Games being played in ‘Corruption Bureau’
Knives were out for a fight to the finish by the top leadership in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), until a “surgical strike” on Tuesday night by a special team under National Security Advisor Ajit Doval disarmed the two sworn enemies—CBI chief Alok Verma and his number two, Special Director Rakesh Asthana. But surprisingly, Verma moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday and Asthana earlier to the Delhi High Court for relief in no time. It was clear that they were expecting “a massive attack” from each other as well as from the Prime Minister’s Office. Their petitions were seemed to be ready in advance.
Asthana’s close senior advocate friend in the High Court, as a strategy, chose not to appear for him, and, instead, sent a former Additional Solicitor General to argue the matter in an alleged bribery, extortion and forgery case. However, Asthana’s advocate friend appeared in a special CBI court for arrested Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar. The court sent Kumar to seven-day custody of the CBI in the same case.
Kumar was the second-in-command to Asthana, who is the prime accused in the case The CBI told the high court that Kumar was part of an alleged extortion racket being run in the garb of the investigation. Expensive lawyers appearing for Kumar clearly indicated that his former boss, Asthana, was taking care of his subordinate’s legal battle.
Meanwhile, it has been alleged by a top Cabinet Minister and some BJP leaders that Verma was “playing” in the hands of some Congress leaders and certain disgruntled saffron party leaders, who were keen to stoke the fire by getting the CBI to register an FIR in the French Rafale purchase deal.
It is being alleged that certain legal hawks of the Congress had “helped” Verma in preparing his petition for the Supreme Court. It looks like it will be a long battle, which may find its echo heard even in the 2019 general elections.
Satya Pal cannot be chancellor
The Minister of State for Human Resource Development (Higher Education), Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation, Dr Satya Pal Singh, is a very religious and spiritual man. He has been waiting for long to become the Chancellor of Haridwar’s reputed Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya. It seems the former Mumbai Police Commissioner won’t be able to see his dream coming true.
Top officers in his ministry had sought legal opinion to avoid any unnecessary controversy. The Law Ministry clarified that the Chancellor’s post was not an “office of profit”, but that the university’s decision to appoint Singh had been challenged in court of law.
Singh was advised by his bureaucrats not to accept the offer since the matter was “sub judice”. Surprisingly, the HRD Ministry took over two months to offer this advice. Singh is very unhappy about this undue delay.
Singh was looking forward to heading Gurukal Kangri as he has a literary, artistic and scientific bent of mind and has special interests like study of comparative religions, education, culture, history and spirituality. Among the several books that he has written, two, The Search for Man in Hindi (Talaash Insan Kee) and Science & Spirituality are quite popular. Currently, he is working on four books: Encounters with Politicians, Before Joining Politics; The Challenges Before Indian Police; The Timeless Time; and The Communal Harmony, the Roots We Have Ignored.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Singh emerged as a “giant killer” by defeating Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh from Baghpat.
‘Congress Gayi Tel Lene’
As the nation is moving fast towards Assembly elections in several states in November and December, one should be ready to come across many hilarious episodes. One such happened in Indore on Tuesday, causing embarrassment to the Congress.
BJP leaders and many others had a hearty laugh over Indore Congress MLA Jitu Patwari’s “oily utterance”. In a video of the Congress’ door-to-door campaign, Patwari was heard telling a potential voter to protect his interest and not to bother about the party. In April, the Congress had named Patwari as among the four working presidents of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee.
During his door-to-door campaign in Indore, the MLA from Rau was heard telling a man, “Aap mera khayal rakhiye, meri izzat rakhiye, party gayi tel lene (you take care of me and my reputation, let the party go to hell).” Patwari told The Sunday Guardian that “I was not referring to the Congress but to the BJP during my interaction.”
Chinese footprint In Indian varsities
The Intelligence Bureau is alarmed at the establishment of a Confucius Institute in Mumbai University. China’s Confucius Institute, which is supposed to be an overt organisation of intellectuals, is reportedly being used by Beijing across the world for gathering information and recruiting “agents of influence”. Confucius Institute is planning to set up similar centres in Vellore, Coimbatore and Kolkata. The IB has sounded an alert to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Home Minister Rajnath Singh is said to have instructed top officials to work out a mechanism to tackle the challenge of Chinese penetration of educational institutions. The domestic espionage agencies have been asked to keep a close watch on Indian universities/colleges and student exchange programmes following several memoranda of understanding signed with the Chinese.
BJP preparing book on urban Naxals
The BJP is giving final touches to a book on “urban Naxals”, which will be released in March 2019. “It will be a detailed account of how youths from urban and rural areas are misled,” Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha president Poonam Mahajan, who is giving final touches to the book, told The Sunday Guardian. She is the daughter of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and an MP from Mumbai North Central.
The well-researched book will have nine chapters by different writers who have spent considerable time in the Naxal-affected areas in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and various urban pockets of northern India.
The saffron party’s students and media wings, of late, have been organising seminars on the threat from “urban Naxals” in universities and colleges across the country.