Indian Polity - Current Affairs for July, 2017

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has resigned, citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD on the issue of corruption charges against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government.

Less than 24 hours after he resigned as the chief minister of Bihar stating he could no longer continue amid allegations of corruption in his government, Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar is set to be back as chief minister when he takes oath of office 27th July at 10 in the morning.

The JD(U) leader resigned over a CBI FIR against his deputy and ally Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav.

Calling off the grand alliance or ‘mahagathbandhan’ between JD(U), Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nitish secured the support of NDA to form the next government in Bihar.

About Nitish Kumar

• He was born on 1st March 1951 in Bakhtiarpur District of Bihar. He had started his political career by taking part in the mass movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974 and 1977.
• Kumar was elected to Bihar legislative assembly for first time in 1985.
• He was elected to Lok Sabha for 4 consecutive times, first in 1989 than in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1990, for a brief stint he had served as Union Minister of Agriculture.
• In 1998-99, he had served as Union Minister for Railways and Surface Transport and Minister for Agriculture.
• He also had served as Union Cabinet Minister for Railways in the NDA Government led Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 2001-2004.
• In 2000, he was made CM of Bihar for first time but had resigned within 7 days. In 2005 for second time he was sworn in as the CM of Bihar and for third time in 2010.
• For fourth time he was sworn-in as CM in February 2015 till November 2015 state Assembly election. He was again elected for fifth term and was in office from February 2015 to July 2017.

Ram Nath Kovind (71) sworn in as the 14th President of India. He was administered oath to the office by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar in Parliament’s Central Hall.

With this, he became the second Dalit President of India after late President K.R. Narayanan.

He is also the first person from Uttar Pradesh to hold the office of President since Independence.

Kovind was born on 1st October 1945 in Paraukh village in the Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh.

He had completed graduation in law from a Kanpur college.

Before starting his career as a lawyer, he cleared the civil services examination but did not join as he was selected for an allied.

He had joined the BJP in 1991.

He was President of the BJP Dalit Morcha between 1998 and 2002. He also served as Member of Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2006.

Prior to getting elected as President, Mr. Kovind had served as the 35th Governor of Bihar.

KR Narayanan: Know More

• In office: 25 July 1997 – 25 July 2002
• Prime Minister: I. K. Gujral
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee
• Vice President : Krishan Kant
• Born: Kocheril Raman Narayanan
• Date: 4 February 1921
• Place: Perumthanam, Travancore, British India (now Uzhavoor, Kerala, India)
• Died: 9 November 2005 (aged 84) New Delhi, India
• Nationality: Indian
• Political party: Indian National Congress
• Spouse(s): Usha Narayanan (m. 1951–2005)
• Alma mater: University of Kerala (B.A., M.A.)
• London School of Economics (B.Sc)

With Ram Nath Kovind set to be sworn in on Tuesday, the Union government has appointed Sanjay Kothari, former Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training, the Secretary of the new President.

Gujarat’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, Bharat Lal, an Indian Forest Service officer, has been appointed Joint Secretary.

Ashok Malik, senior journalist and distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation, will be Mr. Kovind’s Press Secretary.

Their appointment orders were issued by the government late on 21st July, 2017.

Preparations are in full swing for the swearing-in.

Kothari, a 1978-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, is the Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board, where he was appointed after he superannuated as DoPT Secretary.

He is considered close to P.K. Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, who looks after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, the government has carried out a large-scale reshuffle at the Additional Secretary level.

The officials are from the 1987 and 1988 batches of the IAS who were recently empanelled as Additional Secretary or equivalent.

A 1985-batch IAS officer, J. Rama Krishna Rao, has been moved from the Defence Ministry to the National Minority Commission as Secretary, while Usha Sharma from the same batch has been made the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Similarly, another IAS officer from the 1985 batch, Sanjiv Gupta, has been appointed CEO of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s National E-Governance Division.

Interestingly, two IAS officers from the Gujarat cadre - R.P. Gupta, Joint Secretary in the Coal Ministry, and Rajkumar, Joint Secretary, Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry, have been moved out and appointed in PSUs.

Mr. Gupta has been made the Managing Director of the National Waqf Development Corporation Ltd., while Mr. Rajkumar has been appointed the CEO of the ESIC.

The Congress on 22nd July 2017 appointed former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as its general secretary incharge of party affairs in Himachal Pradesh.

The latest development comes a day after senior Congress leader Ambika Soni had asked the party to relieve her as in-charge of the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand citing health reasons.

However, she will continue to head the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The state will go to polls later this year.

Congress also named Ranjeet Ranjan as secretary of AICC for Himachal Pradesh.

