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Battling to regain lost turf

By Sidharth Mishra

As the events have unfolded, the ‘resignation’ of Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati from Parliament last week, hours after storming out of the Rajya Sabha over not being allowed time to complete her speech on alleged Dalit atrocities in Uttar Pradesh, has proved to be a drama albeit with an anti-climax.
Anti-climax because the BSP leader was forced to ‘resubmit’ her resignation as people strongly came to believe that Mayawati chose to ‘resign’ to survive the political crisis she was facing. With media starting a discussion on her resignation may just be red-herring as she had not submitted the quit papers in proper format, the BSP leader, to overcome any embarrassment, decided to resubmit her papers and force its acceptance.
This anti-climax has made the battle for survival, which the BSP Chief was fighting, grimmer than any time before in her nearly four-decade long political career.
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Slum society conflict

By Sidharth Mishra
The ‘maid raid’ in Sector 78 Noida last week, where domestic helps laid siege to an upmarket housing complex, brought rushing back memories of similar incidents which I have encountered in a nearly quarter-of-a-century-long career as a reporter. The first memory is a rather hilarious one.
There was to be a slum camp in Kusumpur Pahadi in South-West district of Delhi close to Vasant Vihar. During one of the demolition drives, the Pahadi residents were shifted to a rehabilitation colony quite far away. I recall a reporter coming with an amusing story the very next day. The bungalows in Vasant Vihar went without cleaning and stoves in the kitchens did not burn as all the maids and cooks had been carted away in the demolition drive. News reports the day after the Noida incident mentioned that the apartments decided to put off their kitchen fire but not let the maids in until those guilty of violence were identified.
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For the people, always and ever

By Sidharth Mishra

At the height of the so-called human shield controversy, veteran Editor Shekhar Gupta had put a question to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev in his talk show on what advice he had for Major Leetul Gogoi. The Major was the officer in the middle of the human shield controversy for having used a ‘stone-pelter’ to save a fast-deteriorating situation and brought stranded government officials back to safety.
Sadhguru said that “The decisions made in a battle field or by a fighting force should be left to the last man there because he is the one who is facing the bullets. None of us have any business giving him any advice. Not even me. I would not advise. I would say just do what is needed because you are risking everything. Who am I to tell you what should you do there?”
The preacher said just the right words, conveyed in the right spirit and the message went down well. We are fortunate to be safeguarded by an extraordinary military – Army, Navy, and Air Force. They are often called on duty for the safety of the citizens, helping to salvage a ‘civilian situation’ in addition to ensuring peace on the border. While discharging their duty in the civilian areas, the safety of the civilian population is of utmost importance.
A case in the point is the recent rescue operations carried out in the flood-hit areas of Arunachal Pradesh, where the IAF lost one of its finest pilots Wing Commander Mandeep Singh Dhillon. India lost one of its best helicopter pilots when an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) crashed in the thick jungles of Arunachal Pradesh while on a rescue mission last week.
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Strip Delhi Govt of power to govern DU colleges

By Sidharth Mishra

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a garage of loud mouths; there are ample evidences to the same. The people of Delhi acted foolish when they elected them in 2015 to run the Delhi Government that too with the brute majority in legislative assembly. In the past two years, they have acted always in most irresponsible manner and used a unique tool of calling special session of Delhi Assembly on their whims and fancies to discuss whenever a “grave matters” stared Delhi in its face. With “talking tamasha” done, they believe they have delivered on the challenge of governance.
They have no past record of governance and in the last two years they have neither showed the attitude nor the aptitude to run the city and address the issues of its residents. Last week they called a special session of Delhi Assembly where a resolution was passed to reserve 85% seats for the children of the residents of Delhi in the 28 colleges, which Delhi Government funds.
Let there be a clarification first. There are just 13 colleges which are fully funded by the Delhi government, in the remaining 15, 95 percent of the funds come from the University Grants Commission, thus Delhi Government’s claim on them is uncalled for.
This also shows that their assertion of funding 28 colleges is based on half-truth, as has
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Making of the 13th President

By Sidharth Mishra

Scholarly research is all about citations. But do citations tell the correct story? Not always, especially when it pertains to the political history of the country. Like the official records of the 14 elections held for the post of the President of India, in their bare form would seldom reveal the politics which went behind the choice of a particular candidate. Same would be true for the election of the 15th president.
In the case of the election of the 13th President, then Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had preferred Congress candidate Pranab Mukherjee over Opposition's choice PA Sangma. What was the real story of several who practiced politics of anti-Congressism deciding to go with the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee?
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Unnecessary wail over Kashmir Vale

By Sidharth Mishra

Your reporter’s acquaintances teaching on the various campuses tell him that he doesn’t have the requisite credentials to be part of the intelligentsia. His observations on matters of interest are dismissed by intellectuals to be that of a journalist’s superficial views. Well, they are a journalist’s views. Having essentially been trained as a grassroots reporter the observations may be lacking in nuance but certainly not in honesty.
The training to question an incident and seek an answer for the same is the ultimate test of a reporter’s skill; lack of fieldwork is the ultimate testimony of an academician’s intelligence in this country. Like there is this question – why is there such a hue and cry in the valley; and its cantankerous resonance in the corridors of the intelligentsia. Well, your reporter hasn’t found an answer to it all these years, and theorems held forward by the likes of Partha Chatterjee are all bogus.
However, here I must make the distinction between reporters and television anchors. The television anchors, howsoever, urbane or garrulous, have seldom done the necessary legwork to develop that “instinct” which comes from years of spending time in the field and not lecturing in the studio.
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India cannot witness an Ayub Khan moment

By Sidharth Mishra

Historian and political theorist Partha Chatterjee cannot be expected to applaud the efforts of Government of India, which is led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. The portal, which published his article, is known for following an editorial policy promoting the dismemberment of the Indian state. The article, “In Kashmir, India Is Witnessing Its General Dyer Moment” was a product for a perfect stage for a protagonist wedded to a particular ideology.
The cacophonous media debate which followed the article made the portal and author popular for having taken a large number of ‘hits’. In our Google ‘moment’, it’s the ‘hit’ which one takes makes one the person who should be ‘followed’. Again the follower may not necessarily be your admirer. But the followers and the hits make good business and ‘The Wire’ must have emerged much richer by having demolarised not just the serving Army officers but even the community of the veterans.
I do not recall, the editor of ‘The Wire’ or Partha Chatterjee having written an article titled “India’s Florence Nightingale Moment,” when the Indian Army goes nursing from one corner of the country to another helping people in times of natural and manmade calamities.
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