCA. Sharma had realised that though Delhi did not have glamorous crime syndicates like the Mumbai underworld, it did have gangs which had roots in history and social topography of the region – the gangs associated with the tribes which had been notified under an act by the British as criminal tribes. Post-independence this act was de-notified, thus these tribes came to be known by the acronym DNT.

By Sidharth Mishra

This was followed a popular column on Delhi in a Hindi newspaper mentioning that KK joined Kirori Mal College because of its music and theater traditions. Poet William Wordsworth once wrote, “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive; But to be young was very heaven.” He did not write this about Delhi University but those who passed through its portals in 1980s-90s would swear by Wordsworth’s words.

By 1980s, the story of Delhi University was not only about St Stephen’s College on the main avenue and the one opposite to it – the Hindu College. It had travelled further down the road spread to Ramjas, Kirori Mal and Hansraj colleges

By Sidharth Mishra

The newspapers last fortnight carried headlines of the newly-appointed Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena meeting chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and two agreeing to work together for the benefit of the people. That the occupants of the two offices, mandated to work together, had to declare that they would work together reflects on failed governance in the national Capital in the past nine years.

Bureaucrats holding the office of Lieutenant Governor, staying put in their ivory tower of Raj Niwas, have always found themselves at the receiving end of the competitive politicking. With the new L-G hitting the turf running and giving clear signals that he would not restrict himself to the four-walls of his office, Kejriwal could have quite a challenge at hand.

By Sidharth Mishra

A few days back newspapers rightly went to town on a bureaucrat couple getting the Thyagraj statdium in the heart of Delhi emptied of the practising sportspersons to walk their dog. The bureaucrat couple has faced the music and have been separated by being sent on punishment postings of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Given to his wont for opportunity for publicity under any circusmtances, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was quick to announce that the stadium would remain open for practise by sportspersons till late in the evening.

Now would somebody tell Kejriwal that why did he keep this sports complex shut for days together ahead of Diwali last year for a political event. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with his wife and cabinet colleagues had offered prayers at the replica of Ayodhya Ram Mandir built at Thyagraj Stadium in Delhi.

By Sidharth Mishra

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has visited the Delhi University twice in less than a month’s time. On the first occasion, he accompanied Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu at the function to declare the centenary celebrations of the university open. The second time he came to give company to Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a seminar on political science.

The minister’s presence at the various celebrations to commemorate 100 years cannot be contested, it should rather be welcomed. However, the worry at hand is whether Pradhan is also aware of the challenge of Balkanization being faced by the hallowed university. Pradhan’s tenure in history should not be recorded as the one which saw maiming of the hoary campus.

The issue at hand is the move by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, cocking a snook at the Delhi University, to take over the prestigious College of Art and merging it with state government-run Ambedkar University of Delhi (AUD). Despite protest by students and teachers, a supine Delhi University administration and Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA), both controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), have not decided to contest the AAP government move.

By Sidharth Mishra

About quarter of a century ago, a very revered editor of a big national daily was caught plagiarising. His famous weekly column called ‘musings’ was found to be copied from foreign newspapers. Those were the non-internet days and access to foreign newspapers was limited to a very few.

A rival daily, which broke the story, had given the headline, “Musing on borrowed plumes.” If the focus and content of deliberations at the Chintan Shivir of the Congress party currently on at Udaipur, it could be easily summed up with the headlines, “Musing on the borrowed plumes.”

The ‘great thoughts’ emerging at the Udaipur deliberations are literally borrowed from the presentations made to Congress president Sonia Gandhi by poll strategist Prashant Kishor some days back. While Kishore has been side-stepped in the run-up to the introspection session at Udaipur, his papers have been adopted.

By Sidharth Mishra

A building in the outer lying areas of Delhi witnessed a devastating fire, the number of the dead are still being counted. With this headline splashed across the newspapers was also a news about Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia writing to Home Minister Amit Shah to stop the bulldozers bringing down encroachments and illegal buildings.

In their competitive politics over bulldozers, there is a lesson from the Mundka fire for both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government and the BJP-controlled municipal corporations. The reports revealed that the several storied building which went up in flames did not have license either from the fire department or the municipal corporation but still it had functioning offices and warehouses jeopardizing lives of people.

By Sidharth Mishra

If the much venerated English poet TS Eliot was ever asked to summarise the conclave of the Congress party at Udaipur, he would have altered the lines of his most celebrated work ‘The Waste Land’, and said, “It wasn’t ever expected to end with a bang, it did end with a whimper”.

The conclave – Chintan Shivir –, held after a gap of nine years, was largely expected to be an exercise in reiterating authority of the Gandhi clan and it managed to it successfully. If the party would have agreed to the setting up of the Congress Parliamentary Board, as demanded by the dissidents known by the epithet of G-23, the conclave could have been said to have ended with a bang. The much trumpeted reforms announced at the conclave only add to whimper.