Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
BJP survey shows Scindia surging ahead of Chouhan
The Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP started a survey on its Facebook page on who is the best chief ministerial candidate for the state. The survey featured CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan besides Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia. The survey began in the morning and Shivraj took the lead over others. But the situation changed in the afternoon, when Scindia surged ahead and maintained the lead. The comment box was full of praise for Scindia, forcing an embarrassed BJP to stop the survey in the afternoon.
Judge behind sacrilege report is AAP MLA’s relative
Former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Ranjit Singh, whose damning report on the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab has given the Congress government and opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ammunition to attack the Shiromani Akali Dal, has an interesting past and present. Not many know that the former judge is the brother-in-law of rebel AAP MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira.
The judge, who had quit his career as an Indian Army officer to join the legal profession, first hit the headlines when he started representing Brig. Surinder Singh, the Brigade Commander who was sacked during the Kargil war. He was later elevated to the bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and was then appointed chairman of the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal.
His daughter was appointed a law officer by the Capt. Amarinder Singh government last year.
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Sehwag sought ‘tainted cricketer’ as bowling coach for Delhi team
After taking over as president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), news channel owner Rajat Sharma appointed former cricketers Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra and Rahul Sanghvi as members of the cricket committee. Gautam Gambhir was appointed “special invitee”. The committee recently met to select the new bowling coach of the Delhi team, with Sehwag insisting on the name of fast bowler Manoj Prabhakar. The only issue is that Prabhakar has served a five-year ban for match-fixing
Singing paeans to BJP and Narendra Modi
Haryana’s politics is incomplete without its election songs. Rural singer Jai Bhagwan Mittal, known popularly as Rocky Mittal, is a staunch supporter of BJP and PM Narenrda Modi. He has planned to write and sing 10 songs for BJP’s campaigns for assembly and Lok Sabha elections. While some songs will focus on the “good work” done by the BJP government in the state, some will highlight the “corruption” allegations against former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress. There will be songs on the Gandhi family as well, especially Robert Vadra, who was recently booked along with Hooda in a land scam case.
‘North-south divide’ in Karnataka Congress
A storm is brewing between Congress leaders Satish and Ramesh Jarkiholi and D.K. Shivakumar, with the former asking the south Karnataka strongman to stay away from their affairs in Belagavi district. The Congress leaders are at loggerheads after Shivakumar allegedly meddled in the urban local elections in Belagavi district through his close aide and party MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar. The Jarkiholi brothers are known to wield immense control over parts of the northern Belagavi. In an open message, Ramesh Jarkiholi has asked Shivakumar to mind his own business, and his turf.
Politicians give diplomat’s book launch a miss
Diplomat Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, currently secretary (Consular, Passport and Visa Division & Overseas Indian Affairs) in the external affairs ministry, had a disappointing experience last week. Mulay launched his books — Passport Man of India as well as the English version of his Marathi book, And the Gypsy Learnt to Fly — at Parliament Annexe on 28 August. The event was hosted by BJP MP from Jhanjharpur Birendra Kumar Chaudhary. For the launch of the book, Mulay decided to bring together an impressive gathering, inviting senior ministers such as Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, MoS Subhash Bhamre, veteran politician Sharad Pawar as well as journalist-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Kumar Ketkar. Unfortunately for the seasoned diplomat, most dignitaries chose to skip the event. Nobody except Ketkar, Bhamre and Goyal turned up. While Bhamre stayed only for some time, Goyal managed to reach around two hours late.
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Vacancy woes in WCD ministry
It has been a month since a joint secretary from the women and child development ministry, handling some very important issues, was transferred. While the ministry has sent several reminders to DoPT to fill the vacancy, there has been no movement in this regard so far. Senior officials in the ministry say a lot of important work on ‘One Stop Centres’, schemes from the Nirbhaya Fund, steps taken to curb cyber crimes against women, among other things has been held up due to the vacancy. The ministry’s frenetic calls to DoPT for a replacement are yet to bear any fruit.
Bureaucrats make rounds of PMO eyeing plum posts
Several retired bureaucrats as well as those currently serving in senior positions in the central ministries have started making rounds of the PMO eyeing the positions in various government departments that have been lying vacant for the past many months. The important ones include vacancies in the Central Information Commission, Central Vigilance Commission, Union Public Service Commission and Competition Commission, among others. Most of them believe that none of the jobs will go out without the PMO’s nod. With the ball in the PMO’s court, it remains to be seen who ultimately gets appointed to these positions and how soon.
(Contributors: Rohini Swamy, Chitleen K. Sethi, Maneesh Chhibber, Amrita Nayak-Dutta, Anshuman Kumar, Ruhi Tewari & Sanya Dhingra)