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Journalism of Courage
The high-level committee under former President Ram Nath Kovind that recommended simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies took help from various quarters to prepare its report. The panel consulted two bodies from the legal fraternity — the Bar Council of India, and Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad.
The latter is an RSS-linked outfit of lawyers started by late Dattopant Thengdi, who was also the brain behind the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. The content on the Adhivakta Parishad’s official youtube channel has a video in memory of late Arun Jaitley, a speech by Ravi Shankar Prasad, an address by RSS’s Arun Kumar, among others.
Break From Tradition
In a departure from tradition, the announcement about when the Lok Sabha poll schedule will be out was made a day in advance this time. The Election Commission issued a press release on Friday afternoon saying it will address a press conference at 3pm on Saturday to announce the schedule. The advance notice not only gives the public and media a heads up but also acts as a reminder to the government that it has to wrap up certain events before the Model Code of Conduct kicks in.
First Past The Post
Close on the heels of the Rules of CAA being notified, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) sent out an instant message that six refugee Hindus in Jaipur and 11 in Jaisalmer, both in Rajasthan, became Indian citizens. The RSS-affiliated organisation also tagged and thanked the local authorities of these cities for the ‘achievement’, and also congratulated the beneficiaries.
