Glasshouse of the week
From the FDI dilemma to Lalu Prasad Yadav's peacock mystery, this is all glass house of the week has in its kitty for you.
The FDI Dilemma
The BJP is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. On the one hand, there is a desire to attract investment to India to go along with the party's pro-business, pro-growth image and on the other, there is the trader community that forms the core of the BJP's support and wants to hold back the tide of foreign investment in the sector. There is also the risk of irking the strong swadeshi lobby within the party.
According to senior government sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the country is not ready for such a policy yet and had nixed the proposal from the budget.
So far, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in multi-brand processed food retailing; foreign companies can invest only up to 51 per cent in multi-brand retail. Multi-brand retailers are also put off by the byzantine rules, such as local sourcing. Is the dissolution of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, cited as one of the reasons for delays, an indication that the government is responding to the critics?
LALU'S BIRDS FLY THE COOP
Patna Zoo has been releasing peacocks into their natural habitat, which seems to include 10, Circular Road, the compound of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav. A peacock and peahen were moved from the zoo to Yadav's house, only for both of them to escape hours later. "They flew away," Yadav was reported to have said forlornly.
Incidentally, Yadav's eldest son, Tej Pratap, is the state's environment minister, whose purview includes the zoo. Tej Pratap, famously, enjoys dressing up as Krishna, peacock feather tucked into headdress. Recently, he was filmed playing the flute in Patna, cows swishing their tails in the background. "Aap toh Kishan kanhaiya ho gaye hain," the prime minister teased him at a lunch with Nitish Kumar.
The birds are a protected species. Had the peacocks not escaped, their presence in Lalu's house might have raised uncomfortable questions. All's well that ends well. Or something.
A Little Bird Told Me
The assembly elections in Punjab were covered breathlessly in local and national media, with pages and pages of newsprint devoted to analysis of why the Aam Aadmi Party, or the Congress with the Captain at the helm, would win. Or, and this required particularly convoluted reasons, why the Akali Dal might return to power for a third successive term.
Running out of people to ask for comment, one inspired newspaper in Chandigarh turned to a fortune-telling parrot. The parrot, the newspaper's editor pointed out, "is a non-Punjabi from Shimla" and so cannot be accused of bias. For the record, it picked Captain Amarinder Singh to be the next CM and the Congress to win 60 seats. Next time, why bother with pollsters?
Don't Annoy the Judge
S.K. Pandey, the retired high court judge appointed by the Madhya Pradesh government to probe the October 2016 killing of eight SIMI members in a police encounter after a jailbreak, reportedly resigned only to be persuaded by officials to return to work.
Justice Pandey was reportedly frustrated that the government was dragging its feet over his requests for funds to enable the panel to do its job. He supposedly stormed out of his room at the Circuit House with his belongings, having already called a cab. Senior officials pleaded with him to calm down. Justice Pandey has denied the reports that he resigned. The government, which had given him three months to finish the probe, has now given an extension of six months.
-Sandeep Unnithan with Shweta Punj, Amitabh Srivastava, Asit Jolly, Rahul Noronhaks