Delhi Confidential: Grand Plans

Appointments to top posts at Central educational institutions, especially Central universities, by the incumbent government have been disappointing. In the last one year alone, two vice-chancellors have resigned over charges of plagiarism and corruption. Although the HRD Ministry, in the last five years, has fired V-Cs for incompetence, the process is long-drawn. The ministry is now trying an arrangement by which if any institution head faces serious allegations of academic and financial corruption, it can remove them without any notice. Recently, the government advertised the post of director for IIT- Mandi and IIT-Indore. With this, the ministry has introduced a new application form in which the applicants will have to give an undertaking that if they provide any false information, they can be removed without notice. Also, the government has asked each candidate to provide vigilance clearance from their respective institutes at the time of application. Vigilance clearance was earlier sought once a panel of finalists was shortlisted by the selection committee.

Doubling Up

AMONG THE crucial standing committees, only the committee on Home Affairs has a chairman from the Opposition. However, this committee that will scrutinise the affairs of Home Ministry headed by BJP president Amit Shah has two key BJP general secretaries handpicked by Shah — Bhupender Yadav and Anil Jain. Yadav also has the distinction of being the only chairman of a standing committee who is also a member of another committee. He is the chairman of personnel, public grievances, law and justice panel — and a member of another significant panel. Another leader who has got a double bonanza is party MP Sanjay Jaiswal. In 24 hours, Jaiswal, the chief whip of the BJP in Lok Sabha, has been given the chairmanship of Water Resources committee and leadership of the BJP’s Bihar unit.

Spelling It Out

Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton F Nariman, while delivering the keynote address on arbitration laws in Delhi on Saturday, virtually highlighted clause-by-clause problems in the 2018 amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. Justice Nariman said it was “unfortunate” and “absurd” that the government had made changes to the law contrary to settled case laws of the SC. Incidentally, many of the settled points of law in question were cases that Justice Nariman had argued and won as a lawyer or verdicts he delivered as a judge.