Chasing minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh for dates
While his colleagues in the Union council of ministers flaunted the first 100-day accomplishments of their ministries last month, Janata Dal (United) leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh couldn’t highlight the work done by the panchayati raj ministry (one of the two ministries headed by him). The reason? The minister and his officials couldn’t finalise a date for the press conference due to the former’s packed schedule and frequent trips to his home state in the aftermath of floods.
From 15 to 30 September, different central ministries were busy showcasing their achievements. While Singh briefed the media about the achievements of his other ministry—fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy—at an event on 17 September, panchayati raj ministry officials had planned a separate event.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t quite squeeze their event into the minister’s calendar.
Due to his frequent trips to Bihar, the minister had to cancel attending two important events organised by the ministry in the Capital at the eleventh hour.
Sources say Singh was asked by his party to be in Bihar in the last week of September, due to which he couldn’t attend the national workshop on People’s Plan Campaign and national conference on the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, which was attended by around 300-plus panchayats. The two events were eventually inaugurated by Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, S.P. Singh Baghel.
Parody song enters Maharashtra poll campaign
An unusual Marathi pop song Taambdi Chaamdi, which talks about how brown skin gleams, has enthralled EDM and rap enthusiasts across the world, with reports of the song being played at international clubs too. Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, political enthusiasts are being entertained by a parody version of this song, Mahayuti Jaadi Chaamdi (fat skin of the Mahayuti), which the Congress as well as the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) posted on their social media accounts.
The parody song wraps up the ruling Mahayuti parties’ alleged graft in a rap, replacing the words from the original song “chamakte lak lak lak” (glitters) to “lakh lakh lakh”, alluding to the lakhs of rupees that the Mahayuti government has allegedly swindled.
The parody is pure propaganda, but visuals of chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar sporadically dancing and grooving on EDM beats elicit some laughs.
Even Kratex, the artist behind Taambdi Chaamdi, who was attending a function along with MLA Rohit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, saw the parody and was amused, a leader from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP said.
Heartburn in railways
The Modi government’s U-turn on its ambitious reform to merge the eight services of the Indian Railways into one has left a section of the railway bureaucracy fuming. Civil service officers within the railways feel that the government has buckled under pressure from officers of the engineering services, who wanted to go back to the earlier status-quo.
The probationers, who had been recruited into the unified Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS), are the most worried. In the last two years, they have not only been given no postings, but have also been given ad-hoc training combining technical and non-technical training. Now, they will possibly have to be allocated different sub-cadres based on their expertise, which is becoming a cause of concern for them.
Since the move to roll back the reform is being perceived as contradictory to their terms of employment, some say, they may go to court challenging the government’s U-turn.
When Wangchuk was in Modi govt’s good books
The railway ministry’s recent decision to demerge eight services and go back to the old system of recruiting officers through two separate examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission has an interesting backstory.
The idea to merge the railway services into a single service—the Indian Railway Management Service—was first floated in 2017 during Piyush Goyal’s stint as rail minister.
Back in December 2017, Indian Railways had held a special conclave in Delhi on ‘Sampark, Samanvay, Samvad’ to break silos among the different railway services. Goyal had urged rail employees to think out of the box to enable “game-changing reforms”.
The guest speaker at the event, held at a five-star hotel in Delhi, was Sonam Wangchuk, the Ladakh-based climate activist, scientist and innovator, who is in the government’s crosshairs today. Speaking at the occasion, Wangchuk had said how he felt that in the face of climate change, the railways is a luxurious way to save the planet.
Seven years down the line, Wangchuk is facing the heat for seeking statehood for Ladakh. He was detained near the Delhi border by the police on 30 September as he along with his team embarked on a padyatra from Leh to Delhi to press for their demand.
Wangchuk and others with him were released on 2 October.
Since then, he has been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike at the Ladakh Bhawan.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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