#dnaEdit: From Pranab Mukherjee's walk down memory lane to the Zika virus

BMC, NMMC will have to wait
Pune and Solapur of Maharashtra have beaten Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in the race for the top 20 slots for the Centre’s Smart City project. Both the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well as the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) had a host of issues about the Centre-sponsored scheme, which, they felt, would rob the civic bodies of their powers. In simple terms, this means the Shiv Sena-BJP combine of BMC and NCP corporators of NMMC felt the need to flex their muscles and assert their dominance in decision-making. After a lot of debate, the proposal from the BMC was finally sent to New Delhi with several  amendments, while NMMC’s general body rejected the proposal altogether. They will now have to wait their turn. Despite being the richest civic body in the country, the BMC’s contributions to developing infrastructure and other amenities in Mumbai have been half-hearted. Navi Mumbai, on the other hand, being a planned city with far less population than Mumbai, is still better off than its neighbour. The BMC’s failure in carrying out its responsibilities is further compounded by the never-ending series of scams. Given the city’s deplorable condition, corporators need to think beyond their immediate gains and marshall the civic body’s resources to shore up a sinking Mumbai. 

Walk down memory lane
There is no doubt that President Pranab Mukherjee is an astute politician and an erudite man who has seen the ebb and flow of Indian politics from close quarters for decades. In the second volume of his memoirs, The Turbulent Years: 1980-96, Mukherjee writes about Rajiv Gandhi’s two devastating decisions that not only eroded Rajiv’s credibility, but, more importantly, gave rise to a host of complexities within India. Both these decisions are criticised even today because the problems spawned by them continue to have a deep impact on the lives of people — the Shah Bano judgement and Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) and the opening of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple site. Rajiv wanted to play to the gallery and thereby appease both the Hindus and Muslims. By overturning the Supreme Court judgement on a Muslim woman’s right to alimony and maintenance with a legislation, he had hoped to win the hearts of the conservatives in the community. In the Ram temple issue, he was aiming to please Hindu conservatives. However, though Mukherjee seems to have got a raw deal when Rajiv first came to power, the latter’s defeat in the 1989 elections, brought the two closer. For the most part of his career, Mukherjee has remained a close confidante of the Gandhi family and played a pivotal role in rescuing the Grand Old Party from many crises.

The Zika threat
The Zika virus is the latest global health scare, spreading at an alarming pace, and prompted the WHO to call an emergency meeting of experts to counter its threat. The international health organisation feels that the numbers of those affected can shoot up to four million. The Zika virus is apparently the cause of babies being born with abnormally small heads (microcephaly) and other neurological problems. Among the South American countries, Brazil has been one of the worst affected, with 270 cases of microcephaly confirmed by the health ministry and 3,448 cases being investigated. The Zika virus is mosquito-borne and large-scale fumigation in Brazilian neighbourhoods are already underway. Apart from the two Americas, the WHO has warned that China and other countries who are battling dengue could also fall prey to Zika.