Delhi underground

New Delhi, April 20 a weekly column that tracks the rumbles and whispers in city.
Comedy of honoursLike every year, the Delhi Assembly awarded its best MLAs on Monday at Vidhan Sabha. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was called to honour the 14 chosen ones. But as Chatterjee applauded the MLAs for their dignified parliamentary conduct, one was reminded of the punches Congress MLA Bhishma Sharma, chosen for the award, exchanged with BJP MLA Vijay Jolly during the Budget session last month. The incident had led to the adjournment of the House and stern warnings. But what left Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit miffed, despite being one of the awardees, was the fact that none from her Cabinet shared the accolade for being nice in the Assembly.
Plan BEven as Delhi braces itself for the inauguration of the Bus Rapid Transit corridor on May 1, officials in charge already seem jittery and nervous. While only part of the corridor has seen completion of construction, officials associated with the project have already thought of a disaster management plan in case the corridor doesn’t become a success story. As an official remarked, the Rs 200-crore project could altogether be dismantled in case too much criticism came along its way. And how easily can that be done? A nervous official said: “The dividers on the road could simply be razed to make the road more spacious for vehicles to ply. It will be the same as before.”
A slip of tongue?At a press conference on the day of the Olympic Torch relay, held to announce the Delhi BJP’s dharna against alleged human rights violations by China in Tibet, party president Harsh Vardhan took recourse to the time-tested RSS terminology. He said the BJP was opposed to atrocities by the Chinese state on “our Hindu brothers in Tibet”. One wondered whether one had wrongly heard “Hindu” in place of “Buddhist” but Harsh Vardhan coolly clarified that there was hardly any difference between the two. This reminded one of the Sangh Parivar’s belief that all “India-born” religions are “Hindu” and that there are only two “non-Hindu” religions in India — Christianity and Islam — that were born outside the subcontinent.
In public interestRecent signs indicate the Delhi High Court has become extremely choosy about accepting public interest litigations (PIL). A two-judge bench assigned to hear PILs ticked off an NGO because its representative refused to reveal in court from where he got the documents to back up a claim of corruption against some officers of a public company. “It surely does not mean that every time someone drops a few documents in your letterbox, you come to court and file a PIL,” the bench observed. In another PIL challenging the process of promotions in a public organisation, the court advised the vigilantes to withdraw the case, dismissing their effort as an attempt to be “goody-goody”.
Identity crisisEven as the Olympic Torch Relay precipitated into the implementation of unprecedented security measures by the establishment, it also created problems for people who were not even remotely involved with the Tibetan agitation. Delhi Police personnel had a tough time determining exactly who should be allowed to enter the forbidden zone. And in their anxiety, a group of Japanese tourists roaming around in the area were mistaken for Tibetans waiting to launch a protest. The cops almost whisked them away to the local police station, only to let them off after loud protests by the tourists, who produced their passports in order to prove their nationality.
Policing the policeThe all-powerful Delhi Police seems to have no control over its personnel. For, it has “failed” to serve summons to an inspector, who is supposed to depose as a witness, for the last three years. While hearing a case under the Arms Act, a magistrate was informed by the investigating officer that the inspector could not be served a court’s summons as he was on earned leave. Realising that this was perhaps the ultimate summon to the cop and the ultimate excuse offered for its non-execution, the magistrate has now directed that the ACP be informed about this.
TailpieceNo rulebook says the vice-chancellor of a university and the Prime Minister of the country cannot be friends. But for some students at JNU, the university V-C’s famed “acquaintance” with the PM was in for criticism when a student leader, while on relay hunger strike to press for the implementation of the OBC quota, said: “The Vice- Chancellor is never in office because he is always in the company of his friend Manmohan Singh. If I was such good friends with the PM, I would have implemented the OBC reservation immediately.” Seems like the comment worked. JNU will be the first university in Delhi to implement the 27 per cent OBC reservation from the next academic session.
Express news servicePosted online: Monday , April 21, 2008 at 12:09:58Updated: Monday , April 21, 2008 at 12:09:58