India Today – October 08, 2018

—Sandeep Unnithan, Sujit Thakur, Kiran D. Tare, Ashish Misra and Rahul Noronha

Urdugiri

M

inisters in the Modi government
are always trying to come up
with innovative ideas to catch the
prime minister’s eye. Minority afairs
ministerMukhtar Abbas Naqvihas
plannedmushairas (Urdu poetry
fests) across the country for Mahatma
Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary
celebrations on October 2. Except
that several of the well-known poets
invited for themushaira,among them
Wasim Barelvi and Gulzar, are known
Modi critics and could well speak their
minds. It could make matters verse.

M

aharashtra PWD minister and

Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde

is planning to adopt a village in flood-

afected Kerala and rebuild it at his

personal expense. Shinde, who is

associated with the packaged food

business, has been sending tonnes of

foodgrains to the southern state at his own

expense. If he’s saying sorry for his party’s

anti-South Indian stance in the 1960s, it

sure is a welcome move.

SOFT SENA

GLASSHOUSE

PARIS JET AIM

U

nion defence minister Nirmala

Sitharaman is part of the firefighting

team waging the government’s

perception battle against the Congress

party’s allegations of nepotism in the

Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal with France.

She was in Egypt on a two-day official

tour when the controversial interview

with French president Francois Hollande

broke out. But she is clearly in no hurry to

attend her next overseas engagement: to

Paris to meet with her French counterpart

Florence Parly for a strategic dialogue.

The meeting, due in September, might now

take place in October, defence ministry

officials say, as mutually convenient dates

are being worked out. Enough ruffled

feathers over Rafale.

UPFRONT

THE WEEK IN POLITICAL OBJECTIONS

Medicine bottles initialled with Bhajapa (BJP) for Pradhan Mantri

Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana. Congress in poll-bound MP wants the

Election Commission to rebrand them Pramabhajapa

A Parliament-shaped cake

cut by Agra MP and National

Scheduled Caste Commission

chairman Ram Shankar

Katheria was criticised not

just by local opposition leaders

but also local VHP leaders

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

VIKRAM SHARMA

MANDAR DEODHAR