Has Supreme Court started the process freeing of Temples from control of the Avaricious State.
Kerala High Court in 2011 had passed a controversial judgment directing the State Government to set up a trust to take control of management and assets of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple—a very famous holy shrine in Indian state of Kerala.
The Apex Court has upheld the right of the Travancore Royal Family in the administration of the temple. The administration of temple by the State and Central Government is a very controversial issue. The State has always had an eye on the massive wealth that the temples collect from the donors.
Hindus of the country have never liked the idea of State controlling temples. They see the state controlling and administering temples as a slow but sure plunder of temple wealth for causes that sometimes may be against Hindu interests. Of course, the full picture will only emerge after the scholars have parsed the judgment in its entirety. However, the happiness among Indians is quite welcome.
Google lends credence to Strong Future of Digital India.
Google, the technological giant, will invest around 10 Billion USD in India in the next five to seven year period. Sundar Pichai declared this recently after a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Google would mostly invest this amount through variety of channels such as equity investments, partnership, and other investments. Facebook recently has picked up a stake in Jio Platforms. Could Google be eyeing a stake in one of the other Telecom entity in India? If this happens, then it is very good new for the telecom sector in India which badly needs healthy competition between the participants.
Hardik Patel–Really?
Congress’ Supreme leader Sonia Gandhi has taken a surprising decision. She has appointed Hardik Patel as “Working President” of the Congress party in Gujarat. For Hardik Patel to be given such a big post must raise lot of eyebrows in the Congress Party in Gujarat as the guy is few days short of turning 26. After he came to national news during Patidar reservation agitation and the brief scare that was given to BJP in the last assembly elections he has not done much to warrant attention in the National politics. There was one controversy relating to him that I do not need go into. Mr. Patel has several criminal cases registered against him. And, he was a total flop in the 2019 elections for Congress. For Congress party to hand him a Working President post when the State Unit already has a Chief is a very strange move. Supporters of BJP in social media have gotten a good chuckle out of the news.
Bullet Train Must Happen.
The proposed bullet train from Ahmedabad to Mumbai may fail to meet 2023 deadline according to some speculative reports. The Uddhav Thackerey led coalition government in Maharashtra has already attempeted to derail the entire project by citing it as a “White Elephant” project. However, in my opinion, the Maharashtra Government may be able to delay it but would not be able to nix it. More than half of the land has already been acquired by the authorities. Therefore, it is impossible for vested interests of the other side to stop the pet project of Narendra Modi. This entire project is being funded by Japan at a very attractive loan price. However, certain key tenders such as Shinkasen Technology will be open only to Japanese companies.
Assembly Elections during Covid Pandemic.
Prashant Kishor has once again taken a jibe at Nitish Kumar. He has said in a not so subtle dig at the Chief Minister of Bihar that this is not the time to hold elections but to fight the Covid pandemic. The assembly elections are due to be held in Bihar later this year. Many politicians such as Chirag Paswan and Tejaswi Yadav have also chimed in and have suggested to the Chief minister to defer the elections.
However, this is the call of the Election Commission. It seems the Election Commission is still sanguine about holding of elections at the due period even though it is aware that the situation may change. Currently, election commission seems to be confident in finding ways in facilitating the voters’ participation if the situation remains the same. This is a very interesting development. Prashant Kishore was once confidant of Nitish Kumar but the relations between them seemed to have soured after Nitish’s re-entry in the NDA camp. Whatever be the motives of Prashant Kishore, it is a prospect that cannot be wished away that if the pandemic does not peak in the next couple of months then Assembly elections may have to be deferred.
