Seven Days

Chandigarh
Family Ties

Can the government appoint law officers (state-level advocates-general, assistant advocates-general and so on) without inviting applications and appoint kith and kin of ministers, MLAs, bureaucrats and police officers without a transparent system of assessing their skills? The question, raised in a petition before the high court, has caused a flutter in the legal fraternity. The petitioner points out that these posts are public offices and not political posts and argues they cannot be doled out on the basis of party loyalty. The verdict is eagerly awaited.

Madhya Pradesh
USA, USA

With PM Narendra Modi claiming to be on first name terms with the US president, one would have assumed that BJP chief ministers need not exert themsel­ves too much to attract US investment to their states. But it seems more must be done. So Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and wife Sadhana are jetting to Washington DC with a team to promote the state. But why the CM’s wife, asked bewildered hacks, only to be info­r­med that the couple’s son is stu­dying in DC.

Tamil Nadu
A Reeling Blow

Gemini Studios, once the big daddy of Tamil movies, shut down earlier. Now sister concern, Gemini Colour Labs, the “last surviving film proces­sing lab” in Chennai too has closed doors. It seems after 56 years digital did the reel film in. But what of the 6,000 master negatives of Tamil, Tel­ugu and Malayalam films it has in its vaults? Well, the Kerala govt, at least, has agr­eed to take back Malaya­lam ones to create an archive.

Andhra Pradesh
Give It Up For Junior

Within months of Chandrababu Naidu’s victory last month, TV channels were airing “breaking news” (apropos of nothing) that his son Nara Lokesh was next in line. And so it is turning out to be. Twice in his father’s absence in the last month, Naidu Jr has reportedly chaired the meeting of ministers. Reports also say he has started pulling the strings both within the party and in the government, leaving no one in any doubt that he is the second in command in the Telugu Desam Party. There is already a demand to elevate him as the party’s working president in view of his achievement in “enrolling five million members”.

Maharashtra
Padma Or Bust

One can’t really blame thespian Ami­tabh Bachchan for gushing in his blog that he is “blessed, honou­red, fortunate, humbled, overwhel­med and submerged” at receiving the highest Padma award, the Padma Vibhushan this year (he’d earlier got the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan). Remarkably eno­ugh, the actor points out that his immediate family boasts of seven Padma awards, a unique distinction no other Indian family can possibly claim. The 72-year-old’s father, poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, had got two Padma awards while wife Jaya and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai too have got the honour in the past. Jaya, in fact, received the Padma Shri twice, making the award tally effectively eight. The odd man out here is son Abhishek. Now where can we organise one for him?

Delhi
Red Letter Days

Trust the CPI(M) to keep debating in 2015 whether the party made a historic blunder by propping up the United Front governm­ent at the Centre in 1996-98. The ‘draft report of the party’s political, tactical line’ holds that it made a mistake vis-a-vis the UF and UPA-I. While CPI(M) watchers are busy dissecting topics like whether this is a “near rejection” of the H.K.S. Surjeet line and the “Pyrrhic victory” of Sitaram Yechury or a “tactical retreat” of Prak­ash Karat, most others are wondering about the time warp the party is trapped in.

West Bengal
Sex It Up

Possibly the only cooperative society in India run by sex workers, the Usha Mul­tipurpose Cooperative Society has been adjudged the best co-op in the state, a far cry from when it first started in 1995. Social workers had been beaten up then, some even attacked with bombs. Today, the society, which also operates a makeshift bank, has 20,000 members and a corpus of Rs 19 crore. It has pla­yed a big part in helping sex workers educate their children and get them out of the clutches of moneylenders and madams.