Judging jokes
The PIl against Sardars being made the butt of ridicule has to cope with the exploits of late Khushwant Singh, the Sardar who made jokes against his own community his penchant. last week when the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur took up the PIl for hearing, the petitioner asked CJI whether he knew Khushwant Singh. Justice Thakur recalled an incident from the past when he defended Singh in a defamation case over his fiery comment that lawyers are interested in making money and not securing justice.
Aamir’s replacement
Following the controversial exit of Bollywood star Aamir Khan as the mascot of ‘Incredible India’ campaign, Tourism Ministry is flooded with suggestions and proposals regarding inclusion of multi-disciplinary icons from varied fields including films, sports and culture. With such abundant choices, it is becoming tough for the Ministry to settle on the ‘best’. So the Ministry is taking time to decide the face for the ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ campaign.
CPM leader invokes Krishna
While Sangh Parivar is back taking up the Ram Mandir movement, Kerala’s CPI(M) is invoking lord Krishna and Mahabharata to reach out to voters. Recently, Keralites were stunned to see the posters of CPI(M) Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan portrayed as Arjuna in a chariot led by lord Krishna. Vijayan is conducting a Kerala March in a bid to throw his hat in the race for the Chief Minister’s post in the upcoming Assembly election. Incidentally, this time CPI conducted Janmashtami celebrations too.
Urban wildlife
These days one frequently hears of incidents of recovery of some of the endangered and rare wildlife species as civet, wolf snake, large pythons etc, from the most unlikely locations — as Government offices, homes of bureaucrats, temples and schools in the heart of cities. The green brigade that continues to worry over the loss of habitats of wildlife is, however, perplexed. One of them recently remarked in lighter vein, “With shrinking forests, our wildlife seems to be getting urbanised acclimatising itself to jungles of concrete.”
New envoys
A new set of ambassadors are taking over in several of Indian missions abroad and among them are prominent former spokespersons Navtej Sarna and Syed Akbaruddin. While Sarna has joined as India’s new High Commissioner in london, Akbaruddin has taken over as the next Permanent Representative at the United Nations succeeding Asoke Mukerji. Both threw memorable farewell parties before they left for new postings. In fact, Akbaruddin has still maintained connect with journalists he dealt with as a spokesperson and even sent them New Year greeting card from New York.