Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Street Law
While arguing for the petitioner NGO in the 2G spectrum allocation case earlier this week,advocate Prashant Bhushan produced draft minutes of an EGoM meeting,which the government counsel,P P Rao,objected to. Rao told the court that the secret document was not meant to be in the hands of Bhushan. He cannot get it even under the RTI. The court must ask him as to how he got it, complained Rao. Even before Bhushan could respond,Justice G S Singhvi retorted: You know the law and he Bhushan knows the law. He will tell you that he got it on the street and the argument will end there. This remark from the judge put the matter to rest and Rao refrained from taking it any further.
Musical Chairs
The Arjuna Awards function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday turned out to be a chaotic one after almost 900 invitations were sent out and about 600 guests turned up for the event at the Ashoka Hall which can accommodate only 400 people. Officials were seen hurriedly organising extra chairs and junior staffers raced against time to adjust the seating arrangements,carrying the chairs over the heads of amused guests. Rashtrapati Bhawan officials sought to blame the Sports Ministry which organises the event Rashtrapati Bhawan only hosts it saying it had distributed all the 900 cards. Nonplussed officials of the Sports Ministry,however,maintained that they had only distributed as many cards as had been given to them. In the melee,Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay,who came in a good 20 minutes late,had to be accommodated in the last row in a seat that was promptly vacated by an official.
Pressing Ahead
A Group of Ministers GoM is being constituted again to recommend steps to deal with the menace of paid news in print and the electronic media. The existing GoM on paid news had to be disbanded after its head,Pranab Mukherjee,got elevated to the position of President of India. The GoM is to consider a July 2010 report on paid news by the Press Council of India. Among other issues,it is likely to discuss an amendment in the Press Council Act to bring the electronic media within the fold of the Press Council,and amendments in the Peoples Representation Act to make paid news by political parties a cognisable offence.
Handing Over
After Vibha Puri Das,who got transferred to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs,another senior and experienced hand is all set to leave the HRD Ministry. Anshu Vaish,a 1975-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre,is to retire in a months time. Vaish is serving as Secretary,School Education,and,unlike Das,enjoys a good equation with minister Kapil Sibal. Moving on early,Sibal is learnt to have already zeroed in on a replacement for Vaish. The officer concerned is working in the Telecom Ministry,which too is under the charge of Sibal.
