Cong picks 3 agencies to manage digital, social media campaign for LS polls

Opinion News
The Congress party on Tuesday identified three agencies that would manage its digital and social media campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Some more would be hired in the coming days and assigned other tasks.

The publicity committee of the party is headed by party leader Anand Sharma. But there was much disgruntlement in the team — some members complained to Congress President Rahul Gandhi that they were not being kept in the loop. The Congress chief first asked senior leader Jairam Ramesh to take part in the meetings, and when that alone did not help, overseas Congress Chief Sam Pitroda was summoned hastily, which helped break the stalemate.

Scramble to lose

It is unusual for leaders to fight for seats when the chances of victory are bleak. But that's exactly what is happening in the Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). State leaders are jockeying to contest from Pathanamthitta, the epicentre of the Sabarimala issue.

At least four top leaders including Union Ministers K J Alphons and senior leader K Surendran are vying for a ticket to contest the seat. Interestingly, the BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat from the state. Also the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP cadres in Kerala do not see eye to eye. Given that, political observers are betting on either the Congress or the Left, despite the mileage BJP gained out of the Sabarimala stir.

Don’t gatecrash


 It’s not unusual to hear stories about students in India gatecrashing weddings. Just for fun or to indulge in a hearty meal when hostel mess food is nothing but torture and the monthly allowance from home is diminishing rapidly. A premier institution in the country has had enough of this...Read More

Madras HC judge installs CCTV in his chamber; wants govts offices to follow

Current Affairs:

Quoting Mahathma Gandhi's dictum of practice is better than preaching, a Madras High Court judge ordered installation of CCTV camera in his chamber while recommending it for offices of all higher Tamil Nadu government officials to tackle sexual harassment at work places.

Justice S M Subramaniam directed the court registry to install the CCTV camera in his chamber within two weeks, while disposing of petitions from IPS officer S Murugan and a woman police superintendent who had made sexual harassment charges against the senior police official.
In his order, the judge referred to Gandhiji's quote "An Ounce of Practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

He gave the go ahead for a probe by an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and the CB-CID which had registered an FIR on the woman officer's complaint.

Justice Subramaniam recommended to the state Chief Secretary installation of CCTV cameras inside the official chambers and office rooms of all the higher officials in order to avoid all such allegations or complaints against higher officials and to safeguard the interest of women employees from sexual harassment.


 The judge tasked the state Chief Secretary to initiate action against the IPS officer under the service rules which it said was necessary under the facts and circumstances of the case.