I/II. [It's really striking how readily the President signed the ordinance.]
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/law-blocks-top-pmo-posting-so-govt-changes-the-law/ THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 <http://indianexpress.com/> Law blocks top PMO posting for former TRAI chief, so govt changes the law Written by Maneesh Chhibber<http://indianexpress.com/profile/author/maneesh-chhibber/> | New Delhi | May 29, 2014 9:42 am DAY 1: For former TRAI chief Misra to join PMO, ordinance issued to amend TRAI Act which didn't allow this. Nripendra Misra. ( Source: PTI ) Within hours of assuming office, the BJP-led NDA government issued an ordinance to ensure the appointment of former chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The decision to take the ordinance route was taken at the first meeting of the Modi-led Cabinet yesterday. As first reported in The Indian Express Wednesday, Misra's appointment as PS to PM was in violation of Section 5 (8) of the TRAI Act, 1997, which barred any post-retirement government job for (the) "chairperson or any other member ceasing to hold office". The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, amends this section to allow a former chairperson (in this case, Misra) or member to take up any government job -- either at the Centre or in any state -- after a cooling-off period of two years. Not just this, these persons have now also been allowed to accept "any appointment in any company in the business of telecommunication service" two years after demitting office. Sources in Rashtrapati Bhawan said that the assent of President Pranab Mukherjee for promulgation of the ordinance -- Article 123 empowers the President to promulgate ordinance when Parliament is in recess -- was secured this afternoon and Misra's appointment was announced by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) this evening. Speaking to The Indian Express before the ordinance was issued, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said: "Mr Nripendra Misra is a fine officer and gentleman, but he has got into a legal tangle. As the law stands, he is ineligible for being appointed to any post under the central government or any state government". Today's step, legal experts say, could be the first instance where a government at the Centre promulgates an ordinance even before proving its majority on the floor of the House, which, incidentally, is a mere formality for the Modi government, with the BJP itself having a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Controversy-rages-on-Smriti-Iranis-educational-qualifications-contradictions-in-her-election-affidavits-revealed/articleshow/35686369.cms ? Controversy rages on Smriti Irani's educational qualifications, contradictions in her election affidavits revealedPTI | May 28, 2014, 08.46 PM IST NEW DELHI: HRD minister Smriti Irani was on Wednesday at the centre of a raging controversy over her educational qualifications after it emerged that she had made contradictory declarations when she contested Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and 2014. The Congress, one of whose leaders struck a different note, escalated its attack while the BJP hit back asking answers from it about the educational qualifications of Sonia Gandhi. Ever since, Madhu Kishwar, a women's rights activist, raked up a controversy over the fact that Irani, just a 12th pass, has been made HRD minister the issue has only snowballed. The 38-year-old television actor-turned politician preferred to keep mum. She refused to comment when the media approached her. There was more embarrassment for the BJP and the new government after it emerged that Irani had given contradictory declarations in her affidavits in 2004 and 2014 when she contested Lok Sabha election from two different constituencies. As a candidate in 2004 elections from Chandni Chowk in Delhi, Irani had declared that she had a Bachelor of Arts degree. "B.A. 1996 Delhi University (School of Correspondence)", she had written in the column which seeks details of University education and the year in which the course was completed. In the same column of the affidavit filed in the 2014 elections from Amethi, Irani has said,"Bachelor of Commerce Part-1, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi-1994". In 2012, the Supreme Court had ruled that false disclosures in an affidavit can be a ground for rejection of a candidate's nomination. Latching on the issue, the Congress party said this was a mis-statement, distortion and a criminal offence which has electoral consequences. "We don't know which is correct, 2004 or 2014? Both can't be true," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters. When asked about Congress raising educational qualifications of ministers in a democracy, he said,"we had not raked it up and we are not trivializing it". To another query about Sonia Gandhi's qualification, he shot back,"she is not a minister." Irani, however, got support from JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav who attacked Congress for raking up the issue. Kishwar, who started it all with her tweets critical of Narendra Modi making Irani the HRD minister, was unsparing saying education and research in India was in a shambles and something urgent was needed to be done to lift standards in the system. Somebody with a vision was needed for the job, said Kishwar, a self-confessed admirer of Modi. Kishwar said that as someone in the academia she felt that the HRD ministry was a very "vital" ministry and that India's education sector was in a mess and somebody with a vision was needed. The HRD ministry requires handling chief ministers, because education is a state subject and also requires handling vice chancellors, she said. "HRD needs a head who can steer dexterously between Left and Right extremists in academia to define sensible course unfettered by partisan agendas," she had said on Twitter. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
