Back to the cadre
The appointment of S.B.K. Singh, an IPS officer of the 1988 batch of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, as Delhi Police Commissioner (DCP) on additional charge has come a relief to the whole cadre.
For four years now, Delhi had a commissioner from outside the AGMUT cadre—a trend that had started with the unprecedented appointment of Rakesh Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre officer, as DCP in July 2021. The move raised eyebrows in bureaucratic and political circles at the time, with the Congress asking if the government could not find a single eligible officer from the AGMUT cadre to head the Capital’s police force.
A year later, the government again appointed Sanjay Arora, an officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, to head the Delhi Police force in July 2022. Arora went on to hold the position for three years.
While Singh, who is the chief of Home Guards, has only been given additional charge, the return of an AGMUT cadre officer at the police helm has boosted the morale of the cadre.
It is not just Delhi. Even the Jammu & Kashmir Police, which has been part of the AGMUT cadre since 2019, is headed by Nalin Prabhat, an Andhra Pradesh-cadre officer.
Chhattisgarh CM in flight mode
The arrest of two nuns on charges of trafficking and religious conversion in Chhattisgarh has landed the BJP on the backfoot in Kerala, where Christians account for nearly 19 percent of the population.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), which has been in power in Kerala for almost a decade now, has naturally sensed that. Earlier this week, a delegation of Left leaders comprising CPM’s Brinda Karat, CPI’s Annie Raja and Kerala Congress (M)’s Jose K. Mani, among others, visited Chhattisgarh and met the nuns in a Durg jail where they were lodged till they obtained bail Saturday.
The leaders also tried to meet Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and submit a memorandum. However, despite their repeated attempts, the meeting didn’t take place.
Sai’s office maintained that he had prior engagements, including a cabinet meeting. As luck would have it, on their way back to Delhi, the delegation found that the CM was also headed to the national capital on the same flight.
Eventually, that is where Raja and Mani handed over the memorandum to Sai, who apologised to the Left leaders for his inability to meet them earlier.
Long wait for Rajeev Shukla
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla will have to wait longer to become the board’s interim president. The reason is the newly introduced National Sports Governance Bill in Parliament.
The bill seeks to bring the Board of Control for Cricket in India under its purview and there is speculation that it may change the rules for appointing the board’s next chief.
Though Shukla has said the BCCI will first review the bill before giving any official reaction, sources suggest that top government functionaries have asked him to wait for now.
Roger Binny’s term as BCCI president ended on 19 July, but he has not yet been asked to vacate his office. Shukla, who was expected to take over as interim president, will now have to wait till there is more clarity on the situation.
Rohtak BJP’s strange appointments
A matter of odd appointments has left political circles in Haryana’s Rohtak buzzing.
BJP district president Ranbir Dhaka issued a letter appointing two individuals to non-existent posts in the party’s organisational structure—advocate Ankush Biddu as “chief principal secretary” and Naveen Rohilla as “principal secretary”.
The letter, which surfaced on social media and went viral, was swiftly withdrawn after the gaffe drew sharp scrutiny. Dhaka, scrambling to douse the fire, claimed the appointments were a clerical error, asserting: “Such posts don’t exist in the BJP.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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