Tags:
Journalism of Courage
FALSE CLAIM
Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath made yet another blooper during the Stree Shakti award ceremony at Vigyan Bhawan on Friday. She claimed India was the first country to give voting rights to women. Incidentally,the first country to have universal adult suffrage was New Zealand in 1893.
THE POET PM
THE uncharacteristically aggressive speech of the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday,during which he repeatedly took digs at the BJP,had significant digressions from the written text,specifically the Urdu couplet. He has had an interest in Urdu poetry for long,and it is holding him in good stead now.
COLD SHOULDER
WHEN Commerce Minister Anand Sharma was trying to convince the UAE government to invest in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor,during his visit to Abu Dhabi last month,some of the Sheikhs were non-committal. Sharma was politely told that UAEs experience in doing business with India had not been very happy. The reference obviously was to the fate of two prominent investments that of Emaar which got embroiled in the CWG mess,and of Etilsat whose telecom licence was cancelled along with others following the 2G spectrum scam. Sharma understood UAEs concerns but then advised his hosts to find right partners to invest in India. Emaar had tied up with MGF while Etilsat had gone with Shahid Balwas DB group. Sharmas reply is said to have forced the Sheikhs to say that they would consider Indias proposal to invest in DMIC.
WAIT GETS LONGER
THE wait for the much-delayed National Judicial Appointments Commission,which is expected to replace the collegium system of appointment of judges,has just got longer. Not enthused with what Law Minister Ashwani Kumar proposed as the possible composition of the body,the PMO has asked the Justice Ministry to make it more broad-based. While Kumars plan was to limit the composition to members drawn from or recommended by the government and the judiciary,the PMO wants some representatives from the Opposition as well.
