Delhi Underground: Unique step

Salaried MLAs

Congress MLA Devender Yadav’s decision to return his salary to the Delhi government has left a number of senior party leaders red-faced. While most agree it is a “masterstroke”, a senior leader said, “We are working hard and we deserve our salary, but now we come across as greedy.” AAP and BJP MLAs too support the view that despite the Delhi Assembly being in suspended animation, MLAs are working hard and deserve their salaries.

Reel vs real

On Independence Day, senior Ghaziabad police officers decided that 300 officers be taken for a movie screening — of Singham Returns — to them. Understandably, the officers were excited, but privately they did admit that to emulate Singham, they needed to work more on their fitness and physique.

AAP troubles

Since its inception, the AAP has grappled with complaints from within about the lack of inner-party democracy. And at the party office, ‘solutions’ abound. Sample this conversation between two volunteers. “I think we should have a separate section for inner-party democracy,” one volunteer said. “That makes little sense. Inner-party democracy can’t be improved like that,” quipped the other. “I don’t mean that. There should be a separate cell for such complaints. We’ll need an AC too, given the number of high-profile people from within who have complained… Shazia Ilmi, Captain Gopinath, Shanti Bhushan…,” came the reply.

View-point

At a seminar on the significance of Hindu College in the country’s freedom struggle, old rivalries between St Stephen’s College and Hindu College surfaced. Amid discussions about the cricket and football matches between the two colleges, former Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, a Stephanian, quipped, “The only thing that Hindu College had and we did not was a nice view of St Stephen’s College.”

Compensation

With the High Court taking a tough stand on expediting payment of compensation to rape victims, a heated discussion broke out between officials of the Revenue department and the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA). With the government arguing that releasing compensation would take several days, DLSA officials were heard trying to convince them to agree to the court’s stand. “We are giving all details, giving sanction, identity certificates, why can’t you release payments?” an official argued. The government finally agreed after the court admonished it for treating victims “callously”.

Old clippings, jokes…

After the launch of its anti-corruption number on WhatsApp, Delhi Police’s Vigilance department has been receiving several complaints in the form of audio and video recordings. But, officers monitoring the number are having difficulty sorting the complaints. Several clippings turn out to be very old. People are also sending jokes and images of the Tricolour to the number.

Fast on the Net

It is always a big challenge to get access to official court orders immediately after they are pronounced in lower courts, so it came as a big surprise in a high-profile judgment when the court order was uploaded on the Internet within an hour of being pronounced. Perhaps, it was because of the fact that the judge who pronounced the order also overlooks the e-court functioning of lower courts.

Selfies

During Amit Shah’s Vijay Sankalp Rally in Mahendragarh, Haryana, former MLAs, ward councillors and other office-bearers were busy clicking selfies as they waited for the BJP president’s arrival, who was late by almost three hours. Most clicked selfies and even made videos with a huge Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Narendra Modi poster in the background on the main stage.

One for ‘outsiders’

The uncertain political atmosphere in Delhi has given rise to several new parties or groups who represent a particular set of voters. While last year it was the AAP,  now it is the Samras Samaj Party which wants to fight for the rights of Purvanchalis. Its convener, Nagmani, former MoS for Social Welfare and Justice in the NDA government, believes that Purvanchalis need a chief minister of their own.. “We will launch our party from Ramlila Maidan within a month. There are 80 per cent outsiders in the city who are ruled by the other 20 per cent. We need rights to our homes that we bought with a lot of struggle. We will field one Purvanchali chief minister and two deputy chief ministers who have migrated to the city. One of them would be from minorities,” Nagmani said.