Pay panel without a pay office

The 8th Central Pay Commission has been announced, named, and chaired, but it still doesn’t know where to sit. More than a month after its constitution under former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, the commission has not been allotted office space. This is despite a looming deadline, as the 7th Pay Commission expires on December 31, 2025, with revised salaries due from January 1, 2026. Though the panel has an 18-month window to submit recommendations, it hasn’t formally begun work. Whispers in bureaucratic corridors suggest the delay is tactical: a pay award announcement closer to the 2027 Uttar Pradesh elections, followed by payouts with arrears nearer the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, could be politically convenient.

Extension denied, contract supplied

The Centre may have said no, but UP’s Yogi Adityanath government has proved that administrative detours are always available. After the Union Home Ministry rejected the proposal to extend Prashant Kumar’s tenure as DGP, the state quietly brought him back on a three-year contract. The 1990-batch retired IPS officer is the new chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission, which handles recruitment for secondary and higher education teachers. The timing is telling, with the state keeping a close watch on the 2027 Assembly elections. The UPESSC itself is a relatively new creation, formed in 2024 by merging two education recruitment bodies. The message from Lucknow is unmistakable: denial in Delhi does not always mean retirement at home.

CWC meets, pens nearly fly

The Congress Working Committee meeting had more sparks than planned, and not all of them came from Digvijay Singh’s comments on the RSS and BJP. A pointed exchange between Shashi Tharoor and party spokesperson Pawan Khera also raised eyebrows. Tharoor reportedly pressed Khera to detail his public allegations about “goings-on” in the Prime Minister’s Office, linked to claims involving former IAS officer Navneet Sehgal. Khera is said to have explained his position during the meeting, but his parting quip — “Why don’t you also write about it?” — didn’t go unnoticed. Some leaders saw it as a swipe at Tharoor’s prolific writing and social media posts praising Prime Minister Modi, which have made sections of the party visibly uncomfortable.