INC: Know More

• The Indian National Congress is a broad-based political party in India.
• Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa.
• President: Sonia Gandhi
• Headquarters: 24, Akbar Road, New Delhi 110001
• Founder: Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Edulji Wacha
• Founded: 28 December 1885
• Newspaper: Congress Sandesh
• Ideology: Social liberalism, Gandhian socialism, Indian nationalism, Social democracy, Secularism, Democratic socialism

Senior Naga People’s Front (NPF) legislator TR Zeliang (65) was sworn in as the 19th chief minister of Nagaland.

He was administered oath to office and secrecy by Governor P.B. Acharya. Earlier Governor had dismissed the Shurhozelie Liezietsu government under Clause (I) of Article 164 of the Constitution after he failed to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly.

Prior to it, Zeliang had staked claim to form government in Nagaland with a majority support of 47 members in the 60 member Legislative Assembly.

TR Zeliang will now have to prove his majority on the floor of the House. This is his second stint as chief minister in a little more than three years.

Earlier in February 2016, Zeliang was forced out of office following large scale protests over holding of urban local bodies election with 33% reservation for women.

After his resignation NPF had made party chairman Shurhozelie (80) as the CM.

But recently, he faced rebellion from his party MLAs.

The Governor had asked the Speaker to summon an emergent special session of the state assembly for the ousted CM Shurhozelie Liezietsu to seek the confidence vote.

With Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu now NDA’s Vice-Presidential nominee, his two ministerial portfolios have been given to Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Smriti Zubin Irani.

The President has also accepted Naidu’s resignation from the Council of Ministers.

Tomar, Union Minister for Rural Development, shall be assigned charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in addition to his existing portfolios, Textiles Minister Irani shall be given additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The additional charges given to Irani and Tomar are temporary arrangements ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle, when these ministries will get full-time ministers.

A number of other ministries also require a reshuffle. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been holding additional charge of the Defence Ministry since March after Manohar Parrikar was made Goa Chief Minister.

Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan was given additional charge of the Environment Ministry in May due to the demise of Union Minister Anil Madhav Dave.

The BJP-led government has had two reshuffles in November 2014 and July 2016. With less than two years left for this government, many feel that a reshuffle is imminent before the 2019 general elections.

Smriti Irani: Know More

• Smriti Zubin Irani is an Indian politician, former model, television actress and producer. Irani is a Member of Parliament, being nominated to the Rajya Sabha from the state of Gujarat.
• Born: 23 March 1976 New Delhi
• Spouse: Zubin Irani (m. 2001)

Karnataka Government has constituted a nine-member committee to study the possibility of designing a separate state flag and providing it a statutory standing.

It will be headed by Principal Secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture. It shall submit report to the state Government after looking into required possibilities.

The committee was constituted following representation of social activists from the state urged the government to design a separate flag for Kannada ‘naadu’ and accord statutory standing for it.

There is no prohibition in the Constitution for the State to have its own flag. Even there is no separate central or state law dealing with issue.

So, legally it can be said that state flag is not unauthorised.

Jammu and Kashmir is only state having separate flag of its own due to special status granted by Article 370 of the Constitution.

At present, the national flag code specifically authorises use of other flags subject to the regulation by the court.

It does not mention anything about separate state flag.

However, it clearly mentions that the manner in which the other flag is hoisted should not dishonour the national flag. It has to be always below the national flag.

Thus, if states have separate flag, it should be hoisted in such a way that it does not dishonour the national flag.

Senior advocate and constitutional expert KK Venugopal was on 30 June 2017 appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India.

His appointment was approved by President Pranab Mukherjee after his name was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Venugopal will succeed Mukul Rohatgi, who chose to return to private practice after a three-year term as the Attorney General of India, country’s top law position.

He returns as a law officer after four decades. Earlier, in 1977, he had served as Additional Solicitor General.

Hailing from Kerala’s Kasargode district, KK Venugopal started his legal career in Mysore in 1954, before practising at the Madras High Court under his father, late barrister M K Nambiar.

He started appearing in the SC in the early 1960s while being based in erstwhile Madras and was designated as a senior advocate by the SC in 1972.

Five years later, he was appointed as an Additional Solicitor General in 1977. Venugopal was also appointed by the Royal Government of Bhutan to serve as the Constitutional adviser for the drafting of the Constitution of Bhutan.

In 2015, he was conferred with Padma Vibhushan award, the second-highest civilian honour in India.

He had also been awarded with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour.

He is a collector of antiquarian books and possesses a large personal library , including many books published in the 17th and 18th century.

With more than 50 years of practice in the Supreme Court, his legal acumen is unmatched.

How is the AGI Appointed?

• The President shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court to be Attorney General for India.
• It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to give advice to the Union Government on legal matters, and to perform duties of a legal character, referred or assigned to him by the President.
• In the performance of his duties, the Attorney General shall have right of audience in all courts in the territory of India.
• The Attorney General shall hold office during the pleasure of the President, and shall receive such remuneration as the President may determine Conduct of Government Business.