A tricky Teachers’ day
Assam’s education minister, Sarat Borkotoky, undertook to celebrate Teachers’ Day with much fanfare, having made the publicity department declare that this year’s Teachers’ Day will be a two-day celebration. In keeping with the celebrations bureaucrats proposed to prepare a CD of prayers set to music in honour of the teaching fraternity to be played on September 4. The CD was played at a press conference by Mr Borkotoky and contained a musical version of a Sanskrit shloka that compare teachers to god. In fact, a song on the CD was also composed by principal secretary, education, Pawan Kumar Barthakur.
The minister announced that this CD would be played in all the government schools on Teachers’ Day. But he was caught slightly off guard when journalists asked whether the CD would also be played in government madrasas. The minister retracted saying it was not mandatory to play the CD. But if insiders are to be believed, the Congress’ Muslim leaders are unhappy over the idea of playing Sanskrit shlokas on Teachers’ Day in the run up to 2016 Assembly elections.
The burden of dejection
Once considered the second most powerful minister in the Raman Singh Cabinet and even a contender for the post of chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Brijmohan Agrawal has recently hit a rough patch with nothing working in his favour. He is known to have lost much of his clout after losing the prestigious public works department portfolio to his arch-rival Rajesh Munat in the latest state Cabinet constituted after the BJP rode to power in Chhattisgarh for a third consecutive time in 2013.
Mr Agrawal is also known to have given up his dreams of becoming chief minister and channelled his energies towards mending relations with Mr Singh with the help of his arch-rivals, current PWD minister Mr Munat and state urban development minister Amar Agrawal. Amidst all this, Mr Brijmohan Agrawal was surely rankled when, on September 3, the deputy speaker of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha, Badridhar Diwan, on the occasion of inauguration of the building of Kamadhenu University at Raipur, addressed him as “chief minister” several times during his speech leaving the audience in splits. It seems Mr Brijmohan Agrawal’s discarded ambitions have become fodder for public ridicule.
From Diva to Toilet Deity
For a Bollywood diva, Vidya Balan is quite a sport. This was noticed recently during a function she attended in Lucknow as the national sanitation brand ambassador. Swami Chidanand Saraswati, who was also a guest of honour at the function said that Balan should henceforth be known as “Shauchalaya ki devi” (the deity of toilets), because she had done a great job in spreading awareness about sanitation in the country.
While most of the guests at the function, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav were stunned into silence, it was Balan who saved the day by saying, “In India, being called a goddess is a great thing, whether it is of a temple or a toilet.” The organisers, who expected the actor to blow a fuse, heaved a sigh of relief and the programme continued unhindered.
