My Opinion

The Delhi government is all set to enforce the odd-even car plan from January 1. Police Commissioner BS Bassi said that a lot of effort is going in to it. However, the truth is that cars contribute just 9 per cent to Delhi’s pollution. According to a report drawn out by IIT Kanpur, road dust, at 56 per cent, is the biggest contributor to pollution in the national capital. This is followed by construction at 14 per cent and industries at 10 per cent. So, even with half the number of cars plying on Delhi roads during the application of the odd-even formula, the actual impact on reducing pollution levels will only be 4.5 per cent.

The last 72 hours have been witness to the murder of four engineers and a businessman in Bihar. When people watched the news of the kidnapping of a school student, it raised doubts in their minds over criminals in the state regaining ground and their morale being boosted. However, the government in Bihar is new and a few incidents should not be used to target its intent and capabilities. Nitish Kumar should be given a chance.

It is a matter of relief that the girl has been recovered safely. However, the police is treading very carefully in this case and is not divulging too many details of the incident or the kidnappers. The police maintains that doing so will not be good for the security of the girl and her future.

The truth is that Iraqi forces are not sufficiently trained to face fierce terrorists. However, the environment created against terrorism in the past few months and countries uniting in their fight against terrorism has troubled terrorists. It has given hope of a day when ISIS will be completely decimated.

Congress has been ruling Assam for the past 15 years. However, it is today faced with excessive factionalism and revolt. BJP, on the other hand, has been fairly successful in the local body polls. As a result, BJP leaders are hopeful of success in Assam if they put in some effort. Still, Congress is deep-rooted in Assam and the BJP’s road to power may not be as easy as it appears to them.

Rahul Gandhi’s 56-day vacation in February this year left the Congress facing several uncomfortable questions. Even party heavyweights had no clue of his whereabouts or what he was up to. After Rahul’s return, the opposition left no opportunity to poke fun at him. While some said he went on a foreign tour to understand India’s problems, others ridiculed Rahul saying he was out to train on delivering better speeches and had started speaking well after his return. It is precisely to avoid such reactions that Rahul announced his vacation to Europe on Twitter as soon as he boarded the flight. When he returns now, people will ask him why he went on a foreign vacation when he is so critical of PM Modi’s foreign visits himself.

There have been controversies in the past few months over certain content published in the RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya and Organiser. This time though, it is the Congress’ turn to be embarrassed over ‘Congress Darshan’. Party leaders have held Sanjay Nirupam guilty of the gaffe simply because he has earlier worked for ‘Saamna’. Truth is that Nirupam is himself shocked how such controversial material found its way into the magazine which runs under his leadership. Actually, the individual who supposedly penned these articles on Nehru and Sonia Gandhi just did a copy-paste job. He carried a simple search on Google and lifted whatever he found without even reading it. Neither the editor went through the piece nor did any of his colleagues. Now that the article has been printed, the writer has been sacked and Sanjay Nirupam has had to tender an apology.

Asiya Andrabi is no well-known personality. She doesn’t have many followers and only has the support of a couple of people. She has a house in Srinagar where she hoists the Pakistani flag. She then posts these pictures on social networking sites and gets on the news. This is her way to remain in matters of discourse. When terrorists like Hafiz Saeed praise Asiya Andrabi and write letters to her, it satisfies her motives. Refraining from discussing individuals like Asiya Andrabi and not showing their pictures will automatically finish such people.

The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation at the Vidhan Sabha over what he called were ‘flop raids’ conducted by the CBI at the office of Rajendra Kumar. The CBI on the other hand has said that they are investigating some crucial audio clips that they claim to have seized during the raids. The CBI has said they have found discrepancies in the manner in which tenders have been awarded from those clips. It would be interesting to see how Arvind Kejriwal would react if the CBI is able to prove all the charges against Rajendra Kumar.

Even Kirti Azad was aware that his suspension was bound to take place. The BJP top leadership has already decided on the course of action to be taken against him the day he decided to defy the party President’s summons to not hold a press conference. Amit Shah was waiting for the Parliament session to end. One will have to wait and watch, what action will be taken against the Darbhanga MP in the days to come

There is no harm in conducting a ritualistic ‘yagya’ but to conduct it at a time when the state is reeling under drought and condition of the farmers is anything but satisfactory, is completely out of line. According to non official figures, in the last one year about 1347 farmers have committed suicide in Telangana and the government figure puts it at 782 farmer suicides between June 2014 and December 2015. Recently even the call money scam was unearthed in the state. Questions are bound to be raised when a Chief Minister is seen to spend crores over a religious ritual at such a time. Chandrashekhar Rao however has said that he would not burden the state rather the cost is being borne out of his personal expense. But he should also reveal from where he has managed to get such a huge sum of money!

The Director General of BSF has said that the tragedy of the plane crash could have happened to anyone. He said it was sheer coincidence that at the time of the crash, apart from the pilot, a BSF technical crew was travelling on that aircraft. The DG also mentioned that Ministers and he himself have often travelled on this aircraft. The voice recorder has been recovered and sent for investigations which would ascertain the exact reasons behind the crash. However the feelings and sensitivities of the families of those who died in the crash would also have to be respected.