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NEWSNOTES
DESPATCH
Nursing A Uniform Grouse
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In
Style: The likely new dress (with buttons all the way down the
front) |
Delhi: Never before has the loss of a
shirt raised such a storm. Just weeks after filing a writ petition against
a proposed change in their uniform, members of the Military Nursing Services
(MNS) are preparing for another fight. The point of contention: a recent
order asking them to switch from wearing an olive green shirt and trousers
with a white lab coat-a uniform introduced just last year-to olive green
trousers with just a "nursing officers coat" to be "worn
on the inner (sic) without shirt". "How can they expect women
to dress in this fashion?" asks Devendra Singh, advocate for the
petitioners. Even as the Delhi High Court ruled that the nurses should
approach the appropriate internal redressal forum, the army inexplicably
withdrew the order. Equally inexplicably, a new order issued last week
appears to repeat the instructions that were disputed in the first place.
While sources in the forces claim that nurses in olive green were indistinguishable
from doctors, MNS officers point out that "MNS" was inscribed
on their lab coats. They allege a"conspiracy by a male-dominated
set-up to keep our 3,000-plus, females-only unit in a subordinate position".
Clearly, this battle isn't over yet.
—Anna M.M. Vetticad
SIGNPOSTS
RESIGNED
 From
the Nationalist Congress Party, D.N. Dwivedi, party spokesperson and general
secretary. He will rejoin the Congress. The NCP has become an NDA associate,
he says.
AWARDED
To Devendra Satyarthi, the Hindi Sahitya Sadhna
Samman, for his contribution to Hindi literature. Satyarthi, a poet and
linguist, is a Padma Shri recipient.
MISTIMED
The September 11 resignation of 88 Samajwadi
Party MLAs in Uttar Pradesh. Their effort went unnoticed in the wake of
terrorist attacks in the US.
HONOUR ROLL
Striking A High Note
 Sitar
player Shujaat Husain Khan, son and disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan, is
not a conventional musician. Yet his maverick style doesn't seem to have
done him any harm: Khan was recently awarded the Rashtriya Kumar Gandharva
Samman by the Madhya Pradesh Government. The award is given as a recognition
of a younger musician's innovativeness, in the memory of the rebel vocalist
Gandharva. Khan, who belongs to the Imdad Khani gharana, gave his first
concert when he was six. Touring the world in his teens, he "played
the guitar at restaurants, washed dishes in hotels" before focusing
on classical music. In 1996 he made waves with his folk fusion album Lajjo
Lajjo and later Sur aur Saaz.
—S. Sahaya Ranjit
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