Below the line

A circular, purportedly from the office of the Minister of Railways, Communication, Electronics and IT, doing the rounds on WhatsApp on the very day the new Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, took charge of the portfolio, grabbed many eyeballs. The communication stated that the Minister had directed all officers and staff of MR cell to work in two shifts — the first shift from 7 am to 4 pm and the second, from 3 pm to midnight.

The forwards gave rise to speculations regarding what the IIT and Wharton educated Vaishnaw had in mind and whether it was possible to bring about such a revolutionary change in office timings for staff used to a 9 am to 5 pm schedule. Finally, it turned out that the notification was meant for just staff attached to the minister’s office and not all railway staff.

“The new timings are important as the Minister believes that there is a lot of work to be done and every minute counts for the Railways on a mission mode,” a person close to the development explained to some journalists seeking an explanation.

The hearing in the Telangana High Court on the Krishna water share issue between two Telugu States was in the news for a different reason, when a High Court judge observed that Telangana Advocate General was ‘Bench hunting’ — that is, wanted the case to be heard by another Bench. The matter related to a petition moved by two AP farmers against a GO on Krishna water use. The issue assumed importance as the Telangana Advocate General wanted the judge to recuse himself from the case as he was from Andhra Pradesh and that the matter be heard by a Bench headed by the Chief Justice.

In many instances we have seen judges recusing themselves from hearing cases, but this one had taken a different turn.

Seven years after the formation of Telangana, Telugu Desam Party President Chandrababu Naidu continues to be a topic of discussion in the State though he stopped actively involving himself in politics. The other day, Telangana Rashtra Samithi Working President KT Rama Rao (KTR) wondered whether the newly-appointed Pradesh Congress Committee President A Revanth Reddy would call Chandrababu 'the Father of Telangana’.

KTR was trying to ridicule the former TDP leader for describing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as ‘Telangana Thalli’ (mother)' as he took over as PCC President. A sharp-tongued politician, Revanth quickly listed out names of former TDP leaders that are serving as ministers in the Chandrashekar Rao Cabinet.

In fact, Chandrashekar Rao himself was in the coterie of Chandrababu Naidu in the late 1990s.

The LDF government returned to power for a historic second term in Kerala, riding mainly on the successful rollout of ‘welfare kits’ and ‘welfare pension’ programme. But the euphoria has been short-lived, what with its purported entrepreneur- and investor-friendly image being torn to tatters by the Kitex Group, a garments major and a big private sector employer.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tried to make a brave defence at a press conference in the State capital but chose to wind up abruptly after a sustained monologue. Kitex's flight out with a large project to Telangana has hurt for sure. The sustained and adverse social media campaign in its early days is more than the new LDF government may have bargained for.

The legacy of former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao is now back in politics as well as popular memory, thanks to a statue erected by Telangana Chief Minister and TRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao a couple of weeks ago. The location of the statue is quite interesting as it is next to the towering statue of Indira Gandhi at the Necklace Road junction in Hyderabad. But it looks away from her, as if it is symbolic of the parted ways. The state Congress leaders are obviously at their wits’ end as they neither can applaud or criticise the intelligent appropriation of the Congress legacy by TRS party given the silence of the high command of their party.

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