Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Blue whales have been sighted off the Maharashtra coast for the first time in a 100 years.
2. Just back from visiting the East, Modi is set to fly out once again in the next two months. This time the prime minister is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in June and then Russia as well as five Central Asian states in July.
3. The Bangalore Royal Challengers beat the Rajasthan Royals to book a spot in an eliminator game against the Chennai Superkings for a spot in the Indian Premier League Finals.
The Big Story: Kejriwal in Jung-pura
The constitutional battle between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung shows no signs of abating. Jung on Tuesday declared void all the appointments made by Kejriwal's government over the past four days, giving the chief minister more cause to declare that everyone has united against him. After Jung insisted that Kejriwal's appointments were unconstitutional, saying all bureaucrat appointments have to go through him, the chief minister has asked Lt Gov to clarify what interpretation of the various laws he is using. This could be a precursor to a legal challenge.
Through this whole ordeal, there has, however, been the question of what position the Centre will take. Some Union ministers have spoken up against Kejriwal's "false promises". Reports suggest that the Ministry of Home Affairs will "keep an arm's length" from the issue, while quietly backing the Lt Gov.
If it weren't Kejriwal, who gave the BJP a drubbing in Delhi and has constantly attacked the Prime Minister, one might have expected Modi to come out on the side of a chief minister struggling against the unelected Lt Gov. Modi has often spoken of "cooperative federalism" and decentralisation as being one of the main planks of his government, and has sought to bring chief ministers along with him on every issue. For the moment though, this federalism isn't looking very cooperative.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
This isn't just some ordinary face-off, it's a full-blown constitutional crisis. And though it might look like petty anti-BJP politics, the fight actually pertains to an important question of representation in the capital.
Politicking & Policying
1. Maharashtra plans to amend its Factories Act to allow women to work night shifts from 7 pm to 6 am, with employers expected to handle security.
2. While the Congress' attempts at taking on the Modi government have earned it more currency of late, there is still plenty of old-school silliness. It's even come up with a ridiculous acronym for MODI: Moneyed Only, Deprived Ignored.
3. More than four decades after the Kanhar Irrigation Project in Uttar Pradesh was propsed, a renewed effort to get it off the ground has prompted opposition, sometimes violent, from the villagers it will displace as well as two adjacent states.
4. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, saying expectations for it had been unrealistically high and that it has taken steps to improve the investment climate.
Giggle
Punditry
1. As always, a prickly Jagdish Bhagwati with Pravin Krishna defending Modi's first year in the Times of India, first questions the usefulness of one year and then snarls at "ill-informed" "left-wing Indians" and the Economist, all the while arguing that the government's new policies will take more time to set in.
2. The real Big Bang of the Modi government will come from decentralisation, writes Bibek Debroy in the Indian Express, adding that the Seventh Schedule, which lists out the various subjects and how they are separated between the Union and the States, is not set in stone.
3. Nayanjyot Lahiri in the Telegraph unpacks the Bharatiya Janata Party's assertion that Ashoka was a Kushwaha.
4. Praveen Swami in the Indian Express writes about the fraught politics of dog poo in Delhi.
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1. Blue whales have been sighted off the Maharashtra coast for the first time in a 100 years.
2. Just back from visiting the East, Modi is set to fly out once again in the next two months. This time the prime minister is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in June and then Russia as well as five Central Asian states in July.
3. The Bangalore Royal Challengers beat the Rajasthan Royals to book a spot in an eliminator game against the Chennai Superkings for a spot in the Indian Premier League Finals.
The Big Story: Kejriwal in Jung-pura
The constitutional battle between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung shows no signs of abating. Jung on Tuesday declared void all the appointments made by Kejriwal's government over the past four days, giving the chief minister more cause to declare that everyone has united against him. After Jung insisted that Kejriwal's appointments were unconstitutional, saying all bureaucrat appointments have to go through him, the chief minister has asked Lt Gov to clarify what interpretation of the various laws he is using. This could be a precursor to a legal challenge.
Through this whole ordeal, there has, however, been the question of what position the Centre will take. Some Union ministers have spoken up against Kejriwal's "false promises". Reports suggest that the Ministry of Home Affairs will "keep an arm's length" from the issue, while quietly backing the Lt Gov.
If it weren't Kejriwal, who gave the BJP a drubbing in Delhi and has constantly attacked the Prime Minister, one might have expected Modi to come out on the side of a chief minister struggling against the unelected Lt Gov. Modi has often spoken of "cooperative federalism" and decentralisation as being one of the main planks of his government, and has sought to bring chief ministers along with him on every issue. For the moment though, this federalism isn't looking very cooperative.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
This isn't just some ordinary face-off, it's a full-blown constitutional crisis. And though it might look like petty anti-BJP politics, the fight actually pertains to an important question of representation in the capital.
Politicking & Policying
1. Maharashtra plans to amend its Factories Act to allow women to work night shifts from 7 pm to 6 am, with employers expected to handle security.
2. While the Congress' attempts at taking on the Modi government have earned it more currency of late, there is still plenty of old-school silliness. It's even come up with a ridiculous acronym for MODI: Moneyed Only, Deprived Ignored.
3. More than four decades after the Kanhar Irrigation Project in Uttar Pradesh was propsed, a renewed effort to get it off the ground has prompted opposition, sometimes violent, from the villagers it will displace as well as two adjacent states.
4. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, saying expectations for it had been unrealistically high and that it has taken steps to improve the investment climate.
Giggle
Only indians will value this truth. @MANJULtoons @3DArnab pic.twitter.com/XvbWnHUX3z
— Rahul Dubey (@theRAHULDUBEY) May 20, 2015Punditry
1. As always, a prickly Jagdish Bhagwati with Pravin Krishna defending Modi's first year in the Times of India, first questions the usefulness of one year and then snarls at "ill-informed" "left-wing Indians" and the Economist, all the while arguing that the government's new policies will take more time to set in.
2. The real Big Bang of the Modi government will come from decentralisation, writes Bibek Debroy in the Indian Express, adding that the Seventh Schedule, which lists out the various subjects and how they are separated between the Union and the States, is not set in stone.
3. Nayanjyot Lahiri in the Telegraph unpacks the Bharatiya Janata Party's assertion that Ashoka was a Kushwaha.
4. Praveen Swami in the Indian Express writes about the fraught politics of dog poo in Delhi.
