Kaur Group

Allegations of involvement in fake encounter do not deter Lieutenant General Bikram Singh from becoming Chief of Army Staff on 31 May this year, when General VK Singh retires. The former is currently Commanding in Chief of the eastern command and the front runner for the top job. Though there are allegations that Lt. Gen. Singh was involved in a fake encounter, there are many things that favour Singh. The first and an important one is that he will be the senior most three-star officer in May when Gen. Singh retires. However, what could offset his achievements is a case where he faces allegations of getting an innocent man belonging to south Kashmir’s Anantnag district killed in a fake encounter in March 2001. But his closeness to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s family may prove heavy on petty allegation. As some would say, what matters is that he is a member of the Kaur (not Core) Committee.

The “Dark” Truth

Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member from Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi resigned from several positions in light of the fresh controversy related to a CD. The two clips were made accessible to all and sundry thanks to the powerful social media. Few big media houses probably did not have the gumption to make it public because of several reasons. Though Singhvi has maintained that the CD is morphed and this was an attempt to malign his image, but in a society like ours this was not a pardonable act. When the process of noted lawyer’s resignation was in progress, a senior leader within the Congress party quipped, “Had he switched off the lights, he would have saved both… electricity bill and also his reputation.”

Money Matters

The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav is pushing hard to get more money from the Centre to put the state on track. The “misrule” of last government has adversely impacted the state exchequer and there is not enough money to even run the social welfare schemes. The government would need money to implement the promises that were made in party’s manifesto. Surprisingly amidst the crucial situation, the chief minister does have money to foot the bill for travel allowance of the top administrative officials who were transferred just after the new regime took over. In about a months period, over 2000 officials have been transferred and the total cost on the exchequer would be around 10 crore. Now would the centre pay for this too…

Tailpiece

Considering the grim situation in power sector, a senior planning commission member prepared a draft report suggesting zero duty on power equipments. When the draft was circulated among various ministries for their comments and suggestions, the heavy industries minister Praful Patel was visibly miffed. Patel called on the member to ask the reason behind it, as the suggestion if implemented would mar the domestic industry. To which the member said that it was a rough report that was circulated by mistake. And the minister should catch hold of the person responsible