Chandigarh Confidential

Getting a jolt

The petition,demanding copies of the entire record pertaining to retired judge,Nirmal Yadav,prosecution,was apparently a tactic adopted to delay the trial in the judge bribery case. She wouldn’t have even imagined that High Court would see through it and set a month’s deadline for the CBI court to decide the issue of framing of charges against Yadav and other accused in the case. A sense of shock was writ large on the faces of Yadav’s lawyers who,perhaps,were expecting a “plain” dismissal order.

Lack of Trust

When the stakes are high,politicians in Haryana it seems,have little faith in the army of law officers that Haryana Advocate General office has. For,withdrawing their power of attorneys from Haryana law officers,three respondents,including the Speaker,have now engaged private lawyers. The senior lawyers will represent the Speaker and a legislator in the defector MLAs case wherein Kuldeep Bishnoi had challenged the order of the Speaker upholding the merger of Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) legislators with Congress.

Polite,please

The judges of Chandigarh district court,in a recent meeting held by the District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) have been “advised” to be polite with the litigants and lawyers. The message was conveyed after a slew of complaints,against the conduct of newly appointed judges,reached a senior High Court judge. To avoid confrontation,the judges have been asked to keep their calm with lawyers. Also,trial judges were reminded to go for speedy disposal of pending cases.

How unfortunate !

He favours opening of liquor vends. However,a lawyer defending a liquor contractor in a case,conceded that the location of the vend could have been better. The vend was opened near a temple. Now,to defend his client,the lawyer said though there is nothing illegal about opening the vend but “unfortunately” there is a temple nearby. Surprised,the High Court judge confronted the lawyer. “The location of temple is not unfortunate. It is the liquor vend,which is unfortunately there”,the judge remarked.

The wait is not over

A Full Court meeting,which is attended by all High Court judges,was held last week to designate few lawyers as seniors. A total of 15 lawyers were contending for the coveted senior designation. The meeting,however,could not bear fruit as consensus could not be reached as to whether lawyers should be designated as seniors unanimously or by voting (among judges). Result: the meeting has been deferred to cast votes some other day.

Who was attacked?

More than feeling concerned about those injured in the recent violence in Bathinda,several Congress leaders,it seems,were more focussed on grabbing attention. There was a flurry of press releases by the leaders. While CLP leader Sunil Jakhar stated that attack was on Gurpreet Singh Kangar,the Malwa in-charge of Congress,Union Minister Manish Tewari in his press release condemned the “killing of Congress supporter”. Kangar,in fact,was not even present at the spot where firing took place while the person who was killed was from PPP. However,the Congress leaders,it seems,were in a hurry so as not to miss the next day’s newspapers’ deadlines.

Keeping fingers crossed

It was not very long ago that senior BJP leaders,including Sushma Swaraj and then party president Nitin Gadkari had declared at a public rally in Haryana that the BJP-HJC alliance is unbreakable and the HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi will become the chief minister if the alliance is voted to power in the next Assembly elections. After the change of guard in BJP at the national level,uncertainty looms large over the fate of HJC. As such HJC has only one MLA in Renuka Bishnoi to represent it in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. Now with BJP chief Rajnath Singh meeting INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala recently and deciding to contest the forthcoming civic body polls in Haryana without HJC’s support,the worries for Bishnoi appears to have increased. However,he can breathe easy over the fact that BJP and INLD are contesting the MC polls against each other on their respective party symbols.

Concerned over health

Political developments at the central level have once again brought jailed Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala in limelight. It cannot just be a coincidence that one after another,national leaders have suddenly become concerned about Chautala’s health. From BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to Union Minister Sharad Yadav,all have met Chautala at the Ram Mnohar Lohia Hospital. Prior to Chautala,his father and former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal had played important role in the national politics and the same is now expected of Chautala. He is yet to get a reprieve from the court in the teacher recruitment scam but now all eyes are set on the medical board,recently constituted at the instance of a court,for its recommendations regarding Chautala as it will also play an important role in deciding the future course of the state politics.

