Delhi Confidential: see you, v-c?

And in the case of Sushanta Duttagupta, V-C of Visva Bharati, the HRD Ministry is all set to institute an inquiry against him.

President Pranab Mukherjee, the Visitor of all central universities, is holding a conference of its vice-chancellors on February 4-5. But with some V-Cs recently hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, will some of them decide to avoid the spotlight this time and fail to turn up? In fact, a file on alleged diversion of funds by one of them, Delhi University V-C Dinesh Singh, has been forwarded by the HRD Ministry to the President himself. Then again, the inquiry committee against IGNOU V-C Mohammad Aslam has concluded that some allegations against him are indeed true. And in the case of Sushanta Duttagupta, V-C of Visva Bharati, the HRD Ministry is all set to institute an inquiry against him.

No place for Setalvad
Discussions have started on the new National Education Policy, and all eyes are on the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the top advisory body. But all that focus is not necessarily on the new policy. Some of it is on the expected “major changes” in CABE, which is likely to meet soon. The buzz is that activist Teesta Setalvad, who took on Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat CM during the riots of 2002, is on her way out.

Don’t sneak out, please
As a day-long workshop on ‘Streamlining Government Communication’ started, Information & Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka told the 100-odd joint secretaries, private secretaries and directors at the venue: “Aisa na ho ki abhi inauguration ke baad aap sabhi apne karyaalay mein dheere se khisakne ka prayas karein (Please don’t try to sneak out of here to go to your offices once the inauguration is done).” He also reminded them that the organisers planned to maintain an attendance sheet for all the sessions. Apparently, the workshop had to be postponed from its original date of January 15 because many officers had deputed their juniors to attend.

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Too hot in special cell
The Delhi Police’s Special Cell chief is on damage-control mode after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) accused his force of framing former militant Liaquat Shah. Apparently, Special Cell chief S N Srivastava met NIA DG Sharad Kumar last week, after which the agency removed the link to the controversial chargesheet from its website. On Monday, Srivastava was at North Block to meet the officer dealing with internal security.

With love, from BJP
With five days left for the Delhi elections, the BJP does not want to leave anything to chance. For the first time, the party’s state unit will send personal letters to voters in the capital. According to leaders, the letters, addressed to the head of the family, will start reaching letterboxes within the next three days. Apart from seeking votes and offering promises, the letter will list the development work initiated by the Narendra Modi government. It was initially thought that the letter would be sent on the PM’s behalf, but that was later ruled out.

Choosy Irani
HRD Minister Smriti Irani is said to be so particular about the fish she eats that she apparently chooses them personally from an outlet of the Gujarat Fisheries Centre Cooperative Association Limited in Yusuf Sarai near Hauz Khas.

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