Delhi Confidential: Same Page

It was a rare occasion when social media followers saw both former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya on the same page.

BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya

It was a rare occasion when social media followers saw both former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP’s IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya on the same page. In the morning, Malviya tweeted quotes from late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on Veer Savarkar. Sharing an image, Malviya explained how Indira “recognised and hailed the legacy of great freedom fighter Veer Savarkar”. He mentioned her move to issue a commemorative stamp on Savarkar in 1970, that she donated Rs 11,000 from her personal account to the Savarkar Trust and ordered the Film Division to produce a documentary on him. Later in the day, during a press conference in Mumbai, Singh said: “As far as Savarkarji is concerned, you would recall that Indiraji had issued a postal stamp commemorating Savarkarji. So we are not against Savarkarji.” Malviya in his tweet had asked whether the Congress had given up on Indira “because it doesn’t suit the narrow bigoted politics of their current leadership?”

No Respite

A day after the 40-day marathon hearing in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case concluded, the five judges — CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer — decided to work from their chambers and not hear any cases in open court. However, for CJI Gogoi and Justice Bobde, there was no respite from the workload even in chambers. The two were part of five- and nine-judge benches that heard review petitions and curative writ petitions in chambers till 3 pm.

Allaying Concerns

At the recent RTI conference, Home Minister Amit Shah praised the RTI law but repeatedly said that the Union government was functioning in such a transparent manner that there was no need to file RTI applications for information. In the backdrop of concerns over the rank and tenure of the commissioners, some of them sitting in the audience looked nervous. Noticing their expression, Shah told them. “Information commissioners need not worry, because information commissions will exist as usual.”

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Amit Malviya

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