Seven Days

Andhra Pradesh
Troubled Ties

Will TDP stay on in NDA? Chandrababu Naidu continues to keep his fingers cros­sed after yet another meeting with the PM and a public assurance from FM Arun Jaitley that commitments to Andhra Pradesh would be met. Naidu’s wishlist is a long one tho­ugh. He wants a central budget bailout worth Rs 16,000 cr, funds for his new capital project, release of more funds for the Polavaram project etc. With the BJP toying with the idea of going it alone in the South and no money released so far, he’s got his work cut out.

Karnataka
Wheels Of Justice

It’s now ‘official’. Among the constit­uti­onal courts of the world, the Supreme Court of India deals with the least number of cases with any such significance. A group of lawyers from Bangalore and Delhi arrived at the conclusion after studying 884 judgements by the apex court in 2014. Only 64 (7%) involved a constitu­tio­nal question, an overwhelming 93% are routine appeals. What the lawyers did not disclose is how many of such appeals were upheld and how many overturned. 

Kerala
Statutory Warning

Thrissur-based tycoon Moha­m­med Nisham has been charged with murder after the security guard he’d pin­ned to the wall with his Hum­mer in a fit of drunken rage died in hospital. The ‘beedi king’ had reportedly lost his cool at the delay in opening the gates for him. Nisham had hit the headlines in ’13 too after he uploaded a video on YouTube of his nine-year-old son driving a Ferrari. A spell in a cell seems just the right prescription.

Delhi
Worse Than Beijing

The US embassy in the capital is reported to have purchased 1,800 ‘high-end air purifiers’ for use at the homes of its staff. And the Norwegian embassy is learnt to be advising its diplomats with children to have second thoughts about keeping them in the city. Reports say many foreigners have started using surgical masks in view of the high level of air pollution, said to be two-and-a-half times higher than Beijing in December-January. Little wonder, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, on a visit last week, said environment should be the first priority of every government. Presumably that will include the Muffler Man’s.

Maharashtra
Lines Crossed

Routed in the Lok sabha and assembly polls he may be, but Raj Thack­eray the cartoonist is still a winner. A chip of the old Thackeray block (the late Balasaheb was a cartoonist initially at the Free Press Journal). The MNS chief created some buzz after the AAP victory in Delhi with a killer toon likening it to the fall of the twin towers (of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah). In another, Modi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were his targets, shown sha­ring a Valentine’s Day lunch. The BJP hit back sugg­esting that since his political career was a zero, he take to cartooning full-time. Not to be outdone, Thac­keray Jr has deci­ded to launch a Marathi daily, the title of which (Maratha) he had bought some time back. Not to be confused, of course, with the original Sena’s mouthpiece, Saamna.

Uttar Pradesh
No Country For...

Stumped by the six questions posed by Muslim cleric group who cal­led on him at Kanpur, RSS leader Indresh Kumar, in charge of mobilising ‘nationalist Mus­lims’ for the outfit, wriggled out by offering to answer them at a conference later. Among other things, Kumar was asked what the RSS expected from Indian Muslims who’d repudiated the idea of Pakistan and embraced Gandhi during Partition.

Gujarat
High Sea Jinks

Hours after The Indian Express reported Coast Guard DIG B.K. Loshali boasting that he’d given the order to blow up a Pakistani fishing boat on New Year’s eve as he did not want to “serve them biriyani”, the establishment went into damage control mode. The government had then claimed credit for foiling a terror attack and given details of a chase in the high seas before the Pakistanis set their boat on fire. Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has now offered more “details”, but it’s a no-show till now.