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Journalism of Courage
Diplomatic sidelight
Shah Rukh Khans two-hour detention at the New York airport sparked off such a media outrage throughout Friday that the US embassys spokesperson had to give a personal touch to the apology that was issued in the evening. Peter Vrooman,who is embassy spokesperson,said his daughter always asks to see SRKs Chammak Challo hit song in the movie Ra.One. Khan,incidentally,performed the Chammak Challo gig at Yale University as well.
Painful Process
DEFENCE Minister A K Antony suffers from spondylitis of the back and neck and has been occasionally seen wearing a medicinal belt to ease the pain. Recently,while talking to some of his friends,he was asked what he thought of the series of controversies that have been plaguing his ministry and the armed forces. Without a blink,Antony replied that the media and the controversies were like his spondylitis that one had to live with,with a smile on the face.
Mamatas Message
LAST year just ahead of the winter session of Parliament,the India Against Corruption IAC team had been pleading with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to use her influence with the Prime Minister to get the Lokpal Bill passed. Today,when news came in about the Jadavpur University professor who had been arrested for circulating a cartoon on Banerjee,the IAC,which claims to be a strong votary of freedom of expression,obviously found itself in a fix. It shared its anguish through a tweet. We may make fun of it,but this govt and its allies r slowly turning freedom of expression into some kind of sick joke, it said. But the reluctance to hit out directly at Banerjee shows that its disillusionment with Banerjee might not be complete just yet.
Learning Lessons
THERE seems just no end to HRD Minister Kapil Sibals woes on his education initiatives. Several of his Bills are stuck in Parliament for almost two years. Now,his proposal to replace the IIT-JEE with a common entrance test for all the engineering colleges has also run into rough weather. The IIT faculty federations have not only opposed it but also passed a formal resolution to this effect after their meeting with the minister earlier this week. The ministry had been so optimistic of being able to convince the faculty that it had scheduled a meeting of the IIT and NIT councils this weekend,and another with the Central Advisory Board of Education CABE next weekend,in order to get all round approval for this proposal. Rebuffed by the faculty federations,the ministry has now postponed all the three meetings.
Gag Order
AMIDST uncertainty about the summoning of the three service chiefs by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence to seek their views on defence preparedness,committee chairman Satpal Maharaj has written to all the members requesting them not to talk to the media about the deliberations of the committee. This comes in the backdrop of reports that the committee had summoned the three service chiefs on April 20. Maharaj had clarified that no official correspondence had been issued to them so far to call them on that date.
