Buzz on ‘missing’ akhilesh
When two former chief ministers formalised the wedding of Samajwadi MP and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s grandnephew Tej Pratap Yadav and Raj Lakshmi, daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav in Lucknow, the buzz around the event was expected. While the media was more interested in the possible political outcome of the alliance and the revival of the Janata Parivar, family members and friends of the groom were more concerned about the absence of two prominent family members — former Bihar chief minister and the bride’s mother Rabri Devi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is also the groom’s uncle.
The bride’s brother, Tejaswi, clarified that as per their family tradition, women do not attend the first ceremony known as “ghar dekhi” and this explains his mother’s absence. The women in Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, however, turned up in full force to attend the function. Mr Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, was away in Delhi attending the chief ministers’ conference convened by the Prime Minister.
Friends of the groom were heard saying that if he wanted, Mr Akhilesh Yadav could have returned to Lucknow in time for the ceremony and even the ceremony could have been delayed by a few hours for him. However, despite the murmurs there was cautious merry-making at the ceremony since both the sides were aware of the media spotlight and did not want things to be misinterpreted in any way.
Virat steals Aamir’s ‘perfectionist’ tag
When India’s stand-in cricket captain Virat Kohli scored his seventh Test ton at Adelaide Oval defying the chin music by Australian speedsters, particularly the ferocious Mitchell Johnson, little did he imagine that he would snatch the tag of “Mr Perfectionist” from Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan. Virat may count it as the most qualified certificate as the recognition has come from none other than his “lady love” Anushka Sharma, who showed little hesitation in choosing him over Aamir, her hero in their forthcoming movie PK, to bestow the honour.
“Today, for me, Virat is more perfectionist (than Aamir). He hit a brilliant ton in Australia against Australians,” the actress observed with a blush on her face. She was here along with her co-star Aamir and other crew members of PK to promote the movie, set for a global release on December 14. The crew was interacting with the local media on the occasion. “Virat did it (scored a century) in such a challenging circumstance,” she remarked exhibiting her admiration for the star cricketer’s tenacity.
She was fielding a query from mediapersons as to who, according to her, is the “perfectionist” (between Virat and Aamir). Aamir, who has earned the sobriquet of “Bollywood’s Mr Pefectionist” for his meticulousness and diligence in works, even appeared to have been taken aback at being robbed of his precious tag by none other than his screen heroine when he was spotted squirming in his seat. Asked how she takes jokes linking her with her beau in social networking sites, the charming actress quipped, “Like you people, I am also enjoying them.”
Competition over comments?
There seems to be a competition going on among Trinamool leaders as to who could make most unparliamentary and outrageous statements/comments and cause acute embarrassment to Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal called upon party workers to burn down the homes of rebel party candidates and hurl bombs at the police if it tried to save them. Actor-turned-MP Tapas Pal publicly threatened to shoot down Communist Party of India (Marxist) rivals and get their women folk raped by his supporters.
Ironically, the same Mr Pal was seen protesting with a black band tied around his mouth outside Parliament recently against Bharatiya Janata Party junior minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s undoubtedly most offensive comment. The BJP immediately got a chance to turn the tables on the Trinamool. Noted lawyer-turned-Trinamul MP Kalyan Banerjee made some disparaging remarks about the late Lal Bahadur Shastri and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A cornered Mr Banerjee had to apologise in the Lok Sabha.
Even before the party could wriggle out from these embarrassing situations, deputy Speaker of West Bengal Assembly Sonali Guha again left it red-faced. Interfering in a petty private dispute over the functioning of a lift in a building, she terrorised an elderly man and announced that she was the chief minister’s man and she was the government. She showered profanities and threatened to throw him out of his flat and also made highly denigrating comments about the late Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The Chief Minister is livid and so are senior party leaders like Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee. They have sought an explanation from Ms Guha. “Why should Didi get angry with Sonali for the use of foul language when the kind of language the Chief Minister herself has used recently can make a sailor blush?” asked a CPI(M) leader.
The perils of social media
In what may be called a misfortune in the very first adventure for two-time Assam Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, his Facebook account was found posting malicious contents within a month after he started using social media. Mr Mahanta, obviously a late entrant, was persuaded and encouraged by his well-wishers to start using social media as most political parties have news channels and newspapers to interact with their voters but they do not have such advantages.
In fact, he took the help of his son and friends to learn the technology to keep his followers updated on his political activities through social media. For the past few days, Mr Mahanta has been camping in some remote villages where he has not been able to access his social media accounts. He was shocked and surprised on Thursday after his followers started sending him SMSes and requests — not to post malicious photographs of girls from his account.
Mr Mahanta, clueless about such hacking risks on social media, had very limited options but to approach the police. He even felt shy about discussing the problem with many people. He drove straight to Dispur police station and registered an FIR on Thursday night. Mr Mahanta, certainly in panic and afraid that his opponents may grab this opportunity to tarnish his image, also deactivated his Facebook account.
