Billion-dollar question

All eyes are now on the Supreme Court to see if it will lift the veil on anonymous donors under the Electoral Bonds Scheme or not. The capital was abuzz with chatter on this front this past week now that the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, will hear electoral bonds case from Tuesday.

Economy watchers are debating as to whether the Supreme Court has signalled that it would decide the constitutional validity of this scheme once and for all. Electoral bonds has been a bone of contention between the Opposition and ruling party as to whether it disturbs the level playing field and creates an undue advantage to the ruling dispensation by creating anonymity over the corporate donors.

But the billion-dollar question is whether the Supreme Court will be able to wrap up the hearing and pass the final ruling before the next general elections in 2024! Only time will tell.

Safety ignored

Hosting global conferences under air-conditioned tents may not be a great idea as there is always the lurking fear of a fire breaking out. Recently, a two-day “under tents” conference, which was attended by seven Union Ministers, four Ministers of State, and the Chief Minister, was organised in Mumbai at a sprawling city ground.

The question “what if a fire breaks out?” crossed this reporter’s mind. There was hardly any fire-fighting paraphernalia that could be seen at the venue. One hopes the organisers are mindful of the participants safety when they host the event next year.

Let us go for a drive

It is not quite uncommon for politicians to level allegations and throw challenges during poll campaigns.

Senior Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar recently accepted the challenge made by Bharat Rashtra Samithi Working President KT Rama Rao. Rama Rao, while replying to a question in the Meet-the-Press programme on Saturday, ridiculed the Congress Government on its poll promises and offered to go on a joint bus tour of Karnataka to see the power situation there.

“Let us go together in a bus and see how well you are managing the power situation in villages,” Rama Rao said.

Shivakumar, who incidentally is touring the Telangana villages bordering Karnataka, readily accepted the challenge. “I’m game for it. I challenge you to fix a date and time. Let’s go there and see. We are delivering what we have promised,” the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister asserted.

Kerala says no to Bharat

Kerala seems to be in no mood to implement the NCERT’s recommendation to change the name of the country from “India” to “Bharat” in school textbooks.

Turning down the proposal, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it is not acceptable as the Constitution defined the country as India and not Bharat. He said it was politics that was driving the move to change the name of the country, as the ruling party at the Centre feared the politics of inclusivity represented by the idea of India.

Appealing the society to unite against the NCERT recommendations, he alleged that the Sangh Parivar was always against the idea of India based on plurality and co-existence. The bid of the text book committee is only to whitewash false history, he adds. Our Bureaus

Published on October 29, 2023