The election commission has asked the centre to put on hold sub-quota for Muslims till the elections are over in the five states. Union law minister Salman Khurshid had announced on Monday that the Congress would provide 9% sub-quota to backward Muslims in UP government jobs if voted to power in the state. Earlier last month, the UPA had decided to provide 4.5 percent reservation to min
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project seems to have run into rough weather. The parliamentary standing committee on finance recently found the project to be “conceptualised with no clarity” and “directionless”. While the home ministry has voiced its concerns about the project, the planning commission has questioned the necessity of collecting iris
The supreme court on Monday directed the government to ensure that there are no deaths due to cold wave in the country. “Our heart bleeds when we see homeless persons sleeping without roof in this winter. You can’t permit your own children to die in winter,” a bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Mishra told additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran appeari
The Election Commission (EC) of India on Sunday issued directives to have all statues of UP chief minister Mayawati and that of her party symbol, the elephant, covered ahead of the polls in the state. EC directive entails covering of about 11 statues of Mayawati (nine at Lucknow park and two at Noida) and 77 elephants (25 at Lucknow and 52 at Noida) which, if not impossible, is a humong
For a party whose senior most leader (LK Advani) just came back from an exhaustive 40-day rath yatra against corruption, induction of Mayawati’s tainted former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha is egg on the face. The BJP has let Kushwaha in at a time when Anna’s campaign against corruption is the real flavour of the season, a wave most parties plan to ride on in the upcoming elections i
It is the not the first time a corporate house has taken control over media content distribution, however, a “strategic” investment by Reliance Industries in Network 18 does raise several questions on the objectivity of news on the cash-rich behemoth. Here is the deal in nutshell: Independent Media Trust, an RIL entity, will extend financing to Raghav Bahl-promoted N
An embattled general VK Singh is facing hostility from a procrastinating government. According to a news report published in the Hindustan Times, General Singh has told the defence secretary that he believes he is being treated in a manner as if he were the army
It might have been difficult to surpass 2010 when it came to corruption scandals, what with the Commonwealth Games and all that; but 2011 went far beyond that. So much that people finally came out in the streets to protest. Yet, the government remained paralysed, governance went on the autopilot mode. Is there any hope corruption will come down in this new year and governance will improve?
The much-anticipated Rajya Sabha session ended at midnight on Thursday without a vote on the Lokpal Bill. The Trinamool Congress called the adjournment "orchestrated chaos", almost echoing the opposition view that it was "choreographed drama". And all through this chaos, a sense of the house was nowhere to be found. The abrupt manner in which the house was adjourned
The Lokpal bill has finally been passed in the Lok Sabha. It should have been a historic moment, coming as it did after a wait of 43 years. But there’s no sense of achievement on anybody’s part. The government all along seemed determined to deliver a dude. Can the Lokpal, which will be set up under the current framework, effectively fight corruption?
Embattled union home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram got the much-needed relief when prime minister Manmohan Singh showered lavish praise on him in front of his home crowd in Sivaganga on Monday. “Since 2004, I have been deriving immense support from his enlightened leadership as finance minister and then as home minister. Whatever task is given to him, he performs with su
The Lokpal bill is meant for fighting corruption and hence the appointment of the nine-member body should be aimed at finding the right candidates for the job. Quota in this appointment was a political gambit aimed more at shifting the focus of the parliamentarians from legislating an effective anti-corruption mechanism to a debate on minority politics. That is exactly what happened during the
Giving a new twist to the Lokpal battle, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said, “Lokpal is our commitment and we will fight for it.” [See Sonia to fight for Lokpal, women`s quota] Determined to deny Anna Hazare any credit, she chose not to mention when and under what circumstances, that comm
Keeping CBI out Lokpal does two things. One, CBI continues to be under the administrative control of the government (through DoPT), as it is the case now, and prone to its abuse as a political weapon against allies and rivals alike. That is why CBI has failed in its job to fight corruption in the first place. Two, it denies Lokpal, the apex anti-corruption watchdog, an investigat
After uproar in parliament, the government has strongly taken up with the Russian authorities the matter of a move in Russia to ban the Hindu scripture Bhagwad Gita. A group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church had described the text as `extremist`. The Christian Orthodox Church has demanded a ban on the holy book due to conflict of interests between the Russian followers of Lord Krishna and
The opposition is in no mood to settle for anything less than the home minister’s scalp. Earlier, the winter session of parliament had begun with the opposition demanding Chidambaram’s resignation for his alleged role in 2G scam. And even before that clamour could die down, the opposition alleged conflict of interest and again demanded the home minister’s resignation. The oppo
After putting the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) into a big mess (a planning commission official had warned last year that a sub-prime like crisis was being built up by his policies that favoured private contractors and built up a huge liability for NHAI) in his previous role as road transport and highways minister, Kamal Nath wants to play around with Delhi’s urban landscape
The parliamentary standing committee last week submitted its report on the Lokpal bill, and it has only diluted the proposed institution further. [Read: Lokpal bill: panel shortchanges parliament] This prompted Anna Hazare to undertake his third fast on Sunday to press his demand for a
Kapil Sibal wants to clean up the cyberspace. No offensive content please, we are Indians. He says content providers should take note of Indian sensibilities. However, it seems the government is getting touchy and trying to kill the voice of dissent. Also see
The Congress party’s first-family loyalist and member of parliament Mani Shankar Aiyar is rarely sensible. So when he possibly is, one should take note. One such occasion came recently when he said, “I agree that the PM must spend much more time in parliament than he does and there must be a PM’s question time.” Given our prime minister’s continued a
