Delhi Confidential: Following Protocol

Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal took charge as CBI director on Wednesday, and was conscious of Covid-19 regulations throughout. For the few hours that he spent at the headquarters, Jaiswal did not reveal his face — he wore a double mask all the time. He apparently refused to pull his mask down even for photographs, saying Covid-19 protocol had to be strictly followed.

Looking For V-Cs

The problem of vacant top positions across central universities is one that the Narendra Modi government hasn’t been able to address either in its first term or the second. It has now come to a point where 21 out of roughly 40 central universities don’t either have a vice-chancellor or have an acting head in place. Now even the RSS-backed students’ wing, ABVP, is upset over this. The ABVP wrote to President Ramnath Kovind, who is visitor of all central universities, last week to express concern and urge the Centre to prioritise appointments of V-Cs. The student outfit even issued a press release on the matter.

New Policy

National Public Broadcaster Prasar Bharati has come up with a new social media policy for its “contractual engagees”. Under the policy, issued last week, “any view, comment, or post” by a “contractual engagee”, which is “in conflict with organisational interest and reputation shall be considered as serious indiscipline”. It states that “contractual engagees shall clearly reveal their true identity in their personal social media accounts…” They are also barred from posting anything prejudicial to the country’s sovereignty and integrity, relations with friendly nations, decency or morality and in contempt of court. It also says that the language should be “polite, courteous and dignified”. The order says while Prasar Bharati “respects the right to freedom of speech and expression of all its contractual engages”, in the “interest of the organisation and overall public interest, it has been considered appropriate to prescribe” the new policy.