Maharashtra Governor’s residence has become BJP’s office, says Congress chief Nana Patole
The Hindu
‘No difference between Modi regime and the British Raj’, he says
Launching a broadside against the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on August 1 charged the BJP with distorting history while accusing Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of being a “BJP stooge” and his official residence, the Raj Bhavan, a “virtual office for the party”. He further lashed out at the Modi regime for severely curtailing the press, claiming that the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had extended a lot of freedom towards the fourth estate despite getting flak from it in the alleged Bofors Gun scandal. “Recently, the State’s Governor Koshyari commented that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who was responsible for Partition in 1947…ordinarily, if one were to talk of Pandit Nehru’s towering contributions in building the modern Indian nation, even 10 days would be less. But when the Governor of a State, who is supposed to be the holder of an impartial office, says such a thing, it is truly shameful…the Governor is behaving like a BJP agent and his residence is functioning like a veritable BJP office,” Mr. Patole said.“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.