Today in Politics: Women’s Bill to G20, the celebrations continue; at heart of both, PM Modi

As reported by Liz Mathew as early as January, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is set to be projected as the crowning glory of the Modi government’s pro-women push, starting with its welfare schemes. In his analysis of the voting on the Bill, Vikas Pathak, along with Manoj C G, wrote how and why the unanimous support for it marked a crucial shift in the politics of the Mandal parties.

The women’s Bill won’t be the only thing Modi celebrates on Friday. The G20 euphoria might have taken a hit from the diplomatic standoff with Canada, but come evening, PM Modi will take time out for an interaction with ‘Team G20′ at Bharat Mandapam, the grand, newly built venue for the Summit. Officials said around 3,000 people have been shortlisted for their “contribution” to the Summit, and will include functionaries like cleaners, drivers, waiters and other staff from across ministries. The interaction will be attended by ministers and officials of various departments.

Modi will also address the gathering, and have dinner with the guests.

On the Canada front, there won’t be any quick resolution. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that he wasn’t looking to “provoke or cause problems with India”, but urged New Delhi to take the matter of the killing of a Canadian citizen “extremely seriously” and help “uncover the truth”.

As Shubhajit Roy reported, India has hardened its position by suspending Indian visa services in Canada and asking Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in India. The Ministry of External Affairs has also described Canada as a “safe haven” for “terrorists, extremists and organised crime” – a language usually reserved for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In more heady news, the report by a committee formed to study various aspects of legalising cultivation of cannabis in Himachal Pradesh will be presented in the state Assembly on Friday.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu told the House on Thursday that the committee had visited Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh to study the legal, economic and administrative aspects of the issue. Uttarakhand became the first state to legalise cannabis cultivation in 2017, while controlled cultivation of it is allowed in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. J&K has units to make medicinal use of cannabis.

Sukhu said the committee planned to visit countries as well where cannabis cultivation is legal, but this could not materialise. One of those countries, of course, would have been Canada.

Former Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu remains behind bars, with a petition by the CID seeking his custody in the Skill Development Corporation scam coming up for hearing on Friday. The court is also expected to hear two other petitions, seeking Naidu’s custody in AP FiberNet and Amaravati Inner Ring Road cases.

Naidu has now been in custody for nearly a fortnight, having been arrested early morning on September 9. On Thursday, the TDP cited one more reason to release him, saying dengue deaths in the Rajamahendravaram Central Prison where Naidu is lodged hinted at a conspiracy to kill the senior leader.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, has hit the last leg of her foreign tour, and on Friday will hold a meeting with senior officials of the multinational conglomerate Lulu Group in Dubai, for possible investment in the state.

This June, Lulu Group Chairman Yusuff Ali MA had said that they would be investing Rs 10,000 crore in India on various ongoing projects over the next three years.

On her first foreign visit in five years, Mamata was in Spain earlier where, among other things, she met major football clubs to seek investment in infrastructure, and hit the jogging track dressed in saris and a pair of slippers.

Mamata’s Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, who is not so fond of foreign trips himself – his recent visit abroad was his third official one in 23 years of power – is headed for hotter climes as the Monsoon Session of the state Assembly begins Friday.

Over 1,000 security personnel have been deployed under a three-tier security arrangement in and around the Assembly, to keep at bay protests and rallies.

As reported by Sujit Bisoyi, the session is expected to be stormy, with the Opposition poised to raise questions about the growing clout – and role – of Naveen Patnaik’s private secretary V K Pandian, apart from other issues. On Thursday, a day ahead of the session, Patnaik expelled from the party a senior MLA who had raised questions over Pandian’s role.

The Assembly will have its own tryst with women’s history when it will elect six-time BJD MLA Pramila Mallik as the first woman Speaker of the state.

Finally, student union elections may no longer be the vehicle for a political career any more, as captured by Ritu Sharma in the context of a new Bill in Gujarat, but that has never stopped the Delhi University Students’ Union elections from raising heat and dust in the Capital.

On Friday, the polls being held after a gap of three years due to the pandemic, will take place for the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary. The ABVP, NSUI and the Left’s student outfits are in the race.

For some time now, the ABVP has held sway in Delhi University.

Watch out for: State-istically Speaking: In light of the women’s Bill, a look at women’s presence across fields, from the Cabinet to the judiciary; and for The Neerja Chowdhury column, to capture the straws in the political wind.