Lucknownama

BSP men to retaliate by launching an awareness campaign on how the Opposition parties had conspired to prevent her from becoming the PM. But why was Mayawati silent this time?  For Congressmen,a programme is worth it only when it hurts Mayawati. Maybe,Mayawati has realised this.

Fighting the foe
Jagdambika Pal,Congress parliamentarian from Domariyaganj and former president of UPCC,had a difficult time convincing the state leadership when his bitter foe in district politics Uma Shankar Patwa was almost on the verge of joining the Congress along with Sunil Shastri,son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Patwa,a businessman of Siddharthnagar district,was supposed to join the Congress along with Sunil Shastri. Patwa’s brother had contested the assembly election against Jagdambika Pal as well as against his wife in the urban local body polls. As soon as Pal learnt about it,he spoke to state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi. But the Congress faction opposed Pal and insisted that Patwa was a clean person who would help the party in eastern UP. Ultimately,Pal’s efforts succeeded and Joshi shut the door on Patwa.

Bowing to the past
What led to Vikram Singh’s ouster as the DGP and that too just about eight months before his retirement? There is a lot of speculation,but the only person who knows the reason is Chief Minister Mayawati and she has not spoken about it. But before he was removed,Singh was reportedly reminded of the time when he was posted as the ADG on deputation with the Central government,waiting for promotion as DGP,and the state government called him back and made him,first,special DG out-of-turn and then DGP,again ignoring his seniors. Singh was also told that he had the longest innings of two years as the DGP in the country’s largest state in many decades.  The message to Vikram Singh was obvious: You have had enough; it is time for someone else to take over.

CSIR’s foundation day blues
The foundation day celebrations of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Lucknow were a disaster from the word go. The four scientific institutes — National Botanical Research Institute,Central Drug Research Institute,Indian Institute of Toxicology Research and Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants — were first celebrating the day separately in their own premises and then later in the day they celebrated together. The first setback came when Professor S E Hasnain,Vice-Chancellor of Hyderabad University,who was the main speaker in the evening,could not make it due to ill health. While the institutes were trying to find another speaker,the second setback came as T Ramasami,Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology,who was the chief guest at all four places,was held up at Delhi due to Air India’s strike and could only arrive for the evening programme. The morning programmes were held with the head of one institute becoming the chief guest in another or former directors appearing as chief guests at last moment’s notice. In the evening programme,the foundation day lecture was delivered by former director of CDRI Professor Nitya Anand.