Sonia, Rahul to defend charges of fraud in court

On Saturday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi will appear in a Delhi court to defend themselves against charges of cheating and fraud. Whatever the merits of the case against them, the Congress party has decided to turn the event into a full fledged demonstration of solidarity - a process that began with the way Sonia Gandhi's birthday was celebrated, with Congress workers pouring in at her residence.

Expect many traffic jams in Delhi as the Congress party does what its quickly becoming best known for: disruption. Because it will be seen as a show of strength, factions in the Delhi Congress - owing allegiance to Ajay Maken, Sheila Dikshit and JP Aggarwal will vie with each other to outdo themselves in the crowds department. At the end of the day, it will be as much about loyalty to the family and the party leadership as to show power and strength in Delhi. Most of the groups are likely to be carrying banners. Watching whom they say 'zindabad' to will be instructive.

Swaraj to make statement on Pakistan in House

Monday will see Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj making a statement in Parliament (if permitted) on her recent trip to Pakistan to attend the Heart of Asia conference, her meetings with Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the further schedule of the India-Pakistan thaw including a meeting of the Foreign Secretaries, probably in January 2016.

There is absolutely no doubt that the meeting is a game-changer in relations between the two countries. But how it is structured, who will talk to whom when; and the icing on the cake, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Pakistan visit later this year… everything will be closely watched. If Swaraj is allowed to make a statement in the Rajya Sabha, MPs will also have the opportunity to quiz her (In the Rajya Sabha, MPs have the right to ask questions after an official statement. Not so in the Lok Sabha). Current indications are that the Congress will puts its own agenda aside and enable an atmosphere where Swaraj can make the statement and be questioned, even if only to cause a Congress walkout later.

Swaraj will have to tell the country what happened in the 160-second meeting between Sharif and Modi in Paris that led to a cascade of warmth in relations between the two countries. By the way, after the exchange of shawls and saris between Sharif and Modi, did anyone check what gifts - if any - the two leaders exchanged on Eid and Diwali ?

India begins ICC Twenty20 tournament on Mar 15

And this week, India will open their 2016 ICC World Twenty20 cricket campaign against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 15 but arguably the biggest match of the tournament will be played in Dharamsala on March 19, where India will take on arch rivals Pakistan.

ICC announced the World Twenty20 schedule, which will be played from March 8 to April 3 next year, in a glittering ceremony in Mumbai last week. After a lot of heartburn, the match will take place on a field of peace - Dharamsala is the city where the Dalai Lama lives in exile along with his Tibetan supporters. There will be politics in the match just as there is politics in the location - this is a coup engineered by Himachal Pradesh MP Anurag Thakur, protege of Arun Jaitley, who had declared that you cannot mix sport and government. He had come out strongly against the threat of disruption of cricket matches put out by the Shiv Sena. India's cricket administration has taken him at face value and is allowing him to hold the match in Dharamsala. Expect Thakur's political fortunes to zoom because of this decision.

Haryana panchayat poll dates expected this week

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the validity of the Haryana government's position that candidates must have a basic level of educational attainment if they want to contest elections, the announcement of dates for the Panchayat elections should be expected this week.

Upholding the constitutional validity of a law to bar the illiterate from contesting panchayat polls in the state, the apex Court ruled last week that "it is only education which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad."

The top court also said it would be valid for the legislature to disqualify a candidate from seeking election to a civic body if he or she lacks "basic norms of hygiene" by not having a functional toilet at home.

Delivering the verdict the Bench said such a disqualification has to be upheld as a reasonable restriction on people's "constitutional right" to contest polls.

Apart from Haryana, Rajasthan is the only other state to fix minimum education qualifications for those contesting panchayat polls.