Maneka Effect

The UGC has already imposed a near complete ban on animal dissections at universities.

Maneka Effect

The HRD Ministry is hard pressed these days to meet the never-ending demands of BJP MP Maneka Gandhi in a bid to make educational institutions more sensitive to animal rights. The UGC has already imposed a near complete ban on animal dissections at universities. Sometime back,the CBSE advised schools to switch from leather to canvas shoes. But Maneka Gandhi is not satisfied. She recently met HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to request that CBSE-affiliated schools must not be allowed to keep animals or birds in captivity for study purpose. The CBSE has now shot off letters to schools saying no threatened species of plants or animals should be kept in captivity and used for study.

SENDING A MESSAGE

ITS not the message Union minister Virbhadra Singh would have wanted. Congress president Sonia Gandhi constituted the manifesto committee for Himachal Pradesh,which is going to the polls later this year,with Commerce Minister Anand Sharma as chairman. Virbhadra Singh,a former chief minister of the state,has only been included as a member in the committee,alongside other senior leaders like Vidya Stokes,Viplov Thakur and Kaul Singh Thakur. In an apparent bid to fortify his position ahead of November polls,Virbhadra Singh had recently demanded that the party must declare its chief ministerial candidate in advance. He is unlikely to be amused by the fact that he is expected to play second fiddle to Sharma in the manifesto committee.

GARNISHING THE FACTS

THE UPAs report card and the Prime Ministers speech on the third anniversary of the government both noted that Indias economic growth rate,though having slowed down,was still one of the highest in the world in 2011-12. The highlights of the report card posted on Prime Ministers Twitter account which is handled by his media team however put out a bigger claim. India,it said,was the second fastest growing large economy presumably,after China during this period with a growth rate of 6.9 per cent. While the Prime Minister was accurate,his media team obviously went slightly overboard. It either forgot about the Turkey miracle,or does not consider that country to be a large economy. Turkey,which is amongst the top 20 economies of the world,grew by over 8 per cent during this period,and has been one of the most keenly watched economies in the last two years.

WRITE STUFF

WHILE Congress president Sonia Gandhi has stopped writing for party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh,Rahul Gandhi is likely to start contributing to the Indian Youth Congress IYCs online magazine Yuva Desh. The young Congress general secretary is said to be positively inclined to contribute,though he is yet to specify when he would like to begin. Considering Rahuls interest in the IYC ventures,some politicians have already shown interest in the magazine. Last heard,Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh was giving an interview for publication in the magazine.