Delhi Government’s Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia has undertaken many innovative experiments in the past to improve the quality of Delhi’s government schools, and as a result, his efforts towards reforms in education have received many accolades. In this phase of lockdown, when all the schools and colleges are closed and all the public schools are making up for it through online classes, Sisodia has made more than 10 lakh phone calls through teachers of government schools in Delhi to find from the children if are keeping alright, and also find out how much study material has reached the children through WhatsApp. It was the learn that there are only 75 per cent children who are able to take advantage of this WhatsApp facilities, wherein the teachers are sharing worksheets to their students on their WhatsApp on a daily basis. For children or their parents who do not have a smartphone, teachers have been asked to share a printout of this worksheet. Different days have been set for the parents of the children according to the roll number for taking the worksheet.

At a time when China, which tries to arm-twist nations, is becoming isolated in the international fraternity and the support of Western countries for India is becoming vocal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also made an all-out cry on China without naming it. The Foreign Ministry was in constant dialogue with China for the last two-and-a-half months, but it remained inconclusive. In Galwan, we continued to witness violent Chinese activities after which came the first strike from India, in which government contracts of Chinese companies in India were revoked, so that China could be pushed even if very slightly, towards an economic slowdown. India recently bought arms from Russia and France, followed by a letter of support from France and a change in the attitude of Russia, which is considered a natural friend of China. Meanwhile, our Ministry of External Affairs kept in touch with other Heads of State, in which it was successful to a large extent. Thirdly and most importantly, for the first time, India supported the issue of Hong Kong in the United Nations, since until now, India had neither raised its voice for Tibet nor said two words for the troubled Uyghur Muslims in China. After this, 59 Chinese apps were banned in India giving yet another jolt and when the PM from Ladakh border defied China without naming it, China had come out to say, “We have peacefully resolved our border dispute with 12 of our 14 neighboring countries.” This statement is being seen as India’s diplomatic victory.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad has postponed the construction date of the Ram Temple yet again, this time until July 2. The logic forwarded by VHP is that it is being done as a mark of respect for the 23 martyred soldiers at the Indo-Chinese LAC. But sources say that the postponement is due to an old dispute between VHP and the Modi govt and yet another date could be announced, if the dispute continues.

Ever since the PIB started its fact checking mechanism, it has on many occasions, declared many factual news as ‘fake.’ The most glaring example is of the news that appeared when the tension between India and China had just started surfacing in the Galwan valley in Ladakh. The news said that the UP Special Task Force had issued an advisory to its jawans to delete all the Chinese  Apps from their mobiles and also ask their family members to do so. They were given a list of 52 Chinese Apps as ready reckoner.  The PIB ‘Fact Checker’ immediately refuted it as fake news and said that the UP STF had issued no such advisory. This followed many news channels showing the advisory by the UP STF along with many stringers tweeting the same advisory from their Twitter handles.

When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked the reason for our soldiers being weaponless while patrolling, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar immediately replied that it was in accordance with an agreement between India and China that the soldiers will not be carrying any weapons during patrolling. The Army sources say that this was being practiced ever since the agreements of 1993, 1996 and 2005 were signed so that no accidental use of weapons make us subject to international mockery. Sources say that CDS Bipin Rawat had alerted the Army Chief on this. Many decisions by him as Army Chief were questioned with ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme being one amongst them. The Army sources say that the senior army officers have ignored intelligence inputs on many occasions. 2019 is a case in point, when there were reports of 600, which didn’t bother our senior army officers.

What does one do one when affection creates distance? Well, that is quite relevant when you find that NSA Ajit Doval was involved in talks with China for a long time now. When NSA Doval received the news of Chinese infiltration in Ladakh region on  May 4, he called up his Chinese counterpart to seek an explanation on the intrusion. The Chinese counterpart is said to have placated Doval asking him not to worry about small tensions at the border. It seems strange that NSA Doval believed his Chinese counterpart in his simplicity.

When the tensions between India and China due to the recent border spat were on its peak, the first time BJP MP from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal couldn’t control his emotions and went near the LAC, inspected the situation through his binoculars and gave a statement that China hadn’t encroached upon on single inch of Indian soil. After this, he participated in a TV debate and said that the Chinese had encroached upon Indian land. This wasn’t music to the BJP high command and they called Namgyal and asked him as with whose permission did he go to the LAC and then participated in the TV debate? The young MP is said to have insisted on his role as MP from Ladakh. The party made him understand that the party has deputed spokespersons to represent it in the media and he should refrain from expressing the party or government’s view directly. Namgyal’s graph is certainly down in the BJP now. It is worth mentioning that in 2018, the then sitting BJP MP from Ladakh Thumpstan Chhewang refused to contest elections citing his age, BJP had hurriedly asked his deputy Namgyal to contest without many deliberations and Namgyal won the seat as well.

The author is a journalist and political commentator and views expressed are his personal.

UP Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu is in jail from the last 20 days after the migrant’s bus controversy. There is visibly frustration in the state Congress and they have been apprising Priyanka Gandhi of it. They suggested that Congress should take to the streets and launch a mass agitation against the detention of Lallu. But Priyanka said that it would be improper to come on streets during Covid-19 crisis and the better way would be to tell all poor and needy about Lallu’s detention due to taking up the cause of migrant workers while distributing food packets to them. Now the UP Congressmen fail to understand this new style of politics and are wondering who is the real ‘Lallu’?

The news is that BJP has once again started giving importance to Jyotiraditya Scindia due to the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. In any case, the by-elections to the 24 seats in Madhya Pradesh assembly are due too. Sources say that Jyotiraditya and Suresh Prabhu may be sworn in on June 26 as central ministers. This has the internal politics in the BJP on the boil with the Narendra Singh Tomar supporters are putting forth the logic that had Jyotiraditya been such a powerful leader then he should have ensured a full majority for Congress in the MP assembly polls. These supporters say that the upcoming by-election results in the non-Chambal areas with no Scindhia effect will show the real BJP power in MP. But the BJP central leadership is in no mood to take any risk with Scindhia as the fate of Shivraj govt in MP hangs with him.

Coronavirus has changed the style of functioning of senior officers. The big bosses drive themselves and carry home packed food and water. The first thing they do upon reaching office is to dust the office, sanitize the doorknobs, tables, chairs, computer etc. Everyone resists calling the peon inside the chamber and even if they need tea, they prefer to self pour from the thermos/flask brought from home. But there are still some officers whose bossism didn’t take lessons from the might of coronavirus and they didn’t stop peeping into the junior section to check who all had reported on time. One such is a Joint Secretary in the Labour Ministry. Later this JS along with 26 other colleagues of the ministry was found to be corona positive. With the tide of time changed now the focus of the investigation is on who all came in contact with this JS? Who came to deliver him files? Where did JS venture out?