Delhi confidential: Power To Women

SHORTLY AFTER the Governors’ appointments were announced on Tuesday, a brief from the ruling dispensation on gubernatorial appointments during Narendra Modi government’s tenure was released with interesting details. It said since 2014, eight women Governors and Lieutenant Governors were appointed, which shows the government’s commitment to women empowerment. Those appointed during this period were Mridula Sinha, Draupadi Murmu, Najma Heptulla, Anandiben Patel, Baby Rani Maurya, Anasuiya Uikey, Tamilisai Soundararajan and Kiran Bedi. The note said while six women were appointed to the gubernatorial positions during Manmohan Singh’s tenure, three were appointed each during the tenures of Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Others in the list are Morarji Desai and P V Narasimha Rao (two each); and V P Singh, H D Devegowda, I K Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (one each).

At The Gate

THE TRINAMOOL Congress is keeping the heat up on the issue of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s “meeting” with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta at the latter’s residence in Delhi. After Mehta’s defence that Adhikari had entered his residence without a prior appointment and was, therefore, sent away without meeting him, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Tuesday landed up at Mehta’s residence uninvited, cameras in tow. Stopped at the gate, Ghosh said his “inquiry report” showed if one had to enter Mehta’s residence, a prior appointment was needed.

In Two Minds

EDUCATION MINISTER Ramesh Pohkriyal announced fresh dates for holding the JEE (Main) examination on Tuesday. It was expected that he might also make an announcement about the proposed common entrance test for admission to central universities. However, there was no mention of it. According to government sources, the ministry is still in two minds on whether the new common entrance test should be introduced this year or in 2022. Among the factors working against its introduction this year, is that there is already a backlog of several entrance tests that had to be postponed because of the second wave of the pandemic. It is learned that the ministry is not sure that there is enough time to conduct a central university test. Also, within the ministry, there is an opinion that announcing a new entrance test at such short notice will not give students enough time to prepare for it.