Regional Journal: When LS lost count of time!

This Wednesday, the Lok Sabha made headlines for sitting for 16 straight hours, from 11 am to 3 am the next day to pass the Waqf Amendment Bill-2025 and confirm the President’s rule in Manipur. As the proceedings stretched into Thursday, the question on everyone’s mind was whether this was the longest the Lower House had ever sat. Turns out MPs have done better than this. On August 30, 1997, the LS proceedings on “Special sitting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence” began at 11.08 am and ended at 8.24 am after 21 hours.

Zoom meet leaves SHO red-faced

At a Zoom meeting, Gurdaspur SSP Aditya asked Ghuman Kalan SHO Gursewak Singh the reasons for not registering a case. The SHO cited his reasons and disconnected. He then spoke to his wife and started lambasting senior officers, using Punjabi expletives. However, as “ill luck would have it”, the SHO had failed to disconnect and was “live” when he continued his rant. The conversation was heard by the SSP and other officials. He was immediately suspended. Jokes involving him are still doing the rounds.

Haryanavis throng Saini’s house

Haryana’s “accessible” CM Nayab Singh Saini met over 1.5 lakh visitors at his residence in Chandigarh in the past three months — over 1,600 daily. The daily count would actually be much higher as a “mobile” Saini was not in town for a considerable time, paying courtesy visits to Delhi and attending felicitation ceremonies in the state. Questions are now rife whether the BJP’s slogan of good governance at the grassroots level can compensate for such a large number of aggrieved persons visiting the CM in Chandigarh.

Sibal — Maradona of court battles

One does not know if Kapil Sibal, a lawyer-turned-MP, has ever played football. Sibal, though, was pleased when TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee called him Maradona. “Maradona”, Banerjee yelled as he came rushing at Sibal, who was talking to reporters near the Makar Dwar of the new Parliament building earlier this week. As the reporters looked at Banerjee, he described how Sibal turned around a hopeless case like a magician earning for himself the sobriquet “Maradona”, wizard of the soccer field.

Cop’s transfer opens can of worms

After one of the high profile officers, who held important positions in the current government, was transferred, skeletons started tumbling out of the closet of his successor soon after he took over. The successor’s supposed chats with another tainted police officer and also his controversial audio recordings went viral, forcing everyone in the state government to think — Whodunnit. Now, former bureaucrat and BJP SC morcha president SC Ladhar has written to the Union Home Minister, demanding a CBI investigation into the allegations against the officer..

Architect bats for Jallianwala model

Ahead of the anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, city-based architect Raj Kumar Aggarwal has intensified his campaign seeking reinstallation of the national memorial’s model at the Amritsar railway station. He has written to the PM and the Railway Minister requesting them to reinstall the model, which he had prepared in the 1970s. The model was removed for the railway station’s capacity expansion and reconstruction work over a decade ago. Placed at the entrance, it used to attract the attention of visitors and tourists.

Contributed by Aditi Tandon, Ravi Dhaliwal, Pradeep Sharma, Shubhadeep Choudhury, Ruchika M Khanna and Neeraj Bagga

India