Agitation blues

Haryana Police and state government are busy these days dealing with major communal tensions and violence in various parts of the state. Be it a communal clash in Kaithal’s Pabnawa village over the marriage of a Harijan boy with Ror girl,or a case of religious intolerance in Rohtak’s Karontha village over a controversial ashram’s functioning,or agitations by farmers,the ruling state government appears to be suffering from a ‘power-fatigue’. It is the second consecutive term of Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government in Haryana. Over the last few months,several instances of communal violence have erupted in various parts of the state indicating how the ruling government is loosing its firm grip on the administrative control.

President at LPU

As President Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to visit Lovely Professional University (LPU),the rivals have been left curious as to how the private university,which was founded less then a decade back,managed to arrange this prestigious visit. The buzz is that one of the sons of the owners of the university has “managed” President’s visit through his in-laws,“who are very close to the Mukherjee”. However,others say that LPU has emerged as the biggest private university in the country and so deserved the recognition.

Lawless leaders

They may say that all are equal before law,but the adage does not seem true for our political leaders. Recently a BJP leader’s son was challaned for violating the traffic norms by a woman police officer. After this the BJP leader reached the spot along with his supporters and started misbehaving with the police official and also threatened to get her transferred. The matter reached some higher officials who intervened and sorted out the matter. However,a senior police officer bemoaned that when every one is equal before the law then why these leaders make a mockery of it.

Much in the name

The day the CBI arrested Former Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla,someone somewhere totally unconnected with the case lost a good night’s sleep. Congress MP from Sangrur,Vijayinder Singla was shocked when he received a message on his mobile that evening from a journalist friend saying it was sad that the CBI had arrested him. This followed a slew of phone calls from friends and well wishers. Singla,(the MP),say close friends spent several hours explaining to his friends that he only shared a name with Bansal’s nephew and nothing more.

Official residence?

It is an oxymoron if there ever was one. With Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal not attending his office in the main secretariat at all,the meetings chaired by him take place at his residence. The state PR department,however,does not think it fit enough to say that a meeting took place at CM’s residence. A recent press note stated that a meeting took place at the CM’s “official residence”. Does the CM also have a “non-official” residence in Chandigarh? Now that would be news!

‘Baby’ SAD

During the recent race for tickets for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls in Punjab,a SAD hopeful accompanied by his 10-year-old son met Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. After he was told politely that he cannot be given a ticket,the SAD leader said,“In that case,at least do something for my son.” Close aides of the deputy CM burst out laughing when Sukhbir said he will have to launch a Baby SAD in which his son can be made the general secretary. And who will the president of the Baby SAD? No prizes for guessing. Yes,Sukhbir’s son!

Bajwa monologues

Nothing is more disquieting in politics than the opponent’s silence. Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa seems to be learning this the hard way. While he is busy firing one salvo after another at the Badals,they seem not to notice. After the budget session,both Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son,Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal have left the job of counter-offensive to the party spokesmen. Sukhbir,who loved to take digs at Bajwa’s predecessor,Capt Amarinder Singh,is not showing as much interest in the successor. Instead,Badals have been training guns at Congress high command,leaving the party’s state leadership feeling “ignored”. No wonder Bajwa’s team is not putting in extra efforts in the press statements,most just have a different intro,with cut and paste job thereafter. Call it “mute control”.

‘Bullet’ on target!

Congress MLA Rana Gurmeet Sodhi is known more for giving roses (read hobnobbing skills) than firing guns. But he created quite a few ripples in political circles after the alleged firing,which left his personal assistant with a “deeply-embedded” bullet injury. The incident is causing as much disbelief in the Congress camp as that of Akali-BJP,which has commanded the Ferozepur police to unravel the saga of “bullet that was never fired”. Nevertheless,it has hit the target. Rana has generated enough publicity,say Congress sources,for demanding a seat in the Lok Sabha polls for himself or family. Whether he gets to contest from Ferozepur,is a different story. But it has given him a much-needed image makeover.