Venkaiah Naidu’s epigrams
Last week, former Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu was at his best, delivering one-liners that had gained popularity during his tenure as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Delivering a lecture to an august gathering of Bharat Ki Soch, the former V-P laced his remarks on the goal of Viksit Bharat with advice for youngsters going abroad, paraphrasing it as ‘Run, Earn and Return ‘, meaning go abroad, earn through employment, and return to India. Many more came from his stables, including advice to Parliamentarians like ‘Let the Government propose, allow the Opposition to oppose and then dispose ‘. He further went on to remark, ‘Discuss, Debate, Decide but do not Disturb’. On frequent adjournments of Parliament sessions, Naidu summed up saying, ‘Walk-out, Talk-out but do not Break-out or there will be All out.’ On talk of regime change amid current protests, Naidu blamed social media, calling it ‘anti-social media’. Naidu’s impromptu rhyming of words and sentences in a lighter vein has always brought refreshing moments among the treasury and opposition benches.
Who tried to sting Siddaramaiah?
The question hangs in the air: Who tried to sting former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah? Police arrested Ritesh Pandey from Delhi. Pandey works with the social media team of Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who bought the phone from the Karol Bagh grey market and used it to sting Siddaramaiah, then Chief Minister, two years ago. Police are searching for another person in Kumaraswamy’s social media team after arresting Pandey. Meanwhile, the Congress party has suspended its Mahila Congress leader Kripa Alva, a kingpin in the sting operation. Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar has said none will be spared for doing such nonsense to the party’s stalwart leader Siddaramaiah.
IAS probed by 5kg Mango WhatsApp; another over foreign trips with spouse
Interesting details have surfaced after the ED questioned five IAS officers in Bihar, including 2013 batch officer Dharmendra Kumar. He has been charged with ‘holidaying’ abroad with his family without following mandatory service rules to inform the General Administration Department. In this regard, the grapevine suggests that a contractor has been zeroed in who financed Dharmendra Kumar’s travel, accommodation, shopping, etc. Besides holding senior administrative responsibilities in Bihar, his assignments include the state’s bridge construction corporation. Next in line was high-profile IAS Santosh Kumar Mall, who was probed for hours over certain tenders. During the investigations, an interesting detail emerged: a clarification about a WhatsApp conversation that read “5 KG mango urgent”. Other top IAS officers the ED probed in the State’s ongoing tender scam include Anand Kishor, Yogesh Kumar Sagar, Abhilasha Kumari Sharma, and Sunil Yadav.